Exclusive: Mark Godbeer vows to prove his UFC doubters wrong

The UFC have announced the first three bouts of their UFC London fight card which is set to take place on March 17th. Among them is UK heavyweight Mark ‘The Hand of’ Godbeer who returns to UK soil to take on UFC newcomer Dmitry Poberezhets. Yahoo Sport’s Jade Morris caught up with Mark Godbeer for an exclusive chat to talk about his upcoming fight.

Godbeer (13-3) was last seen in action at UFC 217 where he defeated Walt Harris, although it was not without controversy as Harris was disqualified in the first round due to landing a low blow followed by an illegal head kick as the referee tried to intervene. Godbeer, who admits he is still angry with the incident gave his take on the matter.

He said: “There are rules in this game for a reason… why should I when a guy who has blatantly cheated carry on and give him a major advantage to knock me out after he has done a blatant foul.

“Now I have got no respect for him. In the cage he couldn’t have been more sorry, when he got to the back when he had his entourage with him he was like ‘he’s a p***y, he’s this he’s that’.”

Godbeer revealed he would be interested in a rematch with Harris but if the fight does happen he will be fighting with a different attitude against him.

He added: “We’ve got a score to settle we can go again; this time I’m not going to give him any respect… it’s going to be do or die.”

Poberezhets (24-5) who stands in his way until then will be making his UFC debut at UFC London, the Ukrainian newcomer is on a 14-fight win streak but that doesn’t phase Godbeer.

He continued: “I think he’s a perfect opponent for me, you look at his 14-fight win streak let’s be honest who has he fought? He’s fought guys who are 0-2 or 0-3. Yeah he’s good, he wouldn’t be in the UFC if he wasn’t good, but his record doesn’t count for s**t because it’s padded.

“Me and Dimitri are going to throw down at UFC London and I’ve got a big point to prove, I’m going to prove to everyone that I belong in the UFC.”

Godbeer, who is currently in Thailand training at Fairtex gym, is looking forward to fighting in the UK again and putting on a show for his home crowd.

He said: “I always had a big following from back home and take loads of people with me. I was constantly getting messages asking when I am going to fight in the UK again, I knew weeks ago I was fighting in London.

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“I really want to entertain my home crowd, this guy the opponent I’ve got is a perfect opponent for me to have an entertaining fight so I’m really looking forward to it.”

With the news that Francis Ngannou is set to face heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic in one of the most anticipated heavyweight match-ups in recent memory, we asked Godbeer to break the fight down who believes Ngannou is beatable.

Ngannou, who is one of the scariest heavyweights we have ever seen, is is coming off a huge knockout win against Alistair Overeem.

“I thought he decapitated him, Francis Ngannou is one scary ass beast, he hits you, you go to sleep but I would fight him,” Godbeer said.

“Fighter IQ is going to beat this guy, some guy with a high fighter IQ maybe such as Stipe, a guy like him with the fighter IQ. Something tells me stipe is going to be too smart for this guy, he’s going to have the answer for Ngannou”.

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Godbeer admits he had a lot of doubts when signing for the UFC but he is looking to put his last fight behind him and is confident he will go 3-1 in the UFC.

“I want to beat him in a way that people are going to stand up and say this guy is the real deal and deserves to be here,” he said.

“I just signed a new four-fight contract and I plan on seeing this out. I’m not done, I believe I’m just starting to settle in now in the UFC fighting the best guys in the world. I truly believe I belong in the UFC.”