Curly
04-12-2005, 08:27 AM
FCF: Since your appearance on T.U.F., what have you been doing?
JT: Basically, I've been training. I had a little setback where I broke my foot right away as soon as I got home from The Ultimate Fighter, but then I took some time off, got serious started training, came down to Las Vegas where I trained with Marc Laimon at Cobra Kai Jiu-Jitsu and also did some great boxing training with Canadian boxer Tony Pepp who actually fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. and also with James Pena from the gym.
FCF: When you were excused from the show, did you stay in Las Vegas as many of the other eliminated fighters have said they also did?
JT: I stayed in Vegas basically just in case anything happened, till the duration of the end of the show. I think it was down between me and Chris Leben for who was gonna come back when Nate [Quarry] got hurt, but obviously they picked Chris. I was in great shape by then. I was ready to fight by then.
FCF: How much advance notice were you given that you'd earned a slot on the show?
JT: I only had a couple of hours notice. They called me on Wednesday and they said, 'Do you wanna be on the show?' I said yeah and asked when and was told Thursday. Even then they didn't give me a definite answer. They said, 'Well, we'll fly you down.' Even when I was sitting in the hotel room, they still said, 'Well, you're not exactly on the show yet. Stick around,' and then they basically drove me to the gym on a few hours notice.
FCF: Before that, what training opportunities did you have out in your hometown (Whonnock, British Columbia)?
JT: Not many. I was training out in an abandoned truck stop. It was a doublewide where the trucks used to park overnight for repairs. I had a couple of bags hanging and there was no padding on the floor. It's all cement flooring. We'd wrestle there, but we couldn't slam because of it.
FCF: Who did you train with?
JT: Basically with my brother Eric would help me with all the striking. He'd hold the pads and stuff like that. I 'd go to the odd gym and offer myself for sparring.
FCF: After your run on the TV show, did you go onto the Internet to catch some of the viewer's responses?
JT: I did go on to the Internet at first, and basically I stopped after a little while. As much as there was positive stuff, there was also so much negative stuff.
FCF: You weren't in great shape. Some thought you were a plant. Are you an actor?
JT: No. I'm just a regular person, you know? When I saw that I was pissed off.
FCF: When you saw your episodes air, what did you want to do?
JT: Actually, what I did do was call up Dana [White] right away after I saw the first episode. When I first talked to Dana he was like, 'Oh, congratulations on the show.' I was like congratulations for what? That was garbage. I was just so mad. I said what do you think? Do I get my chance at revenge? I basically asked to fight Chris after the first episode.
FCF: When you came back into the bedroom that night, did you know Chris has urinated on your bed?
JT: No, I didn't know.
FCF: Did you sleep on the soiled bed?
JT: The first night I did because what happened was the power was going off. They didn't show it on the show, but the power and the alarm were going off, and I couldn't really tell. I went into the shower and the power went off while I was in the shower. It didn't come back on, so I basically went to bed soaking wet because I couldn't find any towels in the pitch black, so I didn't notice if there was anything on the bed. What they didn't show later on was that nobody said who did it. They just said some stuff had happened to people's beds. I kind of got a bad vibe and thought that might be me. Right when we came home after the first day of training, I switched the mattresses and I just flipped them.
FCF: Your record is listed at 4-1, but FCF has had a difficult time finding any documentation for them. People have speculated your record is padded or that you don't have any MMA fights at all.
JT: It's 4-1. I had a couple of Thai boxing fights before that too. Straight MMA is 4-1. The biggest shows I fought in were called Battle of the Best. You're not the first person to ask me about my record and the fights. A lot of people haven't seen me fight. I was fighting in small shows, and that's true, and that's part of the reason I went on the show was to test where I was at.
FCF: Do you think requesting to fight Team Quest's Chris Leben is a smart choice for your first publicly scrutinized bout? Leben is 16-1 and has fought on the circuit for quite a while.
JT: I'm ready to go. I'm in better shape now than I was on the show. I think I have a good chance of beating him. Unless he does something where he just wants to win, I think he'll keep it standing because that's his style. He already exploded about his decision he had with [Josh] Koscheck for being held down, so if he's going to come in thinking maybe Jason doesn't train with Randy Couture so he can't wrestle, he'd be kind of a hypocrite if he tried to come in and wrestle and hold me down to get the decision that why.
FCF: What are your strengths as a fighter?
JT: Striking. On the ground, I trained a bit with Gibson's Pankration. Ground would be more of my weakness, although I feel a lot more confident now that I've trained with Laimon for a month. I got a lot on one-on-one attention.
FCF: What do you want out of this fight?
JT: Besides revenge, I just want redemption for myself too, because of the way I was portrayed on the show. I want to show that I deserve to be on there and that I deserve to be in the Octagon and that I deserve to be out there performing in front of the people giving them what they want."
