Warning – Don’t Talk to Shannon Gugerty when He’s Working

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By Thomas Gerbasi

“Come on Shannon.”

The first time Shannon Gugerty heard Spencer Fisher talking to him, he almost couldn’t believe it. There was no bad blood between the two lightweights before their UFC 90 bout in Illinois last October, so there wouldn’t have been any reason for the two not to talk, but it was 30 seconds into their fight that Fisher decided to start up a conversation after Gugerty took him to the mat.

“Aw, that’s how we’re gonna fight? You want to fight me on the ground?”

Gugerty was amazed. This had never happened to him in his previous 13 pro fights.

“Come on Shannon, let’s stand up and bang.”

Eventually, Fisher would distract Gugerty enough to get back to his feet and then go on to drop, cut, and submit his foe in the third round. It was a master class of veteran guile from Fisher, and Gugerty soaked up every lesson he could from it to help him get ready for his upcoming bout with Matt Grice in the opener of UFC 100 on July 11th.

“He (Fisher) was the first fighter that ever talked to me during the fight and I was really taken back by that,” said Gugerty. “He was trying to get in my head, but he was pretty much already in there.”

The San Diego native laughs, recalling everything that went on before and after the bell rang that night at the Allstate Arena. Very quickly he realized that this was a lot different than his first UFC fight, a July win over then 5-0 Dale Hartt at The Palms in Las Vegas. All of a sudden he was taking on a 27-fight veteran who has been in with the best fighters the UFC had to offer, from Thiago Alves and Matt Wiman to Hermes Franca and Frankie Edgar. This was a new world for Gugerty.

“When I walked out, you could hear crickets, and then when Spencer came out, I was like ‘who am I fighting - Anderson Silva or Georges St-Pierre?” he chuckles. “It was ridiculous the applause he got in Chicago. He’s a great fighter and such a well-known fighter, but if there’s anything I could take back from that fight was that I gave him too much respect right from the get go. I almost felt like I was trying to play catch up throughout the fight. I wish I would have let my hands go a lot more and just let it all go.”

To make matters worse, the 27-year old Gugerty – a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who works with grappling wizard Dean Lister – was submitted via triangle choke.

“I got submitted in that fight and I had never been submitted in my life, and I never will get submitted ever again,” said Gugerty. “I’ve gone over the triangle defense a million times already, and I was just embarrassed in that fight, but I did learn a lot from it.”

In a week, he has a chance to make amends for the loss when he takes on the hard-charging Grice, a fighter who may have lost two of his three UFC bouts, but who has also been competitive and exciting in each. Gugerty is looking forward to July 11th, and you can hear the excitement in his voice, especially when it comes to the fact that he and Grice will be the first preliminary fight of the night.

“I want to be the first fight of the night, I want to go in there, and I want to put on a show,” he said. “I’ve been training my ass off for this fight, I know I’m in the best shape of my life, and expect fireworks right off the bat. This opponent is definitely gonna bring that out - he’s a wrestler that loves to throw; he’ll stay in the pocket, and it’s gonna be exciting. I’m not gonna hold back anything and I don’t want to walk away from this fight regretting anything. Even if I have a bad night – which I’m not – I’m going to give it everything I can.”

“I also like that it’s gonna be the first one,” he continues. “I know exactly what time I’m gonna fight, I had a good experience with that against Dale Hartt in my first fight in the UFC, and I timed everything well and everything went great and I got to go up in the stands after my fight and watch all the rest of the fights with my family and it was a very cool thing. And especially for this card, I think it’s gonna go exactly the same way. I feel honored to be on this card and I want to show (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva that he made a good choice putting me on this card.”

Some fighters would balk at being the first fight of the night, and not in a higher spot or on the television portion of the card, but for Gugerty – who opened the UFC Fight Night card against Hartt last July – it’s perfect for preparation, and his team has also gone the extra mile to make sure they’re there for him.

“I’ve been training every day at the exact time that I know I’m gonna fight at, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have my team there at that time as well,” said Gugerty, who has been training with Lister, Eric Del Fierro, Tony Palafox, and Brian Sargent. “They’ve been taking off work, moving their schedules around just to make sure that they can be there at that time that I need them there, and all my training partners are doing that as well, and it’s so awesome just to be in this camp. I can’t ask for anything better, and I’m super excited for this fight. I can’t wait to get out there.”

And he’s not going to lie; on the biggest card of the year in the UFC, and perhaps ever, it would be pretty nice to steal the show from the big names and pull in a Fight of the Night bonus.

“I’m hoping that this guy comes at me with his hardest because I do want to get one of those Fight of the Night bonuses or something like that,” he said. “I want to show Joe Silva and (UFC President) Dana (White) that I can be put on TV too, so I want to go out there and have a Fight of the Night. Whatever happens happens, but I want to walk away from this fight with something that I’m proud of. It’s an honor just to be on this card, but I want more than that. I want to walk away with more people knowing my name.”

He also has some words of advice for the next fighter who tries to talk to him in the Octagon during a fight:

“I don’t want to give anybody that opportunity again,” he smiles. “I’m gonna punch them in their mouth the next time they talk to me in there.”

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