MMA
Exclusive Q&A: Justin Wetzell reflects on the importance of Dragon Ball in his career
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Justin Wetzell will face Marcirley Alves in the final of the PFL bantamweight world tournament. This is the most important fight of his career for the 33-year-old fighter (12-2).
He made his debut in the organisation last April during the world tournament, securing two unanimous decision victories against Kasum Kasumov and Mando Gutierrez. DAZN News spoke with the avid Dragon Ball fan ahead of his upcoming PFL bout on 15 August.
DAZN News: Three fights in five months, how did your training camp go?
Justin Wetzell: Find balance between the two because you get a quick turnaround after the last fight. You’ve got to heal up, but you’ve also got to stay in shape, be ready. Everything’s been great. Everything’s been falling in line, especially the past week and a half. Everything has just seamlessly fallen into place. Well, there are two jobs to do. We’ve got to make weight, and then we’ve got to win this fight. I’m going to do it.
DN: You made your PFL debut in the World Tournament with two unanimous decision victories. What do you think of the opponents ?
JW: Kasum, my first, I knew he was going to be a very tough fight. He was very highly regarded, probably the favorite to win the tournament. And I wasn’t sure how I was going to do against him, coming against an opponent like that on two weeks’ notice. Camp for that was only two weeks long, and I wasn’t in great shape going into it. So I was very concerned. I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. But after the first round, he felt like a little bro. He couldn’t wrestle me, couldn’t take me down. So I was just like, okay, I can do this. I won the fight. And then Mando won his fight after me, and I knew I was going to beat Mando. So I knew I was getting to the finals. And now we’ve just got to finish the job with Marcirley. He presents his own problems, different from Mando in costume, but I’m going to get the job done.
DN: You’re going to fight Marcirley Alves in the final? What do you think of him?
JW: He’s a beast. He punches hard, he kicks hard. It doesn’t matter, though. I’m going to win this fight.
DN: Any prediction?
JW: Fourth-round TKO.
DN: If you won the final, what do you want after that fight? Is there any guy that you want?
JW: So there are a couple of people that I’m interested in. Sergio Pettis is one of them. Also, Magomed Magomedov. But if I’m being real, I want to fight the other PFL league champions that are Bantamweight. There’s a PFL men’s Bantamweight Europe champion. I want all those guys and to show that I’m the best Bantamweight in PFL, period.
DN: Why do you consider yourself one of the best Bantamweights in the world?
JW: Because I win, because I’m going to beat them all. That’s why.
DN: You love Dragon Ball so much that you’ve made it your trademark by entering with a detector every time. What has that brought to your life?
JW: I used to always have my mom pick me up from school so I could get home and watch Toonami real quick. But Dragon Ball, like you just said, that was my favorite because the whole point of that… Not Dragon Ball Z. I do like Dragon Ball Z, don’t get me wrong. But Dragon Ball, the whole point of that was Goku winning the World Martial Arts Tournament. I’m here at the World Tournament, and I’m about to win it. So this is just full circle for me.