JT: Basically, I've been training. I had a little setback where I broke my foot right away as soon as I got home from The Ultimate Fighter, but then I took some time off, got serious started training, came down to Las Vegas where I trained with Marc Laimon at Cobra Kai Jiu-Jitsu and also did some great boxing training with Canadian boxer Tony Pepp who actually fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. and also with James Pena from the gym.
FCF: When you were excused from the show, did you stay in Las Vegas as many of the other eliminated fighters have said they also did?
JT: I stayed in Vegas basically just in case anything happened, till the duration of the end of the show. I think it was down between me and Chris Leben for who was gonna come back when Nate [Quarry] got hurt, but obviously they picked Chris. I was in great shape by then. I was ready to fight by then.
FCF: How much advance notice were you given that you'd earned a slot on the show?
JT: I only had a couple of hours notice. They called me on Wednesday and they said, 'Do you wanna be on the show?' I said yeah and asked when and was told Thursday. Even then they didn't give me a definite answer. They said, 'Well, we'll fly you down.' Even when I was sitting in the hotel room, they still said, 'Well, you're not exactly on the show yet. Stick around,' and then they basically drove me to the gym on a few hours notice.
FCF: Before that, what training opportunities did you have out in your hometown (Whonnock, British Columbia)?
JT: Not many. I was training out in an abandoned truck stop. It was a doublewide where the trucks used to park overnight for repairs. I had a couple of bags hanging and there was no padding on the floor. It's all cement flooring. We'd wrestle there, but we couldn't slam because of it.
FCF: Who did you train with?
JT: Basically with my brother Eric would help me with all the striking. He'd hold the pads and stuff like that. I 'd go to the odd gym and offer myself for sparring.
FCF: After your run on the TV show, did you go onto the Internet to catch some of the viewer's responses?
JT: I did go on to the Internet at first, and basically I stopped after a little while. As much as there was positive stuff, there was also so much negative stuff.
FCF: You weren't in great shape. Some thought you were a plant. Are you an actor?
JT: No. I'm just a regular person, you know? When I saw that I was pissed off.
FCF: When you saw your episodes air, what did you want to do?
JT: Actually, what I did do was call up Dana [White] right away after I saw the first episode. When I first talked to Dana he was like, 'Oh, congratulations on the show.' I was like congratulations for what? That was garbage. I was just so mad. I said what do you think? Do I get my chance at revenge? I basically asked to fight Chris after the first episode.
FCF: When you came back into the bedroom that night, did you know Chris has urinated on your bed?
JT: No, I didn't know.
FCF: Did you sleep on the soiled bed?
JT: The first night I did because what happened was the power was going off. They didn't show it on the show, but the power and the alarm were going off, and I couldn't really tell. I went into the shower and the power went off while I was in the shower. It didn't come back on, so I basically went to bed soaking wet because I couldn't find any towels in the pitch black, so I didn't notice if there was anything on the bed. What they didn't show later on was that nobody said who did it. They just said some stuff had happened to people's beds. I kind of got a bad vibe and thought that might be me. Right when we came home after the first day of training, I switched the mattresses and I just flipped them.
FCF: Your record is listed at 4-1, but FCF has had a difficult time finding any documentation for them. People have speculated your record is padded or that you don't have any MMA fights at all.
JT: It's 4-1. I had a couple of Thai boxing fights before that too. Straight MMA is 4-1. The biggest shows I fought in were called Battle of the Best. You're not the first person to ask me about my record and the fights. A lot of people haven't seen me fight. I was fighting in small shows, and that's true, and that's part of the reason I went on the show was to test where I was at.
FCF: Do you think requesting to fight Team Quest's Chris Leben is a smart choice for your first publicly scrutinized bout? Leben is 16-1 and has fought on the circuit for quite a while.
JT: I'm ready to go. I'm in better shape now than I was on the show. I think I have a good chance of beating him. Unless he does something where he just wants to win, I think he'll keep it standing because that's his style. He already exploded about his decision he had with [Josh] Koscheck for being held down, so if he's going to come in thinking maybe Jason doesn't train with Randy Couture so he can't wrestle, he'd be kind of a hypocrite if he tried to come in and wrestle and hold me down to get the decision that why.
FCF: What are your strengths as a fighter?
JT: Striking. On the ground, I trained a bit with Gibson's Pankration. Ground would be more of my weakness, although I feel a lot more confident now that I've trained with Laimon for a month. I got a lot on one-on-one attention.
FCF: What do you want out of this fight?
JT: Besides revenge, I just want redemption for myself too, because of the way I was portrayed on the show. I want to show that I deserve to be on there and that I deserve to be in the Octagon and that I deserve to be out there performing in front of the people giving them what they want."