UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Christian Echols knew the odds against him at Bellator 289. He heard all about them.
Echols was a huge underdog against highly touted wrestling standout Pat Downey on Friday in Uncasville, Conn. Downey was a 15-1 favorite in the middleweight fight. A 36-second submission win in his pro debut earlier this year had a lot to do with that for Downey.
And at the start of his fight with Echols, it looked like things might play out in the same kind of way. Downey put Echols on the canvas and before long had a tight choke that Echols had to find a way out of. Eventually, he did – and then Echols (3-2 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) knocked out Downey (1-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) for one of the year’s biggest upsets.
“I was 2-2, so everybody looked at me as a scrub,” Echols told MMA Junkie after the fight. “What they didn’t understand was, when I changed my life around and I stopped doing the stupid things I was doing and I found God, I started training six hours per day. I’m training all the time. My last two fights, I had a total of 55 seconds in total through both fights. Nobody sees that. They look at 2-2 and say, ‘Oh, we’ll get this scrub in here. He’ll fight Pat Downey. Pat Downey will whoop his butt, (and we’ll) go on with the day.’
“That’s not the case, and I’m here to show everybody: I’m not to be played with. Screw the Internet. Screw Joe down the road that put me at a 15-1 underdog. I can do this, and I know I can. I’ve just got heart.”
To hear Echols talk about his upset of Downey, that choke and what he wants next, check out the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.
