Exclusive: Joe Lauzon
PDG: We haven’t heard much from you since your last fight, except you have another coming up; what have you been up to?
Joe: I have just been training a bunch. I just got back to double sessions and I’ve just been working on everything hard as normal. In the past I took a good break off after a fight, like a couple weeks off, but this time I was right back in the gym after the fight.
PDG: So you’re fighting Kenny Florian; what are your thoughts on?
Joe: Kenny is good everywhere. He’s good on the ground – ridiculously good on the ground. He has good stand-up. He kicks like a motherfucker – he kicks really, really hard. He doesn’t like to throw his hands too much; he likes to sit at a distance to kick people. He also pushes his Muay Thai, constantly looking for the knockout – but all the fights he has won have been submission or TKO on the ground. He hasn’t shown knockout power yet, but I don’t want to be the first [victim] yet either.
PDG: Yeah, and he’s pretty hell bent on knocking someone out with an elbow too.
Joe: Yeah, I’ll have to be very careful of his elbows so he can’t cut me.
PDG: You were on The Ultimate Fighter reality show; what was the experience like for you?
Joe: It was a good experience that I never want to repeat. I got to do so much and met a ton of good guys – like I hooked up with B.J. Penn and stuff. Because of the show I made it out to Hawaii, and I’ll be going out there to train for the Florian fight too. I just got so much better as a fighter being able to focus 100% on training. I feel I picked up better habits, got better with my strength and conditioning, better grappling, better wrestling, better stand-up – I just can’t count all the number of ways I improved dramatically.
PDG: Of course you wanted to win the entire show, but you ended up losing to Manny Gamburyan; did the loss turn out to be a positive thing for you – were you able to take anything away from it?
Joe: I wouldn’t say it was a good thing, but I don’t think it was a bad thing either. For me, I just didn’t even care about fighting by the time I got to the third fight. I made weight three times and fought three times in fifteen days or something. I wasn’t happy about losing, but it was extenuating circumstances. I think it would be a different fight between Manny and me if we both trained legitimately for eight or ten weeks like you do for a normal fight. On fight day I’m normally bouncing around and shadowboxing, so happy that I get to fight that night. On that night I was like “I get to go home in a couple of hours. I get my phone back in a couple hours.” It wasn’t a normal type of fight.
PDG: Yeah, that is something I’ve consistently noticed. I’ve talked to a lot of guys that have been on various seasons of the show and they all say pretty much the same thing.
Joe: Yeah, it’s definitely different. It makes it tough too because they tell you that you have an ideal situation where you get to train in a nice facility and not worry about anything, but you’re still miserable.
PDG: One big thing that came from the show though is obviously the relationship you struck up with B.J. What has that been like for you, and as a jiu-jitsu guy what is it like training with one of the best jiu-jitsu fighters in the world?
Joe: There are so many thing that I know how to do, or at least think I know how to do or know the basic direction and then B.J. will say something to me that will flip everything around. “Oh, that’s good, but this is better.” I’m very lucky I get to train with someone like him. And like you said, the relationship on the show spawned.....you can’t even measure it; do you know how much that is going to help me now and down the line? Right now is making everything a better foundation for down the line.
PDG: Aside from the loss on the show you are on a pretty good win streak right now. Your last win was pretty dominant, and you also ran through Brandon Melendez and Jens Pulver – with fights like that what do you do to keep yourself focused on the next challenge?
Joe: Well every time you train for a fight you’re not just training for that one fight, but you’re training for the rest down the line too. For the Jason Reinhardt fight I wasn’t thinking “OK, I’m only facing Jason Reinhardt,” I was busting my ass and training every single day. I kind of knew the Reinhardt fight would go the way it did, but I didn’t want to act like it was a vacation while I was out in Hawaii. So I’m going to train just as hard for the fight with Kenny and put everything into it – probably train harder for Kenny. We’ll see what happens. I definitely want to keep the win streak going – I mean he’s on one too and I don’t want it to continue. I want to stop his [win streak], shut him down, and do my thing. Hopefully we’ll have the same conversation about my next fight about how I trained for Kenny and thinking about fights ahead.
PDG: Do you think with your attitude and motivation for this fight you will have an advantage over Kenny – I know lately he’s been high on himself; like he just beat Din Thomas, who busted his knee in the fight, but afterwards Kenny was talking about how he finished a top level opponent?
Joe: I don’t try to go and put off the persona that I am the best. I don’t go around saying “I finish fights.” I’m not going to be the guy that runs around talking about what I did. With Din Thomas, if that was me and I won that fight I would not have been saying that I whooped on him. I would have said it was a good fight going into it and it’s unfortunate about Din’s knee and we’ll fight again. That’s about it. I understand that things happen, and it wasn’t like Kenny did anything to make his knee go out. It was a freak accident. Kenny won the fight and that is all that really matters though. But still, you don’t have to go about bragging because his knee popped out and you got the win.
PDG: An interesting point is that your training partner, B.J., just won the UFC lightweight championship; what is that like for you?
Joe: I couldn’t have a better training partner than the guy that has the belt. One advantage I definitely have over Kenny is that I have better training partners. I’m out there training with B.J. – Kenny doesn’t have anyone even close to B.J. It’s not to knock on Kenny’s guys or anything, but he doesn’t have anyone that B.J. wouldn’t wipe the floor with out there. That is a huge advantage. Another thing is that Kenny came out and trained with B.J. before too, and B.J. thinks it’s a good fight for me. B.J. has seen what Kenny does and he’s seen what I do, and he’s still excited about the fight and thinks it’s a good fight for me. Who better to help me to prepare for this fight besides B.J., who knows Kenny’s game? One thing [Kenny and I] are very different on is that I am more spontaneous with what I do. I can’t tell you the number of times doing things I’ve never done in training. I’m like “well I’ll try this” and it has worked out fine. Kenny is very by-the-book, very A, B, C, D – he follows the same path all the time. He knows exactly what he wants to do and he’s very good at it. I’m much more sporadic I’d say. That makes me tougher to gameplan for because I have done tons of things differently in fights that I normally don’t do.
