What have you been up to since the Finale?

I took some time off from training and I’ve started teaching classes. Before the show I had a knee injury. It wasn’t major but it did bother me. I’ve taken time off to let it heal 100%. When I was training for the fight with Bader it didn’t hurt at all but there were times it was uncomfortable. I’m 100% now. I didn’t train at all for two months.

Have you heard when you might be fighting again?

They were working on a fight with Kingsbury. It never was official. I heard Kingsbury is hurt so it may not happen. My manager had talked to Joe Silva and they are looking to find fights for me. I hope to fight in May. Six months is a long time for me.

I don’t want to wait 7 or 8 months to fight. I know June 20th they are going to have the Ultimate Fighter Finale then the show in Germany. I don’t want to go to Germany (laughs). Then they’re having UFC 100 in July. I’d like to fight at UFC 98, but if I can’t fight then I’d like to fight at the Finale or UFC 100. But if Joe Silva calls I’ll fight next week.

What are your thoughts on the fight with Bader?

I didn’t care if we stood or we went to the ground. People say Bader has power but who doesn’t? Anyone over 200 pounds has power. It wasn’t a big deal to trade punches with Bader. I thought the striking was 50/50 but I had a big advantage on the ground. His wrestling isn’t as good as my jiu jitsu. There’s no excuse for the fight. Maybe I made a mistake, maybe I didn’t. Maybe he got lucky, maybe he didn’t. Maybe he meant to throw that punch to knock me out. Who knows? But the fight happened like it happened. I’d like to fight Bader again in the future.

For two weeks after the fight I thought about the fight every day. I don’t think anything was wrong with my training. I think what went wrong was I wasn’t aggressive. People say “Vinny sucks on his feet.” They never saw me train. I was training with Forrest Griffin and doing well. I trained with Wanderlei Silva and Stephan Bonnar and I did well. Bader didn’t have the same level training partners I had. Maybe on the show my striking wasn’t that good. But after the show my striking was at a level that was better than Bader’s.

It seems he was reluctant to go to the ground.

If you watch the fight he would throw a punch and back up. He wasn’t being aggressive. He hit me with a haymaker and got me. It’s not like he had superior striking. I could’ve thrown the same punch and got him. Anything can happen in a fight. Unfortunately it happened to me.

Have you and Krzysztof made up since the show?

The whole thing with Krzysztof was I didn’t have any problem with him before the show. He was the one who started the thing about me not liking to get hit in the face. He was my teammate and everyone in the house believed him because we were teammates. Then all the fans started saying Vinny couldn’t take a punch. If I didn’t like to get punched in the face I would do something else. I’d be a doctor or a model. I wouldn’t be a fighter. You have to take a punch sooner or later. Look at Noguiera he gets punched in the face in every fight. I don’t have any problems taking a punch to the face. It’s not like I like it.

But the thing with Krzysztof, it’s over. I’d like to fight him again though. The last fight wasn’t an official pro fight. I’d like to fight him again so I can get the win on my record.

Didn’t you train with him before the show?

During the show I was with Team Quest. I went into the show as teammates. I was Krzysztof’s jiu jitsu coach. I was the main jiu jitsu coach at Team Quest. I decided to leave after some management problems. People say I got kicked out but it was due to management problems. The next time I fight him I won’t have that problem. We won’t be teammates and I can fight him anytime or anyplace.

Did you take it personally when he was talking about you?

I don’t think he was trying to be a dick. He didn’t mean to do it but it happened. Kingsbury and Shane Primm would say “Oh Vinny, he doesn’t like to get hit in the face.” How do they know that I didn’t like to get to hit in the face? When I faced Evans I didn’t get hit in the face. When I fought Jules I didn’t get hit in the face. When I fought Krzysztof I didn’t get hit in the face. How can they judge that? If I don’t get hit in the face does that mean I don’t like to get hit in the face? Krzysztof had never seen me fight before. Is he going by training? If you go by training I could say Krzysztof doesn’t like to be armbarred so what’s the point?

How did you get selected for the show?

Some people went to the tryouts. I sent a video. I told them I don’t have a great fight record so I sent them my jiu jitsu record. I went to Vegas for the medicals and did an interview. One of the producers told me that my interview was boring but it worked and must have been better than other guys. I think being from a big camp helped me too. I was the only there from Team Quest trying out then Krzysztof sent in his tape very late. I was already selected before he tried out.

