Home      Fight Schedule     On the Record     Links

UFC Fight Night Pre-fight Interview Evan Dunham

Interview by Spaniard, photos by Mike Renouard


 

On Monday, Jan 11th, Evan Dunham (9-0) looks to UFC record to 3 and 0 when he battles Ultimate Fighter Season 8 winner Efrain Escudero (13-0) in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA. The Eugene, OR native started his UFC run with a bang when he filled in on short notice at UFC 95 in London and came out with a highlight reel KO of Per Eklund in the first round. He followed that up with a strong decision win over the highly regarded Marcus Aurelio at UFC 102 in Portland. NW Fightscene's Spaniard spoke with Evan this week about his upcoming third fight in the Octagon to be shown live on Spike TV...


NW Fightscene: How are you feeling with your fight coming up in a few days?
Evan Dunham: I feel great. My training went real well. I was down here in Vegas for 9 weeks training my ass off like I always do. Made a couple of adjustments so I wouldn't be overtraining like I have a tendency to do sometimes. I think it all worked out just great. My cardio's great. I feel really sharp on my feet. My ground game feels good.

NWFS: I've talked to a couple of the guys who train with you and they all talk about how much of a workhorse you are. So when you say adjustments, is that kind of hard for you to kind of have to stop yourself and pull back?
Dunham: Yeah its really hard for me to pull back. I train like too much of a mad man. I still train my ass off very hard. Just basically the main adjustment I made was when my body was telling me to slow it down I gave it that half day it needed to back off just a hair so that I didn't burn myself out which I think did great things for me. I'm still working my ass off. I think it couldn't have gone any better.

NWFS: How does that play into fighting, the overtraining. You hear about people not going in with enough cardio. How does overtraining affect the fighting?
Dunham: It plays in big time because if you overtrain, you leave some of your fight at the gym. And you want to have all your tools and you want to peak at the right time. You don't want to peak too early. Because sometimes when you train too hard, too long, you peak a little bit early. And for me it was just making sure I was going to peak at the right time. And that's what I feel like I'm going to do.

 


NWFS: And so you feel like you perfected that in this fight?
Dunham: Yeah, I think I've done a lot better with it. Usually I train really really hard for fights and usually I end up getting sick half way through because my body is a little bit broken down and my immune system is not as strong as it should be. But this camp I've gone through without any sickness, any injury, anything like that so my cardio is probably better than usual. That's the one thing I didn't lay off of, was my cardio. 

NWFS: You and Efrain are both young explosive fighters with obvious great cardio. What are your thoughts on the upcoming fight and your opponent?
Dunham: I think its a great matchup. Like you said, we both have great cardio and we like to come out hard. I think its going to make for a really exciting fight. I think its going to boil down to who has the better cardio, and who, in the 2nd and 3rd, really wants it. Whoever steps up and pushes through the adversity and then either finish the fight or win round by round. I think its really going to come down to heart and conditioning. 

NWFS: You're both coming form top wrestling camps, you guys both have great wrestling partners. So is this pretty much going to be a standup war? Or do you think it'll be grappling on the ground?
Dunham: I feel that I'm better on the feet and that I'm better on the ground. I've heard him say that he's going to be able to control the fight and dictate where it goes but in my book if he wants to try to dictate where it goes that's choosing between two evils. If you want to keep it standup, ok great we're going to standup. If you're going to try to take me down, if he's successful, you're in big trouble there too because my ground's no joke. But honestly, as far as the wrestling goes, we're not wearing two singlets and we're not doing collegiate wrestling. So I think he's going to be surprised with what I have for him in the wrestling department.

NWFS: You don't think he's going to be able to get you down?
Dunham: I think he's going to have a really hard time and if he does get me down, I'd like to see him try to keep me down.

NWFS: You're a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, tell us a little bit about that.
Dunham: You know I've been rolling, started in 2000, so been about 10 years now I've been doing jiu-jitsu. Come from a good wrestling background in middle school and high school and got straight into jiu-jitsu straight out of high school. Have really good training partners back in Eugene at Team Megaton. Have some really good jiu-jitsu players down here. I work with a team called Legion Jiu-jitsu down here in Vegas, as well as with a bunch of talented guys at Xtreme Couture. So just trying to develop it everyday. I've veered away from the gi almost completely and focus on the MMA aspect of jiu-jitsu for the last couple of years. 

 


NWFS: You have a win over Cleber Luciano, the no-gi world champ. That was a submission win, correct?
Dunham: Yeah, that was a guillotine choke in the 2nd round. That was a good one. 

NWFS: Where do you see Efrains weaknesses if any in this fight? How do you plan to capitalize on them?
Dunham: With a guy like this, I don't see weaknesses at all, I just see where I'm dominant. And I feel that I'm going to be able to slowly but surely pick him apart on the feet. If I come in there just swinging like crazy than its going to be anybody's game. But I know I have the footwork and I have more technical strength than he does so I feel the advantage there definitely.

NWFS: You're on the main card, live on Spike TV. How's that feel, you finally getting on the main deal and getting to show off for everybody for free?
Dunham: It feels great. I'm really happy. The main reason I'm happy is that all my friends and family can tune in this time and don't have to hope that I get on the [televised portion of the] card, you know. I'm on and so that's a motivator to train, get on the treadmill and make you run a little bit harder and a little bit longer. It feels great but at the same time I'm not thinking about it too much. A fight's a fight. Training like I always do and gonna fight like I always do. So that stuff will be in the back of my mind until afterwards.


NW Fightscene would like to thank Evan for his time in doing this interview.

Evan fights live on Spike TV Monday, Jan 11th on UFC Fight Night Maynard vs Diaz against Ultimate Fighter Season 8 winner Efrain Escudero. Learn more at UFC.com or check your local listings. Visit Evan online HERE

 


All Photos, Design, and Content © 2006-2017 NW Fightscene™, unless otherwise noted.

Any usage of content on this site is strictly prohibited without the express written consent of NW FightScene™.

Report any errors to webmaster@nwfightscene.com