Derek Campos Expecting Explosive Fight with Djamil Chan at Bellator 161 | MMAWeekly.com

After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career in 2015, Bellator lightweight Derek Campos was able to rebound in his first fight of 2016 against Melvin Guillard in February.

Despite taking the bout on short notice, Campos was able to get the best of Guillard and pick up an early second round TKO and get himself back on track in the process.

“It felt great to go in there and get the win like that,” said Campos to MMAWeekly.com. “I knew it was a do or die situation for me. I just went in there and let my hands go, and fought the fight that I knew I could fight, and I came out on top.

“I feed off of (the pressure), more so. It’s there in my mind. It drives me. It’s fuel. It’s fuel for me, and I turned it on that night, and that’s the way it played out. It’s a personal thing for me. I like to win. I don’t like to lose. So to get back on the W side was everything for me. I wasn’t going to have it any other way that night.”

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Originally Campos was due to have his second fight of the year in April against Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, but an injury forced him off the card. While frustrating, Campos looks at the injury as a positive thing in the end.

“It’s part of the fight game,” Campos said. “As fighters we train hard and always push ourselves, and it takes a toll and injuries happen. I was able to go through my recover and do some rehab and got back to 100 percent.

“Although that happened, sometimes it’s for the best, and here now I’m fighting again, and I’m feeling pretty good, and I’m going to go in there and show just how good I feel when I go in there and fight.”

On September 16 in Cedar Park, Texas, Campos (16-6) steps into a main card 155-pound bout against Djamil Chan (13-2) in what could very well end up being a title elimination bout.

“It’s going to be an exciting match-up,” said Campos of facing Chan. “He’s explosive, I’m explosive, and we both have knockout power. It really is just going to turn into a chess match into who can outdo who in certain parts of the game.

“At the end of it though it’s going to be about that killer instinct – who has more will and who has more grind – that’s the way I see this fight playing out. I definitely plan on going in there and imposing my will, and breaking his.”

Having been one of the more active fighters in Bellator over the past three years, Campos believes now is the time for all his hard work to coalesce into a lightweight championship fight sooner than later.

“It’s tricky, but if all goes well and I come out healthy, I wouldn’t be opposed to fighting again before the end of the year if they gave me the right opponent; hopefully a top-notch guy,” Campos said.

“There’s the fight coming up between Michael Chandler and Benson Henderson, and I’d like to see who wins that. It’s a touchy situation, but if the opponent is right and the time is right, I’ll slug it out, that way I can get one step closer to a title shot.”

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