Luke Barnatt Sets His Sights On The ACB Light Heavyweight Title
Luke Barnatt is back and will be looking to pick up his third win fighting at 205-pounds when he faces Maxim Futin at ACB 81 in Dubai.
The former UFC man was last seen back at ACB 70: The Battle of Britain when he faced Scott Askham in Sheffield. The fight didn’t go Barnatt’s way that evening, but the plan was always to make a permanent move up to light heavyweight and tomorrow evening he will look to take another step up the ladder in ACB’s 205-pounds division.
Speaking to Sport360 ahead of the bout, Barnatt confirmed that he would never return to 185-pounds and that his sole focus was now on light heavyweight.
“Maxim I know pretty well, I’ve worked with ACB before and actually commentated on one of his fights before,” Barnatt said. “He faced an opponent of mine, Max Nunes, previously and Max beat him, and I beat Max. I don’t know much about him personally, we’ve never actually met or had a conversation but I know his fighting style and his stance so I know what he’s about. I’ve gone from middleweight to light-heavyweight, which I’ve been fighting at for around eight years, but I’ve already had two fights at light-heavyweight and I’m never going to fight at middleweight again.”
While most fighters outside of the UFC aspire to fight in the promotion, Barnatt for the minute isn’t focused on making his way back to the organization. Instead, Barnatt wants to get his hands on ACB gold and help push the promotion to new heights.
“I’ve been there and done the UFC, I actually could have gone back there before I signed my contract with ACB, but I had a fight with the ACB and actually lost so that set me back a little bit. Where I’m at now, I’m very happy with the promotion and where I am, they treat me well so I’m happy to help push ACB rather than go back to the UFC. With the change of weight-class I can see myself fighting for the light-heavyweight title in about a year.”
ACB 81 will be like tomorrow and will broadcast live on FITE TV at 6pm London Time (HERE)
