After the nine seconds knockout victory against Tomonari Kanomata at Sengoku 12, event which took place last Sunday at Japan, Marlon Sandro was celebrating the victory when the featherweight champion, Masanori Kanehara, challenged him inside the ring, by saying “next fight, next fight”. “I immediately answered him ‘no problem’ (laughs). Then they did a break and the promoters called us in the ring and he challenged me. It was pretty weird to see the champion challenging a guy without a title,” Marlon said to TATAME.com. The fight is scheduled to June 20, when the Pancrase king faces the Sengoku champion for the title. Check below an exclusive interview with Marlon.

Nine seconds. Did you expect such a fast victory?

Thanks God everything worked out. It was fast, but I expected a tough fight. I trained more the ground, but I was after the knockout, because he’s strong part was the ground. He has a style like Aoki’s, that why I wanted to keep the fight standing.

That upper was trained at Nova Uniao?

I trained that movement with that upper, it’s a short and strong punch. I already defeated Nick Denis with this upper. I knew that (Tomonari) Kanomata would try to take me down, so I trained this and knees too.

When will you fight for the title?

As soon the fight ended, Kanehara, who was on Kanomata’s corner, talked with me and said “next fight, next fight. I immediately answered him ‘no problem’ (laughs). Then they did a break and the promoters called us in the ring and he challenged me. It was pretty weird to see the champion challenging a guy without a title, but it shows I’m doing a great job in Japan.

Did they define when it’ll happen?

It’ll be at Sengoku 14, on June 20, when they’ll do a lightweight tournament with Leonardo Santos.

Do you consider yourself the Jose Aldo of the Japan of is Aldo the Marlon of the America?

(Laughs). I don’t like to think this way. I inspire me a lot in “Junior”, I like his style and we help each other a lot in training. We don’t like to think this way, the fans and the press are who usually think this, but we’re doing our job well. We have Renan “Barão” dominating this category in Brazil and he’ll do his international debut soon, Junior is the number one in the rankings and I’m doing my job in Japan.