Lightweight Scott Holtzman makes his long awaited UFC debut on August 8th against Anthony Christodoulou. “Hot Sauce” (7-0) caught up with MMAOddsBreaker on Episode 116 of The Parting Shot Podcast and discussed a variety of topics. Phone call that he was signed to the UFC “Honestly I think it’s still a little surreal, I don’t think I’ll believe it until I’m walking out or until I hear Bruce Buffer yelling at me. But I’m excited for sure.” Whirlwind of XFC shutting its doors, being signed to the UFC “The XFC was closing down, I kind of got wind of that. But my contract was almost up anyways. I was looking for a new place to go. I knew I was kind of on the fringe, but I thought maybe I needed some more fights to get into the UFC. I started shopping around; I talked to Bellator, I talked to all the major companies. I had it narrowed down to Legacy or RFA and was trying to make the decision. My manager kind of shot Joe Silva an email and asked him what he thought. Evidently thought Joe thought I was ready so they emailed back a contract and it happened that fast. I went from trying to find a regional promotion to in the UFC pretty much overnight.” Original UFC debut delayed due to injuries “It’s been frustrating, any injuries are largely mental. You’ve got to stay positive; you got to keep moving forward, you’ve got to do what you can do to get better in that timeframe. That’s what I’ve done, I really committed to staying positive and moving forward. Improving in areas that I may not have been working on otherwise. I’ve used my time wisely and its turns out I’ve improved everywhere. I’m excited man, only a few weeks to go and I’m hitting on all cylinders already. I tired of training camp and my training partners and ready to get into a fight for sure.” Making UFC debut in home state of Tennessee “Honestly it’s a dream; I figured my first fight would be in Brazil or somewhere crazy with everybody booing me. When they started talking about this Tennessee card I knew I had to do everything I could to be ready for it. It’s a dream come true. I’m going to have a lot of people there, I just want to go out there and put on a show and everybody getting their money’s worth.” Matchup with Anthony Christodoulou in his UFC debut “I think I matchup well. One of his strengths is grappling; he’s a brown belt now on the ground. He’ll come a little bit wild on the feet and have some trouble setting his shots up really well. I think I’ll be able to keep it on the feet and take him apart. I’m looking forward to showcasing some skills and some things I really haven’t had to showcase yet.” Spelling his opponents last name “I can [spell it] now I had to type it enough; I’ve got it down now [laughs]” Making a statement in his UFC debut “It’s important you always to make yourself happy with your performance. Obviously in the UFC you want to make your bosses happy. But for me I’m not going to put extra pressure on myself to press. I’m going to let the fight play out, I’m going to try to take my time and wait for some openings. If nothing opens up I’m going to make some. I’m trying not to put any unnecessary pressure on myself. I’m just going to go out there and good things will happen. I work hard, I deserve to win so I’m just going out there any let it fly.” Octagon jitters “We’ll see, to me I’ve seen it 1000 times in my head already so it’s not a big deal. Like I said I’ve did a lot of visualization, I’ve already seen myself there a thousand of times. In the gym, of course we have tons of the guys that have competed in the octagon daily, it definitely helps. I’m going to be fine.” MMA Lab’s success “I just think the work ethic [is a big factor]. We have Ben Henderson leading by example. He comes in everyday and competes and grinds hard. I’ve never seen another guy to be able to put out like he does in practice. All the way down to the amateurs, if you take a round off an amateur will beat you up that you’ve never heard of. We got a good core group of guys that lead by example. The other thing is the team atmosphere too, you go to a lot of gyms and guys don’t care about you. But here everybody, since the first day I was here they made me feel like family and like I’d always been here. I knew it was a great fit even on the first day.” Noticed any Canadian things training with Mitch Clarke “Mitch had these sandals, I called them the air Jesus sandals. He used to wear socks with them so I think that’s a big no no around here. But in Canada maybe [its acceptable] The other thing I noticed he used to call our garage a ‘garaghe.’ There’s a lot of stuff but we don’t have enough time to cover it all [laughs].” Franks Red Hot or Tabasco? “I would say more Franks Red Hot; I just finished a bottle of it today. I’m in the market for some more, I might switch to Choula, I’ m a big Choula fan too. I like Sriracha [as well] but it tears up my stomach a little bit though so, sometimes I have to stay near the bathroom.” Producing his awesome Hot Sauce shirts “A little bit, I’m still having some more fan shirts made outside of Reebok. Changes are that I’d probably be getting paid to wear another goofy shit anyways. I’m still going to have some shirts for the fans. I actually got in trouble for that shirt too, Tabasco hit me with a Cease and Asset.” Watching the NHL Playoffs “I watched the first round, then the Predators got put out and I was a little bitter about it. But I did watch the final and the Blackhawks are hard to beat. They’re impressive, when its time to play they come to play. It was odd seeing Marty St Louis on the Rangers again too, I know they weren’t in the finals. It was weird seeing him play Tampa Bay.” Tougher: Fighters or Hockey Players? “I think outside of MMA, hockey players are some of the toughest too. I think Andrew Ference broke his leg on the ice and played the rest of the shift and hobbled off. A lot of people don’t know what guys are playing through during the playoffs. My hats are off to those guys, they are as tough as it gets.” Attending Arizona Coyotes games “Yeah I think so; the arena is right down the road from us. I went to a couple games and it was a lot of fun. Supposedly they go through this contract battle every year and they always end up staying. I’m just hoping the city of Glendale is bluffing as usual.” Friends who are NHL Players “I know Marion Hossa. When he played for the Thrashers I knew a guy named Jimmy Slater, he played at Michigan State with a friend of mine, who was the backup goalie. I went down there and hung out with him and Kari Lethonen was the goalie. Also I played rollerhockey back in the day with Bobby Ryan. I don’t know him personally but we had a few battles in rollerhockey.” You follow Scott on Twitter @HotSauceHoltzy You can listen to the full audio version of this interview on Episode 116 of The Parting Shot Podcast below (23 mins in)
