Joe Riggs Talks "Boring" Jake Shields, "Enhanced" Phil Baroni, + More
Originally posted on CagePotato.com
As promised yesterday, here is the full interview with Joe Riggs, who opens up about his past painkiller addiction, his ongoing attempts to get Jake Shields into the cage with him, and of course, the possibly “pharmaceutically enhanced” Phil Baroni who he’ll meet in Strikeforce on Showtime this Saturday night.
Cage Potato: Thanks for talking with me, Joe. You’re fighting Phil Baroni this weekend, but I think we all know that’s not the fight you wanted. You were pretty adamant about trying to get a fight with Jake Shields.
Riggs: Yeah, that was a fight that I’ve been trying to get for a couple years now and he’s managed to squeak his way out of it every time we were supposed to fight. This time contracts were signed and everything was ready to go and he just wormed his way out of it. He’s the type of guy who just wants to fight the fights where the match-ups are stylistically in his favor. I think he also wants fights, like this one [against Robbie Lawler] where if things don’t go his way he has excuses.
You think he felt you were a bad match-up for him, stylistically?
Yeah, and if he loses to me it makes him look bad. If he loses to Lawler he can say he’s fighting out of his weight class and he has a bunch of excuses for it.
You seemed to take it pretty personally when he didn’t want to fight you.
I did because he keeps saying that the reason he won’t fight me is because he wants to fight the top guys in the world, acting like I’m not relevant in this sport. His last three fights, I’m ranked well above those opponents. It’s stupid, man. He’s acting like I’m Tank Abbott or something.
One of the things you said was that people forget you’re only 26. And you’re right, I know I thought you were older because you’ve been around in this sport for so long. You must run into that a lot.
Oh, for sure. I had a title shot in the UFC at a young age. I’ve had a lot of fights already in this sport, a lot of big fights early. Sometimes when that happens people don’t realize how young you are. They just think that since you’ve been fighting for a while you must be older. I’m not. I’m still a young guy and I’ve just done more and competed more than most fighters my age. People forget that.
Click here to read the entire article at CagePotato.com
As promised yesterday, here is the full interview with Joe Riggs, who opens up about his past painkiller addiction, his ongoing attempts to get Jake Shields into the cage with him, and of course, the possibly “pharmaceutically enhanced” Phil Baroni who he’ll meet in Strikeforce on Showtime this Saturday night.
Cage Potato: Thanks for talking with me, Joe. You’re fighting Phil Baroni this weekend, but I think we all know that’s not the fight you wanted. You were pretty adamant about trying to get a fight with Jake Shields.
Riggs: Yeah, that was a fight that I’ve been trying to get for a couple years now and he’s managed to squeak his way out of it every time we were supposed to fight. This time contracts were signed and everything was ready to go and he just wormed his way out of it. He’s the type of guy who just wants to fight the fights where the match-ups are stylistically in his favor. I think he also wants fights, like this one [against Robbie Lawler] where if things don’t go his way he has excuses.
You think he felt you were a bad match-up for him, stylistically?
Yeah, and if he loses to me it makes him look bad. If he loses to Lawler he can say he’s fighting out of his weight class and he has a bunch of excuses for it.
You seemed to take it pretty personally when he didn’t want to fight you.
I did because he keeps saying that the reason he won’t fight me is because he wants to fight the top guys in the world, acting like I’m not relevant in this sport. His last three fights, I’m ranked well above those opponents. It’s stupid, man. He’s acting like I’m Tank Abbott or something.
One of the things you said was that people forget you’re only 26. And you’re right, I know I thought you were older because you’ve been around in this sport for so long. You must run into that a lot.
Oh, for sure. I had a title shot in the UFC at a young age. I’ve had a lot of fights already in this sport, a lot of big fights early. Sometimes when that happens people don’t realize how young you are. They just think that since you’ve been fighting for a while you must be older. I’m not. I’m still a young guy and I’ve just done more and competed more than most fighters my age. People forget that.
Click here to read the entire article at CagePotato.com
Labels: Joe Riggs, Phil Baroni
posted by MMAagents.com at
6:39 PM
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