Issue 056

November 2009

There are you right now?  

I’m in my apartment in Temecula California, about half a mile from where I train at Team Quest, looking after my two-year-old daughter.

What do you remember about your first MMA fight?

I remember being scared shitless! My first pro fight was at 205lb, and my opponent was a big, bald, ugly, psycho-looking type of guy. It was in San Diego on my home turf and I remember the guy’s stand-up was terrible but he just kept using his size to take me down and lay on me – I ended up frustrated and losing a decision. I guess a couple of thousand people watched it.  

Is it true that you started training MMA after being spotted as a bouncer? 

Yeah. I took my first fight after just four months of walking into a gym for the first time, after taking just a few basic Muay Thai lessons. I got spotted working in an Irish bar called Maloney’s Tavern downtown and on a weekend the place turned into a nightclub. We would deal with a lot of drunken fights and one time a big fight broke out and I came down to stop it. I laid down four dudes; I’m talking one-hitter-quitters, whack, whack, whack, whack. Obviously it didn’t take too much to knock out drunk dudes, a nice little clip to the chin did the job, but one of my friends was a Navy SEAL and pro MMA fighter and he invited me to his gym.  

What’s more daunting: a barroom brawl or an MMA bout?

An MMA bout, definitely. Nobody pays attention during a barroom brawl, there are no cameras there and you’re usually intoxicated so you don’t give a fuck either way. I used to get bad performance anxiety before pro fights, it’s a struggle to focus in there because I’m really ADD. You get huge build-ups to every fight, interviews the whole week, and it’s a whole big process just to punch someone in the face. I’ve gotten better at dealing with it, but yeah the nerves are definitely there. 

Do some fighters resent your reality series route into the UFC? 

Some people see The Ultimate Fighter as an easy road into the UFC, and in some situations it is, but my road sure as hell wasn’t easy, plus I’ve now been released. Then you’ve got someone like Dave Kaplan who’s a fucking moron, he’s really not that good yet he’s still under contract. At least somebody like Junie Browning pisses people off, Dave Kaplan’s just an idiot.  

If you could fight any of your Team USA members, who would you fight? 

The whole world can answer this: Jason Pierce. He’s just a piece of shit. He didn’t just let his teammates down; he let the whole country down. I’ve gone on record before saying how he let us all down and I’ve heard him saying he wants to fight me – is he having a laugh? I don’t think he wants to fight anybody. 

Who’s the hardest trainer at Team Quest?

I’d say Lew Polley. He runs our wrestling drills – easily the hardest thing we do. It’s shot, shot, shot, double leg finishes, single leg finishes, sit-ups, positions, half guard, full guard, mount, turtle. We do this for 65–90 minutes of non-stop drilling. It’s a killer. 

And finally, what’s next for you?  

I’ve had a couple of fights set up for me since I came out of the TUF house but they’ve fallen through because my opponents have got injured. My manager has been trying to set things up for me, we’re getting closer and soon I’ll find a place to call home for a while and get that experience to get me back in the UFC.  

Frank Lester spoke with Ben Blackmore.