Family motivation helping Desmond Green ahead of Bellator 99 tournament slot

Desmond Green has two things in his corner for his Bellator MMA debut on Friday night: confidence and motivation.

Green (8-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) meets Fabricio Guerreiro (17-2 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) in the opening round of Bellator’s Season 9 featherweight tournament, which opens tonight at Bellator 99.

Bellator 99 takes place at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif. The main card airs on Spike TV following prelims on Spike.com.

“I wake up every morning and think about how I’m going to win this tournament and how bad I’m going to whoop this first guy’s ass,” Green told MMAjunkie.com. “Fabricio is a jiu-jitsu guy, and that’s just not going to work against me.”

Boom. There’s the confidence from “The Predator.”

When it comes to motivation, Green said his upbringing helped make him the fighter he is today. And the bond he has with his family, following his parents’ divorce when he was a senior in high school, is pushing him at the start of a tournament that could get him a total of $100,000 and a shot at a Bellator title.

“My family doesn’t have a lot of money,” Green said. “My mom is still living paycheck to paycheck. I know if I win this – not if, when I win this tournament – it’s going to set everyone in my life up. I was running on the treadmill the other day and started getting tired, and I started thinking about my sister and how I want to buy her her first car, my kids, how my mom is working two jobs, and I just kept going and ran another two miles without even thinking about it. I’m fighting for like seven other people. This opportunity could set up everyone that’s important to me. At the end of the day, money makes the world go round. You can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes it easier.”

It’s Green’s mother who also helps keep him motivated, more than perhaps anyone in his inner circle.

“My biggest fan is definitely my mom,” he said. “She doesn’t even like this sport and she hasn’t missed a fight of mine yet. My mom is very vocal at all my fights. Sometimes I can hear her screaming, ‘Don’t hurt my baby!’ She makes her own custom shirts to wear to all my fights. One says ‘Even The Predator has a mom.’ She’s always going crazy in the crowd.

?”She always tells me before I go out there, ‘Listen, I’m not trying to see you get beat up, so you better win this fight.’ That gives me all the motivation I need. My mom would be more hurt than I would be if I lost, and I can’t let that happen.”

Green has won back-to-back fights in 2013 after the first loss of his career, a submission setback to Rory McDonell for Score Fighting Series in Canada this past November. The member of Team Bombsquad, the camp that produced Jon Jones,

His wrestling-based attack has helped lead to six decision wins in nine fights. But what might be a bigger thing on his mind Friday night is his drop to featherweight.

The natural lightweight is moving down for a shot in Bellator’s 145-pound tournament. And that confidence comes raring back when he talks about wanting to double-up for Bellator.

“I don’t think Bellator realizes who they just signed,” Green said. “But I’m telling you right now, I’m going to win this tournament, get that belt, move up to 155 and do it all over again.

For more on Bellator 99, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.