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Qualität des Beitrags: Beteiligte Poster: Dorian - Luke - Anonymous Forenurl: Klick aus dem Unterforum: News Antworten: 3 Forum gestartet am: Freitag 11.02.2005 Sprache: deutsch Link zum Originaltopic: inside story riggs vs hughes Letzte Antwort: vor 20 Jahren, 27 Tagen, 11 Stunden, 3 Minuten
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Re: inside story riggs vs hughes
Dorian - 27.11.2005, 14:54inside story riggs vs hughes
Joe Riggs is in the midst of a nightmare, and all he wants to do is wake up. But he can’t.
Trapped in his own mental hell over the past three weeks, the rising star is deeply conflicted about telling the world what happened leading up to the scale fiasco and his fight at UFC 56. The conflict arises from trying to balance his fierce personal loyalty to his friends with the need to not carry the entire burden of what happened on his 23-year-old shoulders.
It’s a conflict that led to serious soul searching while he tried to decide what route to take. In the end, Riggs decided to keep some things private out of respect for those he cares about, but he also needs the cathartic experience of talking about his emotions and the events during the weeks, days, hours and minutes leading up to his fight with Matt Hughes.
It’s a nightmare that began on Thursday, October 27, the day after he agreed to challenge Hughes for the UFC Welterweight Championship. Riggs was in Salt Lake City living with strength and conditioning coach and close friend Billy Rush.
“When I first got to Utah, I trained for three days for Keith Wisniewski, which would have been an easy fight for me,” Riggs told InsideFighting. “I would have beaten him in 10 seconds. Then Joe Silva calls and offers me Matt Hughes. I’m dead set against it. I don’t want to take it. I’m saying no. Billy Rush was talking me into it. He was telling me that we were going to take the fight and he’d be there with me through the whole thing. He said we’d win the fight and we’ll do it together. Pretty much the day after that, I was alone. Everything fell apart from there.”
Dead set against a fight with Hughes? Riggs is a fighter’s fighter, the type of guy who will fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. He dropped to 170-pounds in order to put himself in the best possible position to win a UFC title, so why the hesitancy?
“I was training with Jeremy Horn, the camp I’ve chosen,” he said. “I knew there would be controversy. I knew Jeremy wouldn’t tell me to leave his camp because we’re friends. But he’s been friends with Matt Hughes forever. I knew if I took the fight that I’d have nobody to train with. I came to Utah to train with the Miletich guys. Matt Hughes is the main guy there. They wouldn’t go against their friend like that.”
Riggs (right) knew fighting Hughes would be a tough battle, but he had no
idea he'd have to train for the fight basically alone
Riggs knew that making the 170-pound weight limit would be a tremendous struggle, particularly since he’d just made the massive weight cut only a few weeks prior. But his friend and trainer talked Riggs into taking the fight, promising him that they would train together every step of the way to make sure that he was fully prepared for his first shot at UFC gold. And most importantly, that he’d be able to make weight.
“I’m good at cutting weight, but I’m not a professional at it like Billy," he said. "For the Chris Lytle fight, everything that went into my body came from his hands. He would feed me. He would weigh everything out and make the food for me. He would weigh my liquids out. It was an exact science.”
It’s that kind of personal attention and dedication to his fighters that first convinced Riggs to work with Rush when he was preparing for a proposed fight with Matt Lindland at UFC 54.
“Billy is a great person,” Riggs admitted solemnly, still deeply conflicted about discussing the subject at hand. “He’s extremely religious. He’s a great guy all the way around. But he has a problem, it took a hold of him, and he basically abandoned me.”
Despite the rumors circulating around the industry, Riggs chose to remain private about the details of his friend’s problems. Fair enough. Some things are better dealt with among friends and family, rather than in the media.
After repeat attempts, InsideFighting was unable to reach Rush for comment on the situation.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that Rush’s personal battles deeply affected Riggs while he was trying to prepare for the biggest fight of his life.
