Dave Huckaba on fighting Rolles Gracie at WSOF 3: “I’m going to let my hands go in this fight”

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Category: Other MMA News

Published on Saturday, 01 June 2013 22:39

Written by Darren Barcomb

MMA DIRT’s Darren Barcomb caught up with heavyweight Dave “Bad Man” Huckaba as he gears up for his June 14^th matchup with Rolles Gracie at World Series of Fighting (WSOF) 3 in Las Vegas. Huckaba, who turned 39 the day of this interview, has forged an impressive record of 20-5 while competing for a plethora of promotions including Gladiator Challenge, Bellator, Shark Fights, and EliteXC. In his last outing in January, Huckaba pounded Carter Williams into a submission to claim the West Coast FC Heavyweight title.

His opponent on June 14^th at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas will be the highly touted UFC vet, Rolles Gracie (8-1). Huckaba admits that the Gracie name carries a lot of weight, but is confident that his strength and skills will carry him to victory in the matchup, which will be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network. Read on below as Huckaba talks about his game-plan for Gracie, what he expects to see, and what motivates him as a fighter.

On what he expects to see from Rolles Gracie:

“I know he’s a Gracie, not much more needs to be said than that. The name says it all…great, great Jiu-Jitsu, good stand up, he’s got a decent right hand. I know he’s going to be super good on the ground and his stand-up will be well rounded.”

On his game plan for Gracie:

“Sprawl and brawl baby, sprawl and brawl. It’s no secret; I have like an 87% knockout ratio in my fight career, something like 16 knockouts in the first round. It’s no secret what I’m trying to do; I want to try to bang him out. In 25 fights I’ve been submitted once. I hope they don’t think I’m easy to submit, because that’s really not on my resume."

On Fighting for the World Series of Fighting:

“It’s huge for me. The opponent that they matched me up with…I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity. WSOF really hooked me up with this one, setting me up with a fight with this big of a name. In my opinion, they only way he has to win this fight is to submit me. I have ten different ways to win this fight. Rolles is used to fighting smaller people; he’s used to fighting guys who are 220-230lbs. This time he’s going into the fight with a much bigger man, I’m 265 lbs. I’m a union iron worker. I pack rebar for 6-8 hours a day. I’m going to be a lot stronger than the people he’s used to fighting.”

On what motivates him:

“When people doubt me, for some reason I do so much better. When people think that I’m not going to win, I want to make a better impression. When people…let’s call them haters… don’t want to see you succeed, that’s like throwing gas on the fire for me. It gives me more motivation to train and fight. There are a lot of people who don’t even think that I should be in the same ring with Gracie because of his name. I want to show that a lot of people are wrong.”

On lessons he’s learned in the fight game:

“I’m an older fighter at 39 but I began my career when I was 31. In the short time that I’ve been in MMA, I’ve acquired five MMA heavyweight titles. I currently hold five different belts right now for five different organizations locally on the West Coast, and I’ve beat some respectable names. I’ve learned my lesson on the big show. I got pulled into Bellator and fought Damian Grabowski, who is a super good Jiu-Jitsu guy. He had 14 first round wins by submission. I messed up and didn’t pull the trigger on him. I had his wobbled a couple of times and I was too worried about the submission. I learned my lesson on that fight, we went to a decision and I lost. It’s not going to happen again. I’m a quick learner; I’m going to let my hands go in this fight. If Gracie gets me down, then I’m going to work on getting up and he’s going to have to work on blocking my punches.”

His shout outs and last words:

“I want to thank Fight Gear, Binford's Custom Cycles, and you for giving me this exposure. Everyone is going to know who I am after this fight. I put in a lot of work for this fight and I thank all the fans any everyone who supports MMA. Without you guys, we wouldn’t be out there."

Best wishes to Huckaba on June 14^th and check out live results for WSOF 3 here on MMADIRT.com and 8countnews.com.