Issue 036

April 2008

Gray ‘The Bully’ Maynard is a deeply motivated competitor who earned the nickname by pushing his training partners to the limit in the practise room of Xtreme Couture. Perhaps best known for knocking himself out as he slammed Robert Emerson to the mat, Maynard eclipsed that unfortunate memory in his next fight, scoring a 9-second knock out over Joe Veres - one of the fastest in UFC history. His most recent fight saw him tough out a decision victory over Dennis Siver. 

 Where are you right now?

I’m at the gym, Xtreme Couture. I’m usually here about two hours in the morning, two hours in the evening and then possibly about an hour in the afternoon. It all depends, I usually do about an eight-week camp. I’m here a lot.

How do you make sure that you recover during the day?

I try to eat right. I try to be in bed in the evening at about 10 o’clock. As long as I’m getting about eight hours sleep and I eat good… I drink a lot of water, about two gallons a day, that’s how I do it and I take a lot of [supplement] pills. I probably take about a hundred a day… a lot of pills.

What do you remember from your first fight?

I don’t know, it was kind of a blur. It was in Oregon, an amateur fight. It went three rounds, he was a pretty tough kid, it was a good fight though. I didn’t really know what I should do. I was just ‘wow’, let’s just keep going. I wanna cruise over there and just punch him.

Did you find your first fight made you really want to continue in the sport – or did you always know that you wanted to be a fighter?

Let’s see, I’ve been training with Couture for about two years now and ever since I got with him, it’s kinda been like, ‘yeah, this is it; this is the job I’m going to do for sure.’

Which would you say has been your toughest fight?

My last one was pretty good, it was a kid out of Germany [Dennis Siver] and he was pretty good, that’s about it though. He was just a tough kid, I actually kind of had the flu too, so I got a little tired, because, man, that flu, it sucks. He was good, he had a little judo, jiu-jitsu, he had some crazy kicks! It was a good fight.

Fighting him and getting the unanimous decision, do you think that you’re ready to appear on the UFC main show now?

Yeah, I’d love to, I’m trying to do that. That’s where I want to be. There’s pretty much ten guys which are really good, I want to jump into that mix.

What’s the hardest you’ve ever punched someone in your life?

Probably in training. Probably in practise, I punched Mark Hominick so hard… [lhe laughed at his team-mate, who was sat in earshot during the interview] I’m only joking – I don’t know, I couldn’t even tell you that one, but I try to punch a lot, whoever it is!

It was a very strange ending against Rob Emerson, what do you remember about that?

I remember I picked him up and I slammed him. I came in with an uppercut-hook, then I pushed him against the cage, I picked him up and I was like ‘man, I’m going to slam this guy as hard as I can.’ I ended up hitting the front of my head and I remember just being really dazed, trying to get up and I couldn’t. I was all over the place. I came to and I was screwed up!

You made up for it in your next fight with the big knock out of Joe Veres in only nine seconds – how do you feel to hold such a fast knock out on your record?

It’s cool, it’s ok I guess. I’d rather beat a guy up even more though, for three rounds, and just beat him up! It’s cool, but it’s over with now, I just want to keep getting better and better.