Damon Martin: Miesha Tate Pulls No Punches About Her Disdain for Ronda Rousey

Before Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey were paired off to meet for the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title this weekend in Columbus, Ohio, they were once almost training partners.
Before Rousey made her way to Strikeoforce, Tate was at the opening of Bas Rutten’s gym in Los Angeles where she ran into famed trainer “Judo” Gene LeBell.
Lebell mentioned to Tate that he had this upcoming young fighter working under him named Ronda Rousey, and he thought it would be a good idea if they trained together. They never actually got the chance to work together, but what a story that would have been considering where they stand now.
Fast forward to 2012 where Tate and Rousey are on a collision course as the main event for Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey on Saturday night in Columbus. While they were once possibly going to end up training together, they now enter the fight as bitter enemies.
Some may call it hype or something to help build the fight, but if you ask Miesha Tate how she really feels about Ronda Rousey, she pulls no punches.
“Not only am I not a fan, I cannot stand the girl. She is full of it. I think she runs her mouth way too much. She says things that just make her look absolutely ridiculous and I think she gives women’s MMA a bad name. I don’t think she’s good representation or a good role model for the sport, period,” Tate told MMAWeekly Radio.
“Not only do I not like her, but I don’t respect her at all.”
The trash talk between Tate and Rousey started last year when the former Olympic Judoka won her fight over Julia Budd in Strikeforce, and immediately called out for a shot at the champion.
At the time, all roads appeared to be headed towards Tate facing former champion Sarah Kaufman in 2012, but Rousey convinced the powers that be otherwise. From there, the trash talk has only escalated and Tate’s been paying attention every step of the way.
While Rousey’s words have been harsh at times, brutal at others, and just downright mean, Tate has used every bit of it to fuel her training camp. She also knows that every time Rousey opens her mouth, she’s writing more and more checks that Tate is quite sure she can’t cash.
“She’s talked more trash and created more expectations for herself than she could ever live up to in this fight. She runs her mouth so much, pretty soon she’s going to realize that now it’s go time. Now I actually have to live up to these expectations that I’ve been setting, and I don’t believe she can or she will,” Tate stated.
“I think she’s going to fold under the pressure, when after the first minute and she hasn’t submitted me, or even worse, she’s taking punches and thinking ‘damn why can’t I finish this girl? I did it to everyone else’.”
Coming into the fight, Rousey has been listed as a decided favorite over the incumbent champion, which Tate has no idea why. Through her brief MMA career, Rousey has been devastating, but it isn’t a vast body of work.
Through four fights, Rousey has compiled just over two minutes of total time in the cage. Tate says that’s not nearly enough ring time for what she’s about to experience on March 3.
“Ronda is not a fighter. I haven’t seen her fight a single MMA fight yet,” Tate said. “I’ve seen her go out there and judo throw people and submit them; I’ve not seen Ronda ever fight.”
Tate promises that Rousey will feel the heat of a real fight when they meet on Saturday night. While she is sure to not let the emotion of the situation get to her, Tate knows that things between her and Rousey have gotten personal and she wants to settle the score once and for all.
The trash talk has gone over the line according to Tate, who balks at the comparisons between Rousey and UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen. Sonnen of course has become well known for his verbal attacks on opponents, most of them landing on the shoulders of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
“She’s made it personal for me. She says it’s not personal, but it is. The difference between her and Chael is that Chael’s been around for a long time, and I think people understand that it’s more of a gimmick. He’s a funny guy and he says things that are funny. The difference with Ronda is that she’s rude. She’s not necessarily comical in everything that she says; she’s kind of a bitch to be honest,” said Tate.
“She says things like ‘well, it took me six months to do what it took Miesha Tate six years to do’ and that kind of stuff pisses me off because she’s making it look like she’s all high and mighty and she’s so much better than all of us. She doesn’t understand, and she can’t begin to fathom, where women’s MMA was six years ago. It wasn’t here; I’ll tell you that much.”
So while Tate has more than three times as many fights as her opponent, and she’s fought many tough opponents and even captured the Strikeforce title in her last fight, she says nothing will be better than beating Ronda Rousey on Saturday night.
“I don’t think for a long time to come that there will be a more satisfying win.”