“I pretty much got cut off from Jeremy and those guys (when he accepted the Hughes fight) so it was just me and Billy,” he described. “I wanted to go to Cincinnati (to train with Rich Franklin). But he didn’t want to do that because he was dealing with his own demons. He would be in his own bedroom dead depressed five days a week and I’d be running by myself. I’d ask him a question about what to eat. He’d tell me, but it would be vague. I’m a very healthy person, so I know how to eat healthy. But I don’t know the exact increments on what to eat and what not to eat (to make 170 pounds).”
With Rush locked in a bedroom, Riggs had nobody to train with in Utah and nobody to guide him as he tried to lose 30 pounds in three weeks. He felt completely isolated and began to stress out over the situation.
According to Riggs, he didn't spar one time after accepting to fight Hughes
“I was going crazy,” he said quietly. “I was by myself. I was crying myself to sleep every night because I didn’t know what to do. It was a huge fight for me. I had no one to talk to about it. I needed some reassurance. I had nobody there to reassure me. I was by myself. I’m a very family oriented person. I needed people around me and didn’t have that. My girlfriend flew up and was shocked at what she was seeing – that Billy was neglecting me and not training me at all. I was training once a day and it was running on the treadmill by myself in his complex. That was the extent of my training for the fight.”
So Riggs made the decision to leave Salt Lake City and return home to Phoenix, Arizona for the last few weeks of camp.
“At that point, I was about to have a mental breakdown. I needed to be around my family,” a very emotional Riggs admitted.
Unfortunately, heading back to Phoenix wasn’t the answer, either.
“I don’t have anybody to train with at home,” he explained. “My buddy, Rich Moss, trained with me at night when he got off work. Rich is a good guy, but he isn’t at my level. So it was pretty much just cardio. I didn’t spar at all for the Hughes fight. The last time I sparred was with Mike Whitehead the day before I found out I was fighting Matt Hughes. And I spar six days a week when I’m fighting.”
Emotionally depleted and woefully under trained, the logical answer was to pull out of UFC 56 and live to fight another day. Riggs, however, didn’t see that as a viable option.
“No. I did, but I didn’t (consider pulling out),” he said. “In the back of my mind, I always wanted to. But I was afraid I wouldn’t be let back in the UFC. It’s always been my dream to be a world champion. I knew win, lose or draw, fighting Hughes would be good for my career. Well, not anymore.”
Riggs arrived in Las Vegas with four full days before fight time. He weighed 196 pounds at the time and just assumed he’d be able to cut the weight over those last few days. Again, not an expert at diet or weight cutting, 196 pounds was a very normal weight four days before a fight when he competed in the 185-pound division. But it was grossly overweight when trying to make 170 pounds.
By contrast, on the Tuesday before the Chris Lytle fight, Riggs weighed a mere 179 pounds. Yet, he contends that he did everything in his power to make weight after arriving in Las Vegas.
Hughes (right) exchanged on the feet with the Diesel early in the opening round
“I dieted down to 189 pounds by Thursday morning,” Riggs continued. “I was eating right, but I wasn’t eating the right portions. I started cutting weight on Thursday night. But I still had to cut 14 pounds on Friday morning.”
And he almost made it, dropping 13 pounds during the morning and early afternoon hours of the weigh-ins. That left him one pound overweight after the first weigh-in. Things, however, took a turn for the worse at that point.
“I thought I could cut a pound (with no problem),” he insisted. “They gave me two hours to cut the weight. So I went back into the sauna with plastics on. I was sweating balls in there. I thought I’d lost at least three pounds, but I’m still one-quarter of a pound over after the second weigh-in. I could deal with that. I knew it didn’t seem right because I was sweating hard. I even squeaked a little pee out. So it didn’t seem right, but I could deal with it. It was possible that I was a little over still, even though it didn’t seem right.”
Therefore, a frustrated and clearly spent Riggs headed back to the sauna for another 30 minutes to try and shed the four more ounces of liquid from his body.
