Darrion Caldwell Moved To Alliance MMA After Loss To Joe Taimanglo

Darrion Caldwell is preparing to avenge a Bellator 159 loss to Joe Taimanglo this Saturday Night at Bellator 167, but a change he made days after suffering the first defeat to Taimanglo may very well prove to be the difference this time around.

“I can’t put in 50 percent of the work and expect to be the best,” Caldwell said to Sherdog. “It was a weird situation for me, that last camp. You should never have to ask your coach, ‘When is practice?’ It should be the same time every day. It should be the same every day at the same time unless it’s an extra workout,” Caldwell said. “Just a weird situation for me where I’m coming from a wrestling background where they’re training hard every day and to where you train three times a week for a title eliminator fight. It just wasn’t right. I moved that Monday. I lost on Friday and I moved that Monday. I’m out here at Alliance MMA training with Eric Del Fierro, Dominick Cruz, Jeremy Stephens and Phil Davis. Having guys like that around and seeing what they’re going through definitely lit a fire under my ass like, ‘You need to be doing more.’ You’re just doing the bare minimum.”

Bellator 167 takes place on Saturday, December 3 from the Winstar World Resort & Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma with Darrion Caldwell and Joe Taimanglo headlining.