I didn’t talk to the 205ers. I tried to be friendly with the 155ers. I didn’t want to be friends with some of the guys I had to fight. We weren’t enemies but I got along better with the 55ers. Tom Lawlor is a good friend of mine now. Bader was another guy I was friends with. Me, Bader, and Tom Lawlor got along with each other.

What did you think about all the drama in the house?

It was an awkward situation being in a house for six weeks with 15 other guys. The guys were doing stupid things. The last few days they were drinking piss. Krzysztof was doing pranks and they got worse and worse. We were bored.

Did Junie get on your nerves?

People tried to get him to do stupid things. Krzysztof, Marshall, Bader, they would try to get him to do stupid things when they were sober and he was drunk. I was like come on… I actually got along with Junie. After the show we ended up with the same manager and we train at the same gym. He’s a great guy. People say he has an alcohol problem but he’s not at all. He went to the afterparty at the Finale he had a few drinks but he didn’t get crazy at all. He’s not an alcoholic or have problems. He’s a nice guy. People don’t know him.

One of the producers told me that “Vinny, you’re boring but you’re in the finale so we have to give you camera time.” My camera time was me being a douche (laughs). They showed me getting pissed at Krzysztof for him telling Eliot Marshall they were going to be in the finals. It pissed me off. Krzysztof was my teammate and he’s telling a guy he just met they were going to be in the finals. If they said “Vinny lost so we’re going to be in the finals” I would have been fine. But I was in the competition and he said they were going to be in the finals. He did not respect me. People say that Vinny doesn’t have a sense of humor but they weren’t joking. I do have a sense of humor. But on the show I was a guy with no sense of humor and I was a guy who got in an argument with a legend in the sport. People think I’m an asshole but I’m not.

Are you and Noguiera cool now?

I tried to contact him after the show aired but he was training in Brazil for his fight with Frank. I sent a message through one of his friends but I don’t think he got it. I wanted to let him know I didn’t say anything. The only thing I said was in a conversation comparing me to him was with Frank. Frank brought it up and I never said I was better than him. We have similar styles. I have no problem with him. I wanted to be on his team. He was my idol. When I first started it was because of Noguiera.

When you came on the show did you have a preference as to who was your coach?

I was supposed to be on Noguiera’s team actually. He said the first day that he was going to pick me first but I think he had a conversation with Frank and Frank told him that he wouldn’t pick me because we had some jiu jitsu thing going on. He tricked Noguiera so Noguiera picked Bader. Krzysztof had a lot of experience. My record was not very good but skillwise Bader and me were the best two. Bader could beat people with wrestling. I had the best jiu jitsu in the house. I could beat people with jiu jitsu. It was Noguiera’s plan to get me and Bader. Frank picked Krzysztof because of his experience. Noguiera picked Bader because he was 7-0 and had great wrestling. He thought Frank wouldn’t pick me with his second pick but he did.

It was cool though I trained with Ken Hahn and Robert Drysdale. I met him two years ago. He was my opponent in an grappling match but he became one of my good friends and helped me with my jiu jitsu. They were great guys. I had no problems with being on Frank’s team.

What are your thoughts on the fight with Jules?

He’s tough but he didn’t have good skills so I was relaxed. I thought if take him down and pull guard I’m not going to learn anything. I tried to stand with him but people think I was boring. But if I took him down and submitted him they would’ve said Vinny’s boring he just took him down and submitted him.

When I got on the show I was prepared. In the three fights I didn’t have a great challenge. Bader is an excellent athlete and a great fighter but I wasn’t expecting a huge challenge against him then I got knocked out (laughs).

Would you do it over and go back in the house with what you knew now?

Definetly, I had alot of fun in the house. A few weeks after we got out I was missing that place. Free food, train and then go to the jacuzzi and relax. It was an awesome lifestlye.

Didn’t the lack of entertainment bother you?

When you train it can be boring too. When I was training for Bader that’s all I did was train. On the show that’s all we did. I saved some money during the show. Then I had to pay. When I was on the show I didn’t have to pay for anything.

Where are you training now?

I’m taking it easy now but I teach at Pro-Am Mixed Martial Arts. When I find out when I’m fighting I am going to train at Xtreme Couture. In three months I made some friends there. I trained with Forrest, Stephan Bonnar, and Randy. It’s a great environment.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the fans?

I’d like to support my managers Jake Hattan and Robert Roveta from Denaro Sports for taking care of me and begging Joe Silva for a fight (laughs). Pro-Am Mixed Martial Arts, they pay my salary so I always think them. I’d like to think my sponsors Combat Clothing and Sanctioned Violence. The fans can check me out on myspace too at www.myspace.com/tqbjj

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.