Max Rohskopf glad he’s getting thrown “right into the mix” at lightweight at Bellator 290, says he doesn’t “need to prove anything to anyone”

Max Rohskopf will finally make his Bellator debut on Saturday at Bellator 290.

Rohskopf was supposed to make his debut last October but on the day of the fight, he was scratched from the card after not being cleared by the commission. Rohskopf was frustrated by that as he says he was cleared by three separate doctors to compete.

“Long, long story short, my MRI that I had to get two weeks before showed something weird,” Rohskopf said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “Three separate doctors cleared me and said it was something completely normal and it was fine. No type of injury or anything. Then, on weigh-in day, the commission made me go and pay out of pocket for another MRI and that MRI showed I was fine as well but the commission didn’t care and they pulled me.”

Once Rohskopf got pulled from the card, his goal was to get rebooked against Hamel ASAP. Yet, for whatever reason, that didn’t happen and he instead was offered Chris Gonzalez at Bellator 290 on Saturday which he is happy about as he’s getting another veteran.

“I thought they would rebook it right away but they didn’t. It took a little bit but I wasn’t expecting anything,” Rohskopf said. “The only thing I expected was to fight whoever they put in front of me. At least the two people they gave me are established in Bellator, they are throwing me right into the mix.”

Although Max Rohskopf is fighting a different opponent, he says his training camp was solely focused around himself. He says he won’t know what to expect until he gets in there but he knows this fight at Bellator 290 against Gonzalez is a great opportunity to make a statement in the lightweight division.

“No idea I won’t know until I feel what is going on… A win puts me right there in the mix of things,” Gonzalez said.

Rohskopf’s fight at Bellator 290 also marks his return to the big stage since his UFC debut where he quit on the stool and was later released. Although he knows many fans only know him because of that and haven’t seen what he has done since he says there is no added pressure going into this fight.

Instead, Rohskopf believes if he fights to his abilities he’ll get his hand raised which is all he cares about.

“I don’t need to prove anything to anyone, especially the fans or anyone that has said anything to me,” Rohskopf concluded. “I think it’s pretty funny, there are a lot of guys that I have trained with at the time of my UFC fight who want to say a bunch of shit, they want to talk a bunch of shit, but those are the same people I have literally tapped out 15 times in a row. You just tapped out? You just did the same shit. If I wanted to I could snap your arm or put you to sleep. Or, I could literally stay on top of you and make you call me daddy and there is nothing you can do. The fans, if you got any shit to say, come to Xtreme Couture and I’ll show… But, I don’t have to prove anything to them.”

Do you think Max Rohskopf will beat Chris Gonzalez at Bellator 290?