American Mixed Martial Arts fighter, Tamdan "The Barn Cat" McCrory, will match up against Akihiro Gono at UFC 78 on Saturday, November 17th. The undefeated MMA fighter took some time to talk to BuddyTV the other day, about how he got started in MMA fighting, what he intends to do in his future MMA career, and how it feels taking an undefeated record into the octagon. Check out the full interview transcript and the mp3 audio below.

 

 

This is Royce from BuddyTV and I'm here with MMA fighter Tamdan McCrory. How's it going Tamdan?

Pretty good man.

Cool. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.

Definitely man. I appreciate you guys talking to me.

So Tamdan, maybe we can start out by talking a little bit about your background, and can you tell us how you got started in mixed martial arts?

Well, I kind of got into it ... I know about the sport and I'd watched it before. I'm kind of one of those kids that came in when the Ultimate Fighter came out. I watched the show and got really fired up about it and I wanted to do it. I ended up, by a few random instances, I met up with my coaches and about in April 2006 and started training with them. They took me under their wings and molded me into the fighter that I've become.

You're currently undefeated in the UFC. How do you feel coming into this upcoming fight against Akihiro Gono? Are you 100% healthy?

Yeah man. Obviously everybody comes into a fight with some bumps and bruises. You're never like 100%, but I feel great. I've been training hard and getting ready for this fight and I've been getting stronger and bigger. And I feel that, you know, it's going to be a good fight.

Cool. Well Gono is definitely a veteran in the sport and probably your toughest opponent to date. How have you been preparing for this particular fight?

I've been training a lot of stand-up. Working my defense for light kicks. I know he's a kick-boxer. That and just working on my hands and working on kicks myself. Working on establishing my jab and keeping my range, because I'm going to have a significant height difference on him. So pretty much that stuff. And I also obviously trained on my ground work too, to stay well rounded and prepared for anything. But I put the bulk of my concentration on my stand-up because I see that's where the fight's going to end up. About 90% of it. If not, all of it.

What do you feel are his strengths and weaknesses? And how do you plan on playing to those?

I don't really focus on anybody's strengths, but obviously I know there are some things that he does that are going to match up well for me stylistically. I know that he backs up a lot. I know he does a lot of carricks, and I'm pretty good at crashing carricks and cracking somebodies head when they're trying to do it to me. Also I know if you watched some of the pride fights he was in he does a lot of that rope-a-dope style, where he'll back up on the ropes and bounce off and counterstrikes. He's not going to have that opportunity in the cage. So it's going to be kind of like, a new experience for him I think, which is going to help me. Also as far as I know it's his first cut to 170, so that's going to be another thing that he's going to have to deal with, coming into this fight. So as much as he has the greater experience on me, he also has a lot of other extreme variables coming into this fight that he needs to prepare for. Some that he hasn't been preparing for because I don't think he's every fought in a cage before. People that say it's the same thing in a cage or a ring must not have had enough experience in both because, I know for myself it's a completely different world. And you have a different set of tools being in a cage as you do in the ring.

We're definitely excited to watch this fight. More on a personal note Tamdan, who are some of your favorite fighters to watch in the sport?

Well, for the tall skinny guys I've got to love Anderson Silva man. I think I'm kind of, not to sound over the top ... I kind of think of myself as an Anderson Silva of 170lbs. I'm tall. Lanky. I use my range and stuff like that, so I like watching him fight. Forrest Griffin also. He's also been a personal favorite. He's kind of a nutty guy and he just likes to get in there and slug it out sometimes with the best of them. I kind of like fighters like that. I just like watching fights, you know. As long as they're exciting, and whoever's got those knock-outs coming, I love watching them.

Yeah, definitely. Well you're still very young in your career. What do you hope to accomplish in this sport and where do you see yourself in the next couple of years?

Well when I came into the sport you know, I kind of just had that hot-head and just wanted to go out there and fight. Then I found myself getting better and better and I was beating guys that had years of experience on me and a ton more fights than I had. It just got to the point where I said: ‘You know what man, this is what I'm meant to do. I just want to take this sport as far as I can go with it.' I have my youth, which has it's advantages and disadvantages. Obviously because I'm young I don't have the same type of experience as a lot of the older fighters but at the same time, I'm probably recovering a little bit better and I don't have the same bumps and bruises that they're getting. On the down side I've got boy strength and they've got man strength. I just turned 21 yesterday and it's kind of like I'm going up against all these old men it seem. I plan on taking this sport as far as I can go with it. I want to get to the top obviously. Why would you want to be in this sport if you didn't want to take it to the fullest? As far as you can go. So that's kind of why I'm going after Gono right now. I could spend the next three years fighting guys at the lower level of the UFC and racking up a bunch of wins before I make my way into the title contention. Or, I could make it there in a year just by fighting and knocking off all the top guys that they throw at me. So that's just kind of the way my philosophy is. I just want to be the best and I want to get to the top.

Nice. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that maybe a lot of people out there may not know about you?

Well, everyone kind of knows I'm kind of a nerd. Everyone knows I'm tall and scrawny. I'm really shy and I think I've got a lot of social anxiety. A lot of people come up to me when I'm at these fights and events and they start talking to me and they may not notice, but to me I get this anxiety because people were never really interested in what I had to say growing up. So it's kind of like a completely different thing now that I'm fighting and people want to hear what you have to say. So, for me, that may not be something that a lot of people pick up on or know about me that I've got some social anxiety and stuff like that.

Well I appreciate that Tamdan. Any final word for your fans out there?

Just hope they give me some stacked odds. Hope you guys bet on me because I plan to make some people some money you know. And I've just got to thank all the guys who have been behind me and been following my career. And to all the people that are going to come through way of interviews and watching me fight and all the new fans I'm going to get, thanks for watching me. I hope I keep knocking them out and finishing them off early. So, just keep the fans entertained and progressing in my career. So thanks to the fans.

Awesome. Well hey, thanks again Tamdan. We definitely appreciate your time and doing this interview. And from all of us at BuddyTV we just want to wish you the best of luck and we're looking forward to an exciting fight.

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Can I make a shout out to so me sponsors?

Definitely.

I've got to give a shout out to Revgear, Streetwise Fightwear, RUUD, Sprawl, Cryogel, Underground Products, thewinningmindset.com. And for those of you that have myspace, check me out at: myspace.com/thebarncat.

Interview Conductor: Royce Yuen
Image Source: UFCPhotography.com