Phil Baroni – This Sport Is My Life: Part I
By Dave Carpinello
In a two part segment, “The New York Badass”, Phil Baroni talks with PDG about his upcoming fight for Titan Fighting Championship, Hammerhouse, living and surviving in mixed martial arts career mode, the future of Japanese MMA, the Michael Bisping situation, race involved shit talking, the hardest part of a fighter’s head, video games, grudge match mentality and more!
PDG: Did you have a chance to go back out to Columbus, Ohio for the Arnold Sports Festival and Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson this past weekend?
Phil Baroni: No I am actually out in San Jose, California training at AKA (American Kickboxing Academy).
PDG: Your next fight is coming up on March 25th for Titan Fighting Championship, what first impressions have you gotten from them as an organization?
Phil Baroni: I went down there and watched one of their shows that had three UFC veterans on the card (Tim Sylvia, Drew McFedries and Rich Clementi) and two of them got beat so it is a tough show. It is a good promotion with a good audience because it is on HDNet and so I am definitely going to have to bring my A game and that is one of the reasons that I am out here at AKA training my ass off.
PDG: What other reasons draw you to choose AKA?
Phil Baroni: I trained here a lot when I was winning my fights in PRIDE and I still travel back and forth between here and Las Vegas but when I need a win and it is an important fight I come out here. I definitely have my best results when I am training here at AKA.
PDG: What do you think of your upcoming opponent Nick Nolte (not the actor)?
Phil Baroni: [Laughs] He is a tough, scrappy guy and he comes to fight. He has some decent stand-up and he is well versed in submissions so I am going to have to be at my best and take him out quickly.
PDG: You lost three fights in a row in 2008, then you followed that up with a three fight win streak to end that year. Since then you are back on a three fight losing streak, what changes are you making this time around to get back in the win column?
Phil Baroni: The biggest thing was getting away from my home and coming to California. In my last fight in the UFC against Brad Tavares, I felt good but he caught me with that head kick and then he didn’t let up and he was able to finish me. There isn’t much else to say about that fight and the two before I don’t think I was in great shape. So in addition to coming to AKA I also spent some time in Thailand training where I able to focus just on fighting and not everything else that life throws at you. I was at Tiger Muay Thai for two months and it really got the fight juices flowing again as well as my love for the sport.
PDG: While you were in Thailand, did you ever consider going to Golden Glory?
Phil Baroni: I talked with the guys a lot but I just didn’t make the move. I plan on going to Holland in the future, either after this fight or after my next one. I also heard that Golden Glory will be opening a gym out here in California (Golden Glory Los Angeles) and when that happens I will be putting in some work there.
PDG: You are most likely to always be associated with Hammerhouse; how much contact, training and fight preparation work do you still have or do with those guys?
Phil Baroni: I am still good friends with those guys but I rarely if ever still train with them. Mark Coleman got me into the PRIDE organization and he was my cornerman but as most people know we never really had a house that we trained at.
PDG: How have you been able to keep your name so marketable over the last few years as opposed to say Coleman or Kevin Randleman?
Phil Baroni: Mark is over 40 years old, he is the former UFC and PRIDE Heavyweight Champion and a UFC Hall of Famer. He fought Randy Couture and had a great fight against Stephan Bonner, so I don’t know why more people aren’t demanding him, he is not as charismatic of a fighter as I am, I am just not sure but I can tell you that Coleman has helped me tremendously in my career and he has always been a great friend. As for Randleman, he a very charismatic individual, that is another one that I would struggle with to give you an answer. I still like to watch those guys fight and for me I think that I still have that hardcore fight fanbase that follows me. They like my attitude, never say die and always go for broke. I think that over the years I have been able to gain more fans because of my fighting style and they respect my style of never giving up in my fights. My career has ups and downs and a lot people give up in those situations but not everyone can be a champion and get everything handed to them on a silver platter. So I think that the fans are able to relate to me and right now my career is down but I am still working hard. The fans know that I fight for them and I never want to let any of them down. Like I said earlier though, I would really like to see those two guys fighting again and hopefully that happens.
PDG: No disrespect to any either Mark or Kevin, I just wanted to get your thoughts on it.
