Jake Hager recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam ahead of his Bellator fight in Chicago this weekend. Hager, the former Jack Swagger, will face off with TJ Jones on Saturday night’s card. Hager spoke about his transition from WWE wrestling to mixed martial arts, saying he’s familiar with it, but it is still difficult since combat sports are more than just wrestling skills: “It’s something that I’m very familiar with, it’s just something that I hadn’t done in about twelve years since I was with [WWE]. The part about getting back in there and knocking the rust off, that’s very hard. MMA is very difficult; you can’t just be good at wrestling. You need striking, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu and countless other things. It’s a lot to master, so it can be overwhelming at times, but that’s why you have great coaches like Josh [Rafferty], Rob Radford, to help you through the transition, and for me, it feels very natural. I was never the best athlete, but I knew how to be coached and I knew how to work hard at it. It was somewhat seamless for me. It seemed very easy in that this is where I’m supposed to be.” Hager also said his second fight camp was much tougher than the first due to feeling like he’s defending a championship. Hager said he knows he didn’t win a title, but he takes it that serious because being complacent opens up the possibility of making a mistake: “I definitely had a harder camp with this one. It’s an upgrade in opponent, but I had a harder camp because if you think about it like you go out and win a NBA championship, it’s harder to defend your championship. Now, I didn’t win a championship with that fight [against JW Kizer], but I look at it that way. I don’t want to let my foot off of the gas. I don’t want to take my foot off of his throat for a second because that’s where mistakes happen and someone who is not as good as you can step in and beat you. I wanted to put as much focus on this camp as I did on my first camp merely for the fact that I am serious about this and I want to be successful at it. It needs to be that type of intensity or you need to do something else.” In regards to his mindset walking into the cage this Saturday, Hager’s message was simple: “I have permission to hurt this guy. That is my 100% motivation. I go out there and force my will; it makes my brand better, it makes my family better, it makes my team better, and that’s what I’m going to do.” Jake Hager faces off with TJ Jones at Bellator 221 on Saturday, May 11th at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Check out the full interview below: Related: Jake Hager Teases ‘Elite’ Guests At Bellator Fight, Talks Embracing His Pro Wrestling Roots (Exclusive)<doc-sep>Jake Hager recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam ahead of his Bellator fight in Chicago this weekend. Hager, the former Jack Swagger, will face off with TJ Jones on Saturday night’s card. Hager talked about his first professional fight against JW Kizer, saying his background in WWE prepared him to be comfortable and very calm in front of a live audience. Hager says money is a motivating factor for fighting, but he does feel like he can take things to a new level if he continues to be a mainstay in MMA: “I was very calm that night, my team did give me a ton of credit afterwards for the fact that I didn’t need a lot of pep talks and I was just ready to go. I rely on my amateur background a lot, but I also rely on having twelve years of live television experience. It was a little surprising, I thought that I would be thinking about people watching me like [critiquing me] ‘oh, how’d that jab look?’ but I was very focused in on my opponent. Money is a great motivator for anyone, so I go out there and get that money, but it really is something that I’m excited about because this is something that can really transcend into something much bigger if I continue.” After Hager beat Kizer, he says the response from his pro wrestling brethren was humbling and very much appreciated. He says they didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but their support was very heartwarming: “Man, I just got goosebumps when you said that. It was really humbling, and I think it really shows that I have been able to work with some really good people over the last twelve years. To see the outpouring of respect from the pro wrestling fans was awesome, but to see these guys that I’ve worked with—that I’ve not always got along with, but we always worked together and found ways to help each other—to see them come out and stand up for me was really cool and really special. It definitely hit me really hard, right in the heart. It’s very cool when you get to do a job like that, and sometimes you lose sight of what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. It’s easy to do, but to have that, it was so humbling, and I’ll forever be grateful to those guys.” Jake Hager faces off with TJ Jones at Bellator 221 tonight at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Check out the full interview below: Related: Jake Hager On His Motivation For Saturday’s Bellator Fight: ‘I Have Permission To Hurt This Guy’<doc-sep>Just four months after winning his Bellator debut, former WWE star and current MMA fighter Jake Hager (2-0) was at it again, submitting T.J. Jones (1-2) in the first round of Bellator 221. Hager, who wrestled for WWE under the name Jack Swagger, got Jones to the ground easily within the first minute of the opening round, and just as he did in his first Bellator bout, ended the night with an arm triangle submission. But this time, he drew the ire of the audience in attendance, and the referee, for refusing to give up the choke after earning the tap out. Jake Hager held onto the choke even after the fight had been stopped. Wtf. ?#Bellator221 pic.twitter.com/8rmyXscwPD — ۞???? ??????™?|?????? ♡ (@MysticPabbz) May 12, 2019 The crowd continued to boo Hager during his post-fight interview with John McCarthy, which included the former WWE champion clumsily giving a somewhat NSFW answer to what he was feeling after picking up the win. ? @RealJackSwagger gets the W tonight via submission. Our main card continues on ? @DAZN_USA! and @SkySports in the ??. pic.twitter.com/ARQyXqoPxy — Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) May 12, 2019 ? "I'm rock hard right now with emotion …" — @RealJackSwagger. … Sir, this is a @BellatorMMA post-fight interview ? pic.twitter.com/XKClhHXdSX — DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) May 12, 2019 “I meant no disrespect, but you’re going to have to make me stop,” Hager said, per MMA Junkie. “I thought the referee was him. You all can boo me all you want, but you’re not in here right now. … I knew once I got on top, he’s not getting up.” Bellator president Scott Coker responded to Hager’s antics after the fight, asking if there are “heel turns” in MMA. This was the 36-year-old Hager’s second fight after inking a multi-fight deal with the organization.<doc-sep>
Jake Hager was feeling it after his Bellator 221 win. (Photo courtesy of Bellator) One of the more bizarre MMA fights in recent memory ended with the victor celebrating ... bizarrely. Jake Hager, the Bellator fighter formerly known as Jack Swagger during his time with WWE, needed little time to defeat opponent T.J. Jones at Bellator 221 on Saturday. The 37-year-old won the fight almost two minutes into the first round with an arm-triangle choke to improve his MMA record to 2-0. Of course, very few people doubted Hager would have any trouble with Jones, as Jones is a part-time fighter who spends most of his working hours at a Springfield, Missouri beef plant. Between that hometown and Jones’, um, physique, it was basically the Drederick Tatum-Homer Simpson title fight come to life. So Hager got his win and Jones got the biggest stage of his MMA career. Jones was a good enough sport to help declare Hager the winner once the decision was announced. 💪@RealJackSwagger gets the W tonight via submission. Our main card continues on 📲 @DAZN_USA! and @SkySports in the 🇬🇧. pic.twitter.com/ARQyXqoPxy — Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) May 12, 2019 And now we go to the former wrestler reacting to his win in a fight that some outlets had him as a -2000 favorite. 🗣 "I'm rock hard right now with emotion ..." -- @RealJackSwagger. ... Sir, this is a @BellatorMMA post-fight interview 😳 pic.twitter.com/XKClhHXdSX — DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) May 12, 2019 “Y’all can boo me all you want because you’re not in here right now,” Hager said. “I'm rock hard right now with emotion. I’ve got a boner.” The video then quickly cuts to black. Story continues As predicted, Hager was loudly booed as he walked out of the ring, and likely not just because of his heel turn. Some fans had an issue with how long Hager maintained his choke hold on Jones after Jones tapped out (though Jones seemed fine with it after the fight). What a time to be alive. More from Yahoo Sports: