"A lot of my fans are still very supportive. I think they like me as a person and as a fighter. I think they still want to see me fight. I will train harder. I unfortunately didn't get the 6-figure contract or get the Fight of the Night or anything like that so I'm going to have to put in more hours to pay the bills...I'm back to work man. I'm not full-time, but I'm just going to upgrade my hours, but I will be back man. I got this fire in me and it's possible that I will be fighting by March," stated UFC lightweight Phillipe Nover as he talked about his future plans, his loss to Efrain Escudero in the TUF Finale and much more.
PC: How are you doing my man?
PN: I'm good. I'm actually just kicking back and enjoying the holiday season. I got back Monday of last week and I'm just doing some Christmas shopping right now.
PC: I'm sure you weren't happy with the outcome of the Finale result, but how do you feel about your overall performance?
PN: Obviously I wasn't happy with the outcome, but as for my overall performance, I definitely feel that I poured it out. Physically I wasn't as sound as I could have been, but I definitely feel like I poured it out 100%. I left it all in the cage. I wish it would have went a couple more rounds and I think I would have been good. I was more prepared for a 5-round fight condition-wise. My condition was top of the line, but I guess I got so eager to nail him even after he was taking me down and putting me on my butt. Every time after a takedown, I was like, "Man, I just want to hit him." I knew if I could land 3 to 4 punches, the fight would start turning into my favor. It was too late though. I landed some shots in that 3rd round, but it was too late.
PC: You seemed to be the fresher guy after the fight, but Efrain's wrestling seemed to be the difference. Were you surprised at how strong he was?
PN: Oh no! I knew how strong he was. I trained with the guy. I think we had similar strengths. Every guy that I trained with at the gym, we all could push weight, but he uses his hips properly because of his wrestling. It wasn't about strength as much as it was about leverage and him getting his hips lower than mine. I wouldn't say he felt stronger. A lot of people would say, "He was so much stronger than Phillipe!" That wasn't necessarily the case. His hips were just lower than mine and technically, it was tough for me to get lower than him. If we take it back to the gym when we were training together, he basically was taking me down and I was landing my strikes on him when we were training together. I expected to be able to tee off on him like I did in training, but he worked on having a defense for my flurries and he got his takedowns; that's how he took the fight.
PC: During the show, Dana White compared you to both Anderson Silva and GSP. Did you take that as a confidence booster or did that add pressure on you?
PN: It gave me a little boost in confidence, but when you fight in that cage, the odds are out of the window, the people are gone and it's just me and him; man to man. So I guess it added some pressure and people had expectations that I'm this young blood that was just going to go out there strong, start swinging and just bash people in the head. I kind of got that mentality in my head, but strategically, I'm not that. Strategically, I want to go out there and if I need to, fight a 3-round fight and be able to use my strengths; like I should have been using my jab. I fell into that knock-people-out type of fighter, which I still am, but I gotta let the opportunity come to me.
PC: Right before your fight with Efrain, you received your BJJ Black Belt from Soca. How important was that for you?
PN: Minus everything, even if I wasn't on The Ultimate Fighter, I've been on that route for a long time. It's been about 7 or 8 years so for me to get that belt, it was a very important part of my life. It made me feel like everything was coming together. I did so much in school, I did what my parents needed me to do, I got into the UFC and now I have my Black Belt. It's like everything is weighing on each other and everything that I wanted in my life just happened. It was amazing. It was an amazing day and I personally didn't expect it. I knew I was training and I knew it was a promotion thing. They were telling me to come to the promotion day and I'm like, "I don't know," and then he gave it to me and it was pretty wild.
PC: You have a very calm demeanor. You don't seem to like drama. How did you cope with some of the things that were going on inside of the house?
PN: I actually separated myself. A lot of the scenes where they have craziness going on, especially when it came down to the drinking, I wasn't involved. I do drink socially here and there, like now while I'm on my downtime for the holidays, but as a professional athlete, especially while you're on TV, everything you do, people are going to look up to you. I want to present myself the correct way for anybody wanting to look up to me as a professional athlete because that's what we are. I was in the antics with the food, but there is no way of getting around some of the things (laughing) you know? I eat healthy so I ate the fruit platter. That's about it man. I don't get involved with the craziness or the fighting or the glass throwing. That's crazy and I didn't want any piece of that. Overall, I would say my performances were good from the first day to the last. There will definitely be more to come.
PC: You're also a nurse Phillipe. How do you balance the two and where does fighting fit in priority-wise?
PN: It gets pretty wild because I could remember training even when I was not in the UFC. I was training for some of the Ring of Combat shows when I was up and coming. I was working full-time and training. How about this, I would work and then go running on my breaks at 3:00 in the morning and then after work, I would do like a 10:00 AM session and 12 rounds of sparring and I would just be dead. It was tough, but it helped me learn about the human body and the healing process. My job gives me access to all of the materials I need to heal up and I have doctors that will give me under-the-table X-Rays if I need them. I go to them like, "Hey doc, could you take a look at my ankle man? I'm just coming off of this fight and I need you to look at this." I get a lot of good opinions.
PC: You're in a crowded division. What do you feel you have to do to assert yourself with the other contenders in this division?
PN: Right now, I will sit back and relax. I got a lot of good feedback from my last fight. A lot of my fans are still very supportive. I think they like me as a person and as a fighter. I think they still want to see me fight. I will train harder. I unfortunately didn't get the 6-figure contract or get the Fight of the Night or anything like that so I'm going to have to put in more hours to pay the bills, which is unfortunate you know, because being on TV and stuff, people think you're this multi-millionaire or something, but I'm just a regular Joe Schmoe trying to make a living. I'm back to work man. I'm not full-time, but I'm just going to upgrade my hours, but I will be back man. I got this fire in me and it's possible that I will be fighting by March.
PC: You handled yourself well both in and out of the cage on the show. I'm sure we'll see a lot more of you. Is there anything you want to say in closing; anybody you want to thank?
PN: Thank you! I really want to thank my parents. They are so supportive. In the beginning, they really weren't, but they knew this was my drive and I dedicated 100% to this point and they are supportive of me physically, mentally and most importantly, financially. I basically quit my job for 6 months getting on the show. There really is no amount of money...compared to nursing, there really isn't...I could have worked for a half of year and really pulled it in, but my parents support me in whatever I do so I'm really happy and thankful to have them.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]