MMA light heavyweight Sean Salmon talks about his recent win over Marcus Vinisios at HCF: Title Wave, what he's learned since his loss to Rashad Evans at UFC Fight Night 8, his future plans and much more. Check out what he had to say about his upcoming fight with Jason "Mayhem" Miller and much more.
PC: Congratulations on your win over Marcus Vinicios at HCF: Title Wave. How do you feel about your performance?
SS: Yeah, I feel good. I don't know if you've followed my career at all, but to me, as long as I approach a fight mentally and stick with my gameplan, I'm going to be happy. I feel like the 4 losses that I do have are fights that I kind of gave away. I don't feel like my performance matched my abilities in those fights. Any time I go into a fight and perform to my abilities, I'm always going to be happy.
PC: 3 of your 4 losses came by submission and Vinicios had finished most of his wins by submission. What was your gameplan going into this fight?
SS: I seen a little bit of tape of him on Youtube and I had heard from other people and stuff that he was a tremendous athlete. My gameplan was to try and stay away from his kick; he had a lot of kicks. He was comfortable on his feet coming from what they call being a Capawera fighter. My gameplan was to stay completely out of range or in his face.
PC: How was it for you to fight over there in Canada?
SS: Actually it was great. My fight before that was over in Finland for a week by myself and not many of the people spoke English. I was cutting weight by myself, I had no corner guy and I was fighting someone really tough. It was a huge difference when I went to Canada and I had my corner guy with me and a lot of people spoke English, so it was very different. It seemed like everything that went wrong in Finland went right in Canada.
PC: Whenever you go compete in a foreign place, the judging is always a concern, as well as what they're looking for in fights over there. Was that a major concern for you?
SS: Judging is always a concern for me. I'm sure if you've watched this sport long enough, you've seen a hand full of decisions where you just totally didn't agree. Yeah, when I go to a foreign country, I definitely think about that. Especially when I went to Finland because the guy I fought there was supposed to be the best fighter to ever come through Finland so I knew I didn't want that going to the judges. And this one, I was fighting a kid who is Brazilian, but he lived in Canada now and it puts it in the back of your head like, "I really don't want this to go to the judges."
PC: You've had 8 fights this year with the first being the loss to Rashad. Was your mindset after the Rashad Evans fight just to stay busy?
SS: I actually lost to Allan Belcher after Rashad and after that fight, my agent and I came back to the locker room and it was depressing because I felt like that was my second loss in a row to where I handed away a fight. I told him I didn't care if it was in the UFC or not, but I need to fight frequently. I've been in this sport for less than 2 years now and I just felt like experience is something that I really needed. That was my gameplan from the beginning was to take every fight offered to me and to make the most of it.
PC: What did you learn from the Evans loss?
SS: My conditioning suffered in that fight from things outside of my control, but the main thing I learned was I actually had a boxing coach before that fight that convinced me to fight left handed. That's where my shots come from, a southpaw stance, but if you leave me on my own, I actually switch back and fourth during a fight. I like switching, but all of my training leading up to that was left handed and my mechanics weren't correct. If you notice, when I caught that kick, I was actually leaning into Rashad. Right after that fight, I decided I didn't need a boxing-boxing coach. I needed a MMA-boxing coach. I fired that guy and now I only work with a coach that plays to my strength. I'll never become a great boxer, that's not my strength. I've been wrestling my whole life, so I could do boxing from now until I retire and I'll never be as good a boxer as I am a wrestler. I learned it's MMA, not boxing or wrestling. Develop around my strengths and build the rest of my gameplan around it. Unfortunately, it took me getting knocked out to learn that lesson, but better late than never.
PC: Your last 3 fights have come by way of knockout, but you came into the sport a decorated wrestler. How diligently have you been working on your hands?
SS: I have been working a ton on my hands. My last 3 TKO'S came on the ground and that's just me getting more comfortable and understanding positioning on the ground better. I'm getting comfortable enough with the wrestling, Jiu Jitsu and striking on the ground where I know when I'm in danger, I know where I'm safe and I'm starting to really take advantage of that. A week ago, I spent the whole weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a four-time world kick boxing champion and you can't be in the same room as that guy and not get better on your feet. I'm working on my game a ton.
PC: Are you done fighting this year...
SS: Oh no! We have the biggest one coming up right now.
PC: Oh, you're in the tournament?
SS: Yeah, I'm an alternate bout in the tournament on November 16th on the Strikeforce card. I was supposed to fight Eugene Jackson, 6- or 7-time UFC vet, but he had to back out because of an injury. They haven't found a replacement, but they assured me that I was still an alternate bout for that tournament. That's not going to change, they just haven't named an opponent yet. On December 15th, on Mark Cuban's HDNET Fights, I'm fighting Jason "Mayhem" Miller. That's by far the biggest fight of my career. That's obviously a huge opportunity for me and, not to mention, a very tough opponent. I'm excited about it. I think that can become a real exciting fight.
PC: Is that fight going to be at 205?
SS: No, 185. My first fight after Allan Belcher was at 195 and then 205. I did 2 in a row at 195 and then in Finland, it was a catchweight of 192 pounds and then my last fight, in Canada, was all the way down at 185.
PC: Do you have a problem making that weight class?
SS: It's a tough cut for me, but I'm keeping my weight lower now. I want to be able to take fights at 185 and 205. I want to fight everybody.
PC: How did you end up with the fight over in Canada?
SS: I was actually a late replacement for Edwin Dewees. He broke his hand and Edwin and I have the same agent. My agent called and told them, "Edwin broke his hand, but I got Sean Salmon and you're not losing too much on the name recognition" and they took the replacement. It worked out well for me and I was able to sneak a fight in there.
PC: Are you coming into these fights with the mindset of "just keep winning"?
SS: Ah yeah! I love the competition, but I love winning more. At this point in my career, this is how I make a living now. If I take a couple of losses in a row, then the paydays go down and the offers dry up for a little while. I don't want to deal with that anymore. I'm working towards becoming the best fighter in the world. There's an ultimate goal here. I'm not just waiting around for someone to call me. We're searching out fights trying to make things happen. I travel a lot to get all of the necessary coaching I need right now.
PC: You came from a wrestling background. How difficult was it to incorporate the different tools you needed to compete in mixed martial artist?
SS: It was tough at first. The Jiu Jitsu and the ground stuff came pretty easily, but I just needed the experience. The more I saw, the better I got. I got hooked up with Jorge Gurgel here in Ohio and that's obviously one of the best ground coaches out there. The standup was real tricky for me. I had never thrown hands before, never thrown feet before and the footwork was real tricky because it's a world of difference than your footwork for wrestling. The breathing is even different when you're on your feet throwing a punch as opposed to a wrestling match. That's taken me a little while. I'm not going to say I'm a good standup fighter now, but I'm definitely coming around. I can put on a show on my feet now, but chances are, 9 times out of 10, my fights are going to the ground.
PC: Thanks for your time man. Keep me posted on your fights. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
SS: I would like to thank Tapout, MMAAgents and MMAJunkie.com!
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