“I’m 100-percent positive that I made the weight (on the third attempt),” he declared. “But the scale said I was two pounds over the weight and they told me that I had 30 minutes remaining to cut the weight. I was like ‘I’m done; I can’t cut any more weight.’
“I lost it (mentally) at that point. I’ve never been so angry in my life. When you cut weight, you’re irritable anyways. And when I hear something that’s unfathomable like the supposed weight gain, I lost my mind. I couldn’t understand it. I started kicking stuff, cussing, and I was through with it. I just didn’t care if I fought or not. I didn’t care about anything. I just felt dead.”
Physically drained and mentally exhausted, Riggs threw in the towel on trying to make weight. It was a costly decision. Not only did Riggs lose his opportunity to fight for the UFC title (the bout was changed to a non-title fight), but he also got fined 10 percent of his purse by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
His nightmare, however, was still far from over.
With UFC veteran and friend Edwin Dewees at his side, Riggs left Studio 54, the site of the weigh-ins, drinking a bottle of water to begin the hydration process. All the while, his representatives argued with NSAC official Tony Lato about the fact that their fighter had somehow gained weight between the second and third weigh-in, which is impossible if he didn’t consume any liquids or food. So Lato decided to check the calibration on the scale to quash any dispute.
Once Hughes got the fight to the ground, it was over for all intents and purposes
The move confirmed what Team Riggs suspected - at some point between the initial 4 pm weigh-ins and Riggs’ third attempt at making weight around 5:30 pm, the scale lost its calibration. It was off on the heavy side, something this writer observed with his own eyes from less than five feet away.
While Lato worked to calibrate the scale, he instructed Team Riggs to get the Diesel back in the room for another weigh-in. But it was too late. The liquids consumed forever altered Riggs weight, making a fourth weigh-in an exercise in futility.
“I drank two 12-ounce bottles of water when I left the room,” Riggs explained. “That’s a pound and a half right there, so there was no way that I was going to make weight on that last attempt. The whole thing was just crazy to me. When they said the scale was off, I was like ‘Dude, I just drank some water.’
“They offered me an extra hour to cut the weight, but my body couldn’t handle it after what I went through trying to cut all the weight. I just didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if I fought or not at that point. I just wanted people to leave me alone. I was going off on everyone. I was being obnoxious and yelling at people that I shouldn’t have been yelling at. But you have to be a little compassionate because I had just cut an unbelievable amount of weight, so I was very irritable and hurt.”
Looking into his eyes at that point revealed a broken man. The brash confidence that Riggs normally exudes in excess was gone. It was replaced with self-doubt, apathy toward the sport, and frustration toward everyone and everything around him.
He didn’t even want to fight anymore. And nothing between the scale fiasco and fight time changed those emotions. In fact, the emotions festered and grew worse in the hours leading up to the fight.
Riggs knew he was not prepared to fight Matt Hughes. He knew that his desperate battle to make weight meant what cardiovascular conditioning he had before arriving in Las Vegas was almost certainly gone.
In other words, the fight was over long before he stepped through the Octagon door on Saturday night.
While Hughes worked for the kimura, Riggs basically just laid there without
trying to work to back to his feet
“I just wanted to get out of there,” Riggs described when asked of his emotions walking to the cage for the actual fight. “I did not want to be there. I was tired of what was happening (with Rush and the weight). I wanted to go home and be with my family. I was scared. I was flipping out. I was shaking in my boots. I’d never been in that big of a fight before, and I felt like I was totally and utterly alone. I’ve never been in that position before in my life. It was the first time that I’ve ever been in a fight with no game plan at all. I had no idea what I was doing. I was scatterbrained. The thoughts I was having were just crazy.”
Nevertheless, Riggs did what he was raised to do. A born fighter, he put his two fists in the air and tried to fight. Surprisingly enough, he had some success in the opening seconds, though it was short lived.
After a brief exchange, the two fighters found themselves in a clinch. Many, including this writer, felt Hughes would quickly slam his depleted opponent to the ground. But Riggs shucked him off with relative ease.
