Lyman Good: MMA's Best Kept Secret...Revealed (Pt. Two)

In this conclusion to the two-part exclusive one-on-one interview with Bellator Welterweight (WW) champion, Lyman Good, Lyman talks about almost singing with EliteXC, the Bellator WW tournament and his favorite MMA fighters and fights today.

Part two: (Continued from Pt. one)



ANTHONY ASCUE: Now most people may not have known this, but you were actually scheduled to sign a contract with the now defunct MMA organization, EliteXC. And this was shortly before they went under.

Of course, to the MMA world, I don’t think it was much of a surprise that Elite ultimately went under, clearly they had financial and credibility problems as well. It was a disaster, seemingly almost from the start.

Now when Elite did go under, how did you find out about this? How was this whole catastrophe presented to you?

LYMAN GOOD: A friend of mine who was aware of their financial status pretty much warned me that they were going to have a falling out. He came to me literally just before I was about to sign the contract.

I was set to ink the deal, I had everything cleared and ready and at the time I was thinking, ‘do I have any other options?’ In my head I was thinking if this was it or not.

So we were about a day from making it official and my friend came to me and presented me with an opportunity. Which was the Bellator WW tournament. He really pitched that this would be a major opportunity for me and if I take it and run with it that I could become a champion. And he literally said that I could become a champion. So now, I was thinking, what direction do I take?

I mean you either take a chance on something that you know inevitably will fall apart, or you take a chance on something that hasn’t really started and flourished yet. It wasn’t an easy choice to make. And I admit, at first I was a little skeptical about the whole tournament thing, cause in my head at the time I was thinking ‘what could be better for me than Elite [XC] right now?’

But in the end I put my trust in the guy and believed him when he said that this would be a much better and sound opportunity. And he was right.

AA: Now you were talking about the Bellator WW tournament that your friend had presented to you, which you ended up winning, defeating another up and coming MMA prospect in Omar De La Cruz in the finals. Also getting victories over Jorge Ortiz and Hector Urbina in the quarter and semifinal rounds, respectively.

Talk about how you felt going into the third and final fight of the tournament? I mean were you nervous? Were you excited? Were you just ready to get it over with? How were you going into the fight with De La Cruz?

LG: It’s hard to explain, really. It’s like the light at the end of the tunnel. You put everything to the fullest and go pedal to the metal, it’s all out and you don’t look back. You take every chance that you can possibly get at wanting to win and you take it now.

You know in your head you're thinking, I gotta try and kill this guy just to win because you’re trying to survive and you have a family that’s depending on you. And you have students that look up to you, and you have friends that root for you, and they’re all depending on you to win.

With all that there it gives you such a sharp mentality,  that you’re like a blade and you just want to go there and cut through everything and just win.

AA: And how much of your thoughts going into the fight was focused on your opponent, and how much of your thoughts was focused on the belt? Cause now you were fighting for a legit and inaugural championship title.

You know there might be many other champions after you to hold that belt, but no matter what you’ll always be the first. I mean that’s forever and that’s something no one can ever take away from you. That’s a lot of pressure. Was that ever a factor for you at all?

LG: Yeah it definitely was, I’m not going to lie about that. Cause it’s you see yourself winning. You see your hand getting raised at the end of that fight. And the only thing that’s standing in the way of that is this guy. That’s what creates adversity. That drive to just want to plow your way through this kid and get that belt.

AA: Now I know most casual MMA fans probably aren’t too familiar with Omar De La Cruz, your opponent going into the finals for the tournament. But he’s a very tough guy. Purple belt in BJJ, really solid kicks, and prior to your fight with him he was coming off four straight wins, one of which was a TKO win against seasoned MMA vet, Dave Menne.

I mean there’s a lot of credibility in beating a guy like Dave, even now. You know Dave’s a former UFC fighter, and really at one point in time was considered one of the elite in the world. And Omar had a very impressive TKO win over him.

So Omar to his credit, is a very worthy and I think, credible fighter to be challenging for the title and to compete in the tournament. And of course with you knowing all of that going in, what was your game plan for him? Did you have anything specific in mind?

LG: Well for every fight you have there’s always a course of action. You don’t just go there swinging every time. And as far Omar goes, he has a very solid ground game, he’s very lanky.

He has good kicks because he comes from a taekwondo background. So my game plan with him was just to nullify all of his strengths by just going out there and being aggressive.

If there’s one big strength of mine that I have that I feel is better than what he has, it’s my wrestling. So because he’s got good strikes and kicks and jiu-jitsu, well then I have to utilize my wrestling and look for take downs and an opportunity to apply my ground and pound on him.

AA: Which you were able to do successfully, absolutely. Now I know some fighters don’t like to do this, but on your time off from fighting, do you watch much MMA at all? I know some fighters just try to focus on their own thing and don’t really watch other fighters work.

Is that the same for you too or do you find yourself just watching MMA as a fan, like the rest of us?

LG: Yeah definitely I love to watch. I mean besides the physical aspect of learning the sport, there will always be the visual aspect of learning it as well. So what better way to learn then to do it both visually and physically?

They’re both great ways to further educate yourself about the sport and different techniques involved in it.

I think in your off time you should always be learning, if not physically doing it, then visually watching it at least. You gotta learn what works, what doesn’t work, who’s the top fighter out there. There’s a lot you can take in from just watching fights.

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