With the new year came a new organization for Warren, as he signed with the upstart Bellator Fighting Championship. Warren expects to kickoff his year with his first fight being April 9th, in Miami at the hard Rock for Bellator. Between his Dream and Bellator deals, Warren looks to stay extremely busy this year:
Q: How many fights do you have left in DREAM?
A: I am going to have 3 more fights this year. Which I could have more, but we signed a three fight deal. I am hoping to fight 4 times for Bellator this year also.
The 4 fights for Bellator would presumably include his sweeping his way to the tourney title at 145 and then facing off with Season 1 winner Joe Soto. With that heavy a schedule, Warren is going to need a lot of luck, insofar as injuries, as it will only take a broken hand here or bad cut cut there to throw a monkey wrench into the best laid of plans. Bellator was extremely lucky with the initial season tourneys and hopefully that will follow through to season two and Warren specifically.
Another interesting piece of info from the article centered on Warren's participation or lack there of in the End of the year card for Dream. Warren had expected to participate in the big New Year's Dynamite card for Dream but those plans got derailed by the Dream vs Sengoku concept that took place:
A: They pretty much told me I was fighting, so we were training real hard. You got to understand that in Japan, it’s pretty much entertainment. The fighting, the MMA over there is entertainment for them. So it is on prime time television and there are big numbers, lots of fans. I think what happens over there is the TV time is sold to like the major network over there and the network picks the fighters. I don’t know if DREAM has a lot of say in that. I think I was going to fight Kid [Kid Yamamoto] again, and I don’t think Kid wanted to fight me, which is probably a smart idea for him. And they pulled back and decided to do that DREAM Sengoku. That sucked. I was ready to rock and roll. Whatever. I got some training in.
The Gaijin fighters in both Sengoku and Dream seemed to be the losers in the Sengoku vs Dream scenario that played itself out. Fellow Bellator signee Dan Hornbuckle has also expressed dissatisfaction with being shuffled off the end of the year card for Sengoku, with a proposed bout with Takimoto for the Sengoku 170lb belt going by the wayside as a casualty to the inter-promotional feud concept.
In another interview, Warren also spoke with 411Mania.com about his desire to avenge his loss to Bibiano Fernandes:
Q: Is Bibiano on your radar and how badly do you want a rematch with him?
Joe Warren: It's the only thing on my radar right now. He's got the belt that I want and I'm already trying to make sure who ever wins between Hansen and him, I get that fight.
Jeffrey Harris: There seems to be some tension between the two of you, have you worked that out?
Joe Warren: He's scared of me because I'm going to beat the shit out of him and he knows it. He got lucky. He got lucky and he caught me and he taught me that a veteran like him could catch a rookie like me and I made a bad mistake. And it won't happen again. The reason he lost his shit after he beat me was because he couldn't believe he won. I was in his head. I was taunting him a little bit at the weigh-ins. I was in his head. So when he did pull that off, he couldn't believe it. He won a great tournament. I won't take anything away from him. To win a championship like that, you got to be a badass. He can take that belt. He can keep one of them. I'll take the other one.
While not elevating smacktalk to ethereal form ala Chael Sonnen, Warren is adding some spice and letting the showdown with Fernandes do a slow simmer. If Warren is able to sweep through the Bellator GP unscathed, he just may get his wish with a rematch in late summer against Fernandes. A possible roadblock could be Joachim Hansen, who will be facing off against Bibiano for the Dream FW title. Be it Hansen or Fernandes, Warren facing either fighter looks to be a great match-up.
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