Marlon in photo by Carlos Ozório
A former Sengoku champion considered to be one of the best featherweights in the world, Marlon Sandro is celebrating some news. The black belt will now also appear at the American Bellator event, while continuing to fight in Japan, which will become all the more interesting now that Dream and Sengoku will likely join forces with each other.
“I signed a two-year contract with Bellator, but I’ll still fight in Japan for at least another year and a half. There’s a strong push for Sengoku and Dream to unite, so things will get really interesting. In the United States, though, I can only fight at Bellator,” he tells GRACIEMAG.com.
Accustomed to fighting in the Land of the Rising Sun, Marlon knows he will encounter different reactions from people in the United States.
“Both countries value athletes a lot. But in the USA the crowd tends to be more vocal. If they like a fight, they get really excited about it. If they don’t like it, they boo. I’ve accompanied José Aldo and Vitor Shaolin to their fights over there, which was good so I could see how things work,” he says.
Marlon should soon see action in one of the Bellator Gps, probably starting in June. In the meantime, he is looking at his likely opponents.
“I’m still getting to know the promotion’s fighters; I started analyzing them now. I used to keep up with the event because of Patrício Pitbull, I rooted for him a lot. So he’s one of the fighters I know a bit about. But I still have to study the rest of them, because I want to get in there and try for that belt,” says the Nova União hard-hitter in closing.