“That that’s where you’re made. Process is where you’re built.” Former Bellator Champion Darrion Caldwell sat down recently with MMA Sucka. “Finding comfort in there is important because it’s not a comfortable thing, it’s not a comfortable place at all.” Caldwell is happy to discuss his wrestling roots. Grinding in wrestling gyms between New Jersey and North Carolina made him who he is. Training day in and day out made him love the process of training and learned to trust it. “During that process, you find you, you build this character. And depending on what you’ve made of yourself in that process it determines whether you’re going to take that left or that right or go straight.”
Darrion Caldwell Interview Ahead of Bellator 273
Ahead of his Bellator 273 bout Darrion Caldwell took time out his training schedule to sit down with us. He was an NCAA D1 Wrestling champion representing North Carolina, ‘The Wolfpack.’ His promising collegiate wrestling career was thrown askew when he took a severe shoulder injury due to attempting a backflip while on roller skates. Caldwell has always been a dare-devil he says, “We had the dirty mattresses at the projects. Down the street, across the street, would go over there and literally, I mean I would do things like jump off the cargo [crates], those big boxes. When I was like seven, six, seven, eight, you know. I don’t know what the hell I was doing. Off onto the beds and that’s why I learned how to how to flip.”
Floyd Mayweather and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis
“I was on his undercard- or he was on mine actually… to be specific.” On Rizin 14, 2018, Caldwell fought for the Rizin Bantamweight championship against Kyoji Horiguchi. At this event, Floyd Mayweather had an exhibition boxing fight against Tenshin Nasukawa. “I was just gassed up to be on his card, you know. [To] be there and be in his presence; it’s a different feel when you’re around Floyd. The energy is just … it almost feels magnetic … it’s different.”
Many MMA fighters are strapping on the boxing gloves to fight YouTube celebrities or matches against retired MMA fighters. On the celebrity boxing trend, we asked Caldwell who he would want to fight in the ring. “Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, I say, if he comes over to Bellator Gervonta and I have a nice scrap. If I go over to the boxing world we’ll have a nice crack. I don’t think the world has seen me with boxing gloves on … If we happen to tangle it’d be something that people would be surprised to see … I want the best guys in the world, and to me, he’s the best. And I know he’s been talking about coming over to Bellator … I’m the guy to give him that warm welcome.”
Puppies
In addition to being a world MMA champion and NCAA champion, Caldwell spends much of his time with his French Bulldog litters. “You see how much joy they bring other people. It’s like dang, I just made this person so happy, you know well not me, there’s a dog, but you know. We produced this and we had to go out and find this dog to match with you.” Caldwell is not just breeding puppies for sale but he trying to match his Frenchies to the right family. He wants to find his dogs a home and family. “To put in perspective, I would much rather give my dog away at no charge to someone who’s going to take care of him as opposed to someone who’s gonna pay a ton of money and neglect them. They’re just an extended family of ours … Brightening people’s days up with these puppies. Caldwell Frenchy Club.”
Bellator 273
Darrion Calwell will have his hands full at Bellator 273 against Enrique Barzola. This fight is on January 29th. “My destiny is different than everybody else’s. Not a lot of guys that can do what I’m about to do. And that’s lose a title and then come back and win another one … that’s just destiny.” Caldwell is focused on winning back his Bellator Championship. “Closer to a strap … And now I’m back at my world championship weight class, one step closer to the strap. January 29, Bellator 273.”
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