by Justin Bolduc
Nokaut's Justin Bolduc had a chance to sit down and talk to Sean Salmon before his fight against Eric Schafer at UFC 71. Read what Sean had to say about his opponent, his fight against Rashad Evans, and his thoughts on the UFC.
Justin (Nokaut.com): You have a fight coming up against Eric Schafer, what are your thoughts on him and what have you been doing to prepare for him?
Sean Salmon: I think I know about as much as anybody does, he’s a real tough jiu-jitsu guy, real awesome with his submissions; and I’ve been training down at Jorge Gurgel’s mixed martial arts academy in Westchester, Ohio preparing for him. Those are some of the best jiu-jitsu guys in the country down there, and they are throwing everything at me that “Red” is going to be throwing at me, so I think I am getting myself as prepared as I can.
Justin (Nokaut.com): How has training into jiu-jitsu been for you considering your wrestling background?
Sean Salmon: I think wrestling has made the transition into traditional jiu-jitsu real easy- I shouldn’t say real easy, but probably easier. A lot of the techniques are real similar, the submissions are different, you know but the man versus man grappling and technique is real similar. I have been able to pick it up pretty quickly I think.
Justin (Nokaut.com): From what I understand you had some issues committing mentally to wrestling. What is the difference with mixed martial arts?
Sean Salmon: Wrestling was tougher on me; it was more of a grind. You would go into tournaments and you’d start at 8 or 9 in the morning, and you’d have to be ready to go with anywhere from three to six matches in a day. Just staring at that in the morning takes a lot of mental toughness and a lot of energy, especially when you are facing top level competition. So I would sometimes have trouble getting too nervous or having trouble staying focused for a whole day. MMA is a lot different, you pretty much rest and relax all day and you get to sleep as late as you need to into the day- I’m kind of a night owl so being able to compete later at night is nice for me. But it’s only one time, I only have to sit there and focus for fifteen minutes, get after it, and do my best to win. I think that makes it a lot easier on me.
Justin (Nokaut.com): Aside from the outcome of the Rashad Evans fight, how has your experience been with the UFC?
Sean Salmon: Besides getting knocked out in my first fight it has been awesome. They’ve taken are for me wonderfully. You know you fly down there a week early with your corner guy and you get plenty of food money from them and a decent enough training facility, then the whole show is awesome to be a part of. And obviously I had a little different experience, I had to go to the hospital after my first fight, but I had Dana White’s assistant with me for the whole night until I left and I was cleared. And they paid every single dollar of those medical bills, so my experience with the UFC has been awesome.
Justin (Nokaut.com): There is a lot of criticism about fighter pay, but it’s cool to see they give bonuses then do stuff like that.
Sean Salmon: Yeah. I wish the entry pay was $20,000 [to show] and $20,000 [to win] but it’s not. Hopefully one day it will get there to that point, hopefully even higher, but it’s hard to complain about the entry level pay when they didn’t force me to sign the contract, and I wanted to be a part of the UFC and fortunately right now it seems that they take really good care of their top level fighters, I’m just not there yet. I do plan on being there and being taken care of that way, so it’s tough for me to complain but I do wish it was more.
Justin (Nokaut.com): What is it like for you coming back from one of the more brutal knockouts we’ve seen in the sport?
Sean Salmon: To me it is no different than it was coming back after my loss to David Heath earlier in my career. I don’t really pay attention to- well I pay attention to the fact that it was a knock out in terms of adjusting my positioning on my feet and looking at the lessons I can learn about why that happened, I dropped my hands and was circling into his power; but as for it being a knock out it doesn’t effect me mentally at all, I mean the loss was the hardest thing to deal with. Just the fact that I did lose at something I wanted to win.
Justin (Nokaut.com): What are you doing specifically with your training less than a month from your fight?
