Vigilante MMA

And the winner is…Nam Phan!  This week we’re especially excited to bring you exclusive coverage of TUF 12 via our very own special correspondent Nam Pham.  Read this week’s Q&A to find out what it’s like sparring with Jon Fitch, what’s the secret weapon behind Muay Thai specialist Jean-Charles’ kicks, why Nam compares himself to a kamikaze, and what it feels like to finally get a win for Team Koscheck. 

VigilanteMMA:  It looks like your team is finally getting some celebrity visitors too!  What was it like training with Jon Fitch?

Nam Phan:  It was amazing.  It was a great experience to spar with someone at that level.  Like I said on the show, it was my pleasure to get beat up by Jon Fitch (laughs).

VigilanteMMA:  From the show, it looked like you had more time sparring with Jon than the other guys.  Was that just editing?

Nam Phan:  Well, no.  Koscheck asked everyone right away who would like to spar with him, and I’m the only that raised their hand.

VigilanteMMA:  A glutton for punishment.  I like that.  Speaking of special guests, what was your impression of GSP’s friend, Muay Thai fighter Jean-Charles Skarbowsky?  On the show they alluded to him being drunk while sparring with the guys from Team GSP.  Confirm or deny?

Nam Phan:  First off, that guy is amazing.  He’s top level.  You all saw the way he was tossing those guys around.  He would annihilate me.  As for the drinking and smoking stuff, yeah, all that was true!  He drinks and smokes every day.  He had his drink with him the whole time.  I think it was vodka and cranberry juice, actually it was more a drop of cranberry juice and mostly vodka.  That was the drink that Koscheck took a sip out of on the show.  He said it was almost pure vodka.

VigilanteMMA:  Well, you have to stay hydrated I guess.  So now for our weekly “Bruce LeRoy” question, what was up with the bleach prank?  Why do you think he picked you?

Nam Phan:  Like we’ve talked about, I’m not going to shy away from calling someone out.  And in the case with Alex, I called him out on a few things.  And a guy like Alex doesn’t really appreciate that, so I guess he decided to prank me.  But as we all saw, the prank backfired.

VigilanteMMA:  Yeah, Michael Johnson didn’t seem to find the humor in that.

Nam Phan:  Yeah, I know man.  I was concerned…you don’t really want to mess around with the biggest guy in the house.

VigilanteMMA:  So finally we get to see you fight, but according to Spencer Paige, you didn’t seem as up to it as we did.  He said you looked “scared” and “sad” because you weren’t making eye contact during the fight announcement.  Care to tell your side?

Nam Phan:  I just don’t really get the mentality of the stare down.  The whole “I’m going to intimidate you” vibe, I just don’t see the point to all that.  It’s a waste of energy.  I don’t bother with that stuff.

VigilanteMMA:  So for the record, you weren’t “scared” or “sad” that you were picked?

Nam Phan:  Oh no!  That was not the case whatsoever.

VigilanteMMA:  Did you know anything about Spencer going into your fight?

Nam Phan:  I really didn’t know too much about Spencer going into the fight.  I had just heard that he had good striking and good takedown defense.

VigilanteMMA:  Knowing that, what was your game plan for Spencer?  Being that he has good stand-up, did you want to stand in there and bang or did you want to take him down?

Nam Phan:  I figured he was going to try to box with me, which I wasn’t really worried about.  I mean, he’s a good boxer, but it’s a totally different thing boxing in MMA than actual boxing.  I’ve done actual boxing before.  I’ve competed in amateur boxing and pro boxing.  So I knew I was way ahead of him in that regard.  I was not worried because I knew I wouldn’t be put in a bad position.

VigilanteMMA:  It seemed that your coach Koscheck shared your confidence.  He said he was very confident in your abilities because he had seen you fight before prior to the show.  Elaborate please.

Nam Phan:  Yeah, I’ve fought against a couple of AKA guys (where Koscheck trains), guys like former Strikeforce lightweight champ Josh Thompson and lightweight contender Billy Evangelista and did very well against them.  And he knew that Spencer Paige was no Josh Thompson, so he knew I would do very well.

