Brandon Vera is not underestimating Randy Couture going into their UFC 105 fight
Published by Zach Arnold on October 30th, 2009 in Current Events

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In a recent interview with MMA Fanhouse (m m a . f a n h o u s e . c o m), Brandon “The Truth” Vera talked about his upcoming fight with Randy Couture at UFC 105 (November 14th in Manchester, United Kingdom). The fight will air on Spike TV on a delay. Here is a transcript of the Vera interview with Fanhouse:

START

INTERVIEWER: “I don’t think a lot of people are expecting you are to face Randy Couture, Randy to drop down. When you got the call that you are going to be fighting Randy Couture on free television on Spike TV, what were the thoughts going through your mind?”

BRANDON VERA: “I was thinking like, hell yeah, we have to fight Randy, I can’t say no. Um, but they didn’t tell me Randy at first, my management group called me and said, hey you’re going to fight November 14th and I was like, no I’m not, that’s 9 weeks from now and then they were like, we’ll you’re going to be fighting in the UK and I was like I don’t care, I’m not fighting man, but you’re going to be main event, I said I don’t give a damn, I’m not… I’m not fighting in 8 or 9 weeks. Oh, but you’re going to fight Randy! All right, all right, all right, so I mean, you know I’m been telling [my wife] about it, it’s like your dream come true and your nightmare come true at the same time.”

INTERVIEWER: “Well, so, if it was any other opponent, would you maybe not have accepted it? Because we know you fought in August, in late August, at UFC 102.”

BRANDON VERA: “Uh, honestly I can’t say yes or no, it depends on who you threw at me you know like… I don’t know, it just depends on who or what name they pull out but I definitely couldn’t say no to Randy. He’s the man, you know, I have to fight him, have to find out what you’re made of.”

INTERVIEWER: He’s in an interesting spot in his career right now because he lost his last two in a row and he’s dropping back down to Light Heavyweight, he just signed a pretty long extension with the UFC but you know if you lose 3 fights in a row it’s tough to really justify having him in big events. Do you view yourself as maybe the man who could end Randy Couture’s career?”

BRANDON VERA: “I’ve never thought about it that way until you said it right now but… I don’t think Randy’s done fighting, I think Randy’s going to be fighting until he’s 52 so in the UFC, no matter what Randy’s the man, he’s going to be putting on good shows, he comes to fight and he tries to grind you out, wear you out, I don’t see win, lose, or draw them getting rid of Randy or Randy retiring. I just don’t see it, he’s still looks hungry and he still looks good, man. He still looks good.”

INTERVIEWER: “Yeah, he is a freak of nature, 46 years old and still hanging in there with guys who are 10 years younger than him. But at some point, especially in combat sports, guys hit a wall and you see their skills just drastically decline. Have you noticed that in Randy or do you think he’s just the same guy as maybe 5 or 6 years ago?”

BRANDON VERA: “I think maybe he’s still the same guy, you know, Randy’s biggest weakness has been on his back against bigger guys and that’s what happened with him against Nogueira who’s probably one of the best guys on the ground top or bottom, so you really can’t judge too much from that last fight. Randy was on his back a lot with Rodrigo on top of him and that’s how Rodrigo’s going to win that fight and you know, and it’s hard to say whether or not he’s hit a wall because on his feet he was still pressing the action even though he was getting tagged he was still pressing that action and coming forward and staying in Rodrigo’s face so I don’t know I can’t say he’s on a decline.”

INTERVIEWER: “But still though were you impressed with that performance? Because he did lose unanimously and he also picked up his 10th defeat. Everyone was you know giving him praise saying that it was unbelievable that he had him in trouble a few times, he was able to escape some, some sticky situations, were you impressed with his performance at UFC 102?”

BRANDON VERA: “I was super-impressed with his performance at UFC 102 like I train with Rodrigo man and those submissions, it’s not an easy thing to get out of you know what I mean like I really thought Randy was going to tap on the first one, he didn’t, he got out um and then he got out of another submission attempt head on and he was mounted twice, man he just kept going and going and going, I was super-impressed no matter what Rodrigo gave to him Randy wouldn’t break mentally or physically you know and you can’t ever count out a fighter who won’t break mentally or physically, that’s Randy Couture.”

INTERVIEWER: “How about yourself? You picked up your second victory in a row, you beat Krzysztof Soszynski at UFC 102, first time you won at least two fights in a row since 2006. Do you feel different? Obviously now you look a lot more comfortable at 205, but is there something different maybe mentally, physically in your life that’s getting you back on the winning track now?”

