Wolverine Plans To End His Rematch With Turpin Early

Power Slap Light Heavyweight Champion Wolverine Is Fired Up And Wants To Send A Message When He Faces Austin Turpin At Power Slap 7: The Bell vs Phillips.

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Sometimes we forget to recognize greatness when it’s right in front of us, and in the case of Power Slap light heavyweight champion Ron “Wolverine” Bata, he’s quietly slapped his way to the top of the sport.

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Wolverine was one of the head coaches on season one of Road To The Title, and he headlined Power Slap 1, defeating his pre-Power Slap rival Darius “The Destroyer” by knockout to become the Power Slap heavyweight champion.

After losing the belt, he moved down to his natural weight class of light heavyweight, defeating AyJay Hintz in dominant fashion to become the Power Slap 205-pound champion. His first title defense came against surging contender Austin “Turp Daddy Slim” Turpin at Power Slap 5.

Turpin and Wolverine are cut from different cloths. Turpin loves to trash talk and plays the mind game with opponents while Wolverine is stoic and content to let his skill do the talking. Wolverine was the better striker at Power Slap 5, handing Tuprin his first loss and defending his light heavyweight title in the process.

The Power Slap team selected Wolverine to headline Power Slap 7, on April 12 at UFC APEX, but Wolverine was shocked when he found out that it would be Tuprin across the podium from him yet again.

The truth is that Wolverine doesn’t think Turpin deserved an immediate rematch for the light heavyweight belt. That opinion isn’t solely based off the fact that he beat Turpin by unanimous decision but also because other contenders have started to make their own run up the rankings.

It boils down to the simple fact that Wolverine is in this sport to compete and to get paid, but he just wants it to come against the best in the business.

“It needs to be guys that have earned their way up. Don’t get me wrong, Turpin earned his way up there the first time, but not this time,” Wolverine told PowerSlap.com. “I’ll just have to put him down again, then what do you do with him?”

“He will have nowhere to go. He’s pretty much done at light heavyweight until I’m gone.”

A second win over Turpin would set Wolverine up to face a whole new list of contenders, a mixture of veterans and newcomers from the two seasons of Road To The Title. It would also make a statement that although he’s not the loudest guy on the stage, there’s no question that he’s one of the best strikers in the world, and people look to him as such.

As one of the leaders in the sport, Wolverine has enjoyed seeing the sport grow, and he’s happy that he’s been a part of that.

“It’s growing quite a bit. When we first got signed on with Road To The Title, I didn’t know if it was going to take off. For Power Slap to get slap fighting as big as it is now is amazing,” Wolverine said. “I’ve had a bunch of new guys come up to me and say they’ve watched me for a few years. For me to watch them and see it grow and how I’ve helped in a way, it’s neat to watch and it’s only getting bigger and bigger each show.”

One of the biggest factors in growing a sport is to have athletes with magnetic personalities, good and bad. Athletes need to be relatable or have some sort of entertainment factor that draws in viewers. Wolverine acknowledges that Turpin has some characteristics that drive people to pay attention to Power Slap, but when it comes to being the best, that’s why he’s here.

“You need the guys like Turpin that have antics that bring views, but you need guys who show up and get the job done. That’s me,” Wolverine stated. “When you get somebody that can do both, like Conor McGregor, you want to keep him. They think Turpin is that guy, but he isn’t that guy.

“He ain’t doing the job against me.

“I wanted to go all five with him last time and I did that. This time, I don’t plan on letting it go five rounds. I plan on ending it early.”