On Saturday, April 7th, Josh “Bring The Pain” Haynes will square off with Luke Cummo at UFC 69: SHOOTOUT. Josh, who hails from Oregon, was a finalist on the third season of The Ultimate Fighter reality television show. Josh was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to talk about his career as an MMA fighter and his upcoming fight against Luke.

Read the partial interview transcript below and listen to the full interview in MP3 audio after the jump.



BuddyTV: How do you feel coming into this fight against Luke Cummo? Are you healthy?

Josh: Yeah I’m extremely healthy, man. I feel really good. I feel like I’ve had a little more time-off out of the cage than I would have liked, so I’m more than ready to get back in there and get going. Preparation has been good and everything leading up to this fight couldn’t have been better. So, yeah, I’m just ready to go man. I’m just kind of ticking down the days, we’re a short time away now and I’m just ready to rock.

What do you think will be you biggest asset against Luke Cummo?

I think this fight with Luke, it comes down to aggression. I think it comes down to me bringing the fight to him and just kind of delivering everything I’ve got with a little bit of an exclamation point. I think…he’s fought a lot of tough people, but I don’t think he’s ever fought anyone that’s gonna hit him as hard as I do or that’s gonna bring as much aggression as I can to the fight. I think more than anything, it’s just the fact that I come down from being a much, much bigger person and the fact that I bring the fight to his doorstep. I’m ready to go so, there’s no holding back and there’s not a part of me that gonna hesitate when it comes time to perform in the cage.

What are some the weaknesses that you see in Luke’s game?

You know, I wouldn’t really say that Luke has a lot of weaknesses. I mean, he is, he’s very good at what he does. He’s a good stand up fighter, he’s a good ground fighter, he’s kind of one of those jack-of-all-trades. I think that, that in itself can become a weakness. I think that a lot of what he does is very textbook and I think a lot of techniques that he will execute whether in a fight or in the practice room are gonna be by the numbers. When I start throwing on him and when the fight really gets in the thick of it, and I do something that might be a little bit outside the parameters that he’s comfortable with, I think then we’re gonna see how well he’s gonna adjust to the fire. I think we’re gonna find out how well he can think outside of the box, ‘cuz I’m thinking he’s gonna have a little bit of harder time with that then me delivering everything by the numbers for him in the ring.

Other than Diego Sanchez, are there some fighters that you would like to face in the future?

Anyone of them honestly. Each one of them presents a really unique challenge to me. Josh Burkman – came from the Quest camp back in the day and he is extremely tough and talented fighter, I’d like to see how that would go. Joe Riggs – really nice guy, but he’s got a similar story to my own and I’d be really interested to see how that would play out. You know, there’s a lot of the guys in the 170 weight class and the welterweight class. They got a lot of time invested there so you know for me right now being young in the UFC, it’s I think more about me climbing into the ring and getting used to the folks I’m working against. There’s not a single person that I would shy away from, you know facing off against.

(Interview conducted by Royce Yuen and Bardia Mehrabian)



Josh Haynes Special Thanks:

I want to take a second to thank my managers at Denaro Sports Marketing, and Team Quest, and to my sponsors; Warrior Wear, Latus Motors Harley Davidson/ Buell, ProTech Mouthguards, Fairtex, Calogel, Bridgetown Chiropractic, Gleukos, Pullen Art, Jay Lee's Auto Group, Valor, and Hollywood Barber & Style Shop.

I also want to say thank you to all of my training partners and coaches at Team Quest, StrengthCoachOnline.com, Portland Thai Boxing, and New Breed Jiu-Jitsu for helping me prepare for this fight.

Lastly I would like to let everyone know about my new official website, www.btpmma.com.