BRANDON VERA: “Um, a lot different. I feel a lot different, more uh more so mental I think. The physical part, too, I guess, but I guess it took the mental part to get my physical where it needs to be. I needed to understand, hey you need to be doing certain things for you to get where you want to go and uh I do, I understood now, I understood I’m supposed to be doing certain things, this is not just a job, this is not a sport to me anymore, this is my life, this is what I do, this is who I am, this is what defines me as a man so I need to get on top of them and make sure I’m doing the right things.”

INTERVIEWER: “What was the turning point for you?”

BRANDON VERA: “Um, my longest running sponsor Randy Hetrick from TRX, we’re having breakfast I think it was breakfast and he told me that it’s good to see me becoming more mature and I was thinking, what the hell? You mean like I’m getting old? And he was like, no, nobody’s ever questioning whether or not you were good enough or if you had the skills or the talent to become a world champion, he said but everybody always worried about your mental, you were always like a big kid just running around playing and hanging out, um, but now you seem older and you’re more focused now you understand what you need to be doing, but I didn’t realize that until that day that he told me that, when he told me that I was like, damn, he’s right man, I guess I do need to be doing certain things.”

INTERVIEWER: “But you’ve been pretty vocal about the fact that you want to hold one day the UFC Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight title and maybe you know the Heavyweight division is a little different now, you got guys who are cutting weight to make 265, you’re now fighting at 205 obviously you did fight at Heavyweight at some point, is that still really on your radar?”

BRANDON VERA: “Yeah, it is, it is for sure.”

INTERVIEWER: “Do you think it’s an approachable goal, something that’s realistic? because I know you said recently, 5 years is all that you want to fight. You think that’s reachable in 5 years to pick up both titles?’

BRANDON VERA: “Yeah, hell yeah. Yeah.”

INTERVIEWER: “No, no, I’m not doubting, I’m just asking you know, it’s just no one’s ever done it before.”

BRANDON VERA: “Yeah, nobody’s ever done it before but I would like to be the first guy to do it. Um, GSP fought BJ and did his thing but why not? I mean, why not reach for that goal? If you can’t, if you’re not shooting for the stars you might as well sit in a hole in the dirt and you know… I’m reaching for the stars, let’s see what happens.”

INTERVIEWER: “And November is a very interesting month for the Vera family. Six days later, your wife is facing Kim Couture on the Strikeforce card. What did you think when Strikeforce put that together because obviously I think it’s safe to say that it was no coincidence.”

BRANDON VERA: “Um, I was actually talking to Sherdog came and did an interview with us and said that uh I don’t know, the writer said that Strikeforce is putting together first but the UFC got our fight, Randy’s and mine together before the Strikeforce fight but they offered the Kim fight before so I don’t know what the hell is going or what happened, it’s just I know I have a fight that’s really big and Kerry has a fight that’s really big. It doesn’t matter too much about the last name, we just got some we have a full plate come November, both of us do and we’re training really hard and man, we’re training really hard and we’re always tired so it’s cool, it’s cool to see us both training at the same time especially the way we are, I just feel bad for our dogs.”

INTERVIEWER: “And it must be great because you’re able to train at the time, peak at the same time and kind of go through everything together, right?”

BRANDON VERA: “it is, except for the house is one hell like, I was telling her about it earlier man like floors are dirty and the dishes are dirty, laundry barely gets done and it’s just hard man when both people of the house are getting on it like this and neither one of us had the energy to be mad about the house or clean the house, so we just had to hire a friend and come clean the house for us, man.”

INTERVIEWER: “You know when I found out that you were fighting Randy Couture on November 14th, the first thing that came to mind was wow what an opportunity for Brandon Vera. The second ting that came to mind though was, that’s the same night that Manny Pacquiao is fighting. I know you are a proud Filipino fighter, what do you think about that? You’re probably not going to get to see him fight. Maybe because of the time difference you’ll be able to stay up late in England.”

BRANDON VERA: “”I’m hoping that I get to stay up late and watch the fight later on and hopefully in the Philippines there’s a huge party, hehehe, for both victories, knock on wood.”

INTERVIEWER: “Yeah, that’s a huge day for the Filipino fight community, I mean two of their most famous fighters of all time fighting on the day.”

BRANDON VERA: “That’s pretty cool actually. I am stoked about that man, I’m really excited. I watched Pacquiao fight and I’m excited to fight too so hopefully we get the W’s on both sides and I hope the Philippines have a party.”

INTERVIEWER: “How’s it going to end on November 14th for you?”

BRANDON VERA: “Uh, I don’t like making predictions just because whenever… man, you can research this too, and from now, pay attention, whoever says ‘I’m going to knock that bastard out’ usually that bastard that came out of his mouth, that’s the guy that goes to sleep that night.”

INTERVIEWER: “Shane Carwin just told us he’s going to knock out Brock Lesnar. What are you trying to say?”

BRANDON VERA: “Dammit Shane, Dammit Shane! Except for Shane, except for Shane, except for Shane.”