Issue 002

April 2005

Mark Weir is one of the most recognisable fighters in Britain. A three-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) veteran, Mark is also the North American title-holder in World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), as well as a decorated kickboxer and martial artist. I managed to catch up with him at the weigh-ins before Cage Rage 10 where he was due to meet the Brazilian Gabriel 'Gladiator' Santos.

HT: Do you go off the boil quickly if you're not training for a fight?

MW: It's not that, but training has less meaning if it's not for a fight. I know one day I'll have to retire, but then my focus will be to get the guys around me into shape.

HT: So you'll move more into the coaching, developing the XFUK team?

MW: Yeah, I'll move into coaching, I think that's where my strengths will be. I do coach, but not as much as I could. I train closely with people like Matt (Ewin, Cagewarriors Middle Weight Champion) and the results are phenomenal, but I don't work as closely with him as I'd like. I have to give up a percentage travelling of my coaching to work on myself to the States, training with people like Chuck Liddell, fighting in the WEC. I have to say to him, 'Look, you've got your own thing going, you know what you need to do, I have to let you get on with it'. He's in good hands with Leon (Roberts, coach at Range Fighting) though, they know what they're doing.

HT: Will there be a lot more emphasis on your own training and fighting in 2005?

MW: Definitely a lot more on me these next couple of years, see what happens, and then it'll come to a point where I'll need to concentrate on the guys around me, because there is a lot of potential there.

HT: So, have you got any guys we haven't heard of?

MW: There's a hell of a lot of guys around me who train that are very, very good, but they're more interested in helping me at the moment. They're all happy to fight, but the confidence will come when I'm working on them, rather than them working with me. When I really start working on them, you'll be like: 'Where the hell did these guys come from?'

HT: So, tell me about your training in the US. You've been training with Chuck Liddell how's that been going for you?

MW: Very good. I've had a lot of offers from different camps to come in and work with them, because I'm a bit unusual to them- don't kickbox like a normal kickboxer. When I sparred with Chuck Liddell he found me really unusual, but over a period of a couple of weeks he figured me out. At first his shots were just glancing me, but after a while I suffered! You know, his whole game is to stay on his feet, work back up off the floor.

HT: Do you think that's something you've been able to bring back with you?

MW: Yeah, the main thing is he showed me how wrestlers work. My goal is now to try and work out how to attack their Achilles heel, make them work harder to keep me down, make them I gas and make mistakes. You know, they can keep me down and tire themselves out, but if we get stood up and they're tired, then they're gonna have problems.

HT: You've shown you've got a pretty good all-round game, your last two wins were both by submission, including your fight with Johil de Oliveira. You surprised a lot of people in that fight.

MW: Yeah, but to me I wasn't really fighting on form that night. I think I could have done a bit more.

HT: But you got the win!

MW: Yeah... but he hadn't been fighting as regularly as me. I've been working hard this last year and he made mistakes in all the right places for me. I've been looking hard at myself, trying new strategies out, and in that case it worked well for me. I had six fights last year, lost two on eye injuries, but basically I'm working out where I can go. Over Christmas I made a few notes, set a few goals, basically restructured my training. Now, I'm just looking forward to my fights. I've been fighting since early 1999; I was fighting anyone with a good reputation, and I was taking them out, big time. I don't like to go backwards, which is why I've been fighting so many foreign opponents.