Dion Rubio earned an amateur title shot with his performance at Cage Titans 41.
Cage Titans 41 Post-Fight Interview: Dion Rubio
Rubio defeated James Squires by 1st round submission. The Rhode Island fighter looked impressive in his third amateur fight. Squires began fast and landed a few shots on the Tri-Star product. Rubio walked through the blows. It didn’t take too long for him to land punches and eventually score the submission.
“I felt very fluid, very smooth, I was controlled. We were talking about just staying calm, picking my shots, not rushing for things so I feel like I did excellent”
#1 Contender Bout
The matchup between Squires and Rubio was a #1 contender fight for the amateur lightweight division. For such young fighters, knowing the task at hand is burdensome. Yet, Rubio handled the emotion well.
“I definitely thought about it for sure but at the same time, this wasn’t that fight. It’s just taking it one fight at a time, one day at a time. My coach Pete Jeffries right outside of the cage before I stepped in, I’m here because I want to be here. I enjoy this, I have a passion for it, I love it, this is what I want to do.”
Moving forward from this challenge, Rubio was very grateful for this opportunity. In a life of athletics and sport, champion status never came to pass. Now with this chance, he is in control of his destiny. Group dynamics is not nearly the factor in his current as it was in others.
“It’s pretty humbling and glorying because I’ve been playing sports my whole life. I’ve been to one championship game ever and we lost. We lost the football game. I’m doing this, I have a team and we’re all working towards pushing myself and each other to get a belt. I am just going to go and get ready for this fight. Just keep working, keep advancing, keep improving because the second I start thinking that I have nothing else to improve on, everyone is going to beat me. I going to keep try and climb with my team, it’s Tri-Force vs. everybody.”
A date for Rubio’s title challenge is unknown currently.