Mike “Biggie” Rhodes looks for his second straight win as he faces off against Taki Uluilakepa (5-1-1-) in the main event of Prestige FC 1: Atonement on October 24th in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Rhodes (7-4) spoke to MMAOddsBreaker on Episode 126 of The Parting Shot Podcast and discussed a variety of topics. How this matchup came together with Prestige FC “[It’s] Just another opportunity of where I train at. The guy knows Cord [Crowders] and he knows Duke [Roufus]. They were putting on a show. He knew who to call when he needed a real fighter, someone who come up and put on a show. They figured out I was their guy.” Fighting in Saskatchewan, Canada “I’ve heard to Saskatchewan before. A girl from my junior college was actually from Saskatoon. I’ve heard a little bit about it but not much at all. They call people like “hoosers” that’s one of their words or something like that. Just little useless pieces of information you might not ever use in your life.” Difficulty booking fights “A lot of guys don’t want to take real fights. They’re afraid; their managers are hand picking their fights. Their managers are making sure they’re going 8, 9-0. They’re trying to make it to the UFC the easy way and they don’t want to take a real fight. That hurts their career later on when they have to fight someone of a higher calibre of what they’re used to. People know how good I am, they don’t want to fight me. I’ve always had this problem, being from the gym that I’m from. That’s not on their highest priority list fighting a guy from Roufusport. The word gets around of who the better fighters are around the area, in the region. Once you’re on that list, people tend to hide from you.” Why he didn’t fight for RFA again after his UFC release “Honestly I didn’t want to fight for the belt again. It’s not worth it to me. The only belt that comes with a lot money is the UFC belt. Those other belts are just fighting five rounds for a little bit of change. It sucks that RFA was a good promotion; they just don’t pay enough as far as some of those things. So I wouldn’t want to fight for their title again. Me coming back is probably something they would have pushed, me fighting for the title. That’s just not something I’m interested in. I can fight the same guys for better pay in other promotions. I would still do a one-fight deal with him at some point, but I don’t want to be tied down to a contract with anybody.” Fighting regionally instead of for a bigger promotion “My last fight was at NAFC, which is a home promotion for the Midwest. With my name, I could sell tickets and make more than a lot of these shows are going to pay me to do anything. I might as well stay close to come, get some tough fights and make some decent money on my way back. I’ll get outside my comfort zone and fight anyone, but it’s got to be smart and worth the money. All these shows they want the biggest fights they can make for the littlest money possible. I’ll fight for anyone; I just don’t want to sign a contract unless it’s the UFC.” Matchup with Taki Uluilakepa “Realistically it’s a fight, everybody is tough, and everybody trains. Do I think he’s on my level? Hell no. Do I think there is something he does better than me? No. Overall it’s just not a good fight for him, I feel like he doesn’t match up well against me. He’s nowhere near my level and I think it’s going to show on that night. He’s got nothing but bad things coming his way.” If it’s a risky fight because Uluilakepa isn’t a household name “I’m going to go over there, smack him up, get my cheque, fly back to the U.S., and get back to business and onto the next fight. His age is whatever; he’s going to get treated like the rest of him. It’s going to go against something I believe in that’s respecting your elders. I’m totally going to disrespect him and beat him up.” Training Camp “I was training with Tyron Woodley a lot for this camp, helping him get ready for the Johny Hendricks fight. I’ve got Gerald Meerschaert who is a lefty; I train with him all the time, so Taki being a lefty won’t be an issue at all because I train with lefties all the time. Him, Erik Koch, JP Virginia, Ben Askren is up there with us. I always have a good group of guys to train with, so I’m ready to go.” Thoughts on current RFA welterweight champion Gilbert Smith’s victory at RFA 31 “Not looking past Taki, I don’t overlook anyone. But I can still talk about the future because that’s something I believe in doing. I really wouldn’t want to fight Gilbert Smith because he has that RFA title; it’s not worth that much to me as far as like fighting five rounds. If got to fight him for three rounds for something, I would beat him up I think he sucks. I watched the whole fight, I was running on the treadmill and he was getting his ass whooped. Even in his fight with Ben Smith, who I knocked out in 56 seconds, he looked tired. He carries a lot of muscle which wears on him. He said he’s like fixing his boxing and all that, I think his boxing looked horrible. A lot of people messaged me and said the same thing, he didn’t look good. Bristol was whooping him, he’s supposed to be the grappler and wrestler and he was getting outgrappled and outwrestled. The shot that he landed that hurt Bristols jaw was a glancing blow, it was like one punch of six in that combination. I wasn’t impressed at all. He just didn’t look good but that’s not a fight I really care to have.” Thoughts on competing for Titan FC “I’ve been offered a couple of fights [from Titan FC] a couple of fights that were short notice things; I’m really big welterweight I could make weight for them. I got offered a fight but the opponent turned me down. I got some teammates that fight for them; they seem like a pretty good organization. But like I said I don’t want to sign a contract because a lot of these shows are promising fights and not coming through. That’s something that sticks out to me, that’s huge.” How this fight ends on October 24th “First round knockout man I ain’t coming to play games. I’m not coming to dance around, wrestle, hug or any of that stuff. I’m going to come over there and put hands on this guy. He’s going to fall down early in the fight.” You can follow Mike on Twitter @TeamRocBiggie and you can listen to the full audio version of this interview below (17 mins in)
