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Jake Hager talks second MMA fight, grade he'd give debut performance, WWE champion Kofi Kingston

Posted: May 13th 2019 By: Steven Muelhausen

Jake Hager had a better showing than many expected in his MMA debut at Bellator 214 in January, when thoroughly dominated J.W. Kiser to win by first-round submission.

The man formerly known as WWE Superstar Jack Swagger returns for an encore on Saturday night, when he'll take on T.J. Jones at Bellator 221 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., live and exclusively on DAZN.

After Thursday's Bellator 221 press conference, the former WWE world heavyweight champion spent a few minutes with Sporting News to discuss the Kiser fight, how he graded his performance, Jones' antics at the presser and Kofi Kingston's WWE title victory at WrestleMania 35.

(Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Sporting News: What did you make of the disrespect shown by T.J. at the end of the presser talking about sharing the stage with all these world-class athletes and then dropping your name at the end?

Jake Hager: (Laughs during the end of the question) When you step in front of a camera, and everybody is going to have their hyped-up personality, everyone is going to have the character they are trying to play. I took it as just, he's playing a character. Unfortunately, this isn't a game where you play. It's expected. I expected more coming from him. He claims to be entertaining. But it doesn't matter to me. I'm focused in on what I have to do. I'm the guy that does his job. He must be the other guy.

SN: How does this fight week compare to your first fight week back in January?

JH: I feel more comfortable. I know what to expect. And I know what can come. The first fight, I felt like I was the new guy. I wanted to be very respectful to everybody and all the other guys on the card. This is a huge opportunity. You don't see a lot of fighters with no or little experience getting to be on the main card. I know that's an incredible honor, but at the same time, I know my worth, and I know my value. I know that I belong here.

SN: Even the first fight didn't last long, how would you grade your first performance on a scale from 1-5 or if you had to give yourself a letter grade?

JH: I'll give myself a B rating. It didn't last long, but there's stuff that I could have done better in. I was happy with the result. But there's a couple of things I can look at and want to improve on and get better. I'll give it a B.

SN: We talked before the first fight, and you said that you wanted to use your hands a little bit. How did it feel to let the hands go just a little bit to show the world that people coming over from pro wrestling are willing to use their hands?

JH: One of the things I do remember about that fight is I threw a jab to get it out there and get it out of the way. It still felt very tight at the time. Once I got on top, obviously I was more comfortable. It felt good landing those elbows. It felt like cracking the biggest egg in the world. Even though I am a wrestler, I do enjoy that and throwing and landing them.

SN: What improvements should fans expect from you on Saturday night?

JH: If it's possible, my wrestling is better. And I don't even know if that is possible because I'm very good. But that was one of the things we focused on. We picked a lot of high-level wrestlers during this camp to improve that and get better. You didn't get to see a whole lot of what I can do. I think I'm going to surprise a lot of people if it does go longer than two minutes (on) how good I am and how far along I am in this game.

SN: There's a lot of positive feedback from the pro wrestling community after your debut MMA fight. You had WWE Superstar R-Truth sing you to the cage, a lot of support on social media and many wrestlers rooting for you leading into this weekend. What does that mean to you to have that type of support from your other profession whether it's people from WWE or on the independent circuit?

JH: You know, there's not a lot of guys who don't like Jack Swagger. It's a good problem to have. The outpouring of love and respect I've gotten from the pro wrestling fans was amazing. The love I got from the WWE Superstars I worked with over the last 12 years was very humbling. It was really special for me to see these guys' pictures of them huddling around on their tablet and watching the fight on the road and sincerely caring about me. The best part was that afterwards I got to talk to them and hear how fired up some of them were. I heard Kofi Kingston was very nervous all day. (Stares into the camera) 'Kofi, you don't have to be nervous. I took you down before even though you are the WWE champion. You know what I can do'. It's cool to see the love and admiration coming from co-workers that you have worked with in the past.

SN: You brought up Kofi Kingston. How proud were you to see one of your friends accomplish a lifelong dream when he captured the WWE championship at WrestleMania 35?

JH: Kofi Kingston has always been one of my favorite opponents to wrestle. He and I started back in McDonough, Georgia in 2006 in developmental at Deep South together. So, our careers have come along at the same time. He's incredible. The way he was able to rebrand himself with The New Day has been of the best storylines in wrestling history and it will continue to get better. That moment where he had the match with Daniel Bryan where the fans demanded it where he has to fight for the title ... that's what you want. You don't want to force anything down people's throats. You want them to want it. He's one of those guys that for so long has always had an incredible talent, incredible personality and amazing Royal Rumble performances where you would see him jump on barricades and doing handstands. Any time I got into a Battle Royal with him, Kofi was the first person I would go to and say, 'Hey, what can we do?' [I'm] very proud of him. And to see ex-wrestlers like MVP and how happy they were for him based on the same race and everything, it's cool. It shows you how powerful pro wrestling is that it can transcend so many political and sociological problems. You can also see that in pro fighting as well.

SN: When you envision the fight in your head, how do you win?

JH: Definitely by the way he answered the question at the press conference, he's going to try and stay away from me. He's going to try and keep it on his feet and use his hands to get the victory. That's fine. We're prepared for it. I have a longer reach than him. He's going to be very surprised with my striking ability. Essentially, you can stuff one takedown, you can even stuff two takedowns - you're not going to stuff them all. And it only takes one to get you down on the ground. Once that happens, I'm going to be the Oklahoma blanket that's going to cover you in pain.