Strikeforce veteran Bobby Voelker looks for his third straight win since his UFC release when he meets Mike Estus in the main event of Shamrock FC: Clash on September 26th. Voelker (26-12) spoke to MMAOddsBreaker on The Parting Shot Podcast and discussed a variety of topics. Controversial loss to Patrick Cote at UFC 158 “Patrick’s been around a long time you know? To go up to Canada, his hometown you really got to win decisively. You can’t win by decision up there. I felt I won too and most people actually thought I did win. In my mind I did win and that’s good enough for me. Fighting Robbie Lawler at UFC on FOX 8 on short notice. Would he do it again? “Absolutely. I don’t regret anything I’ve done, even with whatever losses I’ve got. They’ve all made me a better fighter and made me who I am today. Absolutely if they called me again to fight Robbie or anybody I’d do it, as long as I can make weight. Of course I would.” Regrets from his UFC tenure “There are always things you want to change about all your fights. I don’t really have any regrets but I wish I would have known in my New Mexico [bout at UFC Fight Night 42 against Lance Benoist] the altitude was so high up there. I would have gone down a couple of weeks early to get acclimated to that. Then I wish I wish I would have performed a little bit better in the William Macario fight a little bit better before I got cut and everything. But you know you always wish you could do better in every fight Balancing work, training and school “I just recently got done with school so now I’m ready to kind of get back to focus on the fight game. I just finished my Paramedics degree, just something to secure my future. You can’t fight forever even though we’d all like to. I’m still doing [construction] but the good thing about the Paramedic thing is you work 24 hours and you get 48 hours off, so the 48 off I can do construction or train for a fight. It’s all coming together pretty nicely for me. Right now though a lot of my focus is on Mike Estus. Matchup with Mike Estus “I think we’re both pretty tough brawlers. I’m sure he’s working on some new stuff just like I’m working on some new stuff. I know he’s a tough Iowa boy. Those Iowa boys I’ve fought a lot of them and they’re all so freaking tough. I plan him coming in tough as nails, throwing some big bombs, take downs and whatever he tries and I’ll be ready for it all.” Watching tape on his opponent “I watch a little bit, I more so let my trainers do it. I’ve watched a few of his fights and see what he likes to do. Those are all his past fights; you can only take so much from those. People are always trying to get better from their last performance and that’s what he’s trying to do.” Training camp for this fight “I’m always at American Jiu-jitsu, that’s where my main trainers are at; you know Brad Jones, there’s handful of other guys there. Glory’s is one I always like going to; they have a lot of studs there. They’ve got some UFC guys James Krause, Zak Cummings, just a bunch of guys over there that give you looks. Another good one is American Top Team with Jason High and L.C. Davis. It takes a lot of people to make up a team.” Weight cut to welterweight “Everyone knows I’m a big 170er, I walk around anywhere from 205-210lbs sometimes. My weight cut starts about 6-8 weeks out. I just get on a strict diet, stick with it and slowly lose the weight. I’ll lose 3-4 pounds a week until it’s time to weigh in. I’ve never missed a weight cut in 51 fights.” Thoughts on the UFC’s Reebok deal “I’m a fighter; I’ll fight just about anywhere. I’ll let my manager talk to me about that and talk to them about that. Whatever ends up sounding like the best deal for me, for my future then that’s what I’ll end up taking. Whether it’s Bellator, UFC or any of the other big organizations. The way they do sponsorships it’s not really my concern, that’s not my part of the game. I just try to train hard for the fight and put on a great fight.” How this fight ends on September 26th “I don’t like to make predictions but everyone knows I love the knockout. KO, TKO that’s always what I love. Whatever he gives me, I’ll take.” You can follow Bobby on Twitter @MMA_Voelker and you can listen to the full audio version of this interview on Episode 123 of The Parting Shot Podcast on September 20th.
