Ready for War: Jonathan Goulet UFC Fight Night 16 interview exclusive with MMAmania.com

Originally posted on MMAmania.com

In a career that spans over 30 fights, Jonathan Goulet has seen it all. He’s faced some of the best of the welterweight division including Josh Koscheck and Dustin Hazelett and holds wins over UFC veterans like John Alessio, Shonie Carter, Tony Fryklund, Jay Hieron and Luke Cummo.

Most recently, “The Road Warrior” (22-9) added one more feat to his resume: Earning “Fight of the Night” honors (and the whopping $75K that went along with it) for his fantastic performance against Kuniyoshi Hironaka at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre II.”

Goulet now hopes to end the 2008 fight year by checking off one more goal on his list: Beating a top contender in the UFC’s stacked welterweight division. He’ll have his chance when he faces Mike “Quick” Swick (12-2) this Wednesday night, December 10, at UFC Fight Night 16: “Fight for the Troops.”

The event takes place at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, NC and airs free on Spike TV starting at 9:00 p.m. ET. It features the main event welterweight fight between Josh Koscheck and Yoshiyuki “Zenko” Yoshida as well as an exciting lightweight bout between Matt Wiman and Jim Miller.

Goulet and Swick were originally slated to face off at Fight Night 11 back in September 2007 after Goulet had goaded Swick into taking the fight by calling him out on online message board. Swick however had to pull out of the fight due to a rib injury and was replaced by Dustin Hazelett.

We recently caught up with Goulet to ask him about those online taunts, the bad blood (if any) between the two fighters and to find out what he has in store for his fans heading into 2009.

Let’s do this thing.


Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Your UFC 83 fight with Kuniyoshi Hironaka earned “Fight of the Night” honors and $75,000 bonus money. How did it feel to earn the extra scratch, while also getting the nod from the UFC that they liked your fight?

Jonathan Goulet: That was really good. It was good timing because I needed the money, so that was fun for me. And for being honored by the UFC with the “Fight of the Night” is always good. With this, I know that I can keep my job.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You had to pull out of your UFC 85 fight against Paul Kelly. I’ve read that it was due to “undisclosed health concerns,” but I’ve also read that there was not enough time for you to prepare for the fight. What exactly happened there?

Jonathan Goulet: I got injured. I got injured, and because of that, I was unable to prepare myself (in time) for the fight.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Okay, so it was due to injury?

Jonathan Goulet: Yes.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): But you’re healed up now?

Jonathan Goulet: Yes, 100%.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Good. For your next fight, have you been training at Tristar Gym in Montreal?

Jonathan Goulet: Yeah sure. I’m training down there full time. I’m doing Muay Thai, MMA and wrestling.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Have you brought in any new coaches or training partners to help you prepare for this fight?

Jonathan Goulet: Sure, I had private coaches for Muay Thai, wrestling and MMA. But I also train with my teammates, GSP, David Loiseau, Nordine Taleb and Denis Kang.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Do you train with Patrick Cote as well?

Jonathan Goulet: Yes, but last time he re-injured himself, so I haven’t been able to train with him for this fight.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): What’s it like to train with GSP, Loiseau and those other guys?

Jonathan Goulet: It’s good because they always kick my ass and get me ready in training. Those guys are always helpful. They are strong, fast and have a lot of tools. And I am able to apply some technique on them. I’m very happy. It made my week (training with them).

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You were supposed to fight Mike Swick back at Fight Night 11 in September 2007, however Swick had to pull out due to a rib injury. When you called out Swick on the message boards to get that fight, it was largely seen as you goading him into a fight. Is that the case, or are there any hard feelings between the two of you?

Jonathan Goulet: No, there are no hard feelings. You know, I went on the Web because … you know, when I received a call from my manager, Ken Pavia, he asked me if I wanted to fight Mike Swick. So I said, “Yes.” Then we received a call from his manager, and they did not accept the fight. So my manager called me back, and he told me that (Swick) didn’t accept the fight because I wasn’t as good as they wanted. So between those calls, I talked to David Loiseau and told him that I was going to fight (Swick). So when I received the call from my manager and said that I wasn’t going to fight him, Loiseau told me to write this on the Web … to write things on the Web. So I think one or two hours later, I got the call, because at that time (Swick) was mad at me. He was pissed off and wanted to fight me.

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