Ben Hodge: “I’ll win and I’ll look good doing it!”
One of the most explosive match-ups on the KTMMA 3 card has to be the England versus China meeting of our very own Ben Hodge from Lumpini Crawley and Guo Xi Chuang under WLF rules. Chuang is an all-action fighter who likes to stand and trade and really go for the win but he has certainly net his match in Hodge, the current WPMF European Champion, UKMF English Champion and ISKA British Champion, hinting at a potentially crowd-pleasing but short war.
Hodge is confident that he has what it takes to secure the win and states that he has had a great training camp and feels fit, strong and ready for war. There is always that level of extra pressure when a fighter is representing his country but Ben sees this as a positive rather than a negative-“I thrive on pressure! There is definitely a sense of national pride though, I will always do myself, my gym and my country proud.” When discussing Xi Chuang’s style, Ben is certainly not intimidated by his opponent’s reputation as an all action fighter who likes to pressure his opponents. In fact, you get the impression that Ben is looking forward to Chuang coming at him and will not change his strategy to adapt to the man in front of him –“No change in strategy at all. I've lost count of how many "front foot" or "come forward" fighters I've beaten, stopped or knocked out. He best come with more of a strategy than just marching forward throwing heavy shots, cos he's going to walk on to a lot!”
Ben is making his KTMMA debut and is confident of the show’s ongoing success believing that it is a great concept, different in its appeal and because of that he can see it becoming a lot bigger. He is matched under WLF rules but when quizzed if he will possibly transition to full KTMMA rules the way fellow Muay Thai specialist Josh Palmer has he says never say never as he is a born fighter who is always looking for a challenge. As to the challenge that a challenge that Guo Xi Chuang provides Ben is very confident that there will be only one outcome on Saturday night-“I'll win, and I'll look good doing it.”
This explosive WLF bout takes place on KTMMA 3, Saturday 14th of March at the ILEC Conference Centre in Earls Court London.
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