Bellator 166's Chris Honeycutt Plans To Be Champion By End of 2017 | MMAWeekly.com

Coming off the first loss of his career to Paul Bradly this past January at Bellator 148, middleweight prospect Chris Honeycutt was able to rebound with back to back wins over Matt Secor and Mikkel Parlo in his next two fights.

“Secor was my last fight at welterweight, and he was real good at knee bars and leg attacks, so that fight probably wasn’t the most exciting if you weren’t really into that,” Honeycutt told MMAWeekly.com. “I was able to shut him down and get that win, which speaks volumes to where my ground game has come.

“Following up after that was when I went up in weight to fight Parlo. I’d been working on my striking for some time now, so I’ve been able to really showcase how my striking as gone and how much better it’s gotten. In the cage it’s a night and day difference in my confidence in my ability to strike.”

While Honeycutt did well in his first fight at middleweight, he feels he’ll be even better at it now that he’s had time to more acclimate to it and a less steep weight cut.

“(I did not feel the difference) so much going against Parlo, because it was such a quick turnaround between fights, but definitely in this fight camp it has been awesome,” said Honeycutt. “I’m actually able to train as a middleweight fighter.

“I’ve been able to lift weights and put more muscle mass back on and fight with more energy. I’m not dragging my butt back into the gym the next morning, sore as hell, I’m able to confidently walk into the gym and know I’m able to put forth quite a bit of effort.”

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Honeycutt (8-1) looks to pick up his third win in a row when he takes on Ben Reiter (17-1-1) in a main card 185-pound bout at Bellator 166 on Friday in Thackerville, Okla.

“Ben has a wrestling background as well from the University of Penn, but with him being a heavyweight wrestler, it’s kind of hard to take anything from that, because Division I college heavyweight wrestling tends to be kind of slow with a lot of hand-fighting,” Honeycutt said.

“I expect him to be a little bit bigger than me, but as far as strength goes, I feel I’ll be stronger and in better shape and more agile. I don’t think he’s going to have much success in taking me down, but if he does, I have a lot of confidence in my Jiu-Jitsu game and my ability stand back up.”

At a new weight and on a winning track, Honeycutt is looking forward to making next year his most successful yet.

“This will be my fourth fight in 2016, and hopefully I can get in four fights in 2017 as well,” said Honeycutt. “It’s fun to stay active. Now that I’m up at middleweight, I don’t need to put in eight weeks of stress on my body to make weight, so it could be even cooler to fight more than four. 

“I plan to be a champion by the end of 2017. I’m looking to put in some really good fights, and not just be a contender or a fighter to watch, but THE fighter to watch.”

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