“I didn’t gain any confidence (after shoving Hughes off him),” he said. “I swear to God that I thought Matt would be stronger (than he was). He didn’t feel even close to my strength. When he grabbed me, I was just waiting for the end of the fight, however it came. I didn’t care. I remember when that happened I thought that he didn’t feel strong at all. Normally, that would send my confidence through the roof and I would take it to him. I just felt like who gives a sh-t.”
Three minutes later, the fight was over. Hughes managed to take Riggs down after landing a good kick to the midsection and then methodically worked for a cross-side kimura, forcing the Diesel to submit at 3:28 of the first round.
“I don’t want to take any credit away from Matt because he’s a great fighter and a great guy,” Riggs said of his loss. “But he fought a shell of a man that night – an empty shell.”
An empty shell created after he was abandoned by his trainer.
“I had so much stuff on my mind when I fought Matt,” he said. “I’m a young guy. It’s a huge fight. I’ve got nobody helping me. The people that I got close to over the last few months - Jeremy Horn, Rich Franklin and those guys - couldn’t train with me because they’d been friends with Matt for so long, and I understand that. So I’m confiding in Billy. I needed him so much (during that time). I’d been living with him at his house for six months. I needed him so much at that time and he left me. I didn’t know what to do. I’m getting emotional just talking about it right now.”
The end finally came at 3:28 of the first round when Riggs submitted from
the kimura
Even though Rush reemerged right before fight time to try and help, it was too late.
“Before my fight, I was shaking. I didn’t know what to do. I almost had an anxiety attack. It was the worst three weeks of my life. I’m so glad it’s over. I look at pictures of myself just before I found out about the Hughes fight and pictures from Saturday night and I look 40 years old. That’s how emotionally drained I was.”
The loss coupled with his inability to make weight leaves Riggs somewhat confused as to what he should do next. Two fights into his welterweight career, most believe he should go back up in weight. But Riggs isn’t sure about that.
“I don’t know where I go from here,” he said. “I want to fight at 170 pounds. I just lost to Matt Hughes, but I didn’t fight my fight. So I still think I can be the best at 170 pounds. I’ve trained with Matt. I’ve trained with guys that train with him and they tell me that there’s no way he can beat me. They say I’ve got better standup and better ground than him. So my skills are easily there to do it. It’s just that I get broken mentally sometimes. I was shattered for this fight. I was in pieces. Everyone is telling me to go back to 185 pounds because 170 pounds isn’t my weight class. I just don’t believe that. I think I can compete at 170 pounds. I just need the right people around me. All fighters are head cases. I’m no exception.”
Accordingly, he wants to try his hand at welterweight again. According to the Diesel, he wants his next fight to be in April. After the awful experience over the past month, Riggs needs a break from the sport.
“It was hell,” Riggs admitted. “(The whole experience) made me hate the sport. I hated the whole experience of being in Las Vegas. I hated the fight. I hated everything. Normally, it’s a beautiful thing getting in there and fighting with people cheering for you. It’s orgasmic. That fight makes me puke. I never want to go to Utah ever again in my life. I never want to go to Las Vegas ever again in my life. I haven’t told anybody that. I haven’t told Billy that. I haven’t told my training camp. This whole thing ruined me. It killed me. I just need a little time to recover from what happened.”
It’s time for Joe Riggs to pick up the pieces and move on with life after UFC 56. It’s time to wake up from his month-long personal nightmare.
“I’m going to regroup and come back,” he vowed in closing. “When I come back, I’m going to come back harder and better in April. It seems like every time I set goals, I have a setback. But I come back better than before. When I lost to Ivan Salaverry, I came back as a better person. Now losing to Matt, I’m going to come back as a better fighter.”
Re: inside story riggs vs hughes
Luke - 27.11.2005, 16:28
Wahnsinn, geile Story....
Re: inside story riggs vs hughes
Anonymous - 27.11.2005, 22:06
yeah...gracias :wink:
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