Exclusive Q&A: ‘I'm going to stop Mansour Barnaoui’ says Archie Colgan

Archie Colgan (11-0-0) faces a tough challenge. He is set to face Mansour Barnaoui (22-6) on September 20 in the United States. The winner of this fight will then become the first contender for the PFL lightweight world belt and the next to face Usman Nurmagomedov.

DAZN News spoke to the fighter, who trains alongside Justin Gaethje and Kamaru Usman.

DAZN News: You were due to fight in the main event in Paris, but the fight was finally cancelled. How did your training camp go?

Archie Colgan: It was good. It was long because I had 10 weeks of preparation for that last fight, and then an additional four weeks because the fight was canceled and got pushed back four weeks. So it was a 14-week camp. Once I learned that the fight was canceled, I took one week - not off, but I took one week down and pulled my training back a little bit. That helped my body recover a little bit. It’s go time now. It's time to fight. I'm excited.

DN: You had a fight in Paris, but now you're going to fight at home. Luck turned in your favor.

AC: I fought in Paris last year. I got booed. So I think this time, maybe he gets booed.

DN: Any prediction?

AC: I'm going to stop this guy. I don't know what round. I feel early, honestly, but I don't know.

DN: If you win, you'll be next for a title shot against Usman Nurmagomedov. There are other contenders like Paul Hughes. Why do you think you deserve a chance?

AC: Let's look at it pretty straightforward. Once I get this win next Friday, that'll be nine wins - nine straight wins in Bellator and now PFL. That's pretty obvious. So I understand where Paul is coming from. I'm not saying he doesn't make sense for what he wants. He wants another shot at it. But he did have a shot, and it was a close fight. He lost. And he just had another great win - good for him. But I go out there, get another win - that’s nine under Bellator and now PFL. It's pretty obvious there.

DN: Usman is undefeated. What makes you think you can beat him?

AC: I think that the areas I'm good in, I can exploit those things. I think he's a very good kickboxer and keeps a good distance. But I think my boxing can get inside, and I can use that against him and exploit it. And to counter it - when he was beating Paul, when they were in a good fight, in a good scrap, and Paul would land good shots - he was able to escape those things because he has good wrestling. That doesn't work on me.

DN: Your training partner is Justin Gaethje. How good are you?

AC: I've been training with Justin now for some years. I think - I’ll never talk about training sessions like that - but I think I'm prepared for that next level.

DN: Any prediction for Usman's fight in the UFC against Joaquin Buckley?

AC: Kamaru is going to get it done. I think he's going to wear Buckley out. I think Buckley is also going to wear himself out. I think he's an explosive person, and he's going to come after Kamaru early. But I also think Kamaru will pull on him and wear on him. And maybe around round four or so, Kamaru will really start to pull away.

DN: Kamaru wanted to be champion again. You train with him in the same gym. Do you think he can do it?

AC: When you go on a skid like he has, it's very easy for everybody else to lose sight of the aura and the skill set that he has. But from a training partner’s perspective, he's still as good as he was. He’s still got it.

When you take a step back from losing three fights in a row and you look at how he’s lost, it's really not as bad as it seems. He lost that fight to Leon when he was up five rounds to zero. And then the second one, he took that fight five months after getting knocked out.

So he didn't really get to recover and get a full camp and do all of that. And then he lost a close one there. And then he lost a close one to Khamzat, which obviously went three rounds. We all have our predictions on how it would have gone. It was a very close fight. It could have gone either way in a three-round fight. And he took that on 10 days’ notice.

So the three-fight skid should be taken with a little bit of a grain of salt. I understand people are going to see the devaluation of his aura and see it from that side. But what they don't know is that he's not one of these guys who's washed on a three-fight skid. It was misfortune.

DN: How does it feel for you to fight at home in the U.S.?

AC: It feels good. I like travelling to Europe because I’d never - before last year when I fought in Paris - I’d never been to Europe. So this was my first time. It was cool to go to Europe, to see Paris, to see all the cool things in Paris, and live the lifestyle there for a little bit. And then London. It was cool to do those things. Butarc, when I leave next week, it's a one-hour flight. I just get on the plane for one hour and I'm there. It's super easy. So it's going to be nice for me.

DN: What does it mean to you to still be undefeated?

AC: Really, honestly, I don't even see myself as undefeated. I've lost so many wrestling matches before I started MMA.

I started MMA off a heartbreak loss from wrestling. So I never started this thing as the undefeated, unbeatable guy. I know what it's like to lose - very much. And I haven't lost in MMA, and I only want to keep it that way because I don't want to lose - but not because I’m attached to seeing a zero on my record. It's not because I want to look at my record and see 20-0. It's not that.

It's just that I don't want to lose. I want to win. So it's as simple as that. I'm not attached to that zero. But I do want to win, so it kind of contradicts itself.