Sean Salmon: Right now I’m still in the middle of two-a-days. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays I head down to Jorge Gurgel’s in the morning, it’s about an hour and a half for me which sucks, but I do Tuesdays as boxing, Thursdays are groundwork, and Saturdays are half boxing and half groundwork. Then on those days I will drive back home and get in a run or lift that night. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I do my lifting and running in the morning then I do kind of a mix of everything, jiu-jitsu, boxing, and kickboxing in the evening. Then Sundays if I’m kind of run-down from the week, which I usually am, I will take off. But if I’m feeling motivated I go for an easy jog or a bike ride. So I’m working pretty hard right now.
Justin (Nokaut.com): Back to the Rashad fight; he’s becoming one of the more popular fighters and has been known for his wrestling. How do you feel about what you were able to do with him, especially in the first round?
Sean Salmon: Actually I expected to be more dominant in my wrestling than I was, so that didn’t really add confidence. I mean I look at it more- like I said before I get sick to my stomach watching me get two takedowns and having him get back up then I do from the kick to the head I took. I knew my wrestling was better than his going in and I expected to be able to take him down more frequently and keep him down. I had to look at it as what am I doing wrong where he was able to get out from the bottom.
Justin (Nokaut.com): What did you find to be the biggest obstacles to overcome transitioning from wrestling to mixed martial arts?
Sean Salmon: The stand-up, for sure. The footwork is just so much different, and the way you breathe when you move on your feet and throw punches is so much different than wrestling. That is something I am constantly working on is my breathing and footwork on my feet.
Justin (Nokaut.com): How many fights do you have left with the UFC?
Sean Salmon: I have two left on my contract, including the Schafer fight. Obviously I’m planning on winning this fight and getting a new contract, but for right now its Schafer then one other fight.
Justin (Nokaut.com): You said you’ve been training with Gurgel’s camp; with a move to Middleweight would a fight with Franklin be something you would do, or does the association keep you from wanting to do that?
Sean Salmon: That is a tough question right now. You never like to fight a friend of yours, and the more I’m down there the closer we get. Obviously I think I’m a little ways, Rich is setting himself up for a title fight right now and I’m just coming in the division with a lot to prove to get to his level so that isn’t something I’ve thought about yet. But hopefully down the road it is something I will have to concern myself with because no matter what happens he’s always going to be one of the top guys in the division and if I work my way up he’ll be someone I will have to worry about. I don’t know though, we’ll have to see when it comes to it.
Justin (Nokaut.com): As an up-and-comer what is it like for you to see guys like [Gabriel] Gonzaga knock out Mirko [Filipovic], Matt Serra TKO [Georges] St. Pierre, and Nick Diaz defeat what many considered as the number one Lightweight in the world; is there any extra motivation there?
Sean Salmon: I think it’s great for the sport. You’ve heard a lot of people say that there are so many ways to win and lose in this game. I’m definitely surprised by some of the upsets, I mean I’m a huge St. Pierre fan and I knew that Serra had a fighting chance, he’s a tough opponent but I didn’t think in a million years he’d win that fight. I thought Gonzaga had a decent chance against “Cro Cop”, I never thought he’d kick him in the head though. I think it’s awesome, I think it’s great for the sport and will keep people interested- I mean who knows what is going to happen anymore, and it seems like everyone has a great shot at winning. No one is invincible in this sport.
Justin (Nokaut.com): What advice do you give to aspiring fighters?
Sean Salmon: Humble yourself. Keep as busy as you can and humble yourself. I started off as a wrestler and I sought out some of the best jiu-jitsu guys to train with. I’ve been submitted hundreds and hundreds of times but I’ve learned every single time. So that is my best advice, humble yourself and seek out the best training partners and learn everything you can from them. I mean I could have gone in with some of those jiu-jitsu guys and neutralized them and not been submitted but I wouldn’t have passed guard or submitted them or learned anything. Give it your all and win or lose you learn something from it.
Justin (Nokaut.com): Do you have any final words for your fans and the readers at Nokaut? Any sponsors to thank?
Sean Salmon: Thanks to UFCJunkie.com, Full Contact Fighter, ScientificWrestling.com, Envy Tattoo here in Columbus [Ohio]. And to the fans I appreciate every single fan I have and every single person who has supported me and sends me e-mails wishing me well.
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