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 Duke Roufus, who currently trains three UFC fighters and one WEC fighter at the Duke Roufus Academy, spoke to us about his philosophies, whether or not he plans to return to the ring and what he said to Pat Barry after Barry's loss at UFC 98...
On boxing:
"I have a hard time watching boxing. If guys don’t fight, they box, I don’t wanna watch it. I want to watch fights."
"I think they should shorten the boxing matches and go less rounds and just go for it. Problem is, you get millions of dollars on the line, the more money guys make, the safer they fight."
"Look at Anderson Silva. Why is it that he’s fighting safer the better he’s getting paid?"
On training weaknesses:
"Here’s my thing: if I train with an MMA fighter, if I can stand up and strike with you, I’m gonna go with the mat with you and roll. Why should I be able to beat you at my discipline…I’m not gonna take my ball and go home. ‘See ya! Alright, thanks for playing.' So many guys do that; they do their discipline, leave…I collaborate. That’s how you get better."
"That’s my philosophy with all my students and fighters: Train your weakness. The only thing that’s gonna happen is you’re not gonna get worse. You’re just gonna get better. It takes the real warrior to do something he’s bad at."
"Man, look for [Eric] 'Red' [Schafer] to surprise someone soon. He’s gonna kick someone upside the head or he’s gonna give ‘em some punches. Omar [Choudhury] did great in his last fight with his striking, too. All the guys are just getting better at their weaknesses."
On whether he has aspirations to fight in MMA
"No. You gotta be in…just crazy shape to be good at MMA, because the modern day is all scramble, up-down, explosion. You gotta train all-year round. That’s the key. That’s what [Alan] Belcher’s doing. He’s real smart. Fight’s over, he has two Brazilians living in his gym—he rolls right after a fight. He never gets out of grappling shape."
"I have so much respect for these guys. I truly do. I remember when I was fighting, when you get so good at stand-up or grappling, it can be muscle-memory. You can coast, you don’t have to be as fit. Problem is, in MMA it is the fitness breaker. You can get broke easy in MMA. Sometimes the better fighter isn’t always the fighter that wins; it’s the better prepared fighter."
"I felt like, at the time, striking was something I could keep doing as I get older, but I learned from my last fight I had here in Milwaukee: I won the fight, but there was a lot of things going on in the fight that I didn’t capitalize [on]. I’d see things; I just didn’t have the instinct for it anymore. I did what I needed to do to win the fight, but that’s not how you keep fans."
"I try to practice what I preach. I teach the guys: finish fights."
On what he looks for in new fighters:
"There’s a lot of things, but what I will say: You can teach skill, but you can’t teach will. You could have the best skill, and sometimes you gotta test that in training...once in a while we’re gonna test you when you get fired upon in hard striking."
"The other thing is: attitude determines altitude. Better attitude, you’re gonna do better. That’s the name of the game."
On what he said to Pat Barry after his lost to Tim Hague at UFC 98 (On a Dana White vlog, Barry made a comment about how after he threw his last punch, he thought, "Duke's gonna be so mad"):
"I wasn’t mad after, he just knew he deviated, a little bit, from the game plan. But, to be a fighter, you have to be a risk-taker. Here’s the thing: UFC still likes Pat, they want him back. If anything, it’s a blessing-in-disguise that he needs to get even stronger at his ground game."
"He knew that we had worked a game plan and there’s a certain type of striking you do that helps you not get taken down…the strike selection is more important than anything else when you’re a striker."
"But, that being said, that’s Pat. If he would have knocked him out with that punch, he would have been the hero."
"That’s the thing about MMA. It’s the guys who got the biggest balls and take the biggest risks. Those are the people that you want to watch."
"Pat was so excited; he heard what the knockout bonus was. I mean, I’ve been there. And that’s the one thing I have to say: If I were undefeated as a fighter, I’d have maybe a little platform to say, ‘You can’t do that!’ But you know how many times I got to the big stage and I failed because I deviated from my game plan? Many. It’s a learning curve."
"That’s why I get along with these guys. I don’t teach them because I was great; I teach them from my failure. So, I try to let my pain be their gain. I’ve been right where he’s at, but I tried to go for it. That’s fighting."
On his goals:
"Short-term? Just trying to be the best possible academy we can be. I’m very blessed. We have some really good athletes training here, but I also want to continue the excellence of our academy. I want to offer great classes to people who just love martial arts."
"Long term goals is I want to, hopefully, hopefully, knock on wood, produce a UFC/WEC champion out of our club. If it happens, it’ll be great."
"We got a great kids program right now. The kids are rockin’ and rollin’ with jiu-jitsu, then at thirteen they start their striking. You’re gonna see more kids doing pankration soon."
"Main thing is just having fun. One thing I learned that I’ve learned as I get older: whistle while you work. Enjoy. We train hard, but we’re always laughing."
"Usually, the best guys we make fun of the most. It keeps them grounded. Anthony Pettis, when he gets back next week, he has to run the gauntlet of “Red”, Pat—they’re like his older brothers. Right now, he’s not cocky, but everyone’s talking about him. But he’s a great kid and he’s gonna handle that. It’s just the way we do it."
Stay tuned for the final volume of our exclusive interview with Duke Roufus.
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