Bellator 162 headliner Kendall Grove loving life, not worrying about future title shots

If Kendall Grove wasn’t so busy loving life, he might have time to sit around and wonder if a Bellator title shot might be in his future.

In his defense, it’s pretty hard not to love life when you live on Maui. Once Grove returned to the state he was born and raised in after a few years living and training in Las Vegas, he felt a major shift in his enjoyment of life.

“I’m living the dream here in Hawaii and trying to prolong this dream as long as I can,” Grove recently told MMAjunkie Radio. Living in Las Vegas years back, Grove said, was a “gnarly” experience that “chewed me up and spat me out. I feel everything happens for a reason – I moved home, I started having kids, becoming a family man, and that chopped up my life and I love it.”

Next week, the 33-year-old Grove (23-15 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) gets back to work for the first time since February when he takes on former middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko (53-9 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) in the Bellator 162 main event, which takes place Friday at FedEx Forum in Memphis. The main card will air on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

Grove has won back-to-back fights and three of his past four. He submitted former champ Christian M’Pumbu at Bellator 127 and got a title shot against Brandon Halsey at Bellator 137, but he was stopped with a fourth-round TKO in the middleweight title fight. But since then, he has a third-round TKO of fellow former UFC fighter Joey Beltran and a knockout of Francisco France at Bellator 150 in February. (Check out the highlights of Grove’s win over France in the video above, and his win over Beltran below.)

That has led some to hypothesize that a win over Shlemenko could get him a shot at the winner of current champ Rafael Carvalho and Melvin Manhoef, who meet in a rematch at Bellator 168 in December. Those two first fought in May, and Carvalho took a split decision in a fight that nearly everyone scored for Manhoef.

But Grove isn’t letting his mind wander back to title shots.

“I don’t care about that – but I’ve heard talks about that,” he said. “But at this point, I’m not even looking at that yet. I’ve got to get past this hard-hitting, cheating Russian first before I can even think about fighting another tough Brazilian, who’s the champ – Carvalho. I’m not going to bite off more than I can chew. If it happens, if happens. If not, I’m just going to keep it moving.”

In July, Shlemenko had a three-year suspension from the California State Athletic Commission reduced after filing an appeal. A court ruled his suspension should have ended when his California fight license expired.

Shlemenko sued the CSAC after the commission suspended him for three years for an astronomically high testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio of 50-1 and oxandrolone and oxandrolone metabolites found in his system following a knockout of Manhoef at Bellator 133. Shlemenko maintained his innocence, and said he believed had a “B” sample been tested, it would have cleared him.

But those tests and suspension by the CSAC are what leads an opponent like Grove to label him as a “cheating” fighter. Shlemenko will be back under the Bellator fold after he signed with M-1 Global earlier this year. He fought for M-1 despite still being under contract with Bellator.

By most measures, Grove could look back on his MMA career and call it a success. He won Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter” at middleweight and had a 13-fight UFC career with three bonus-winning performances. He won a title for ShoFight by beating Derek Brunson, who has been tearing through everyone in his path in the UFC. But a major title has eluded him.

Still, he remains steadfast in his “if it happens, it happens” mentality.

“I’ve seen it all, I’ve done it all, and I’m loving it all,” Grove said. “It’s been a good experience for me – ups and downs. … I find out my flaws when I lose and reap some rewards when I win. But other than that, one fight at a time …”

For more on Bellator 162, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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