---

Follow @DamonMartin on Twitter or e-mail Damon Martin.
For more UFC News and UFC Rumors, follow MMAWeekly.com on Twitter and Facebook.

Thomas Gerbasi: Josh Thomson - The Punk's Not Dead

"I’m gonna fight my ass off and train my ass off and go out there and give the best show I can." - Josh Thomson

Strikeforce lightweight Josh Thomson

When it comes to bad luck, Josh Thomson has endured more than his share. He once was one of the top lightweights in the UFC, at least until the organization dropped the weight class for nearly two years. Then he became one of Strikeforce’s bright lights and that promotion’s champion, but then injuries had him sitting more than fighting. It’s enough to make a young man want to ask ‘what in the world am I doing this for?’

“I’ve gotten to that point several times, but then it’s a fire thing,” said Thomson. “As soon as you step away from the sport for a while, you get that itch and it’s hard for people to walk away. I am at the point in my career where I am starting to look and focus on opening my own gym, starting my own career, and starting my own businesses and stuff. So those are things you start to think about; it’s like how much more can your body take? And you start looking towards your future. That’s realistically what you start doing.”

But like anyone with a fighter’s heart steeled in battle, Thomson isn’t ready to give up yet. This Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, nearly 15 months after his last fight against Tatsuya Kawajiri in December of 2010, “The Punk” returns to Strikeforce to face KJ Noons. It’s a fight that Thomson sounds like he’s looking forward to as much as diehard MMA fans are.

“He’s a very talented, very athletic kid,” said Thomson. “He’s very explosive, and he’s becoming more well-rounded. If you notice in the last fight, he took Billy Evangelista down two or three times, he shot three or four times, and he’s definitely trying to open up his game. And not only did he do that, but he was able to avoid getting submitted in the third round and he’s going to be a dangerous fighter. He’s opening up his kickboxing, you can tell he’s working his kickboxing more instead of just being a flat-footed boxer, and we’ll see what happens. He’s really trying to open his game right now, and I think with the time off, he’s just getting back to his true MMA form. I told everybody this, I’m gonna end up getting the best KJ that you guys have seen since he’s returned.”

But the question most have is whether everyone will get the best Thomson. And the scouting report there is ‘so far, so good.’ And that’s welcome news considering all he’s been through, not just in the last few years, but throughout his 11 year pro career. A shooting star who always showed great potential, Thomson flew out of the gate in 2001, and by the end of his first year as a pro, he was fighting Japanese superstar “Kid” Yamamoto. Four fights later, he was in the UFC, and after back-to-back wins over Gerald Strebendt and Hermes Franca, he was knocked out by Yves Edwards at UFC 49 in August of 2004. It was to be the last lightweight fight in the UFC until 2006.

Undaunted, Thomson fought and beat Daisuke Sugie in PRIDE Bushido and then fought in the first Strikeforce event against Clay Guida in 2006. He lost to Guida that night, but it began a long relationship between the San Jose native and the promotion, particularly CEO Scott Coker. To date, Thomson has competed 11 times in Strikeforce, winning and losing the lightweight belt against Gilbert Melendez, and if the 33-year old has one wish, it’s to get back to the form he showed during the 2006-08 stretch where he won eight in a row.

“I was able to stay healthy and go on a good run, like an eight fight win streak, and then I beat Gilbert and then I ended up breaking my ankle,” said Thomson. “That whole year I just spent re-breaking my ankle over and over. I broke the same bone in the same ankle three times in a year. I noticed that my game never got back to that level. And I’m still, at this moment, trying to get it back to that level. I know my conditioning and all that stuff has been spectacular, but my technique and everything else has kinda dwindled a little bit. I have been working a lot more on trying to get back to that and focusing on that, but we’ll see what happens.”