PDG: The interesting part about your training partner having the title, besides being a good thing is also sort of a bad thing in terms of working your way to a title shot. Does your friend having the title discourage you at all, or is that fact that you are so young make it a moot point right now?
Joe: I don’t think B.J. is going to want to hang on to the title for that long. If people are talking about Joe Lauzon versus B.J. Penn, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I don’t think that beating Kenny is going to give me a title shot though. I think B.J. said he wants to defend the title against Sean Sherk and then go after Georges St. Pierre. I don’t see B.J. hanging around 155 [pounds] anyways, so I think with the way the timing and everything goes it won’t be a big deal. Plus I don’t want to think about too many fights down the line. I want to focus on this one fight for now, and we’ll go from there.
PDG: How do you think you match up with B.J. if you two were to fight?
Joe: It would not go well for me [laughs]. B.J. is a freak. Exactly what he did to Joe Stevenson, he does to everyone. He hits incredibly hard, he has a great chin, and he turns it into a technical brawl, then when it hits the ground your day just keeps getting worse.
PDG: You’ve had good success in grappling tournaments before; is that something you would like to do more of or are you completely committed to mixed martial arts now?
Joe: I love doing grappling tournaments. I’m constantly training grappling. I’ve been putting more focus lately on conditioning and boxing and stand-up stuff, but I would definitely like to do more grappling [events]. I don’t know how much time I’m going to put into it necessarily. Like I’m not going to go for Abu-Dhabi and train specifically for that, but if there is a tournament or superfight coming up I’ll jump in. Grappling tournaments are a lot of fun and a good way to compete without getting punched in the face. It’s more relaxed and laid back. If you win, cool, but if you don’t it’s not a big deal.
PDG: Is there anyone specific you’d like to compete against in grappling?
Joe: Not really. For me [grappling] is just fun. NAGA was talking about Cole Miller and me having a grappling superfight or something I think for fun. I’m sure Cole would be up for it, and I’m up for it, it would just depend on schedules and stuff like that.
PDG: How would you feel getting in there with some of the elite-of-the-elite – like Marcelo Garcia, he’s around your weight?
Joe: I would love to do something like that. Even if he arm-dragged me, took my back, and tapped me out in ten seconds I would love that. Like I said, grappling is just fun. I’m competitive in everything I do, but I’m not one of those guys where if I lose I’ll go get all sour over it. Of course I’d love to win, but I just like competing. It’s more about competing to me than always winning.
PDG: And if you did roll with Marcelo and he beat you it is not like that is anything out of the ordinary [laughs].
Joe: Right [laughs]. How many people have gone against Marcelo Garcia and had the same thing happen? He arm-drags you and uses you – he makes you carry him around on your back, and then he chokes you out.
PDG: On a side note about grappling, I remember watching a video of yours and you were in a grappling tournament and busted out one of the fastest, slickest kneebars I’ve ever seen.
Joe: [Laughs] That was probably to Mike Easton – it was started from half-guard?
PDG: Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, that was Mike Easton. I had never done that kneebar in my life. Usually I would slide a knee across their belly or turn the other direction, but I was like “let’s try this.” It just came out perfect.
PDG: What are you doing out in Hawaii besides training?
Joe: Just training really. There isn’t a whole lot to do out there besides training and going to the beach and hanging out. B.J. has a lot of guys out there training for fights so I’ve taken a lot of trips to Oahu and other islands training with them. I’m out there to train, so I don’t want to treat it like a vacation. I’ll do everything I can as far as training goes, but if I have extra time I’ll do whatever then – but training is the most important thing?
PDG: I know the last time I talked to you, you were working regularly. Have you completely quit your day job now or are you still working on the side?
Joe: I’ve pretty much stopped that. They still keep me on part-time though, like I work a couple hours a month – as more of a consultant more than anything because I was there for a while and know how everything is run. I just give an extra opinion on how things should be done, but I’m basically finished.
PDG: The last time we talked you were happy with the regular job – are you happy now training and fighting full-time?
Joe: I liked the steady paycheck from before, but it would have come at a sacrifice. I wouldn’t have been able to train and do all the things I wanted to do. I basically left my job and went to Hawaii. I’ve been able to go to so many places to train and for fights. I feel I would not have been able to do that stuff if I kept my job. I think it was the right move. We’ll see in a couple years if I made the right move and if it will pay off, but since I want to fight I think I made the right move.
PDG: Of course beating Jens Pulver in his “triumphant return” was a big deal and thrust you into the spotlight, but the reality show gave you even more exposure. How have you adjusted with the change in your popularity and what is it like?
Joe: It happens a good amount, I won’t say it happens all the time, but every couple days someone will come up and say “you’re Joe Lauzon” or “you fight in the UFC,” but it’s pretty cool. It’s not to the point where it is annoying or anything. I’m sure some guys have it really bad, like I’m sure Chuck Liddell can’t go to the grocery store without being stopped by eight-hundred people. It’s good though, I definitely notice the difference between the Pulver fight and The Ultimate Fighter. Still, a ton of people come up to me and say “hey, didn’t you knock out Jens Pulver?”
PDG: Is there anything else you would like to say to wrap things up?
Joe: Thanks to the UFC and all the fans. My website is
www.joelauzon.com and MySpace is
www.myspace.com/lauzonrsd. That is it.
