Five Ounces of Pain: Interview with Joe Riggs

JR: (Joking.) Yeah, don't short change me.

All it is mainly is just work ethic. The more you're serious about losing weight, just diet and do a lot of conditioning and stuff like that. Just keep your metabolism up, that's the main thing. Don't eat like crap. But I'm planning on putting a book out in the future so look for it on the shelves.

Q: You're really going to put out a book?

JR: Nah, I'm just joking.

Q: You went through a tough tragedy this past summer when you lost your infant son. You took some time off and came back and fought. What got you through that period of your life?

JR: My wife got me through that period of time and my family. It was the hardest thing I ever went through. Right now my wife is six months pregnant.

Q: Congratulations.

JR: Thank you.

What got me through it when I started training hard was to visualize my family. I make a really good living, that's why I do it. The reason why I do that is because I train so hard and I fight so hard. That's the main reason that got me from saying "pity poor me" to getting back and fighting so hard.

Q: Do you feel like the tragedy had an adverse affect on any of your performances in the cage?

JR: No, it didn't. The last fight against Diego Sanchez, even though it didn't go my way, that was the first fight I had where I was more mentally prepared. I fought Diego and I'm 10 times the standup fighter Diego is and he caught me with something stupid you know, and you can't prepare for something like that. A lucky punch lands, and anybody can knock out anybody. The tragedy that happened didn't affect me, really it motivated me. So that's what it was. What happened, happened. You can't really dwell on it; you just got to go on with your life.

Q: Did you seek any counseling after the tragedy?

JR: A little bit. I sought a little marriage counseling because what happened is hard on a marriage. My wife and I went through a lot of hard things. You know, that was the hardest thing to deal with; it's one thing for me as a father to lose a child, for my wife it's 10 times as hard. My wife is not fully over it, the only thing that made her get over the hump was to be pregnant again. So that was the main thing. So yeah, we did seek some counseling, and it got us over that little hump.

Q: With all the adversity you've faced recently, did you ever think about quitting MMA?

JR: At no point did I ever think about quitting. This is all I know.

Q: You had some issues with Matt Hughes stemming from an incident where you felt he disrespected you in front of your wife. Has your relationship with Matt improved, or do you still harbor ill will towards him?

JR: I haven't spoken to Matt Hughes since he said that. Actually, I haven't spoken to a lot of guys since he said that. I don't hate the man by any means. But, you know, there's no reason to say something like that, there's no reason to say something like that at all. I just think Matt has a certain cockiness about him. He might have been lost after getting knocked about by Georges, who knows. I haven't seen him after that but I don't harbor any ill feelings. I called him a d--- or whatever, and I think he is. I think Matt is a d---. He can be a nice guy, but at the same time saying something like that is not a cool thing to do and he's lucky I didn't punch him in the mouth for it, to be honest with you. But it just happened like that.

Q: For those that are unfamiliar with the event can you explain exactly what took place?

JR: He was with a sponsor of mine, and he came to Arizona (where Riggs lives) and the first time he had ever met my wife -- you know, I talked to him before that and he gave me his condolences for what happened, and he's like "Kimmy" -- Kim's my wife, and he goes, "Nice to meet you. Sorry I had to beat your husband up." I beat the s--- out of your husband, or something like that. And my wife was more disturbed by it than me. So that's where I said "What the heck is wrong with you. How dare you say something like that?" And there were little kids around, so I calmed myself down, took myself out of the situation a little bit.

I shouldn't really say those bad things about Matt because I don't know him too much on a personal level and everyone tells me he's a really good guy and I don't want to bad mouth the guy too much but that was a messed up thing to say and he shouldn't have said that.

Q: During your loss to Diego Sanchez at UFC Fight Night 7 there were some questions as to whether he hit you with an illegal knee. Did you have any questions about it?

JR: You know, I haven't really gone back and looked on it. Even if my knee was down or up, a knee's a knee. I was trying to get back to my feet and he stopped me from doing that. But that's (the knee) what knocked me out. When he hit me with the punch, that didn't hurt me at all, it was just I was on my heels and it knocked me down like someone pushed me over. So when he came out with that knee, I didn't really think about it being illegal. I think it was legal, I think my knee was an inch off the ground so kudos to him for timing it like that.

Sam Caplan is a Philadelphia-based sports talk show host and freelance sportswriter. He's also an amateur mixed martial artist (and we do mean amateur) who trains out of the Mixed Martial Arts Academy of Philadelphia. Sam can be reached via e-mail at SCaplan8@comcast.net or you can check out his blog at: http://www.FiveOuncesOfPain.com