It’s been nearly three years since Karim Henniene last stepped in the cage, but he is now ready for his much-anticipated professional debut.

Following an impressive undefeated amateur career, Henniene (0-0) will make the jump to the professional ranks when he takes on Alex Gluzman (0-0) in bantamweight action at BTC 17 on Saturday night.

Henniene, 27, said he’s not too familiar with what Gluzman brings to the table, but he remains focused on the aspects he can control.

“Not at all, I never knew who he was. The only thing I asked my sparring partner is do you know this guy? One of my friends told me yes, he saw him fighting before him and that’s it. But no, I didn’t know nothing about him before they offered me him,” said Henniene in an interview with MMA Empire.

“For me, it’s always focused on myself. It’s about what I’m going to do, not what he’s going to do. I can’t control what he’s going to do, but I can control what I’m going to do, so I’m really focusing on myself. My coach has watched some of it and that’s it. He will guide me through it, but for my part, I’m just focusing on myself.”

Henniene fought his entire amateur career in the featherweight division, but now makes the drop to bantamweight for his professional debut.

He said featherweight was not a difficult weight cut for him and feels he’s doing all the right things to ensure the bantamweight cut goes equally as smoothly.

“I always knew I will fight at bantamweight because I never, never go over 155. The biggest I can get is 155. For all these couple of months I was walking around 150, 152 the bigger I got, so it was real easy,” said Henniene.

“Obviously, before when I was competing at 145, I didn’t have to check what I eat or anything. I was just doing two-hour sauna and that’s it. I was ready to go at 145. For now, I just had to cut all the sugar for all my camp and that’s it. I just have a little bit more strict nutrition but nothing hard.”

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