Winner of two of his three bouts in his last active year in 2010, Thomson now returns to an organization that looks a lot different than it did then. Zuffa is now in control of the promotion, giving it the behind the scenes muscle to take Strikeforce in an even bigger and better direction. And Thomson’s eager to get started.

“Scott Coker is still the CEO, and I’m a huge fan of Coker,” he said. “He brought me up from taking me over from PRIDE in Japan and bringing me here, and fighting in Strikeforce. I also have a lot of respect for Dana (White) and Lorenzo (Fertitta) and those guys at the UFC because back in the day Dana took a chance on me and signed me against some of the other guys that said I wasn’t quite ready. But the UFC signed me in Japan after I fought Kid Yamamoto, he loved the way I fought, and I owe a lot of my career to him as well. So honestly, I’m fighting in the best and the biggest promotion in my eyes because I helped build Strikeforce to the level where it is. Honestly, the benefit of it all is that it doesn’t matter if Dana is the promoter or Scott’s the promoter – it doesn’t change the way I fight. I’m gonna fight my ass off and train my ass off and go out there and give the best show I can.”

And if he can recapture his prime form and get past the dangerous Noons, Thomson will be in a prime spot in the weight class, as it won’t take too much to promote a rubber match between him and Melendez. It may even be the biggest match Strikeforce can make at 155 pounds. Thomson agrees, and after all the ups and downs, what sweeter ending would there be than a title fight in which he regains the title? That may just make all the aches and pains from over the years worth it.

“I definitely think I’m the one that poses the biggest threat against Gilbert, and I’ve proven it before,” said Thomson. “I’ve beaten him and beaten him convincingly all five rounds, and I was beating him in the second fight in the first round and three quarters of the second round, but I got a little arrogant and cocky and got dropped at the end of the second round. I look at it as if the fight was actually mine and it was going the way I wanted it to go, but I think my confidence got the better of me, and it ended up costing me. The tide turned after that. Had we finished out those last 15-20 seconds of the round, I would have been up two rounds to none in a five round fight and all I would have needed to do was win just one more round. So yeah, I’d say I pose the biggest threat in Strikeforce right now to beat him. And the person that’s gonna beat him is somebody who’s well-rounded like myself – someone who can wrestle, someone who can stand, and there is a submission threat there. I haven’t really seen a whole lot of guys in the sport right now that can do that to him.”

Thomas Gerbasi: Ryan Couture's Big Chance

"Anybody that might still be saying that I’m only in Strikeforce because of my last name and I don’t belong there and I’m not at that level, this is my chance to shut them up and prove them wrong." - Ryan Couture

Strikeforce lightweight Ryan Couture

In the Couture family, Columbus, Ohio’s Nationwide Arena is more than just a fighting venue. March 3rd is a pretty special day as well. How special? Well, we’ll find out on Saturday night, but for the time being, let’s just say that the senior member of the father and son team – UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture - had a memorable day in that arena on March 3rd, 2007, as he won the heavyweight title for an unprecedented third time by beating Tim Sylvia.

The younger half of the fighting Coutures – Ryan – will return to Nationwide this Saturday night to face the toughest opponent of his young pro career, veteran lightweight Conor Heun. So it’s a place and date with a lot of meaning for the 29-year old.

“I’m excited to be fighting almost five years to the day from when I got to watch my dad in the same arena win the title back from Tim Sylvia,” he said. “That’s really cool, and it will be interesting.”

Has dad, who retired from the sport in 2011, brought up the significance of this coincidence?

“We haven’t really talked about it much,” said Couture. “I’ve been meaning to crack a joke here and there to him about it and bust his chops, but that was one of the most electric crowds I’ve ever been a part of, and I was just blown away. It was really a great experience and it’s gonna be an interesting evolution for me to go from sitting in the stands as a spectator who was just cheering someone on to being in there and being the center of attention.”

