B/R Exclusive: KOTC Champ Jared Papazian Talks 135ers, Dominick Cruz and the UFC

In the MMA world, there are three type of Bantamweight fighters that people recognize.

Firstly, there are the good Bantamweight fighters, the ones that will always impress people and make them think they're closer to a title shot than they actually are, but will nonetheless provide entertaining or at least somewhat dominating performances.

Then, there are the "great" Bantamweight fighters, a category in which many put Miguel Angel Torres, UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz, Joseph Benavidez, Urijah Faber (despite being considered a great Featherweight) and even UFC on Fox's Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, among many others.

You have those two types of MMA Bantamweights, and then you have the types like King Of The Cage's 135-pound Champion Jared "The Jackhammer" Papazian, who has said multiple times to multiple publications that he's feeling quite Octagon-bound these days.

Of course, every fighter has to start somewhere, and for Papazian, an 11-5 run with one No Contest led him to the King of The Cage circuit.

Why, though, would it lead to King Of The Cage when World Extreme Cagefighting was still alive and running well at the time?

"At the time," Papazian said, "we were talking to the WEC, which merged with the UFC, kind of messed everything up, so it was kind a personal setback at the time, but we decided to keep fighting."

It's a good thing that King Of The Cage found him when they did, because after his aforementioned 11-5 (1 NC) run, he got his first test against Jimmie RIvera in a disputed fight.

Every time Papazian got taken down by Rivera, he'd get back up and inflict serious damage on the feet with Rivera wanting no part of it.

"It was a close fight, it was a good fight," Papazian said, "I learned a lot in that fight, and [Rivera] is a tough guy."

In the manner in which Papazian likes his fights, he would face off with Abel Cullum, who Papazian describes only by saying, "he has a hard head," and Marvin Garcia, who is not as well known as some names, but who does represent a division full of very durable fighters that just do not quit.

Of course, he also understands why the 135-lb. division is difficult compared to other, more striker-heavy divisions.

"There are a lot of good wrestlers in the division," Papazian said, "but not a lot of good strikers that are like knockout artists at the lower weight."

Of course, one guy that comes to mind in the discussion about guys who are not seen as knockout artists is the UFC Bantamweight champion himself, and Papazian wasn't at a loss for words when it came to Dominick Cruz.

"I wasn't too impressed with his last fight," Papazian said, in referring to Cruz's title defense against Demetrious Johnson last month.

"He seems like he plays it too safe...he puts a lot of pressure on guys, which is why he wins, but in his last fight, [Demetrious] put a lot of pressure on him and he didn't know how to adjust to it."

Papazian, agreeing with the consensus opinion about Johnson being a natural Flyweight, complemented Johnson's skill set by simply calling him "a beast," and while he won't take too much away from Cruz, especially complementing his cardio, he did issue one other statement:

"When I come down that road, I'll be able to figure him out."

As for the rest of the Bantamweights?

"I'm hungry, I believe I can compete at that level, and once I get in that division, within two years I will have that belt."

You can take the fighter out of the fight, but when it comes to Jared Papazian, there's no such thing as taking the fight out of the fighter.

When Jared Papazian does come to the UFC, fans better keep their eyes on him for the next two years after his debut, because it's always possible that we could be talking about "The Jackhammer" one day when we talk about the best Bantamweight in the world.