Phil Baroni: Not at all, both of those guys have battled injuries for years. Especially Kevin who has been hospitalized several times for serious injuries, he looks young but he isn’t a kid anymore either. Coleman on the other hand just fought a UFC main event, he lost, kinda fell off the face of the earth and the UFC basically retired him. Which wasn’t what Mark wanted and wasn’t that cool but he is hurt a lot and I know he wants to fight and he usually puts on a good show when he does. The three of us have completely different fighting styles, we are different fighters and so it is difficult to judge one another especially because we are all friends. Hammerhouse is more of a fraternity than it is a team or a club. I am based in Vegas and when I am training for a fight it is at AKA. If I am in Vegas, I stop into Xtreme Couture’s, Mandalay’s Gym or Robert Drysdale’s gym. Kevin trains at the TapouT Center so we don’t train together but we are buddies and will always have eachother’s back. Kevin is a tough guy but I know he has taken several fights when he was injured and maybe that has hurt him more.
PDG: You are about three weeks away from your next fight; how are you as far as weight and conditioning goes?
Phil Baroni: My last fight at 170lbs (Amir Sadollah) kinda fucked me up a little bit, I lost a lot of strength and speed. So when I got back to 185 lbs I started feeling a lot better but I was still small for that weight class which isn’t an excuse for losing because I was doing well until the kick. Since then I have put on another seven pounds of muscle, so hopefully I have some weight to cut at the weigh-ins as opposed to my last fight. I am definitely bigger, stronger and more prepared for this fight than I was for Tavares and although I won’t make any bold predictions….I am ready for this fight.
PDG: What do you think about fighting on HDNet?
Phil Baroni: It is definitely great to be back on TV. I will be able to show the fans that I still got what it takes and that my last fight was just a kick to the head, I can still fight at a very high level. I think that I am still a contender and on any given day I can still beat anyone out there. If I get off on you with my hands I will put you away, I still believe that and I still know that it is true. I am looking to prove that and what better place than on TV on HDNet. When I had my last three fight win streak, none of them were televised, so very few fans got to see them. So this fight is about who I still am and what I have left.
PDG: You spent a great deal of your career fighting in Japan; what are your thoughts on the possible collapse of major MMA in Japan?
Phil Baroni: It sucks because when I was there I fought great and I had really good focus in my career. It is also sad to have something that is a part of you go away. It is really bad for the fighters though because the sport is getting a lot more popular, there are a lot new and exciting fighters and the UFC can only have so many people on their roster. So if that happens there will be significantly less places for a fighter to make a living. Not to mention, the sponsorships across the board are down because of the economy which already leads to less money for the fighters. I am hoping Bellator FC does good and with this MTV2 deal it is a possibility, Strikeforce continues to hold their position and I hope that they can continue to grow despite the bad luck they have had so far with this Heavyweight Grand Prix. Strikeforce has some stars like Nick Diaz, Bellator has Eddie Alvarez and they just need some more momentum to grow. There is the BAMMA promotion over in England and maybe they can pick up some of the slack and keep growing strong. I would love to see Japan MMA rise again, it is such a good opportunity for fighters. If there is only one table to eat at, a lot of fighters will go hungry. The more promotions the better, yeah the UFC is the biggest and the best right now but I don’t care, I just want to see more promotions and opportunities for the fighters.
PDG: Do you think that there is a market in Japan that the UFC or Strikeforce could infiltrate without all of the corruption that has killed PRIDE, Sengoku, DREAM and K-1?
Phil Baroni: I don’t know, that is a great question. That was a terrible situation for the owner of PRIDE, the Yakuza details became public and although I am not an expert on the situation I definitely heard some crazy things that were going on. The good part about my career in Japan was that everyone was getting paid good money unlike some fighters of late. They had great shows, the money was what the fighters deserved, we got to fight overseas and the experience was great. There is such an incredible fanbase in Japan so hopefully the UFC or Strikeforce can work around those problems. In the meantime, Canada has a big MMA market, as does Korea and England with Michael Bisping. The Maximum Fighting Championship is doing decent in Canada and maybe they can step it up (considering the UFC sold 55,000 tickets at the Rogers Centre) and take advantage of that fanbase or maybe someone else moves in and takes advantage.
Stay tuned later this week for Phil Baroni – This Sport Is My Life: Part II featuring Baroni’s take on the Michael Bisping situation, race involved shit talking, Baroni & PDG debate the hardest part of a fighter’s head, video games, grudge match mentality and more!
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