StipeTapped’s Wyatt Lerner managed to have a quick conversation with Ricky Bandejas who takes on Turkish striker Ahmet Kayretli tonight at Bellator 225.

In late 2018, Bandejas was one of the hottest prospects on planet earth; he was the first man to trump the Bellator bad-boy James Gallagher and he did so in devastating fashion. His facekick finish over Gallagher thrusted him into the mainstream spotlight. Ricky too at the time was riding an impressive six fight win streak holding a litany of impressive finishes and performances in the regional 135lb division.

Fast forward to 2019 and Bandejas has skirted slightly off the tracks as he’s now on a two fight skid, losing a decision to Juan Archuleta in January and being finished quickly by a rear naked choked delivered by Patrick Mix this June. Tonight it’s a make or break situation for Ricky as he hopes to bounce back into contender-ship and regain some form of mainstream fame or momentum, but in order to do so he takes on a tough competitor in Ahmet Kayrelti.

Kayrelti sits (8-3) and is making his Bellator debut. Many fans expect Bandejas to run over the relatively unknown Kayrelti, but StipeTapped HQ doesn’t think it’ll be the complete squash-match that many expect it to be. Kayrelti is a striking specialist who is known to swing and bang in the centre of the cage. Bandejas too likes to stand and strike it out so expect fireworks whenever they’re on the feet. On the ground Kayrelti has shown a huge kink in the armour as all his losses stem from being finished by submission. So if Bandejas can drag the fight to the canvass expect him to pick up the submission victory. On the feet we’d give the slight nod to Bandejas but if Kayrelti manages to clip him and score a huge knockout on the feet don’t be shocked either.

The two go to war tonight on the prelim card of Bellator 225, which can be watched on the Bellator app.

Here’s the super quick interview we got in before we had tech issues:

On training for a specific type of opponent

“It doesn’t affect me too much, I never really pay much attention to my opponents (before hand). Unless it’s someone like (Mix), where they have 8 to 10 wins the exact same way. But with a guy like him that [he] can do a little bit of everything.”

I see you had some beef with Corey Anderson on Twitter, care to go in more depth about it?

“Yeah you know, i was definitely mind blow because i thought i said it very respectfully and went down a good road. I saw (Nick Catone) this morning and talked to the guys on the team last night, and everybody is cool, I’m on good terms with everybody. they are a great camp, great training partners, coaches are awesome, but you know Corey Anderson was the only one who seemed to have something to say, which, that guys an asshole, so fuck him.”

“He just sounded so stupid man, the things he said didn’t even make sense. Im almost upset with myself for getting caught up talking to an idiot, makes me look like an idiot.”

“I was mind blown man, looking back at it Im more like “what the fuck was he even saying?” but thats just the way it goes, like i said i talked to (Nick Catone) and (Mark Henry) this morning and all of us are on good terms. Theres no bad bash, theres no negativity, no nothing. the gym is awesome. I needed a change, i wanted to make a change in my life and my career. It was nothing personal, but for some reason that guy wanted to make it personal. I don’t get it”

“I haven’t been able to tell much, but you know ATT has great training partners and a great coaching staff”