UFC veteran Victor Valimaki returns to the cage against 24-year old Canadian heavyweight prospect Tanner Boser in the main event of Unified 24 in Edmonton on September 25th. Valimaki (18-9) spoke to MMAOddsBreaker on Episode 122 of “The Parting Shot Podcast” and discussed a variety of topics. Working as a General Manager for the UFC Gym in Sherwood Park, AB “It’s amazing; it’s the UFC brand behind it obviously. I pretty much live at the gym now, stay out of trouble. It’s a great opportunity, it’s the first one in Canada I kind of lucked out getting this position. The local owners [of the gym] I actually grew up with. They contacted me asking if I would interview for it, I said sure. I had to do everything through corporate in California but I got the ok to do it. Here I am, so we’re feeling it right now. We’re number one in the company right now, so it’s doing really well.” Balancing GM duties with training “It’s a perfect fit actually; I’m the general manager so I’m obviously pretty busy with it. But I can take time out of the day to train. I’m really fortunate; I have some amazing trainers here that I can work with at the gym. I still balance that with some other training at Complete MMA and Fitness with Mitch Clarke and Sheldon Westcott. I’ve actually got a chance to do more training [then before].” Attending UFC Saskatoon card last month “I thought it was great, there was one or two fights that were not the most exciting. Overall it was a great card. I had a blast and we were right up front so we had a pretty good view of it.” Pulling out of his WSOF 21 fight in June “I actually pulled out of that 6-7 weeks out, I had a torn MCL in my knee. That in conjunction with starting this gym, I just didn’t have to train to the ability that I need to. It wasn’t good timing.” Losing to Jeremy Osheim in his last fight at MFC 41 “That’s one of those fights I look back on that should have never done. I actually broke my arm about five weeks out from that in training. I had a bad streak where I had to drop out of a few fights and it never looks good when you have to do that. So I said there’s no way, I got to take this fight. I definitely wasn’t 100%. He kneed me right on the arm that I had injured, and my whole arm went numb. I couldn’t block and he ended up teeing off on me with knees. That’s one of the ones I’d love a time machine to go back and do it a little bit healthier.” On if the MFC will ever come back “I think they’re coming back. I know Mark [Pavelich] won’t stay away from it for too long, he has his other stuff on the go. I want to see them come back, I love MFC and I consider it one of my homes. Especially locally for MMA around here, there’s a pretty big void right now with them gone. WSOF comes only once or twice a year and I’m not even sure when they’re doing the next one. I’d love for them to come and do some consistent shows here.” Matchup with Tanner Boser “I think I [matchup] great. He’s a tough kid; I don’t anything away from him. I don’t have the grudge that Tim Hague had. He’s a tough kid and he wants to take tough fights. That’s great but I think he’s in over his head on this one. I think I’m just too technical for him. He takes a lot of punishments in fights but I don’t think he’s going to be able to do that against me or I’ll pick him apart.” Move up to heavyweight “I’m a in between-er, I’m a little big for light heavyweight I’m almost kill myself getting down and I’m too small for heavyweight. I just wanted a fight and Sunny offered me this one with Boser who isn’t a big heavyweight anyways. They’re even talking about weigh in rules implemented worldwide, so I might be staying at heavyweight anyways.” Where a win over Boser puts him in the division “He’s a big up and comer, a lot of potential with the guy. His only loss is to Tim [Hague] and Tim hits anyone on the chin he’s going out. He’s over his head in this one, I think it puts me back on the map for sure. I haven’t been the most consistent over the last couple years. It definitely puts me back into the mix.” How this fight ends September 25th “This one has knockout all over it. I know he’s a tough guy and he’s got a hard head. He hasn’t fought anyone like me yet. How much longer he plans on fighting “I want to do a couple more years I think, I want to make a real run at it. I don’t want to look back on things and say I should have done this and have those regrets. I’m doing it the way I should have done it. I’m in the best possible position to do it. Things are looking pretty good.” You can follow Victor on Twitter @V2MMA and you can also listen to the full audio version of this interview (78 mins in) Episode 122 of The Parting Shot Podcast below