VigilanteMMA:  Right before your fight, you had quite the “game face” on.  I can’t ever recall seeing a more intense stare.  Care to let our readers into your mindset going into a fight?

Nam Phan:  It’s game time.  You have to go in there and be prepared for the worst.  It’s almost like you’re a kamikaze, you need to go in there prepared to die.  I mean, there is no worse case scenario than dying, so if you can prepare yourself for that, and get over that mental hump, there’s nothing left to be afraid of.  You need to go in there and let it all hang out.  It’s like you’re fighting in the trenches.  In order to advance, you need to be confident and charge straight ahead at 100% full well knowing you might die, because if you hesitate, or second guess yourself, that’s when you make mistakes.

VigilanteMMA:  That’s great insight Nam.  A true warrior’s spirit.  But, do you still get nervous?

Nam Phan:  Oh yeah.  Like I said on the show, right before it goes down I’m thinking, “Why didn’t I just follow my Dad’s plan and become a business man?”  But it’s like jumping off a cliff or jumping out of a plane.  Going up to it is really scary and nerve-wracking, but once you do it, you just let yourself go.  Right when the bell rings I’m talking to myself, saying “let’s see what you got.”

VigilanteMMA:  So let’s talk about the actual fight.  During the first few minutes, Spencer seemed to be more active in the striking department, yet you were the one pressing forward.

Nam Phan:  The reason for that is I have great training partners back home.  I train with a bunch of south paws that are better at boxing and kickboxing than Spencer, so I wasn’t too worried.  I was very comfortable.

VigilanteMMA:  The 2^nd half of round 1 was all you.  After your caught his leg kick, you put on quite the display of ground and pound, plus you almost had him in that kimura.

Nam Phan:  Thanks.  The ground and pound is an art in itself.  People think it’s easy, but it’s hard to hit someone while in the guard.  I mean, there are a lot of things that can happen when you’re in that position.  You could be swept; you could get caught in an arm-bar, kimura, whatever.  It’s not easy.  You have to be methodical about it.

VigilanteMMA:  If you had 10 more seconds, could you have gotten him to tap?

Nam Phan:  Yeah, I think so.  But to be fair, he has very flexible shoulders.  I mean, I had his wrist by his neck.  I heard his shoulder popping out and he was still hanging in there.

VigilanteMMA:  So after winning round 1, did that change your game plan for round 2?

Nam Phan:  Not at all.  No changes.  I just wanted to keep wearing him down.  Just tap, tap, tap with the jab and go in for body shots and kicks.

VigilanteMMA:  Yeah, speaking of art-forms, you have the body-shot thing down to a T.  So after it was all said and done, you getting the first win for Team Koscheck, adversity fell your way via an ill-received celebration.  Did you think Team GSP was going to take it that way?

Nam Phan:  The morale of the team going into that fight was kind of low.  We had lost 3 in a row, so when we did finally get the win, it was really exciting.  So the banging on the walls was more excitement and celebratory than anything else.  I mean, I’m not the type of guy to rub something in someone’s face, but I got caught up in the moment.  But after seeing that on the show, I felt like such a jerk.  I apologized to GSP and Spencer on The Aftermath and would like to extend an apology to anyone reading this that may have taken what we did out of context.  In Koscheck’s defense, he didn’t do that to be a jerk.  I think he did it more to get under GSP’s skin and get into the psyche of the Red team.

VigilanteMMA:  Awesome interview once again Nam.  Any last parting words to tell your fans?

Nam Phan:  On a personal note, being the only Asian-American on the show, I wanted to shed some positive light on the Asian community.  I think it’s important to have positive images of minorities in the media because there’s such a lack of that out there, and I’m glad I’m in a position to help change that.  I hope I made the Asian community proud.

To learn more about Nam, make sure you friend him on facebook and find him at his personal page iamnam.com.

To read Nam’s episode by episode recap of TUF just go here