"They called me up and they told me that they were looking for a possible opponent for Ricardo Mayorga and Shine had been in Florida, so I was familiar with them and just good things man. Ricardo Mayorga is a tough guy and a brawler...he throws wild punches and he's just wild, but what makes him dangerous is he's got a good chin, he could take a good shot and believe it or not, he's got gas. For a guy that smokes cigarettes, he's got good gas. But as far as boxing technically, I'm light years ahead of Ricardo Mayorga, so I'm not that concerned about his standup, even if it does come down to a boxing match. I'm a better boxer than Mayorga, so I'm not even worried about him," stated MMA featherweight Din Thomas as he talked about his intriguing clash with former boxing two-division world champion Ricardo Mayorga. Check it out!
PC: Din, how have you been bro?
DT: I'm good man. What's going on?
PC: Not too much man. I see you signed with Shine Fights. It has been awhile since your last fight. How did that deal come about?
DT: They called me up and they told me that they were looking for a possible opponent for Ricardo Mayorga and Shine had been in Florida, so I was familiar with them and just good things man. Ricardo Mayorga is a tough guy and a brawler; it's just like everything just kind of worked out good. Shine is a good organization, Ricardo Mayorga is a good opponent and I need a fight (laughing). It just worked out.
PC: The last time I saw you was during the whole Ultimate Chaos thing and you not getting to fight. I know you have been itching to erase that entire experience?
DT: Yeah, well, you know what it was for me man. I felt bad and it's not because I didn't get to fight; it's because people felt like I couldn't make weight. That was the most important thing for me because I can make weight. Well, first of all, I just made weight the other day for the World Grappling Championship at 145, so that proves that I can make the weight. But because of that, you're right
it's time to fight again. I got this fight and I want to really
it's no secret I'm at the tail end of my career and I want to really start putting on shows for people. I have had a lot of big fights, I won some and lost some and now I just want to put on a good show.
PC: You are a huge boxing fan. What do you think of Mayorga as a fighter and how much do you think he could learn in a year or so?
DT: I gotta tell you, boxing-wise, he's not very good technically or anything like that. You watch his fights, he throws wild punches and he's just wild, but what makes him dangerous is he's got a good chin, he could take a good shot and believe it or not, he's got gas. For a guy that smokes cigarettes, he's got good gas. But as far as boxing technically, I'm light years ahead of Ricardo Mayorga, so I'm not that concerned about his standup, even if it does come down to a boxing match. I'm a better boxer than Mayorga, so I'm not even worried about him.
As far as what he could learn, if you're a good enough athlete, you could pick up a good amount of stuff, especially if you stick to the basics and you're not trying to learn a whole lot of stuff like Omoplatas and Gogoplatas. You could do pretty well. I know some people may look at this fight and be like, "Mayorga? I don't know!" But he's got a pretty good shot because he trained at Top Team for awhile, so he's familiar with MMA and he knows what it takes to be an MMA fighter and he's had enough time to prepare for it, so I'm not looking at this as a walk in the park. I'm going to make it look like a walk in the park, don't get me wrong. I'm going to make it look easy, but I think he will have a chance to do his homework and learn the basics and learn how to get back to his feet. It's not going to help him much because even if he does get back to his feet, I ain't even worried about it.
PC: He's been in some huge fights with Trinidad, De La Hoya and Vernon Forrest, so I don't think he will be a deer in headlights in there.
DT: By no means. He's a high-level guy. To be honest with you, we kind of got similar careers as far as wins and losses in big fights. He's been in big fights, he's won some and he's lost some. He knows what it's like to be on the big show and he knows what it's like to be on the big stage, so he definitely won't get nervous when the lights hit him. When this goes down, I'm looking forward to it. I think this is going to be one of the better fights of the year.
PC: I don't want to see him smoking a cigarette over you during the post-fight because you're stiff.
DT: I'm telling you like this, if he could hold that cigarette in between his gums, because he ain't going to have no teeth left when I get done with him, but if he could hold it in his gums, he could go ahead and smoke it.
PC: What have you been doing in this long downtime?
DT: I got my school running. I hate to brag, but I think I got one of the best schools on the planet; my version of American Top Team. I got one of the best ones on the planet. I'm also the head coach of another American Top Team. I'm about to open up another school for myself in a couple of weeks, so I've been concentrating on that and my Jiu Jitsu. I just competed in a World Grappling Championship and I took Silver in that. I'm just trying to have fun with this game man. That's the thing; a lot of people try to take this game a little too serious. I think you should try to have as much fun with this game because we're all healthy and we're all young, so we should have some fun and get paid while we do it.
PC: Being a huge fan of boxing I would be remiss not to get your opinion on one of the biggest fights that the sport has ever seen. Who do you like in the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight and why?
DT: I'm going to tell you the truth. Prior to Mayweather's fight with Marquez, I thought Pacquiao would be able to beat him. I thought their speed was similar. I just thought Pacquiao's toughness and punching power would outdo Floyd. I think Miguel Cotto did a good job in that fight of putting a blueprint together for things that Mayweather could work on in order to beat him. I think that Mayweather is probably the smartest boxer to ever walk the planet and to ever lace up the gloves and I think he's going to put together a good gameplan to beat Pacquiao. I don't think he's going to hurt Pacquiao, but I think he's going to beat him.
PC: I like the Mayorga fight. Good luck in the upcoming year. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
DT: I definitely want to give a shout out to my sponsors, Strategy Fight Gear, and for those of you who didn't catch the 1001 Submissions, make sure ya'll go get that. That's something that I was working on too while I wasn't fighting and I put my heart and soul into it. Check it out at www.1001submissions.com. I want you guys to catch that.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]