Schilling: 'Let’s all go back to forgetting about Phil Bolognese'

An unexpected war of words broke out at the weekend as ‘The New York Badass’ Phil Baroni took aim at Joe ‘Stitch ‘Em Up’ Schilling following Friday night’s Bellator event.

Schilling lost a controversial split-decision to Rafael Carvalho after three rounds; the bitter pill was complemented by a torrent of mockery from Baroni. That led to a back-and-forth during which it briefly seemed likely the two might be matched on the GLORY 21 SAN DIEGO card taking place May 8 in Southern California.

That now seems unlikely to happen, though sources say that GLORY has been in contact with Baroni's management and there is a possibility either that the match could take place later this year or that Baroni could be given a chance to show himself in the GLORY ring.

"Phil Bolognese started running his mouth about me after my fight because he's irrelevant. I decided I wouldn't mind getting on that GLORY card in San Diego three weeks from now so I figured, if he wanted to fight me so bad - and the way he was calling me out, it seemed like it - there is the opportunity," Schilling tells Bloody Elbow.

"But I knew Phil wasn't really gonna take the fight as he sucks at fighting let alone kickboxing. So then I figured, if he is denying me the opportunity to physically whoop his ass, I'll just humiliate him on the Internet for a few days. That wasn't hard at all since he's a complete idiot - he made himself look worse then I did."

Schilling has noted the considerable interest the feud has attracted, but says that Baroni demurring on the May slot means that an encounter seems unlikely.

"No, we are not gonna fight. Philomena had her chance for May 8 and she said no. And because people want to see me fight, my calendar is pretty full for the rest of the year. So let's all just go back to completely forgetting who Phil Bolognese is," he says.

"In the meantime, if you want to read comments from an actual current, relevant fighter, you can follow me on Twitter via @JoeSchilling187."

Even without Baroni's presence., Schilling will be in San Diego on May 8 for the GLORY event. On the line is the World Middleweight Championship, with Artem Levin defending the belt against Simon ‘Bad Bwoy' Marcus.

Schilling has his eye on the belt - he beat Levin in the final of the GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES tournament, before GLORY had singular world title belts - and is the division's most viable contender.

Marcus finds himself in the title shot after winning the recent Middleweight Contender Tournament but has a KO loss to Schilling on his record from their GLORY 17 encounter. Schilling will be watching Levin vs. Marcus very closely and I personally wouldn't be surprised to see him get in the ring and call the winner out.