Want more eerie coincidences – how about the fact that the elder Couture, one of the greatest fighters to ever put on the gloves, was a significant underdog to Sylvia that night in Ohio? This weekend, the younger Couture will be facing the same kind of odds, and understandably so, because while he has won three of his four fights, showing a strong submission game and a fighter’s heart, Heun has 13 pro bouts and has squared off with well-known opponents such as LC Davis, Jorge Gurgel, KJ Noons, and Magno Almeida. Then again, when Couture was presented with the fight, he took it.

“I figure at this point, with the way things are moving, there’s no more easy fights,” he said. “I think from a technical standpoint I match up fairly well with Conor. I think we’ve got a lot of similar skills we bring to the table. Obviously, I think the biggest thing he brings to the table that no one else really does is his mental toughness. You’ve got to kill him to get him out of there, and I think that presents an interesting puzzle, but I’m really looking forward to trying to solve that puzzle and find a way to come out with the win.”

In a nutshell, the scouting report on Heun is that he will go to remarkable lengths to win a fight, his personal well-being be damned. That was never more evident than in his decision win over Almeida last June, one that saw him caught in a late armbar attempt that he refused to tap out to. He made it to the bell, taking the win and a dislocated elbow. Couture knows that the odds are good that if he wins this one, he’s going to have to go the distance to do it.

“I think I have to expect to fight 15 grueling, hard, miserable minutes, and if the finish comes, great, but I don’t really expect that,” he said. “I know he’s someone who is willing to let me break his arm or choke him unconscious, so that just means I have to be a hundred percent willing to break his arm. If I latch on to something, I just gotta go for it because I know he’s not gonna stop until it’s broken or he gets out. So I might as well not give him the option to get out. I have to have that killer instinct.”

It’s almost weird hearing those words come out of Couture’s mouth, being that he, like his father, see MMA as the ultimate way to test yourself competitively in a combat sports environment. And while there are dangers (as in any contact sport), it is and will remain a sport. Would his family or friends shake their head in disbelief at hearing talk like that?

“I think that would be a tough conversation to have with my mom and have it make sense to her, but I think she’d understand that it’s just kinda getting into the right mindset to know that I’m gonna have to go in there and possibly go to places I’ve never been before to make this happen,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it’s just about getting another win.”

That’s not the way Heun sees it. In a recent blog post, he wrote, “Fighting is not a sport. In fighting, the winner is the guy who walks away able to return to his family with his freedoms intact. In the defense of one’s freedoms and one’s family, the total destruction of one’s enemy is justified. MMA is a sport but it is based on fighting, because of this it is a brutal and savage sport. On March 3rd I will step into the Strikeforce cage across from Ryan Couture because he has agreed to compete against me in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. On March 3rd in Columbus Ohio I will fight Ryan Couture and I will use everything in my power to destroy him. I will be justified in doing so because I am in a place where he is an oppressor attempting to take my freedom and take the food out of my loved ones’ mouths.”

That’s heavy stuff, and just a portion of what Heun wrote about fighting, his motivations, and his goals. You have to wonder what it’s like to be on the receiving end of something like that, but not surprisingly, Couture took it all with grace and a grain of salt.

“I saw some of the highlights (of Heun’s blog), and none of it really came as a surprise to me,” he said. “It’s kind of his style, and I think a big part of his training and preparation is a lot of meditation to get himself into that state of mind and that’s what he has to do to get in there and get the job done, and obviously he’s been successful using that approach. That’s not the way I operate, that’s not how I look at this sport, and that’s not what I’m in there thinking. That’s not what motivates me, but I have to know that’s how he approaches it, and be ready to deal with it accordingly and deal with the problems that it presents.”

And as far as he’s concerned, having a different kind of fighting philosophy from Heun or any one of his past or future opponents is what makes this interesting for him. In other words, it takes all kinds.

