If Steven Seagal watches TV on Aug. 4, he just might find out who Nam Phan is.
On a recent edition of The MMA Hour, Seagal heard about critical remarks from Phan, who will fight Cole Miller on the Fuel TV portion of the UFC on FOX card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“Never heard of him,” Seagal told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani. “Nam Fran? Is he an American guy? I don’t know who this guy is and I don’t really care.”
On Monday’s MMA Hour, the Vietnamese-American fighter who already has made a name for himself with MMA fans had a reply for the past-his-prime actor.
“You know what, I’m not the most famous fighter,” Phan said. “But, whatever, I still think he’s a douche.”
With that out of the way, the Orange County featherweight turns his attention to his first bout of 2012. Phan’s last fight was on Dec. 30, when he lost a unanimous decision to unbeaten Jimmy Hettes.
“I was expected to win, and I pressured myself and lost,” Phan said. “I think what happened was Jimmy came prepared, and he was on it that night. He had a perfect game plan, and he shined that night. I did my best and he did better, he did great. That’s what happened.
“I didn’t underestimate him. I try not to underestimate anyone, that’s the worst mistake you can make in a fight. But, you know … it was different, Cole Miller he has a lot of tape on me and I have a lot of tape on him, so we can strategize. But he just came out of the woodwork.”
The loss was Phan’s third in four UFC fights, upping the importance of the his upcoming bout. Miller provides an interesting stylistic puzzle for Phan. At 6-foot-1, Miller was tall for a lightweight. At featherweight, the height difference becomes even more pronounced, especially when matched up with the 5-foot-6 Phan.
“For my sake, I hope [145’s] not a good weight for him,” said Phan. “We’ll see, there’s not that many guys that tall at 145. He’s 6-1. I’m short, so he seems like 6-3 to me, he’s huge. That guy’s a giant.
“It’s gonna be a tough fight. Cole’s very tall, he’s got good boxing, good jiu-jitsu. I’ve got my hands full with this guy.”
Who knows? Maybe an impressive win will help “Nam Fran” become a household name. But if Phan saw Seagal at a UFC event, he wouldn’t go out of his way to introduce himself.
“I wouldn’t say anything to him,” Phan said. “I’d just walk right past him, or maybe just snicker at him.”