Trevor Ollison facing familiar foe but focusing on entertainment at CFFC 111
Trevor Ollison wasn't exactly excited to face fellow welterweight Raheam Forest, but he realized the day was probably going to come sooner or later. When the call came, though, he didn't hesitate.
"Me and Raheam do have some history with each other," Ollison said. "We are familiar with each other. We cross-trained once before, a long time ago, and, you know, I feel kind of bad for both of us because we both reached the point where it's tough to find somebody who wants to fight us, and now one of us is going to have to step up, but that's a lesson for everybody else: You're just going to have to fight.
"If you get that call, you're a professional, and you can't just be worried about your record. You want to fight the best fighters at some point of your career. You want to fight with co-main main event status, you've just got to trust in your preparation and go do what you've got to do.”
Ollison (5-4) and Forest (4-0) now meet in the co-main event of Friday's CFFC 111 event, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from Mississippi's Horseshoe Tunica Hotel & Casino.
It's been a few years since the two previously crossed paths, but Ollison said he wouldn't put too much stock in any training interactions, even if they had occurred much more recently.
"I mean, I've got his height down, his reach down, the distance," Ollison said. "That's all you can really take from anybody at any time is their measurements and some habits in how they move. You watch them throughout the years and you definitely see the growth that's happening. I mean, it was so long ago, but when you train with folks, you don't know how their round was before you got to them. Maybe they had a real super-hard round or a real easy round or whatever, so you can't put too much into that."
Ollison is always happy to take on the toughest challenge available. In fact, as he prepares to make his fourth appearance under the CFFC banner, Forest will represent the third undefeated prospect he's faced. Many athletes aren't willing to take on challenges like that as they do their best to maneuver themselves into position for a title shot or a big-show call.
But Ollison – who has incredibly never fought to a judges' decision in his first nine career bouts in the pro ranks – has a different view of how fighters should operate.
"The championship thing and stuff like that, you know, chasing that is really kind of not my goal," Ollison said. "It would be nice to have it, of course, but I just want to have fun, and I've got things I like to do. I want to go to Japan one day and fight. I want to go perform all over the world and fight, you know – great competition.
"If I'm being paid well, the better I perform. The better competition I fight against, the better I perform."
Thus far, "The Man Blackie Chan" has lived up to that promise. While he hasn't always walked away with his hand raised, Ollison fights are usually very high on entertainment value, and that's what he's looking to show again on Friday night.
"I'll just try to do the best I can and just put on the best performances I possibly can and entertain the crowd and come out on top," Ollison said. "I mean, that's all I like to do. I enjoy it. From the walk to the cage to the fight, itself – the whole nine. I love it."
