Cage Warriors 47 champ Hayes: 'My only focus with Linderman is to hurt him'

Sat Jun 02, 2012 6:02 pm

For much of the past three years, Mike Hayes has had a single focus: to hurt D.J. Linderman.

The reigning Cage Warriors heavyweight champion, who headlines today's Cage Warriors 47 event in a long-awaited Linderman rematch, said that desire has trumped all others.

"As far as me in this fight and defending the belt, it's not even that much of a concern for me," Hayes told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "My only focus with Linderman is to hurt him. I'm going into this fight, and win or lose, I don't care. But I'm going ot make him feel every punch I throw, and they're going to add up."

The bad-blood title fight takes place at The Helix in Dublin, and it streams live and free on MMAjunkie.com beginning at 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT).

Hayes (18-4) and Linderman (11-3) first fought in 2009 at a regional show in Washington. The heavy-handed Hayes admits his ground game was "atrocious," and Linderman wrestled his way to a decision victory.

"I've been waiting for this fight for three years now," Hayes said.

Why? Linderman made it personal, he said.

"I really don't like him," Hayes said. "I'm cool with all the other people I've fought ... but he beat me, and it went eight months, we were fine, and we didn't talk trash. It was just a win for him on points, but then he went on social media and starting talking all this trash – like way over the line, way past the normal MMA trash talk. The stuff he said just infuriated me."

As both Hayes and Linderman competed in recent Bellator shows, their paths never crossed. But at Friday's Cage Warriors weigh-ins, the tempers boiled over, and it was clear their rivalry is anything but manufactured.

Hayes said Linderman faked a groin shot in the first fight to buy rest time. He also took issue with Linderman's subsequent claims that Hayes was ducking him.

So once they both signed with Cage Warriors and picked up wins, the stars aligned.

"I finally get to hit him," Hayes said. "I've been waiting so long for this."

Hayes quietly has put together a solid streak of six wins. He's also 10-1 over his past 11 fights, and the lone loss came via split decision to Alexey Oleinik (31-6 at the time) at Bellator 26.

He credits his improvement with his new camp at Ring Demon Mixed Martial Arts in Washington, where he trains under Eric Dahlberg and with a host of former collegiate wrestlers. The addition of a ground game has complemented his already-proven knockout power.

But as good as he's been lately, Hayes thinks he's getting even better. While fans saw him tap out Andreas Kraniotakes for the Cage Warriors title in March, he thinks an even better version will be on display today against his rival.

"At some point it's all going to click and come together, and I think it's going to be this fight," he said.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/29025/cage-warriors-47-champ-hayes-my-only-focus-with-linderman-is-to-hurt-him.mma