New England’s #1-Ranked P4P Fighter Matt “The Mangler” Bessette (16-7) To Shine at CES XXXIII

Matt “The Mangler” Bessette (16-7) returns to the cage on Friday, March 11th, 2016 for CES XXXIII: Soukhamthath vs. Nordby at Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

An incredibly active and well-rounded martial artist with Brown Belts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo, Bessette earned his most recent victory in October 2015 via Heel Hook Submission over Strikeforce and Bellator veteran Kevin “K-Rod” Roddy (15-16) at Bellator 144: Halsey vs. Carvalho.

Since beginning his professional MMA career in September 2007 with a victory over Chris Correira (2-2) at Reality Fighting: Invictus, Bessette won the Reality Fighting Lightweight Championship and the Global Fight League Lightweight Championship – both in 2011 – as well as became a semifinalist in the Bellator Season Ten Featherweight Tournament in 2014.

No stranger to defying the odds, Bessette began his entire life as the underdog – overcoming an infliction of leukemia at only three years old with a 50/50 diagnosis of survival.

With high-level success in five different professional MMA organizations, Bessette will look to further cement his status as a must-sign UFC fighter with his match against decorated Strikeforce and World Series of Fighting veteran Tito “Kid KO” Jones (11-8): a former Maximum Fighting Championship Bantamweight title challenger making his CES debut.

Before finishing training camp for his upcoming match against Jones, Bessette took the time to speak about his recent time off, his unparalleled charity work and his rising boxing skills.

ON TIME BETWEEN FIGHTS

Whenever you have more free time to not think about a fight and you’re just able to focus on yourself and your individual growth, obviously there’s more growth that can come out of that. My last fight was in October, and usually I fight every two-three months; just taking an extra month or two off in-between fights meant that I could just practice and have fun more.

When you’re having fun, you’re tending to learn more.

So I picked up quite a few things. You saw some new stuff in my last fight and you’ll see a bunch of new stuff in this fight, too.

ON BOXING

I think my boxing is awesome; I think my boxing’s excellent. We got a Golden Gloves guy in my gym who says that my boxing is nasty. He says that if I was to just box, I would be successful. I don’t just box, but I have excellent boxing.

Really good understanding of the gaps; I can strike from the outside and the inside and I have real good head movement, as well. Those things coupled together mean I’m pretty confident in there in any situation.

ON MAKING A STATEMENT

My last several fights, I’ve walked out to the cage as myself. What I mean by that is I come out with thug music, wearing Power Rangers stuff or wearing Ninja Turtles stuff or a Halloween mask. And that’s the type of person I am. I like to have fun and I like to make people smile.

When I can be myself in the cage – be myself before the fight, during the fight – that’s when I’m at my best.

So I have been able to open up my past two fights, and it’s really shown through. I’m able to showcase more and more of my self as time goes on.

I just realized that instead of making a super-mean face to the guy I’m fighting – that’s not me; I’m not a super-mean face guy. I’m going to go out there, beat you up and smile while I’m doing it. I have a good time fighting, and as long as I can keep that mantra in the cage all the time, nobody’s going to beat me.

Nobody’s going to beat me.

ON WIDESPREAD RESPECT WITHIN MMA COMMUNITY

When I started fighting, I did it for me – just to see if I could do certain things. And then it kind of became the next step, the next step, the next step… I’m at this point where people really look up to me and they love seeing me fight.

Guys that have been fighting as long as I have tell me that I’m their favorite fighter to watch and I’m like, “Dude, that’s awesome. That’s really cool.” It makes me happy. It means I’m able to go out there, do what I do and love it the way I do and still have that kind of influence on kids, on other fighters, on fighters that have been doing it longer than me.

It just means I’m doing the right thing.

When the community’s involved, when all of Mangler Nation is involved – that’s when I’m at my best. I feed off of all of that positivity; I love positivity, man. I love love, I love positivity and I love my fans. They’re excellent. Excellent, excellent feeling.

ON HELPING OTHERS

I have an outstanding interest in that. You ask me why and I ask you why not? That’s it. You ask me why and I ask you why not?

There’s a million different reasons why I could be helping somebody, and really all you need is one. That’s it.

THANK YOU

I’d love to thank my sponsors, but I have so many of them. Heres’s the thing: people support me whether I put them on the banner or not; whether they give me money or not – I support them.

My sponsors have this weird agreement with me: if we’re boys, we’re boys forever. I’ve put several guys on there for free in the past and they supported me, as well. They’ve given me money randomly, and I would just really like to shout some of those guys out.

Rob Lucey, my tattoo guy. He’s been there since day one, and he’s such a good friend of mine, as well. He deserves a ton of business if not your respect, as well.

Justin Wren and his Fight For The Forgotten. I’m going to be supporting him as well as Dorian – #DStrong – everyone’s behind him right now and I’m supporting him, as well.

Badass Incorporated: the guy who owns that is named Bryan Hall and he’s been with me for three or four years now. He makes all the shirts, he does my banners every time and they always come out phenomenally. People are always really interested and it’s all because of him; he does an awesome job. He has some tremendous gear.

Paul Ciatto is my friend who also trains at Soul Fighter. He owns a business called PMR New York in Connecticut; he’s a chiropractor and sports medicine. He’s been there for quite a while; he’s given me money, he’s given me his time. He’s offered to give me free gi’s and stuff. He’s just a good dude. He’s got time and money, and he’s willing to give it.

Cutting Edge Chiropractic is only ten miles away from my house; Dr. Rich Cutting owns it. He’s also a longtime friend of mine. The guy’s phenomenal, and not only is he a phenomenal person but he’s my best friend. Would’ve been my best man at my wedding had I not had a brother. He’s got a new business and he’s really doing some phenomenal things with it, so shout out to him.