Matt Wiman, although young, had fought in the UFC prior to appearing on The Ultimate Fighter 5. He was on UFC 60, and his MMA experience showed throughout the season on The Ultimate Fighter. Unfortunately, on last night's episode he came across the bulldog known as Manny Gamburyan. He had a poor first round, but came back to give Manny some trouble in the second, but it didn't end up being enough. Matt stopped by to talk with us earlier today to discuss his time on the show.
Below you will find both the written transcript and the full mp3 audio of our interview.
Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into MMA?
Absolutely, well it's not that exciting of a story actually, I just grew up boxing and wrestling with my friends, I loved fighting, loved watching UFC, so I always played all the sports I could, played all the hard sports- football and rugby and this and that, I just thought one day I should look into fighting cause I loved it, and loved watching it, and see if I was any good at it, and I started training with Mikey Burnett’s school in Tulsa and it ended up I was pretty good at it and started competing and winning, took a couple big fights, big opportunities, and had good success. And I’m gonna take it as far as I can, hopefully I do well.
How did you end up on Ultimate Fighter 5, was it something where they contacted you or did you try out with everyone else?
Well they contacted me and said, “Hey I want you to apply for it.” So I had to send in a tape, they already knew I could fight cause I fought in the UFC 60, so they just needed to know if I had a personality, and I guess they found out that I kind of do, and I guess they wanted my character in the show.
When you first got to see all the other contestants on the show, what were your first thoughts, who did you think was going be the toughest competition?
Well, immediately I knew Nate Diaz was gonna be on the show; he’s pretty well known as being a tough guy, well rounded. Let's see, who less? I knew Joe Lauzon was gonna be on the show, he’s tough, and Robert Emerson, I had heard he was tough as well. Little did I know that two of them guys would be my teammates, you know friends. And I kinda saw Gray and I didn’t know much about him, I just saw his cauliflower ear and his build; he looked like a quiet, tough guy. I kinda was expecting him to be pretty tough. And the rest of the guys I didn’t know too much about. I had printed out actually a piece of paper that had all the guys that were supposedly gonna be on it, like a cheat sheet, before I actually came on the show because I think people leaked it out, I dunno like Rico Rodriguez or something. So I kinda researched every one I could, you know, and didn’t find much on everybody just kinda knew a little bit about everybody, but the big names that stuck out was just like Nate and Joe, and I expected Robert and Gray to be tough.
How was it working with BJ Penn all season?
Yeah, I learned a lot from BJ, he’s got great Ju Jitsu and he's a tough guy. He was one of my favorite fighters growing up so it was a great opportunity, great experience to train with him and learn from him.
Going into the fight we saw last night, what was your game plan going in and what was your confidence level going into the fight against Manny?
My confidence was fine and I didn’t underestimate Manny, I knew he was gonna be fighting just like his cousin, and he's gonna be tough and relentless and strong and more of a grappler and just a tough a guy. So, you know, my game plan was just to beat him everywhere, everywhere in the fight, wherever it goes, cause I knew it was gonna go everywhere. Just beat him, beat him on the ground, and don’t let him take me down, take him down and pound him on the feet. He fought to the best of his ability and I didn’t. He showed up and I didn’t feel like I was really all there, fought it as well as I could, so you know, the outcome kinda took care of itself. If we fought 10 times I think I would beat him 7.
Watching the episode last night, what would you have changed about your approach if you got to do it all over again?
There nothing I really could change about my approach, if I was to fight him in different circumstances it might be better, versus five weeks in on a show. There’s so many variables that play into it, it's like we’ve been cutting weight for 4 and a half weeks. I was prepared to fight the day I showed up and had to hold off until the last fight in the first round and then the second round was like 3 or 4 days later so there’s nothing I really could have changed up or approached differently, it just could have been better circumstances. But, you know, hats off to him. He fought well.
What have you got planned in the future for fights, can you talk about any of them? Are you gonna be fighting in the finale?
I don’t know if I can say that yet, I would definitely say look for me soon and I got big plans, but I don’t know if I can say yet if I am, or am not, in the finale.
(Interview Conducted by Oscar Dahl)