MMA Oddsbreaker’s Frank Trigg speaks with Bellator 115 lightweight Sam Oropeza as he prepares for his tournament bout on Friday night (April 4, 2014) against Andrey Koreshkov at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada.
The current Las Vegas resident is riding a four-fight knockout streak, but his power wasn’t something that came naturally:
“When I fought Shedrick [Goodridge] in Bellator, I actually broke my leg in the fight so after the fight I couldn’t really kick because I didn’t want to hurt my leg. Instead, I really focused on punching power. In those last two fights, Chip Pollard was a left hook knockout and [Christiano Souza] was a right hook. I’m finally starting to develop that knockout power. It’s something that I’ve wanted since I started training but it takes a while to develop it. I wasn’t born with it and I had to work hard for it.”