Scott Rodrigues (4-1) steps into the main event of MFL 20 on Saturday night against Alex Gluzman (2-1). The vacant MFL bantamweight belt sits at stake as the 23-year-old Montreal, Que., native from the West Island looks to elevate his standing in the sport.
Gluzman enters the contest riding momentum from a hard-fought MFL featherweight title fight that drew widespread attention from Canadian MMA followers.
Rodrigues has studied Gluzman's previous title shot and has developed a game plan for their upcoming clash.
"Yeah, I thought he won his last fight, to be honest. I watched the fight. And I was like, I thought he won," Rodrigues told MMA Empire in an interview.
"I was surprised to see, I forget the other guy's name. (Olivier) Poisson I think his name is. I mean, he's good. I think he's pretty boxing-heavy in his approach. From what it seems like counter-heavy, so he doesn't go first a ton. But I just think I have a lot more boxing experience than he does and a lot more experience than he does. I'm curious to see what his approach is going to be against me. If he's seen some of my fights, it should be interesting."
Rodrigues secured a victory over Vince Nikiforov at MFL 19 in his most recent outing and expressed enthusiasm about fighting twice this calendar year.
"Obviously, with the layoffs, and COVID kind of put a fork in everybody's plans. So, I planned on coming back in and doing a good three or four fights before the break. This one will be my second one, so it was good to come back and get a win. Obviously, it's exactly what you want. I was pretty confident I was going to get that win on the last event, similar to this one," he explained.
"I'm really just trying to get as many fights as possible before the year is over. But I even had another fight scheduled a couple of weeks ago that ended up falling through, so we're trying to get as much as possible in."
Finding regular competition has proven advantageous for Rodrigues, both amid the ongoing pandemic and in the broader MMA landscape.
Stepping back into competition after a two-and-a-half-year break could seem intimidating, yet Rodrigues' consistent training regimen and disciplined approach to martial arts eased that transition when he returned at the last Montreal Fight League card.
"I never really stopped training, so it wasn't like I was cold or anything like that. I don't really believe in ring rust if you're still training. My schedule didn't really change, to be honest, except maybe a couple of weeks where we didn't train when it was like the beginning of everything," Rodrigues shared.
"It didn't feel like a huge shift or anything like that. It just felt like another fight, you know what I mean? We got out there, I was already training. I got the fight booked pretty early; I think we booked it almost two months out, so I had a lot of time to help prepare and it wasn't really a big deal at that point."
Rodrigues' Shoutouts
"Appreciate you taking the time. I like MMA Empire. I like what you guys are putting out, so it's cool. I appreciate it." Follow Rodrigues on social media: INSTAGRAM
