Joe Warren at DREAM 11 learns about MMA the hard way
Published by Zach Arnold on October 8th, 2009 in Current Events

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If there’s one pattern we’ve seen with foreign fighters in DREAM, it’s that they all hate Japanese referees. Some fighters express themselves a certain way about it (like Bob Sapp) and others don’t say much (like Joachim Hansen). Put Joe Warren in the Bob Sapp category.

Warren, who was the favorite to win the DREAM Featherweight GP tournament on Tuesday at Yokohama Arena, lost to Bibiano Fernandes by arm-bar. The referee stopped the fight. For Warren, it was a hugely disappointing loss. Going into the fight, Warren had been talking up a storm in media interviews both in the States and in Japan. His pre-fight press conference with Japanese reporters was especially bombastic.

“Sheesh, c’mon guys, my condition’s 110%. I’m ready for war tomorrow or in two days. You don’t need to worry about me right here, I’m used to competiting in several matches in one day, so um my conditioning is excellent.”

Warren’s raw talent as an amateur wrestling star no doubt give him a big edge in achieving the learning curve he is facing as a newcomer on the MMA scene. Going into the fight against Fernandes, Warren focused mainly on improving his skill instead of worrying about Fernandes.

“I think he’s a champion also, but I don’t have much thoughts about him. I’m really worried about winning this tournament, he’s just another person in front of me and he’s going to go down as hard as he is the other guys go down so I’ve been training a lot of jiu-jitsu and I’m 100% ready for the fight. I’m very new at the Mixed Martial Arts so all sides of my game – striking, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, grappling – we’ve been working hard on. We’ve been training a lot of jiu-jitsu with Alberto Crane and Rani Yahya and that’s the only difference, we’re just maybe now I’m a little more well-rounded of a fighter than I was before the last fight. So, I’m excited to show you my new techniques.”

When asked about what he’s learned from the two Brazilian fighters, Warren sounded extremely confident.

“Mostly technique, mostly training with them for several hours, just to be comfortable in the jiu-jitsu techniques, learning, learning a lot of the submissions, arm-bars, things like this. Just really being able to be focused in on the mat as focused as I am on my feet right now. I just plan on staying real focused and making sure that my technique on my feet is very solid and make sure on the ground that I’m staying out of submissions and being extremely violent. I keep a lot of pressure on him and try to hurt him early in the fight and then take his soul before he gets out of that ring. The guy’s in big trouble.”

Unfortunately for Warren, he was the one who ended up in big trouble. Coming off of a win against Kid Yamamoto, the Japanese media came into the fight with high expectations for Warren winning two fights in one night to win the tournament. Warren talked a big game before the fight.

“It doesn’t matter whoever you put in the world in front of me in the finals, I’m going to beat so I’m not sure how it’s going to work but I’m going to leave with two belts on Tuesday night so I’m pretty excited about that. I have no doubt in my mind, 100%, yeah no problem with me, OK? I’m ready to rock and roll for this tournament so you guys doubted me before so don’t worry, I’m not going to lose, I know you guys wants me to but it’s not going to happen, so.”

A reporter asked Warren if he would win the fight quickly.

“I would like to, yeah, I would like to finish every fight in the first 10 seconds but I think my style is more of a power and a grind-out style but my hands have been working a lot faster now and I think my striking’s a lot better than it was last time so I would like to finish the match fast but if not I’m ready to go the full you know 30 minutes.”

There seemed to be a big assumption by everyone in the room that Warren would win his two fights and become the Featherweight champion. So much so that he was fielding questions about what he wanted to do on New Year’s Eve in terms of his next fight booking.

“Oh, yeah, I would love to fight in front of your fans any time, it’s very respectful audience and it’s a lot of fun to fight here. No plans really, my only plan is to win that first fight, win the championship, and then see what happens next. I’m happy to get home to my wife and my baby after this, you know, it’s been a few weeks. They said make sure to bring the belts home, you know, so I’m going to try to do that for them but they just very confident and very supportive of me.”

After Joe lost the fight by arm-bar to Fernandes, his tone dramatically changed.

“Uh, I don’t think I was in the situation where the match should have been stopped. Um, I uh I trained as hard as I could, harder than anybody could this tournament to win those belts, so I’m extremely disappointed in myself. Um, I will train as hard as possible for this to never happen again, I’ll come back 120% better than I am today. I wasn’t in danger to the point where I thought that the match should be stopped.”

“My strategy was to keep pressure on him. I’ve been training jiu-jitsu so um I, it was just a terrible situation that I got myself into, um, it’ll never happen again. You know, third fight, I’m learning every single time, uh, I’m sorry for losing in front of the audience, I’m not used to losing, it’s a new feeling for me, it doesn’t feel good, I will go back to the drawing board and I’ll be better next time.”

The tone of the Japanese media also changed. Warren said he was going to win and he didn’t. He started drawing some pointed questions from writers.

“I mean, that’s, I’d love to fight him again. I’m sorry for disappointing the Japanese fans. That was not what I planned on doing. I’m extremely intense and focused and violent and this is not what we planned on happening today, so we’re going um we’d love to fight Bibiano (Fernandes) again, we’ll just see what happens today, you know we’re going back to the drawing board and hopefully you guys will have me back to fight again because I will fight as hard as I can. I appreciate you guys bringing me in and I enjoy fighting here.”

“Well, you know, that would be wonderful, you know, you have me back on New Year’s Eve I’ll win that belt if you guys give me that opportunity. Um, I love DREAM, I love the Japanese audience, I love to fight in front of them, but we’ll see what happens. We’re going to train as hard as we possibly can so this never happens again. But, yeah, we would I would do anything to get those belts, you know I was trained and ready to go today. It was a mistake, uh, I don’t think it was a position where I think I could kept fighting in, I didn’t think I was in danger, I think I would have overpowered and killed him if I had a few more minutes with him, so you know, third fight, problems, you know not much I can say, you know, mistake I made but I think I could have clawed out of it.”

Warren’s closing statement to the press indicated that he would be back and fighting in Japan relatively soon.

“Thank you very much. You’ll see me again, I promise, and you won’t see any armbars, you’ll just see violence and I’m going to stay in people’s face and Joe Warren’s here to stay and if it takes me two more fights to get those belts it’s going to happen. OK? I’m taking every belt I can possibly find, so you better used to seeing me around here. Thank you.”

Despite losing to Fernandes, Warren’s stock as a fighter is growing — and for good reason. He has a great personality and a real good skill set to build his MMA career upon in the near future. DREAM is his home for now, but I would not be surprised to see Zuffa give him a call soon.