This Friday, Bellator MMA is headed to Cedar Park, Texas for Bellator 161 as the main event will see longtime heavyweight Cheick Kongo duke it out with the 10-2 Tony Johnson. Bloody Elbow’s Eddie Mercado caught up Cheick Kongo to discuss his lengthy career, his Bellator 161 opponent, life after MMA, and he even touched on his legendary tussle with Pat Barry.

Interview: Cheick Kongo Bellator 161 **AUDIO ONLY**

Longevity:

Since his professional MMA debut in 2001, Cheick Kongo has successfully competed at least two times per year over the course of his 15-year tenure. Exactly who does Kongo accredit for his longevity?

“Honestly, the longevity is all thanks to my mother. [She] always gave me some good advice about training. Always saying, ‘yeah be careful, you will be old, you know, and you can get this, you can get that’. Also, the way to fight. It’s always good to fight in the right way… You can get messed up when you’re young, and won’t do anything else. Nobody will take a chance on you and you will be f**ked, and also physically. Especially here in America. No chance to survive with the medical bills.”

Pat Barry:

In 2011, Cheick Kongo battled Pat Barry, at UFC on Versus 4, in a highly exciting, back-and-forth ballet of carnage. If you have not seen said fight, then CLICK HEREand watch it twice before returning for Kongo’s candid take on the epic event:

“He caught me be the the temple and that’s the way he dropped me. After that, he got me pretty good with a couple of shots at the same location, on the top of the head, so I was like fuuuuuu*k. So then, I was like okay, so I have to come back and make him chase… The funniest part was, for myself, moving when I was out or like when you act like a drunk guy. I tried to come back, you know, I was thinking I was moving so fast like a cat. ‘Yeah, you can’t touch me, can’t touch me.’ But honestly, he couldn’t touch me because he was gassed. I went ‘okay, I have to recover and when I can block him on the fence, I would drop the bomb.’ The thing is, I wanted to make him get confident and bring him to me and when I saw it was the right time, things happened.”

Tony Johnson:

Kongo’s Bellator 161 opponent, Tony Johnson, has been hinting at a desire to strike with the longtime veteran; Kongo is on board:

“It’s not a bad idea. He can try you know. So that’s his game, so he’s been focused and prepared for that, just to improve his game. But if you want to win, you need to put me down. You need to put me down… So okay, want to bang? Oh, okay.”

Post MMA:

What does Cheick Kongo have in store in terms of life after professional MMA?

“I have no restrictions. It would be great seeing me acting and be like ‘YEAH’ the new role model, movie model, or I don’t know. I used to be introduced to this activity a few years ago, and now again they call me to be part of different products. Honestly, I never expected to be a part of that industry but it’s really good. It’s really good.”

Watch Cheick Kongo battle it out with Tony Johnson at Bellator 161. The main card will air live on Spike TV at 9:00 P.M. EDT with the Prelims streaming online. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbowfor all of your event coverage including results, highlights, and more!