Rhys McKee Vs Justin Burlinson | Cage Warriors 140 Welterweight Title | Energized's "The Face Off"

Summary

What is up and welcome to Energized's "The Face Off" Show! On this episode Rhys McKee (Next Gen NI) & Justin Burlinson (TFT MMA) join us to discuss the Countdown to their Cage Warriors 140 Welterweight Title Fight on Saturday the 25th of June in The SSE Arena, Belfast & Live on…

Transcript (youtube_captions)

Kind: captions Language: en [Music] [Applause] okay what's going on guys and welcome to a brand new episode of energize the face off russ introduced a guest man today we have a big one bosmo we have the cage warriors welterweight title fight between belfast's own rhys mckee and the main man from sunderland justin burlington lads how are you doing yeah good fellas good good to have you on i love you i need to set them shades after yeah well what will they gonna happen we'll get we'll get ones for the perriers and i suppose we'll get straight into it uh reese how does it feel to finally get in there and fight for that cage warriors welterweight belt yeah it's good um you know obviously i was meant to fight um adam proctor at the time and before everything happened with covenant and stuff and that was gonna be in belfast it was another big fight for belfast so to have it back on the road and and you know have the title on the line again it's special and it's going to be a special night for sure certainly and then uh justin obviously uh you went the farm the contender series before the belt came and i suppose the two years actually um um had a shot in the ufc before the belt came which is rare for cage warriors uh how do you feel about getting the fight for this belt now do you feel like you leapfrogged at the last time out what was that again sorry do you feel like you leapfrogged the belt last time by going to the contender series and there's your chance to actually win the cage warriors belt yeah a little bit what my plans was before the key roy's before the contender series is to win the bell but obviously the opportunity came up so i dove on it and uh obviously it didn't go my way but now i'm back here fighting for the build so yeah and just watching this for us this one cannot be missed cage warrior is 140 in belfast in the 25th of june if you're looking to buy tickets make sure you're going to reach the instagram selling tickets they're going to justin's instagram to buy tickets there and it will be live i'll see on ufc five pass er justin i want to ask yourself what did you learn from that ufc experience that you had um it was definitely definitely a lot to take from the fight like the me fighting style obviously i'm i'm more of a pressure fighter and not all with every fight you can't be like that you know i mean you've got to be a bit smarter especially at the high higher level probably first time like at a high level like that so it was it was a good learning experience to realize that you can't just go in there and just swing with anyone and then reece what about yourself what did you learn from your ufc experience yeah like um yeah i learned a lot you know it's probably learned a lot about myself more than um more than level of fighting and stuff like that i learned you know i learned i was very game and very keen and maybe sometimes a bit too keen and two game you know when i fought murano i felt like an idiot and again just you know just like the night like the big fight and but again similar to justin you know you have to have a smarter approach when you're fighting at least high level fights and and you know i got punished for that and uh here i am back in cage wars but you know you learn a lot and it's about how we move forward and not know not what we've done he said he wants to fight yourself in belfast uh when you heard that announcement like how that make you feel and like what like how did this fight come about then yeah um i mean obviously i know who justin is and you know he he's put a lot of goods a lot of good wins together and um when we started talking about opponents for cage warriors it was before um justin and daniel fought and i kind of had a feeling it'd be whoever came out of that fight and talked so i watched the fight and then um obviously i woke up and seen tagged on twitter that justin called me out and stuff so he was keen and you know i texted him dean and said and there we have it it's done now so um yeah it made a lot of sense and you know justin obviously has the tie with the efc in the contender series so for me it's i'm not into fighting guys that will just reap off my name you know i need an opponent where i will reap off their name as well and you know i went over justin would would absolutely do that for me it's a massive win where you know compared to some of the other guys that are that are talking online and stuff i went over the end doesn't do do as much justin you obviously won that fight and it was an absolute war we were we got onto straight after being like what a win like you did make that call out for reese wiki so like you have no problem going into loins then and causing an upset yeah yeah definitely that this this is the fight i wonder i mean um i feel like when i've got more adversity against this i perform better like in the fight so that's why i called for this fight in belfast and now i've got it so we're absolutely buzzing for it else aren't we yeah i think one thing that we haven't even mentioned yet is both these guys finishing rates is unbelievable these guys come to close the show and i'll start with yourself justin is there any chance this fight goes the distance um no it's not lately i don't see god in the distance and reese what about yourself yeah i mean going by how we fight and our styles on our finish rate you know you if you read the bookies you'll be saying there's no chance wouldn't you so um you know it's nice that it's a five-rounder and stuff like that but i doubt we're going to need it that's for sure so the georgia's watching right now dale can take this for it off they can go look out to drink at the bar if they want that we'll be back soon aries how do you feel about that guy on five rounds yeah you know it was a big attraction like when i spoke to ian and graham on the phone and stuff um i'm sure you know people have heard of it i wasn't not that it wasn't as fussed on the title but it wasn't a big draw for me for me the ufc's the draw um so the belt was just a byproduct but that being said the five fives like training for the five fives is a nice um it's a nice little thing to get up for even more you know so i like just knowing that there's a bit more work to do even though i always train kind of four or five fives it's nice knowing that the option will be there so um yeah it gives you a nice kick but you know again i don't think we're gonna need them and then uh justin obviously the last one this belt was far for a good friend yours jack grandfather uh has he given you any invoice to prepare for the five fives um not really he's just chilling actually there he is any tips jack just just being given his abuse but sometimes that's enough to get you up off your arse no no definitely now obviously um i spoke to him after after his fight and um got a few like obviously training which i've learned a lot a lot just generally you know i mean in in the gym and outside the gym so it's been a good training partner you sort of have to say that when you're sitting there beside you