Issue 080

October 2011

Humble 8-4 British striker ‘Shotgun’ announced himself in the UFC with a thrilling June featherweight battle, and he has the zombie foot to prove it…

You had a great UFC debut against Dustin Poirier at UFC 131 in June that was a very close decision after some expected him to dominate you. Did that performance change people’s opinions of you?

“I think so. I went in with the number six in the world at featherweight who’d just beat Josh Grispi – then the number-one contender for José Aldo. He smashed Josh Grispi and I gave him the hardest fight he’s ever had in his life. It gave me a confidence boost to know I can hang in there with some of the best in the world – and I was doing that having a full-time job and going to the gym. These people are in the gym all day, with four or five fights in the WEC or UFC.”

What was the moment during that weekend where you realized you were actually fighting in the UFC?

“When I was in the cage and I was looking over at him. You look down at the canvas with the Bud Light logo in the middle and that was the point I realized, ‘This is real now. I’m about to go to war.’ I didn’t get any jitters like everyone says either. I don’t really pay attention to the crowd, it’s just me in the fight.”

You were a full-time plasterer before your call up to the UFC. Did you almost have to think of your day job as part of your workout?

“Well, I still sort of am a plasterer – I’m doing privates because it’s still good money. The people I work with, big and strong Polish guys, know I’m a fighter and I’d get them to put four 25kg (55lb) bags of plaster on my shoulders and I’d try and walk. I’m only 78kg (171lb). I prefer it to sitting in an office because that gives you more time to think, ‘I’m sitting here while everyone’s training.’ Especially leading up to the fights you get depressed real bad. Especially if you’re fighting a full-time fighter and you’re at work. A lot of the time, when I was getting to the gym at night, all the fighters had trained already. I’d look around and it’d only be the people who are doing the public classes that I was training with. That was a head mess-up as well.”

You injured your foot in the fight and tweeted a picture afterward showing it was severely swollen; you called it your “zombie foot.” How did it heal up? 

“They did put me on a six-month ban. When I was there they thought it was broken and wanted to X-ray it, but I wanted to watch the fights. I was like, ‘No, no, I’ll X-ray it when I get home,’ and they put me on a 180-day ban. But I got an X-ray and it’s fine, though four weeks later I couldn’t kick solid with it.”

What kind of emotions did you experience when you got the call to fight in the UFC?

“I didn’t believe James, my manager, at first when he phoned me. I was like, ‘Shut up, you’re joking. James, stop pissing about now or I’m going to smack you when I see you.’ It took him about 10 minutes to convince me. I was shaking, smiling, not knowing what to do. I told my girlfriend and she couldn’t believe it. You just don’t expect stuff like that to happen.”

Have you had more attention from fans or in the gym since your UFC debut?

“Yeah, I get shown a bit more respect off people. It’s nice to say that I’m in the UFC. I felt like a bit of an idiot saying it to start off with. On Facebook I get about 60 adds a day. The only hard thing is that I try to reply to everyone and try not to be rude. So if I tweet something I get about 30, 40 tweets back and I’m like, ‘Ah, right. Here we go, number one.’”

You’ve been fighting since 2006, has anything strange ever happened in any of

your fights?

“Everything’s gone smoothly, but in my UFC fight after the second round when my foot swelled up and I was saying to Brad Pickett (cornerman and UFC bantamweight), ‘My foot, look at my foot.’ He was like, ‘Oh, it’s just a little bit of swelling.’ And he was talking to me so much that he forgot to give me water. He’s got up, walked off and I’m standing there and I thought, ‘I need a drink!’ Time was up so I went into the third round without even having a sip of water. But I try to train with as little water as possible so I don’t become reliant on it.”

Brad Pickett is also your training partner and has described his fighting style as ‘man-beasting.’ Do you ever indulge in some of that yourself?

“Man-beasting is Brad’s way of fighting which is really high paced, just beating someone up anywhere in the game, and always being on top – you can’t man-beast someone when you’re on your back. Mine’s more of a pretty-boy style. I like to look good. Brad’s got real good boxing and an aggressive style, and I’m more technical where everything is crisp, sharp and straight down the pipe. Mine is look good and Brad’s is man-beast.”