Issue 066
September 2010
The Ultimate Fighter 11 contender Nick Ring took flack on the show for his perceived gay behavior. But considering his strong Muay Thai background and undefeated MMA record, detractors wouldn’t dare face the Calgary-based 31-year-old in the flesh
He’s currently resting the knee injury that took him out of TUF, but Nick still manages to keep busy thanks to his unusual second job...
FO: Where are you right now?
Nick: “Right now I’m on the Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. I’m with a whole bunch of friends and we’re cruising around on a house boat.”
Is it true that outside fighting you’re a landlord?
“That’s my other job. When I’m not training I’m a landlord up in Canada. You know how it is with fight money. Trying to make a living as a fighter, it’s not easy. You don’t get paid very well and you need to have a real job. Fighting is something I do because I love to do it, it’s not because I’m making very much money. I don’t make any money in fact. You’ve got to have other ways of making income as well.”
Being a fighter do you ever have trouble getting the rent?
[Laughs] “No not really. Strange, eh? It’s generally on time. There are perks to being a fighter, that’s for sure.”
You started fighting MMA in 2002 but you’d been competing in Muay Thai since 1996. Were you aware of MMA back then?
“I think it was ’97 by the time I became aware of UFC. Around my parts the best you were going to do was Muay Thai fighting, and that was a really good base for me to work from. It was 1998 before I started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu with a small group of guys who were learning off videos. They would buy these tapes and study them and practice the moves on each other. They would train in their basements, garages. Eventually they got into a little community center and they were doing it out of there. One of the guys training with them was also at my kickboxing gym. I went full time with them about 2001. I just wanted to fight MMA.”
You’ve described yourself as lazy. As you’re a fighter does that conflict your training?
“I’m lazy in a way because I don’t like working a regular job. I work very hard at what I like to do, but if it’s pretty much anything else it’s very hard to keep my attention. I never had real interest in working in an office or doing anything like that. Being an athlete, my work is my play. It’s not that hard, that’s why I say I’m lazy. When I’m working towards a fight I can work 100% because it’s something I love to do, so it really isn’t work for me.”
On The Ultimate Fighter the other competitors made assumptions about your sexuality. How did you feel about it?
“People call me ‘light in loafers’ and so on. Honestly, I don’t really care. Either you’re tough or you’re not. You can act as tough as you want to; all that matters is what you do in the ring. I’m not all about the tattoos or pit bulls or tight TapouT T-shirts. The only place you’re going to prove yourself is in the cage. As far as the attitude goes, I’m there to have fun. I think too many MMA fighters are all about trying to play the part and not enough about the training and the conditioning. It is competition but there’s no reason to act like a jackass the rest of the time and I think too many guys do. I know what I can do in the ring so I don’t care what other people think. Does it matter how I act outside the ring, or does it matter how I act inside the ring? The fight is actually what matters. They tried to portray me as kind of a gay guy or whatever. I thought it was funny and my friends back at home all laughed.”
You later said you were playing it up almost. Were you just having fun at their expense?
“You had Yager on the show. He was very homophobic and he was also a big germ freak. They didn’t show that part. He’d complain about people not washing their hands or reaching into the fridge. I poked a lot of fun at him that way. I would kind of have fun with some of the guys, especially if they were really quirky like Yager was. It was pretty easy. I like Yager. He was fun to live with. He was really homophobic and they started calling me gay so I started acting gay. I was like, ‘OK, fine. You want gay – I’ll give you gay.’”
Nick Ring spoke with Richard Cartey
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