Issue 047

March 2009

Paul Taylor isn’t chasing after titles or accolades, so why does he fight with a true ‘never say die’ attitude? Percy Dean finds out.  

I’ve seen so many fights that I fear my senses may have become dulled. There was a time where I’d involuntarily squirm and twitch through every single fight I saw. I’d duck punches and escape submissions, and I’d be in there with every fighter, win or lose. Today, I think my synapses are becoming more selective in their old age, sluggish or non-reactive to most matches. Over exposure to the rush that instigated my interest in this sport has taken its toll, and it now requires a really special fighter to make me spill my tea.  

Walsall’s Paul ‘Relentless’ Taylor is instant remedy for my affliction, and responsible for some of the greatest striking exchanges in the history of the UFC. Five-fights deep with three ‘fight of the night’ bonuses is no joke! I visited Paul at his gym, the Ultimate Training Centre in Birmingham, for a catch-up and to find out what drives this man to fight as hard as he does.  

If you can reflect on your formative years, how would you have described the young Paul Taylor? 

The young Paul Taylor was quiet and kept himself to himself; if there was something I wanted to say or do, more often than not I wouldn’t do it. As you get older you build confidence, then with training in the sport and knowing that you can handle yourself, it lets your true personality come out.  

Do you think, to a certain extent, that confidence has come directly from martial arts?

Definitely it’s all about confidence. I started originally to keep fit, but I soon realised that you get a lot more out of it than just a workout. You get great friendship and lifelong relationships with training partners, which are far stronger than a few guys that you go out for a drink with, because you understand what you are all going through. Confidence is the main thing; you can apply that to any part of your life.

I wouldn’t describe your fighting style as ‘planned’, as it doesn’t seem like you are trying to coax and corral your opponent into a vulnerable position. How would you describe it?  

I get paid to fight, so I do everything to the best of my ability. The reason I go out so fast and keep it up is because I’ve got the cardio to back that up. Obviously if I wasn’t as fit then I would have to knock the edge off. I fought my first UFC fight like that, ‘I can take the edge off it’. I fought Jess Liaudin like that too, at a slower pace because I knew how important those two fights were. My first fight, because I wanted to stay and to make an impression, and the Jess fight because I was coming off a two-loss streak and I didn’t want to make it three. That is the sport for me, it’s a show as well, and you have to take it into consideration. It’s not a life and death scenario, I’m doing it because I enjoy it. The UK fans and the UFC fans tend to enjoy the faster, more explosive fights, and I try to make that happen as much as I can.  

Can you talk us through how your UFC opportunity came about?

Between Jon [Roberts, his trainer], Paul Hennessey [his manager] and myself, we put together a promotional DVD and sent it out. Paul took it to Japan where he had a lot of contacts, but somehow it managed to find its way into the hands of Joe Silva [UFC matchmaker]. As soon as they decided the UFC was coming to Britain, I got the call.  

What was the pressure like for that first fight, and how do you deal with the nerves as a newcomer to the UFC?

I never get nervous, purely from being in that situation so many times before, but, Jon will tell you, at the end of that first round my heart was close to 200bpm and it wasn’t down to the work rate, it was purely the occasion. That was the most tired I have ever been in a fight and yet when I watch it now, it was such a slow-paced fight.  

I don’t think that was necessarily a “slow-paced fight” at all!  

But if you look at it in retrospect of that being my first fight and Chris Lytle being my last, I must have thrown an extra two or three hundred shots in the last one!  

Out of all your performances in the Octagon, win or lose, which are you most proud of and why?  

The Chris Lytle fight, he’s definitely the toughest fighter I’ve faced. I proved to myself that I have progressed because Chris is at a very high level and to go the distance and do that amount of damage to him. If you’re a grappler, Chris won it, if you’re a striker, I won it: it depends what school you’re from. The thing about MMA is, it is very hard to know what any particular set of judges are looking for. By being more relaxed in the cage I let my true self come out. I looked like that in the gym before my fight with Crocota, the only thing that differed was how I handled putting it on the stage.  

So which of your UFC fights has been your greatest disappointment? Why is that? And how, with hindsight, would you have structured your game plan differently?  

Well, I’m going to mention the fight that I never talk about, because it wasn’t me in there. Paul Kelly was my worst performance. I got caught up in a scrap which is something that I never do. Everybody assumed that I can’t grapple from that fight, even looking at that fight I can see that it looks like I can’t grapple, when I can.  

How can you be down on that performance when it was still judged fight of the night?  

It was great for the crowd; it just wasn’t great for me. I was on my back and instead of tying him down and sweeping, I was trying to throw shots when I know that you can’t generate any power off your back. But I was thinking, ‘you hit me, I’m gonna hit you back!’ It was just a slugfest. I tend not to speak about it ‘cause, my voice goes higher and I get louder and I feel terrible [laughs]. I had a bad day at the office in front of millions of people so that’s why it stands out for me as my worst experience.  

Would you say the way you fight is a style that has been developed, or is it just the natural you that we see out there?  

It’s just me, it’s what suits me. Anyone that comes to fight me knows they have to pick that pace up, and for a lot of people that’s a task. I’m not saying that it’s easy because it’s not. Every time I have come out of the Octagon, I’ve been knackered. I have never come out of that Octagon and not pissed blood at the end of a fight. Not because I’ve been hit in the kidneys, but because I’ve trashed myself that much. Like Frank Shamrock says, “conditioning is my best submission”. It’s 80% of the game. My cardio is one of the attributes that I put into my game because it makes a remarkable difference to a lot of people.

Have you a plan for your progress within the UFC? I mean are you chasing a title or are you happy to fight the way you do and build on your reputation as one of the most exiting fighters to ever come out of the UK?  

I’m aiming towards paying off my mortgage. If I can pay-off my mortgage from the UFC, then that’s all I want. I don’t care about titles; I’m in it as a job and that’s how I treat it. The fight of the night bonuses are nice, don’t get me wrong, but it just happens that my style of fighting is what people want to see. What makes exciting fights, the bonuses come with that - but it wasn’t intentional.  

Do you think that MMA has evolved to the point where an entertaining fighter is valued more than a winning fighter, and is this a good thing for the sport?  

I think that stems from Japan. It’s the ‘never die, never give up’ attitude. People love to see that; it’s great entertainment. There are phenomenal fighters out there who have never won a fight of the night because they are not willing to put it on the line. My three fight of the nights, without a shadow of a doubt, I’d have rather won and gone home with my pay. The fight of the nights come because that’s the way I fight, I haven’t sought after it, it’s not what I wanted. I think it is good for MMA because it shows what the sport is all about and all its different facets.  

But it then goes back to weighing up whether a fight of the night is more appreciated than a win?  

Yeah. I’m the only British guy to have signed a third three-fight contract. Obviously they appreciate that and I appreciate it as well. It works out nice.