Dave Kaplan interview
What have you been up to since the fight with Junie?
I’m getting back at it. I took about a month off and partied a little bit. I enjoyed myself at Frank’s fight on the 27th. But I got back into the gym two weeks ago and now I’m getting ready for the next fight here in a few months.
What did you think about the Mir-Noguiera fight?
The entire event was the best one I’ve seen period. I was actually sitting next to George Roop at the show. We were going crazy. I’ve done so many interviews about Junie and they would ask me about Frank and I told people not only would he win but he would do it in a way that would suprise most people. He did and it made me look really good (laughs).
What inspired you to walk out to General Public’s “Tenderness” before the fight with Junie?
Let me say this, my next entrance will be even better. On this show we had to walk out with the jersey and shorts so really the music was only the thing that made you an individual. Now if I want to wear a costume I can. I can come out to whatever I want. This is what I do. I want people to be entertained the whole time I’m out there from start to finish.
How many times do you want to see someone come down to a hardcore hip hop song or Danzig’s “Mother”? It’s really played out. I thought to myself, what’s the last song you would expect an MMA fighter to come out to? Tenderness was it. The lyrics, “Where is the tenderness”, for a fighter that’s pretty funny.
Have you thought of a song for the Roop fight?
I have a couple that are going through my head. This entrance will be signifigantly better than the other one.
How about “It’s Raining Men”?
That’s a good one. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” is a good one. The funny thing is I went to Youtube. They have the entrance and they had 30,000 views before Zuffa took it down. But if you go to the music video for “Tenderness” there are 10 or 12 pages of comments and it’s all about me. A lot of people have never heard of the song so I guess General Public is pretty happy too.
What did Frank Mir think when he heard the song? He didn’t look very happy.
He asked me what we were coming out to until the music actually started. He was constantly asking me and I kept telling him to wait because he was going to like it. He knows me. He thought it was funny. I don’t need to be the intimidating guy walking down the ramp. It’s a fight. There’s enough stress already. It should be fun.
What are your thoughts on the fight with Junie?
I thought it was a good fight. It didn’t come out like I wanted to a far as the win. I needed to work on the arm bar defense. I didn’t think he had it very tight until the very last second.
I’ve read a lot of different opinions on the fight. Folks said I get my ass kicked and some said it was entertaining. He may have won the first round, that’s fine. I wanted to push him into deep water to see what his conditioning was. It was a very back and forth fight and that’s why we got fight of the night. It made it a little bit easier the fact that I made twice as much money as Efrain.
Maybe I should be safer. I don’t fight safe. I put myself in risky situation. I shouldn’t give my back. Fighting a boring fight is like death to me. Even if I’m getting my ass kicked I want the fans to see an exciting fight. I want my opponent to know he was in a fight. You don’t want to see two guys lay on each other for three rounds. If you’re constantly going for the finish like I am it happens sometimes. You get caught. It’s only my second loss and I learned a lot of stuff from it. But I also have to say that Junie improved tremendously by training at Coutures. I think people should give him a lot of credit as well.
You helped him cut weight on the show.
I had no problem with him. The thing about Junie is he’s a young guy and he has his insecurities. Everybody does when they have to fight it’s a stressful environment. You add alcohol and it makes it worse. He was a good training partner for me. I’d like to fight him again because it’s going to be a good fight. When I go into the octagon my main concern isn’t winning and losing. I’m constantly going for the finish so I’m going for the win, always. But I want to have the best fight. In the long run people don’t remember records they remember fights. I couldn’t tell you Stephan Bonnar’s record but he’s an exciting figher. Trying to get that Fight of the Night bonus is my goal. People don’t pay to see boring stuff and I want to be exciting.
Junie and I matched up well and it came down to a techinical mistake on my part. Maybe I shouldn’t let people punch me in the face so much. I want him to punch me and know he can’t hurt me. He’s an awesome guy. I’d love to train with him again. We trained together at Coutures before we knew we had the fight. I wish him the best. He’s fighting a tough guy, Cole Miller pretty soon.
When did you find out you were fighting Junie?
Five weeks or so. November 5th or 6th.
Did you worry you may not get to fight on the Finale?
No, if they called, they called and if they don’t, they don’t. I had some other opportunities lined up like an offer in Japan. That would’ve been awesome but I did feel that if they were going to bring other guys back other than the four guys that were in the finals I thought they’d bring Junie back. I thought that with the storylines of me getting punched in the face by Tom they might bring me back. Besides, people hate me and they want to see me get knocked out.
How did you wind up fighting George Roop for the show in May?