“I think it’s one of the cool things about this sport is that it attracts a wide variety of different personality types, and everybody has to find a different motivation within themselves and get themselves into a different frame of mind in order to do what we do,” said Couture. “It’s really demanding, and physically, mentally, and emotionally, it takes a major toll on you. If that’s what he needs to do to get up to perform at his best, then so be it. I’m doing the things I need to do to prepare and to be ready to deal with him.”

One of the things Couture does, in addition to spending hours and hours per week in the gym, is to get away from the fight game altogether in order to search for whatever concerts are in the Las Vegas area that week. So far this year, Couture has seen Tool, Anthrax, and Strung Out, and it’s his way of unwinding from a hectic training schedule. And yes, that’s probably the first and last time you’ll see the words ‘Anthrax’ and ‘unwinding’ in the same sentence.

“Music’s always been a big part of my life,” he said. “My first job was working in a record store back in the Seattle area. I’ve had multiple family members who worked for that same chain, and it’s almost like a rite of passage in my family that you got a job at the Wherehouse, and we’re kind of a family of music nerds. So that’s something I’ve always done, and probably always will do. I try not to miss a show if there’s a band I like coming to town. It’s something that’s fun for me. It kinda clears my head and it’s something I always have and always will do.”

I hate to say it, but it’s almost as if Ryan Couture is too nice for the fight game, and this isn’t the first or last time you’ll hear that. But on Saturday night, you can rest assured that he will go blow for blow and sub for sub with Conor Heun, because even though Heun is the one talking the loudest about the importance of this fight, it means just as much – for different reasons – for Couture.

“I feel like this is my chance,” he said. “Anybody that might still be saying that I’m only in Strikeforce because of my last name and I don’t belong there and I’m not at that level, this is my chance to shut them up and prove them wrong and prove that I’m at that level, that I belong there, and that I’m gonna make some noise in Strikeforce. I’m looking forward to that.”

Thomas Gerbasi: Pat Healy's Ten Year Overnight Success

"I always believed in myself, but I felt like every fight I was going in trying to convince people." - Pat Healy

Strikeforce lightweight Pat Healy

Pat Healy has had some bad years over the course of his last decade as a mixed martial artist. 2011 wasn’t one of them. In fact, you could argue that it was the best of his career, as he went 3-0 in Strikeforce, defeating Lyle Beerbohm, Eric Wisely, and Maximo Blanco. But knowing how hard it was to get to this point, the lightweight contender wasn’t about to throw it all away with a wild final three months of the year.

So he went to China.

Really.

“Man, it was incredible,” said the 28-year old of his trip to Asia to give seminars and train members of various MMA teams. “I really loved China. I fell in love with it. It was not at all what I expected. I had all these people warning me about this and that, and it was people who had never been there. There’s this great misconception that the government’s watching your every step and that it’s super restricted, but that’s really not the case. They may have the communist party in charge, but capitalism is alive and well over there, and it’s even more capitalistic than the United States, I’d say, and it’s a booming economy. You can live an incredible lifestyle out there for a lot cheaper and it’s an easy lifestyle to fall in love with.”

If that doesn’t cap off your year in style, what does? It was another reminder of how far Healy has come in the space of 43 pro fights, and it’s good to see the rest of the world catching up and realizing that despite 15 losses, he’s a legit contender and someone who has turned the corner. And you can hear it in his voice that he couldn’t be happier to show fighters halfway around the world just how he does what he does.

“It was really cool,” he said. “The guys were so excited and so focused that when you were teaching it was weird to have a group of 80 people and everybody is paying such close attention. There’s the language barrier, so I had a translator, but a lot was off sight, so I’d really have to show my hand positions or my leg positions and stuff. It was a lot more visual learning, but the focus a lot of the athletes had, they were so ready for instruction and excited to get some good techniques.”

And once Healy was back stateside, he had a new energy and focus from the experience, something that bodes well for his return to action this Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio against rising star Caros Fodor.

