Q&A with Gray Maynard and Joe Stevenson
How has life been like post “The Ultimate Fighter”?
JS: It’s been unbelievable, the amount of exposure that it gives you, the energy and momentum you get from it, you can’t buy it, you have to go through it. Everyone who comes off the show says they’d never do it again, however after a year you do kind of miss the all you’re doing is training and you don’t have to worry about anything else but training. What I’ve done to relate to that is I’ve started doing training camps way secluded and away from everyone, high altitude, like we’ll be doing this time in Big Bear.
GM: It was great, of course at the time you’re like man I want to get out of here but you do it and it really wasn’t that bad. It’s good just to get in there now, man I’ve got some tough guys to fight and a long career. So I’m pumped up and it was a boost that was just unbelievable and it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be a crazy ride but I’m ready for it. I strapped my seatbelt a long time ago, let’s do this. (laughs)
Have you guys trained together a lot?
JS: I’ve never met this guy my whole life. (laughs) First time I ever met him, seems like a class act. (laughs)
GM: Good looking. (laughs)
JS: Good looking class act. We’ve known each other a while, we’ve trained in Vegas at Cobra Kai and now at Randy’s gym too, back and forth. It was kind of cool because Gray knows Kendall (Grove) really well too, he knows a lot of the people that went to the show and kind of knew what to expect, me dude I was like, I heard crickets. And every time I’d talk to Forrest or Diego and try and get some information on how the show was, it was like “Oh, you’ll see.” (laughs) Now there’s a precedent.
Joe, you walked away from the sport before you had the chance to be on the show. Was it very difficult to walk away from the game at the time?
JS: When life throws you lemons you turn around and make lemonade. I was drinking my lemonade. I had had a lot of stuff that had happened and I wanted to make sure I could sit back and take care of my kids and at the time MMA didn’t allow me to even pay my child support, so if my family’s not taken care of I don’t need to make them sacrifice for myself, I need to sacrifice for them, and now that’s why I’m ready to push it and fight.
How much have you improved since you’ve been on the reality show, Gray?
GM: Well the training on the TV show was great but I happen to be in a gym that’s probably the best in the country, maybe in the world. So I was really pumped up to get home and train with Joe again, and Kendall and Tyson (
JS: You can’t have a bad day in that gym.
GM: You can but it’s going to hurt. (both laugh) It’s going to hurt for sure. Everyone has bad days but you’ve got to push through it and the team is great, it’s a core, we all push each other like, “Come on man, keep going, keep going.” It’s great though, I was just pumped up to be back.
How much has Randy Couture influenced you guys?
JS: One of the few people that I look up to in this sport and have in the past. Every time I talk to him it’s still, “Hey coach”. If he were to tell me, “Hey, kick that guy in the groin”, I’d run up to there and kick him in the nuts as hard as I could. “Randy Couture said…” (both laugh). Him and like Dan Henderson are icons, people I’ve looked up to forever. Good wrestling background, they kind of stuck it to everybody in the beginning and are still doing it, like “haha”.
GM: He’s the kind of guy where he could tell me to go through a brick wall and I’m like, “You want it head first? You want it feet first? Tell me.” He just kind of gives us a path because he does it in the cage, out, it’s perfect. Interviews, dealing with people, he does it right. So we all are kind of like we’ve got to do it that way. Couture is the man and that’s how we all try to be, just like him.
Gray, what are your thoughts on your last fight that ended as a controversial no contest with Rob Emerson?
My thoughts are just I can’t wait to get back in the cage. I talked to Couture a bit and he’s the type of guy where the past is the past, get going, let’s get training again. So I was back in the gym about 2 days afterwards. I’m getting prepared for my next one.
What was it like being coached by BJ Penn on the show, Gray?
I knew him before and he’s just unreal, the amount of technique he has. The guy has a wealth of knowledge that’s just unreal. And it’s like, “All right, lets do some Jiu-Jitsu” and he grabs you and it’s like, “did I just learn Jiu-Jitsu? Because that’s how I feel.” He just makes you feel like you’ve never done it before, he’s a prodigy for sure, he’s phenom.
Joe, you’re fun loving and you have actually smiled a few times inside the cage, do enjoy when you’re in there?
When I’m on my A-game, I’m smiling the whole time because I’m in the amount and when he’s punching at me it’s like slow motion. Those are the good fights. Whenever you see one expression the whole time, it’s better than 8 different expressions—you don’t want an emotional backlash where you go from happy to sad. You want one emotion, the way you’ve been training—if you’ve been training pumped up and mad continue that, I’ve been training happy, aggressive and high paced, that’s what you do.
Being in the moment cutting everything else off, is that how you fight as well, Gray?
I kind of get it going and it’s not a game, it’s like I’ve got to get out there and win and do it hard, and I’ve got to make him never want to go up against me again. That’s the whole plan.
What do you like to do when not fighting?
JS: I like to hang out with the family, shoot some pool, play some video games, watch John From Cincinnati and Entourage.
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