He’s a good matchup for me. I’ve trained with him and I know the things that I can do to be successful against him. He was up here in Vegas training with Frank for the Finale so I’ve trained with him a bunch. Having to fight one of your friends kind of sucks. Frank actually got the call before George or I did from Joe Silva. Frank called George and then he called me. He told me that it’s not a fight I wanted but I ended up calling George and we both had the same feelings on it. When the UFC calls you really can’t say no.
Is it difficult fighting one of your friends?
A little bit but we are both professionals. After the fight we are still going to be friends. What sucks is that the loser of the fight will probably be out of the UFC. Obviously this is a fight I have to win and I’m going to win. At the same time George has a future fighting at a lower weight possibly in the WEC. I don’t feel too bad. He probably has a better opportunity at that level then I do.
George is a warrior. He beat John with one hand.
He did. He’s tough and his conditioning is really good but I’m tough and my conditioning is good too. I think I have a small advantage because of wrestling in college and training with people I have. He has more experience than I do. He’s had 11 fights. I’ve only had 5. It’ll be interesting to see if it will be a grappling match or if we keep it standing.
Where are you training now?
I’m still at Striking Unlimited with Frank and Ken. Frank won’t be in my corner for this one because he doesn’t want to pick sides and he’s also fighting that night as well. I’ll still have Ken and Robert Drysdale. I’m going to start going back to Coutures and train there. I’m also going to go train with Noguiera in Miami too. I’m just fine tuning and it’s nice having 16 weeks instead of 4 or 5 to get ready.
Are you helping Mir get ready for Lesnar?
I try to help him. The things I’m good at are conditioning, the running and the sprints. I go running with him everyday. The jiu jitsu aspects he helps me because that’s not my forte.
I think one of the biggest things that helped Frank in his win over Nogueira other than the improved standup was that his conditioning was great. He’ll tell you that was a worry for him in the past especially in a five round fight.
What are your thoughts on that rematch?
Lesnar is very powerful and very athletic but people forget that Frank will be 250-255 also. He’s put on a lot of muscle and he’s in great shape. Brock’s had one fight that went three rounds. How is his conditioning? At some point a wrestler is going to want to get a takedown. That’s where Frank wants to be to make him submit. I can tell you that Frank wants to get a knock out because he’s already submitted him. It’ll be huge validation for him. When they announced the four guys nobody gave Frank a chance. I think I read 35 writers and 33 picked Noguiera to win. He’s already beaten the odds. He’ll do the same thing that night. He’ll regain the title he never really lost.
I’m just happy I get to fight on the same card and be part of that. It sucks I have to fight George but a fight is a fight and we are both professionals.
How did you get selected for The Ultimate Figher?
Very haphazardly. A friend of mine, “Big Kev” called me and told me that tryouts where in Boston at the end of the week and I told him I wasn’t interested. I was training for another fight. I was supposed to fight Aaron Riley in DC in April of last year. He basically told me that he bought the plane tickets and got a hotel so I had to go. We went up and I went through the process and I got a call the next day and they flew me to Vegas for the medicals and the second interviews. A couple of weeks later they told me I made the show.
Once that happened I thought it could be a good thing and I could get some exposure but after I won my fight and made it in the house the rest is history.
Did you have a preference as to who your coach was going to be?
No, either one of those guys would’ve been great. If I had been on Team Nogueira it would’ve been a great opportunity like it was on Team Mir. After the show Frank asked me to move to Vegas and train at Striking Unlimited. Noguiera also asked me to come to Miami
and train with him. I had a good relationship with both guys. I had a lot of respect with both guys. You had team togetherness on Noguiera’s team and Frank brought in guys for us to work with. I hope to train with Noguiera in the future but I’m very happy with how things worked out here in Vegas with Frank.
What are your thoughts with Phillipe?
I came into that fight so grossly overconfident and arrogant and it was a big mistake. I didn’t know anything about Phillipe. The day we had our fights I was in the back getting ready for my fight while he was fighting and I didn’t get to see him fight. All I had were people telling me about it. And from what they said the guy he fought who was a striker took him down and took his back, stuff like that. I heard that and I didn’t think much about him. It’s never good to underestimate your opponent.
I went out there and landed a good combo. I thought to myself I’ll let him tag me with a few punches then I’ll walk through him the way I did in the first fight. You saw what happened. It was the first time I have been knocked down in a fight and it was embarassing. It was the first time I had ever been behind in a fight and it put me in panic mode. I thought I have to make up the points right now and I gave him my back and that was a mistake.
Obviously I’d like to rematch Phillipe and Junie. I’d like to avenge those losses. I’d take Phillipe a lot more serious and be prepared for him. He was the better fighter that day and I told him that because my gameplan was garbage.
I think Phillipe is very good but he heard those things people were saying about him and it got in his head. It’s difficult when you are young and up and coming and people say you are “the next Anderson Silva”. I think watching him fight Efrain you saw what his weakness was. He beat George and I pretty quick but you saw his weakness there.
