Franco Tenaglia is a decorated combatant across multiple combat sports and the former BKFC lightweight champion debuts with the Professional Fighters League this week. It all goes down at PFL Madrid, which transpires on March 20th with Yassin Najid standing opposite of Tenaglia inside the Smart Cage.
A lot of fighters will express sentiments akin to, “I’m willing to have a fight anywhere”, but the Argentinian fighter embodies that idea. When referencing his showcase on the visceral King of the Streets circuit and how he is about that action, as it were, Tenaglia said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah. As I told everyone, I think I am the real mixed martial artist because I have like seven or eight fights a year. So I am a very active fighter and I do all. I do like boxing, bare knuckle boxing, kickboxing, MMA, bare knuckle MMA professional, and I’m doing all. So I think I am the real mix of martial arts.”
From a man who has fought for paltry sums in strips clubs but is now plying his trade on this massive stage, when asked if he has secured a multi-fight deal with the PFL here, Tenaglia stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“No, no, I don’t have a a multi-fight deal yet. You know, we are in negotiation. We’ll see how like what they have to offer me. As I told everyone, I like to be active. I like because you know like fighter career, we make money because we fight. Also for me it’s like a it’s a therapy thing. So I want to keep active. I want to have a lot of fights in a year. I don’t think that much about the results of my career.”
“Of course, I love to win and I always when I go there, I try to kill the guy, but I’m not that kind of guy that thinks everything has to be perfect and I’m not going to fight a p***y fight. Like thinking in the strategy or like thinking in no risk. I going to risk it all. If I am there, I going to risk it all. So that’s why I going to to see what the company have to offer.”
Franco Tenaglia training with a UFC champ as well as one of the UK’s best
Franco Tenaglia is fighting someone here who has received that submission specialist tag through his combative career efforts. When asked for his thoughts on his opponent Yassin Najid, in terms of what he brings to the table ahead of this March 20th fight, Tenaglia quipped [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Well, it’s a large guy and I think he’s a smart guy. I don’t think he’s going to be so dumb to involve in a like close distance with me to exchange some punches because he knows I can hit and I can take a punch. So I reckon he’s gonna keep the distance and if I go close, he’s gonna try to take me down. But man, I train with the very good guys here.”
I’ve been training with like Ilia Topuria, I’ve been training with Michael ‘Venom’ Page in London Shoot Fighters. I’ve been around for a long time and I’ve been in the best gyms in the world. So, he’s not going to be able to take me down and everyone’s going to be very, very surprised about my wrestling and my ground game. I don’t really use that much in the fights because I like to hit people. That’s the truth.”
“But when I did it, man, I stopped the guys very easy, very quickly. I choke them out like in a few minutes. I have like those kind of guys in my record because nobody wants to fight me here in Spain. Because they ask for too much money to fight me. Because the people here, the fight here, they know what I have to bring, you know? They see me, that I train with a lot of them. So they know what’s the level of the fighter I am.”
His track record of fighting in Spain speaks to putting on some exciting, incredible fights with his bare knuckle championship win coming at BKFC Spain in a classic affair against Tony Soto. When touching upon how it seems like fighting in front of that Spain crowd bolsters something in him and pours a little bit more gasoline onto the fire whilst asking if that is going to be a piece with this upcoming PFL Madrid fight here, Tenaglia said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yes, of course. I love the Spanish crowd. I live here. I love this country. I love these people. I am Argentinian, of course. I also love my country, but I live here. So I really want to show them that they have some soldiers here, some strong soldiers that they’re ready to defend their country, whatever it cost, you know.”