Fight News caught up with Ricky Biechun backstage for a brief interview, immediately after he became the Eternal MMA Heavyweight Champion last night.

Hi Ricky. Congrats on your new belt, champ.

You came into this tournament at short notice. How long had you been in fight camp for?

“I’ve been in fight camp since November last year, shortly after my last fight where I copped a loss.

“I knew I wanted to get back in there really soon. I was looking to get matched around this time. It wasn’t til about two or three weeks ago that one of my teammates Jack messaged me.

“He said: ‘hey man, Eternal have a four-man Grand Prix going’ and I said ‘absolutely’.”

Was there anything that surprised you about Henri Burns brought to the table in the final bout?

“Honestly, I thought he would have gassed a lot quicker than he did.

“I thought I would have been able to break him sooner, but he came prepared for that; he was ready.”

I noticed your anti-wrestling was very strong. Is this something you focused on in the leadup to avoid the high-level ground game of Burns?

“Honestly, I feel that the grappling is the weak side of my game.”

Really? It seemed to work pretty well for you tonight.

“Against Jack it was working for me. Against Henri, it wasn’t.

“Once I started listening to my corner and disengaging from the clinch to strike, that’s when it all started working for me.”

Was that the plan, to keep Henri on the end of your reach?

“Yes, my plan was definitely to use my reach. We expected him to come in for the takedown.

“You know what? He played it well. He caught me when I wasn’t ready.

“I got too complacent where I was, he came in and made me pay for it in the first round.”