Dalton Rosta surprised Claude Wilcox could eat his shots at Bellator 231

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Dalton Rosta’s second pro fight at Bellator 231 can be summed up with two words: decisive and dominant.

Rosta (2-0 MMA, 2-0 BMMA), a 23-year-old light heavyweight, defeated opponent Claude Wilcox (1-0 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) by TKO at the 4:23 mark of Round 2.

After a gritty Wilcox survived big shots in the first round, Rosta finished the fight with the ground-and-pound as the clock wound down in the next round.

“He has a strong chin that’s for sure,” Rosta told MMA Junkie after the fight. “I hit him with a couple of heavy shots and he didn’t go down. A couple of them I caught him on, I dazed him and hit him with two or three more right after that and he didn’t fall. I was a little surprised about that.

“Coming back off of that, I feel like I did well. Transitioning from my wrestling to my striking and putting everything together pretty well to get the win.”

Wilcox was a tough opponent to prepare for, according to Rosta. His “awkward” and “sloppy” style made timing a difficult task. In order to deal with the weirdness, Rosta decided to counterpunch his opponent.

“When we were watching his fights, he was kind of stiff, kind of awkward, hard to deal with,” Rosta said. “In film, some of his fights they looked sloppy, but a lot of those guys are awkward and hard to deal with. You can’t usually strike with your normal technique. They kind of push you or bring you down a little bit. You’ve got to adapt to that a little bit.

“When I was standing back and taking some pressure off myself a little bit, I was trying to let him provide some offense so I could hit him with counterpunches. If I’m just going in every single time and I’m pressing the action and he’s just going for the counter swinging wild every time he comes in, he caught me a few times. I was really trying to just work my game plan the best I could and see how I could get the finish. It ended up being on the ground and sometimes it’s the way it goes.”

Rosta’s first pro victory came at Bellator 219 in March when he defeated Cody Vidal by first-round TKO. Vidal injured his knee just 66 seconds into the fight, which led to the stoppage.

Bellator 231 took place Friday at the Mohegan Sun Arena. The main card aired on Paramount Network following prelims on MMA Junkie.