What was it like on Team mir when Junie fought Efrain? Had the team turned their back on him?
I think Frank was peeved but he’s competitive but he didn’t want to give anything to Team Nogueira. He wanted Junie to win because it was the semi-finals. Junie will tell you he lost the fight before he fought. He mentally wasn’t there. Erain is tough. He won the show. I think if they fought again with Junie training at Couture’s it would be a lot more competitive.
Did Tom Lawlor knock you out?
I’ll say this. People are constantly asking me that. If you go on Youtube there are 30 or 40,000 hits. It was on E! and I’m famous for that and that’s fine. Tom is 205 pounds and he hit me as hard as he could and at that point I had 17 shots of vodka. He could’ve pushed me over. There’s a possiblity he could’ve knocked me out. It was a bit where I said I’ve never been knocked out. And when you see me standup and wink at the camera you could say I wasn’t. It’s hilarious to me and Tom that people are still talking about it. I don’t mind being the butt of a joke.We set that bit up 2 hours before it happened. We did it to get the camera crew to laugh. I always tell people whatever you think happened, happened. People want me to say that I was but I won’t say one way or another.
Up there with Junie I’m probably one of the most disliked people from the show. People say we are bad for the UFC or we don’t belong in the UFC, whatever. If I end up being known as the guy who can’t be knocked out then people will pay money to see you knocked out. I learned a long time ago it’s good if people like you but if they don’t it’s even better. If people are talking about me I don’t care. At least they are talking about me. There’s some guys on the show that no one ever talks about.
If you are like me, Junie, or Tom and have a charasmatic personality. Some people love you and some people hate you. With my entrance I’ve read where people say it’s gay. I’ve seen where 40 or 50 people hated it but I’ve read 1,000 things where they liked it and they want to see what I’m going to do next time. I don’t live my life based on what people say about me. The only security is when people don’t care about the wins or losses. They just want to see you compete. Look at Mike Tyson, nobody cares that he lost his last five fights they want to see him because he is Mike Tyson. If that will keep me in the fight game and keep getting me paid then that’s what I’m going to do.
Was there ever any concern that punch would get Tom thrown off the show?
No, he was my best friend on the show. I spent 11 hours a day with that guy. Even if you didn’t see that the producers knew it. We are wearing microphones and they knew it was for fun. It’s the intent. Junie wants to fight Bader, it’s the intent but if I ask Tom to punch me it’s different.
Did you and Tom drink urine?
Yeah, someone at some level didn’t like it and it got cut. Yo’uve got to put stuff in context. We are in a house for 6 weeks with no entertainment. They edit stuff out of order too. The sushi incident happened two weeks after the showed it right before the show finished and they showed me at the table eating the tainted sushi in front of Phillipe. It wasn’t the tainted sushi I’m not going to eat stolen sushi in front of Phillipe. I eat suhi everyday. The piece of sushi in questions never was eaten.
Back to the pee, we had a couple of drinks and Bader dared Tom to drink his own urine and the price got up to $500. I’m going to drink a shot of my own urine for $500 and I’d probably do it again. I got that money in the end. I think Tom got $300 as well.
It is gross and it’s not something I would do sitting around the house (laughs) but it is sterile. It’s techinically cleaner than water you drink. I think a lot of people would take shot of their urine for $500 too.
What do you like to do when you aren’t training?
I like to party, probably a little too much. I think I’m up to 190. I like to travel and do the same stuff as everybody. I try not to go out too much. You get the people who know who you are try to get you to come out and party with them and come to their club. I read a lot of books. I play guitar and piano. I recorded some stuff a while back and almost sold some of it. Alot of my friends are in the business of fighting or training. Sometimes it’s difficult to not train.
I’m not one of these guys who goes a week without training and misses it. I could go a month without training and be happy. I’ll start training for the fight with George in a few weeks so I’ll have 14 weeks of hard training then I want to have 4 or 5 weeks of doing what I want to do. That’s the reason I fight to live that lifestyle and do things when I want to do them. If I want to go to Spain I can go. If I want to visit my family I can. I don’t want to work 9-5. I like to move around alot. I will only live in Vegas for a year or two then move somewhere else. I lived in San Diego last year. I lived in DC for a few years and Amsterdam for awhile. I like the freedom to do that.
I heard you worked for the CIA is that true?
No, I was misquoted when I did interviews with Spike TV. Before I did MMA I was recruited and I went on interviews with government agencies like the CIA. Three days before I started training hardcore for MMA I had an interview with a diplomatic security service which is the intelligence part of the State Department. If I hadn’t done MMA I would’ve done something like that with the FBI or CIA possibly.
Is there anything else you want to say to the fans?
Thanks to all the fans and to all the haters, keep hating. You’re paying my paycheck.
