Corey Anderson is happy that he decided to leave the UFC for Bellator.
At one time Corey Anderson seemed to be on a one-way street to a UFC title shot. He was 4-1 in recent fights when he decided to instead part ways with the UFC and test his chances elsewhere. Anderson landed with Bellator and has been winning ever since. He is happy to have left the UFC and explains now after two years what went into his decision to leave in the first place.
Anderson was a top-ranked light heavyweight in the UFC. He was sometimes criticized for his performances by fans, saying he was not exciting. This could have been the reason he seemed stalled in the top five, never having received a title shot. When the opportunity arose to leave and perhaps make more money elsewhere, Anderson explains that he had to make a tough choice between wanting to be in the UFC and providing for his family. He told the story of how he decided to leave and the advice he got from Daniel Cormier on Morning Kombat.
“I didn’t really want to leave because I know I can be a UFC champ at the same time. He (Cormier) said ‘bro, think about this right now before I called and said yes. You, right now, you’re in love with three letters. He said a belt is a belt? Are you in love with the belt from the UFC? You gotta think of the money you can get elsewhere can change your life. And you’re not happy here. You gotta do what’s best for you and your family,” Anderson said. “And I left and I first counted, when I seen the numbers it was, I could have gotten more if I waited and got some other places but that right there. I did a calculation in the contract like I will be a millionaire in no time.”
Corey Anderson is setting himself up to be a millionaire in Bellator
It seems that Anderson has made the right choice. Since coming to Bellator, he has won three fights in a row and fought in the Bellator Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix Final, although that fight ended in a no contest after an accidental clash of heads. He explains that he is now making much more money, more in his short stint with Bellator than in five years with the UFC.
“My second fight in Bellator, I made more about my second fight in Bellator than I have my whole 15 fights in the UFC. After I remember the first check when I got that first check at Bellator I remember calling my wife back backstage and saying, call the gym. Tell them you’re done. You don’t have to work anymore. And you don’t have to work, everything is paid. Like we got the mortgage, anything we want, we went and bought a house,” he said. “Everything is paid, you don’t have to work anymore. You can stay at home and raise the kids. We got the house here in Jersey. We got a house in Indiana.”
Anderson has had some health issues over the past few years but is still fighting and going strong. He will be returning to the Bellator cage to face Vadim Nemkov in a re-do of the Bellator Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix Final on Nov. 18 at Bellator 288.