“Although I was teaching out there (in China), I really learned a lot from those guys,” said Healy. “They have an interesting style of standup. It’s pretty heavily influenced by Muay Thai, obviously because they’re so close to Thailand and a lot of the athletes have been over there. But they did a lot of little, different things. They threw a lot of sidekicks, and man, when you first experience that, it’s a really slick style that they have. I hope I was able to add some of the slickness into my game and I really got some things from them about how they were training that I’ve been able to add into my training that I think is going to help my game a lot.”

He’s even given up his recreation pastime of mud sliding in his native Oregon.

“I’m missing some good times right now,” he laughs. “It would be the perfect time to do some mud sliding, but with the fight coming up, I’ve been trying to lay off. As the fights get more important and as I get older, yeah, you gotta make sure you make the right decisions.”

Needless to say, it’s a good time to be Pat Healy. He’s beaten everyone put in front of him over the last year, and if he gets his 2012 campaign off to a similar start, he’s got to be in the title picture because four fight winning streaks are hard to come by wherever you fight, let alone in a premier organization like Strikeforce. But he’s not screaming for a title shot or any particular names. He’s just happy to have finally earned the respect he fought so hard for.

“I kinda feel like it’s a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders,” he said. “I always believed in myself, but I felt like every fight I was going in trying to convince people. Every interview I gave, everyone I talked to, I was trying to convince them that I had a chance to win or that I was gonna be a contender. Now I feel like people are taking me seriously, and that’s one less thing I have to worry about.”

Now the only thing on his plate is dealing with Fodor, a fighter who had his own coming out party last December when he knocked out Justin Wilcox in just 13 seconds.

“He’s a guy who fights really similar to the way I do,” said Healy of his opponent. “He’s a grinder, he’s super tough, he’s hard-nosed, and he’s got a lot of momentum going with him right now. He’s coming off that big win over Wilcox, where I think a lot of people kinda wrote him off, and that’s probably what’s gonna make him most dangerous. He definitely has the belief in himself and a lot of confidence going into this fight.”

Healy shares that attitude, and as the MMA world turns, guys like him are starting to be seen for what they’re doing now, and not what they did ten years ago, when the sport’s landscape was a lot different than it is today.

“In the early days of MMA, there wasn’t so much care as there is now about the boxing style of needing to build your record and take smart fights,” said Healy, whose 28-15 record still includes wins over Paul Daley, Dan Hardy, and current interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit. “A lot of us who started young and got into the game early would take anything that was thrown in front of us, and I feel like it has paid off for me fighting like that, and it’s really gonna make a difference in the experience I have, and I definitely feel like I’m one of the guys who need to continue winning and show everybody that you gotta look past those records a lot of the time.”

So can 2012 possibly match 2011?

“I gotta put together another good streak of winning fights, obviously, and everything that comes to me, I’ve got to be prepared, and the fights that I’m expected to win or do well in, I’ve really got to have good performances in.”

That may be tough, because with his current streak, people may expect Pat Healy to win them all.

“It’s a lot better than them expecting you to lose,” he laughs. “You get on those websites and they have the pre-fight picks and they’ll be like ‘this guy’s gonna be tough, but he’s gonna lose.’ It’s a little nicer to see them considering you for some wins.”

Thomas Gerbasi: Caros Fodor - Know Your Enemy

"I’m a hundred percent confident that I’m gonna win that fight; it’s just gonna be tough, and I’m ready for it." - Caros Fodor

Strikeforce lightweight Caros Fodor

Having served as a United States Marine at the beginning of the war in Iraq, you would think that nothing having to do with fighting as a professional mixed martial artist in a regulated environment could rattle Caros Fodor. But as he gets ready for an opportunity to extend his five fight winning streak against veteran Pat Healy this Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio, the rising Strikeforce lightweight star still gets the butterflies in his stomach.

“I get nervous for any fight,” he admits. “I think it’s the nature of the game. But once the fight starts and as soon as we walk towards each other, everything goes completely calm for me and them it’s just like another day in sparring. It’s the buildup before the fight – the locker room warmup, the walk out, the camera in your face when you get your Vaseline on, that’s the most nervous part for me. But once they say fight, it’s like being in the gym. I see one guy and I just put everything together. And I’m not really nervous about the guy. I’m just nervous about letting people down, and everybody that helped me get ready. Losing is the biggest fear for me, and that’s where the nerves come from.”

