Moore Out To Win Title In Front Of Hometown Crowd

Karl Moore has never fought in front of his hometown crowd of Belfast, Northern Ireland as a mixed martial arts (MMA) professional. But this Friday (March 22, 2024) he will not only fulfill that goal, but he will get to do it while trying to win the vacant Bellator Light Heavyweight title.

The hard-hitting Irishman has been tasked to headline the initial “Bellator Champions Series” event against Corey Anderson for the strap left behind by Vadim Nemkov, just five fights into his career with the promotion. For Moore, it’s a dream come true that he’s envisioned early on in his amateur career.

“This is a dream come true. I fought in Belfast as an amateur in my third fight. After I won that fight I jumped on top of that cage and celebrated. At that age I hadn’t realized the dream of fighting in front of the Belfast crowd while winning the world title,” he said during a recent media call to promote Bellator Belfast.

“But you think, when is Bellator going to come to Belfast? When are they going to stick me as the main event for a world title? But it’s happening, and I am going to win that world title in front of my people,” he added before saying he knows not to get too caught up with the comfort of his surroundings and stick to the business at hand.

“I understand the ramifications, but just like Corey said, it’s another fight and everything else is irrelevant. I am going to go in there for 25 minutes, do my businesses and then after you soak it in and enjoy it. But in those 25 minutes it is me and Corey. Me and him, everything else does not matter. After it’s all said and done we can enjoy our moment and our time.”

Still, Moore knows that the atmosphere will be electric come fight night, which he will feed off of to get the job done.

“I fought in Dublin so many times and the atmosphere in Dublin is electric, but Belfast is a bit different. They’re not too far away, but the people from Belfast, they bring their own type of atmosphere,” he added.

“I mean, Belfast is a historic fighting city. We have so many great boxers that have come through and so many great boxers coming through at the minute. And when those guys fight, the atmosphere is electric. So I can only imagine what it’s going to be like when they have one of their own fighting for a world title. It’ll be unbelievable. I can only imagine how crazy it will be.”

Moore has competed the majority of his career in Ireland under the Cage Warriors banner, winning the 205-pound title for the promotion in 2017. After signing with Bellator in 2019, Moore has gone on to rack up four straight wins, good enough to land him his first-ever championship fight for the company.

It will be a tough task to say the least because he will come face-to-face with a man who is also hungry for his first taste of Bellator gold, as Anderson has come up short in his previous two bids to win the belt against Nemkov.

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