though don't you yeah yeah just looking at this void as well lads is this is this are you just solely focused on this are you like do you do you think a win over each other could get they could get you another chance in the ufc again uh rhys you can go ahead first but uh you know yeah i'm not really looking past this fight too much um you know i do think this is the biggest fight that cage wars can make at the moment in all divisions i think this was the fight to make i think it's the biggest fight in europe in terms of welterweights as well so i think you know a win here it like absolutely cements our place back there but um you know i'm not looking at anything after this fight this is a massive fight a really really big fight um and 25th of june is always on my mind really right now do you want to say what about yourself bud yeah but the same i'm just sort of just living in the moment just enjoying the process of just training for the fight er the build-up of the fight obviously k droids is promoting it well um it's all over twitter instagram you know what i mean so i'm just enjoying the process of being main event for the belt okay you have to sort of believe like there's it feels like this belfast card has a bit of special height behind it you know i mean ufc london's only around the corner afterwards and on top of that like if the if the belt that cage wires isn't the golden ticket defend it once seems to be so and these guys are not too far away in my opinion what are your thoughts ross like the second we saw this was announced it was just like oh this is this is unbelievable uh we're over for ufc london as like russ mentioned and like we we knew cage wars was coming back we had green bullet on the show earlier on the year and then once this fight was announced it was the perfect matchup for the perfect event in belfast and like that's why we will be there and that's why people if you go if you want to get tickets as i said get onto reese's instagram get onto justin's instagram and it will be live on uc5 pass and we are absolutely buzzing reese and what would it mean for you to not only fight for a world toilet but to do it in front of your hometown yeah it means a lot like you know it means a lot i fought in this odyssey or the this arena before and you know i had a big night there before and you know i know how special it is i know how special it is for you know there's people that haven't seen me fighting in northern ireland for seven years eight years so and you know to come back and especially after the you know i had the previous run and cage warriors and then the ufc and and then back with cage were still to be back night this time in my career it's um it's a much bigger deal than i ever was before so it means a lot and you know it's it's one of the nights despite what happened after this and going back to the ufc and all that good stuff this will always be one of their nights that's special and held in high regard so it means a lot to me and you know that's going to be very evident in the next eight weeks and then reece how many reese mckee fans are you expecting on the night to be in attendance it's going to be crazy it's going to be it's going to be bananas you know i'm not sure the attendance but i know my ticket length is has been mental so far so um i don't know like you know i mean i could throw a ballpark of a thousand um maybe on it but you know um you know there's a lot of people also say they're going to fight so who knows that they'll actually be there but um the amount of people that told me they're going there'll be a lot but who knows and again i don't really care you know i've had the experience of fighting with new fans and look like not that i don't care but i'm there to fight anyway so i'll be good regardless of how many go justin what is it going to be like for you to enter into the lions then in belfast um with with the volatile crowd will that be something that could phase you on the night nah definitely not um i'm i'm actually really excited for it i can't wait i feel like there's no pressure on me really all the pressure's on reece he's he's fighting at home in front of everyone you know i mean so i'll probably only have a few people there's flying over so i'm going to ask bold lads uh because i'll be very interested to see uh which way that's going to go rhys how would you envision before you finishing on the night yeah it's gonna it's gonna be you know what i have a lot of thinking about this and how the fight is going to be i think it's going to be similar to how justin and skibas fight when um you know i think there's going to be a lot of a lot of good chances here and i think it's going to come down to who's going to be more clinical um you know i know i'm clinical i know i only need one chance and i think once i get it i'm going to take it so um you know i'm looking forward to just showing showing what i am and being back in the scene and um yeah just putting on a domination here a lot of yourself justin how do you think it's gonna go come fight night to come june 25th yeah i think it's i'm just gonna be too too much for him on the night and i'm just gonna over overwhelm him and the pressure's just gonna get from on the night and i think he's just going to crumble a little bit and then finally reese where will uh having a cage warriors belt rank in your career so far yeah right up there you know yeah right up there's gonna be again it's gonna be special it's gonna be nice to have that moment with the belfast crowd and stuff after and um it's gonna be right up there with the the highest of the of the highs of the nights you know and even again like i said earlier in this it's like even the nights that are still to come in the career this will be up there in the top one top two and then just what about yourself how how would it feel to win that belt on are you gonna rub it in jack grant's face [Laughter] for me that the main goal is ufc and the bells just added bonus on the way there you know what i mean we love jack by the way he's never using jackpots that's why this fight cannot be missed cage warriors 140 belfast 25th of june in the sse arena you can get you get up to reese's instagram to buy tickets you getting justin's instagram to buy tickets and you can watch it live on uc foy pass lads before we wrap up the show is there anything you'd like to say to each other before the main event in belfast reece johnson just have a safe company and i look forward to seeing you in there 25th of june it's going to be fireworks this is the fight we both wanted this is a fight everybody in europe wants so let's put it all on the line and and i'll see you in there stay safe yeah you tune it love it take us away board guys uh for those of you watching home thanks a million make sure to get ufc fight pass so you do not miss this fight come june 25th in belfast if you can get there in person all the better we will be there it's going to be an absolute epic event shout out to venom fight gear for so and they'll say with some fight kits so uh shout out to monster energy for keeping the guys energized and if you are watching this on youtube make sure to like share subscribe hit the bell notification and as always stay stay energized energize show up the irish and sustain you guys a couple of times i've seen a couple of clips i think you're doing some interviews with dylan moore and then that i i saw so keep going keep up the good work guys