THACKERVILLE, Okla. – For the first time in a while, Tyrell Fortune is coming into a Bellator fight week happy with his turnaround time.
Fortune (7-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) takes on Azunna Anyanwu (15-5 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) in a heavyweight fight to open the Bellator 233 main card Friday at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. The main card airs on Paramount and streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.
After his first three pro fights, all of which came under the Bellator banner, it’s been increasingly difficult for Fortune to get fights in a quick enough time frame, as far as he was concerned, after his wins.
Fortune went nine months between his third and fourth fight; five months between four and five; eight months between five and six; and six months between his sixth bout and most recent one, a second-round submission of Rudy Schaffroth at Bellator 225 in August.
But this time, the call to get back in there came much quicker, leaving Fortune with only about 11 weeks between fights.
“It feels great,” Fortune told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “I feel like I’m just right back on track again and back to where I was at the beginning when I first started. After my last fight and my performance, they were already like, ‘We’re going to get you back in there in three months.’ So I think my performance helped escalate that situation a lot faster.”
The win over Schaffroth was Fortune’s third straight finish, and five of his seven wins for Bellator have come by stoppage.
Check out the full interview with Fortune in the video above.
At long last, Tyrell Fortune gets the quick turnaround he's been asking for at Bellator 233