Lentz Unwilling to Play Tune-Up Role

Nik Lentz, on “Beatdown,” discussing his belief that Tyson Griffin’s management thought he’d be a kind of tune-up fight for Griffin:

“I think with the Tyson fight, they said, ‘Hey, Tyson is struggling. He needs to get back on track. … Who is someone we can put Tyson against that is going to be a good fight for him but that he can win [against] and that it’s going to look really good on his record?’ … I think there was a big idea that they were going to put Tyson against me and I was going to be that guy. … Well, the problem is, I’m a better fighter than Tyson Griffin. Once he got in there and he got taken down in two seconds, and then he started to get beat-up a little bit, it started to dawn on people: ‘Wait, we made a big mistake.’”