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After highlight KO, Bellator 207 winner Mandel Nallo’s goal is to be like Georges St-Pierre
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UNCASVILLE, Conn. – The sound of a knee square to the jaw didn’t just surprise the crowd at Bellator 207. The guy who threw it was caught off guard, too.
“You don’t live your everyday life hearing that sound and doing that sort of stuff to people,” Mandel Nallo told reporters after flooring Carrington Banks on Friday at Bellator 207 from Mohegan Sun Arena. “So when it happens, it’s like, jeez, oh man – it’s crazy.”
Nallo (7-0 MMA, 2-0 BMMA), 29, had been taking his lumps at the famed Tristar gym before he stepped into the cage against Banks (7-2 MMA, 3-2 BMMA). An early submission attempt failed, and he wound up on bottom after giving up a takedown in the first.
But just inside the one-minute mark of the second frame, Nallo turned things around in the blink of an eye. With a highlight-reel victory, he extended his unbeaten streak to seven pro fights. The win even earned a shoutout from his teammate, Georges St-Pierre (via Twitter).
The former UFC champ is a model for Nallo as he builds a career in Bellator. Like St-Pierre, he tries to cultivate interests outside of fighting, in particular ones that are a little off the beaten path.
Where St-Pierre likes dinosaurs and paleontology, Nallo likes rats. More specifically, he likes to make art with pictures of rats using Photoshop. The pieces can be seen on his Instagram page @ratgarbage, and they’re quite, well, unique.
Another trait Nallo admires in the future UFC Hall of Famer is poise. His goal is to develop into the kind of fighter that can perform at a peak level even if he fights just once per year.
“Georges’ fight last year in New York was a great example of a guy who hasn’t fought in over three years, and is going something completely new, and he looks like the fighter he was, as far as skill goes,” Nallo said. “That’s a level of mastery that I would like to get to.”
Nallo will need more time and experience to develop that, but he can see himself getting there. After Friday, he has the MMA world’s attention.
For complete coverage of Bellator 207, check out the MMA Events section of the site.
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