Bellator bantamweight champion Joe Warren is now looking to take part in the 2016 Olympic Games.
The 37-year-old fighter told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour on Monday that he hopes to participate in wrestling as well as MMA at the event, according to MMA Fighting. His participation would mark ten years since he won a gold medal in wrestling at the 2006 Pan American Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Warren's experience in wrestling also won him the 2006 edition of the World Championship in Guangzhou, China.
The reason for getting involved in the Olympics is still unclear, even to Warren, MMA Fighting reported.
"I don't know why, man," he said. "It's my birthday yesterday, and that was in my mind again ... I don't know. If the Worlds are in Las Vegas next year, a year from now, it would be pretty sweet to win the World Championship in Las Vegas."
Warren would have competed in the Olympics in 2008, but testing positive for marijuana in a drug test prevented that.
"I tried to do it last time. Pat Curran knocked me out seven days before the trials (in 2012). I lost in the trials, but I probably shouldn't have been wrestling in the first place," Warren said. "I didn't think, at this age, I'd be talking about this again, but I'm faster, stronger, lighter, older, and all those things that make wrestlers better. I don't know. That's a possibility."
The champ added that he will be able to wrestle and fight at the event if he gets the support he needs, MMA Fighting reported.
"You know, I'll still fight, that's what I do," he said. "The wrestling would be just for fun. I'm open-minded, I need another goal to set in front of me. I'm sitting here with too many belts, and I'm thinking maybe I'll get another wrestling one."
Warren's discussion with Helwani follows just over a week after he beat Eduardo Dantas at Bellator 128 to become the promotion's undisputed bantamweight champion.