So far, he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to address those fears, losing just once in eight pro fights. Yet despite his success in a career that began in 2009, the Washington state native was seen as an underdog in his big Strikeforce ‘step up’ bout against Justin Wilcox last December. And yeah, the jitters were out in force that night in San Diego.

“I was really nervous because Wilcox’ style with the constant wrestling can be a problem for anybody,” he said. “So I was nervous and I was expecting a three round battle and expecting to have to win points every round and just try to stay ahead on the scorecards.”

Well, you know what they say about expectations in this sport. Fodor needed just 13 seconds to snap Wilcox’ seven fight unbeaten streak via knockout. “The Future” was here.

“I think with the Challengers cards, people weren’t sure of the competition I was having, but Wilcox was a legitimate contender, so I think beating him put me up there a little bit,” said Fodor, 28, who isn’t exactly predicting a similar outcome against Healy this weekend. In fact, he knows he’s in for what may be a grueling scrap against the 43-fight veteran.

“I have a really tough fight ahead of me,” said Fodor. “There’s no easy way out of this one. I don’t see me catching a lucky submission and he takes shots pretty well too, so a knockout would be tough. So I’m going into this with great conditioning and I’m just gonna try and keep him off me. I think his best advantage would be to get on me like he likes to do and put his weight on me and grind me out against the cage or on the bottom. And he’ll probably try to choke me out. So I give him all the respect in the world, he’s an extremely tough guy and I’m going into this more nervous and ready to go then I was for the Wilcox fight. Healy’s been around, he’s been in some battles and he’s had a lot of experience. I don’t think I’m gonna show him anything he hasn’t seen. I’m just gonna show up in the best shape of my life and I’ve got the skills to beat him. I’m a hundred percent confident that I’m gonna win that fight; it’s just gonna be tough, and I’m ready for it.”

Training out of Matt Hume’s AMC gym, Fodor has had plenty of top-notch talent to help him prepare for the bout, including UFC vets Tim Boetsch, Demetrious Johnson, and Mario Miranda, all of whom were / or are preparing for fights.

“This training camp has been insane,” said Fodor. “We were all peaking at the same time and everybody in the gym was getting ready for a fight. Everything went really well.”

But there are some things you can’t prep for in a gym. Fodor knows this, and even though he and Healy are the same age, in terms of MMA experience, “Bam Bam” is light years ahead of Fodor.

“I’ve been in a bunch of gym wars with some top level UFC and Strikeforce guys, but I haven’t been in one that actually counts, in a fight,” said Fodor. “This is a big one for me, and I’m trying to get into title contention, and I think that’s where he’s going to have the advantage. He’s been in some three round battles where he’s down on the scorecards and he comes back and gets the win. I haven’t had that. I haven’t been down on the scorecards or in jeopardy of losing the fight yet. So I’m sure he’s gonna put me in some precarious situations and I just hope I handle them well.”

You get the impression he will. You don’t come up the way he did, represent your country in a war in the Middle East and then come back and win all but one of your professional fights. Caros Fodor may get nervous, but when the chips are down, he always delivers. He’s visualized this bout with Healy already, and though it may get ugly at times, the end result is always the same – he gets his hand raised.

“I’m prepared for it right now,” he said. “Mentally, there’s a lot of meditation and stuff like that and it really works. I’m going into it right now thinking that maybe he does beat me the first two rounds and I’m bleeding and beat up, I’m hurting everywhere, but in the third round I’m gonna find a way to beat him. I think mental preparation where I’m expecting the worst is what’s gonna get me through this. I don’t care what happens in a fight, but I’m gonna stick to whatever I got and win by any means necessary. Pat likes to bully people, but that’s not gonna happen with me.”