Feb-4-2010

Matt Serra – Still at Home on the Front Lines

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By Thomas Gerbasi

Matt Serra had been here before, most notably against Karo Parisyan and in his first fight with Georges St-Pierre. He had just hurt rival Matt Hughes in their UFC 98 grudge match last May, and was about to put an emphatic finish on their long running feud.

“I just wanted to stay on him, but it’s important in a fight to stay cool,” Serra recalled. “I’ve been in situations before where you think the end is near, you lay everything out there, and the next thing you know, the end’s not there.”

Against Parisyan in 2005, Serra threw caution to the wind and unloaded his clip on his foe, who was able to weather the storm and win a dominant decision over the New Yorker, who simply ran out of gas in his eagerness to finish. Yet when Serra fought St-Pierre in 2007, he took his time when he rocked the champion and then took him out, capping off one of the biggest upsets of this era. Now Serra was back in this position again, and unfortunately for him, Hughes weathered the storm and went on to take a close, but unanimous decision.

“I knew he was hurt and I wanted to stay on him, but he got a hold of me, and he was able to survive,” said Serra. “It was an enjoyable fight. I enjoyed it, but I’ll always be a tough critic, and I thought he’d be a little bit more active and try to hurt me more with all that had been said. In hindsight I could have been more busy in the second round, but you live, you learn, and I have no regrets.”

And the 35-year old from Long Island means it. Does he think he won the Hughes fight? Absolutely. Does he let it haunt him and eat away at him? No way.

“I wasn’t all down on myself after the fight,” said Serra, who returns to the Octagon this Saturday night to take on Frank Trigg in an intriguing welterweight bout that looks great on paper fight-wise, but that has also taken on a life of its own thanks to some pre-fight trash talking that has been entertaining, yet not mean-spirited. Basically, it’s two veterans trying to get under each other’s skin, and it’s given Serra all the motivation he needs for the UFC 109 matchup.

“It was a different kind of motivation for Hughes because of the feud that we had, but I don’t want to lose to Frank Trigg either,” he said. “Not because he’s not a tough opponent, which he is, but he’s a different kind of arrogant. Trigg comes across like a bad, lower level professional record with his shtick. I can’t see this guy being a gracious winner and there’s already been some things said. He mentioned that I’m a short guido, an angry midget – but I love that stuff and I feed off it.”

Not that Serra has been a shrinking violet in the whole lead-up to the fight. He’s gotten his own verbal shots in, and you can probably expect this volleying to go on until the bell rings. Then it’s all business.

“With all the stuff he’s said about me, he’s got some valid points, except I’m not that angry,” he smiles. “I can flip the switch when I’m in the cage, and when it’s game time I’m all business. I can crack jokes in the locker room, but when the cage door shuts, there’s a different guy in there. But I don’t have to walk around all macho all the time. If I were him, I would go out there, touch gloves, and jump guard so nobody sees my tramp stamp. I’m gonna do him a favor and put him on his back.”

But all jokes aside, Serra is taking this fight very seriously, simply because he doesn’t want to extend his current two fight losing streak to three and be seen as being on the wrong side of 35. Trigg, 37, who is coming off a first round loss to Josh Koscheck last year in his first UFC bout since 2005, is in a similar situation, but Serra believes Trigg’s case may be more dire.

“Right now I’m coming off two losses,” he said. “Trigg’s coming off a loss too, and his back’s against the wall, so I know he’s gonna be a dangerous guy. If he wants to stay in there, he’s gonna have to do something and I feel there’s way more pressure on him. Even if I’m the favorite going in on paper, I still feel there’s more pressure on this guy. I’ve been in the pressure cooker so many times in my career, I strive on it and I do well under pressure. Trigg’s got to that title twice and he choked both times – literally. (Laughs) And before you think I’m being too mean, let me remind you that he called me an angry midget.”

If Serra’s bogged down by the pressure of the moment, stressed out by the task at hand, he sure isn’t showing it. And maybe that just comes down to the fact that he’s a fighter, and someone who loves to scrap. Those are traits you either have or you don’t, and though a lot of fighters say that they would fight for free, Serra’s one guy who probably means it. That attitude has endeared him to fans around the world, while being the New Yawker on the UFC roster has probably alienated a few as well. Either way, the ‘Terror’ isn’t going to change anything.

“I think from being on the show (Serra was on season four of The Ultimate Fighter as a competitor and on season six as a coach), people feel they get to know you,” he said. “I got people coming up to me on the street and hugging me. But hey, I get my fair share of hate mail too, so you can’t let it get to your head. Not to sound like Popeye, but I am who I am. I’ve got a great family, great friends, great students, and I’m always appreciative of the people that support me, and for those who don’t, that’s fine too. I don’t lose sleep over it.”

Something else he hasn’t lost is his desire to compete. Despite running two successful jiu-jitsu academies back home, for him, there’s still something about being an active fighter. And it’s not just the fight itself, but everything leading up to and surrounding it.

“At 35, I try to enjoy each fight to the fullest – from the training camp to the walkout to the fight itself, everything,” said Serra. “I try to enjoy it and make the most of it. I got the title and I’ll go to my grave as an ex-champion, which is amazing. If this fight (with Trigg) leads back there (to a title shot), that’s awesome. If I just have more exciting fights left in me, that’s great too because at the end of the day, you don’t take the trophies and the cash with you. When you’re an old man in the rocking chair, all you’ve got are your experiences, and I’m getting a ton of ‘em. There are no complaints here. It’s been a long journey for me and I enjoy it to the fullest.”

Matt Serra’s not done yet either, and you get the impression that he’s not going to be for a while based on the amount of fun he seems to be having leading up to this fight. He’s not a young kid trying to make a name for himself anymore. Like he said, he’s been to the top of the mountain and no one will ever be able to erase his name from the history books as a champion. Add in the fact that he fought a Who’s Who of his era, guys like St-Pierre, Hughes, BJ Penn, Chris Lytle, Din Thomas, Shonie Carter, and Yves Edwards, and it’s clear that the pressure’s truly off his shoulders. He doesn’t have to worry about the climb to the top or where the next paycheck is coming from. All that matters now is the fight. And that’s a great place for him to be in.

“I think this is a game that’s going to be hard to say goodbye to, whenever it is, and though I’ll always be involved in the martial arts and producing future champions along with Ray Longo, there’s nothing like being in there,” he said. “There’s nothing like the crowd, or putting yourself out there. It’s like being on the front lines. When you’re in your 20’s you might take it for granted a little bit, so I try to treat every fight like it’s my last because Father Time don’t wait for nobody. I’m getting it all in now while I’m still healthy and feeling good and I still have that burning desire. And once that flame goes out and I feel that I’m just not into it and just going through a routine, then I’m just not gonna fight. I’ll walk away and just teach. But I still have the desire to compete and I still want to fight and be on the front lines.”