Jacob Volkmann will be fighting Danny Castillo at UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle this Saturday night in Milwaukee, Wisc. This will be Volkmann’s first fight since a split decision victory over Antonio McKee at UFC 125 in January.
Like many mixed martial artists, Volkmann is a former NCAA wrestler; he made his pro debut back in 2007. He has fought in the welterweight division for most of his career up until two straight losses in his UFC debut which resulted in his move to the lightweight division, where he is currently on a three-fight winning streak.
Volkmann is probably most familiar to fans for his comments made in an interview with MMAfighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, where he called out US President Barack Obama to be his next opponent inside the octagon.
Bleacher Report had a chance to talk to Volkmann recently about his upcoming fight and the Obama incident earlier this week.
Primarily a wrestler, Volkmann has been working on his stand up a lot, but he says that his training camp remains unchanged. He also appears to be enjoying what the summer heat has done for his weight cut.
“It’s [camp] going pretty good, same as usual, I’m actually losing a little bit more weight because of the heat in the summer.” Volkmann told Bleacher Report. “I’m always working on my hands pretty much every day, but, it [camp] will be the same, same goals.”
The incident with Obama resulted in a visit from the Secret Service. Volkmann was never really bothered by the incident, but was a bit upset with the fact that he didn’t get his point across.
“That’s all behind me, it never really nagged me.” Volkmann said. “I was trying to get a point across, but it kind of died off, point never really got across, Obama is still making his foolish decisions.”
It’s safe to say that Volkmann won’t be voting for Obama’s re-election come 2012.
The incident even got the UFC fighter in a little bit of hot water with the high school where he coaches wrestling. Volkmann was put on a two-week administrative leave after the visit from the CIA.
Making a living as a professional athlete involves hard work, natural talent and a little bit of luck. Only a select group of people are able to make a career of the sport they love and everyone else has to get a “real” job.
Volkmann, who is a practicing chiropractor, makes no bones about it, professional fighting comes first and his practice as a chiropractor comes second.
“I only do appointment only, if people call in I go in, I don’t have office hours. Fighting is what pays the bills right now.”
Despite focusing all his efforts on his fight career, it must be nice to know he has something to fall back on once his fighting days are behind him.
Danny Castillo, a Team Alpha Male product, is in a bit of a similar position as Volkmann. Both fighters have won their last three fights and are looking to carry on that momentum and continue to move up the ranks in the lightweight division. Volkmann gave us his thoughts on his matchup with Castillo.
“It’s a much better matchup than it was with Antonio McKee.” Volkmann said. “He [Castillo] swings pretty hard, he comes at you pretty hard, which it’s easy to take a guy down like that. His ground game is not the greatest, he’s got decent defense, but it’s not very good. I think it is going to be easier, it’s a much better matchup than Antonio was.”
The fight with Antonio McKee in January wasn’t an easy one, but Volkmann gives off the impression that Castillo should be a walk in the park, something fans will find out this Saturday.
Although Volkmann is fighting at lightweight, a move back up to welterweight isn’t completely out of the cards, as he likes fighting in both weight classes.
“I kind of like them both, they’re slow at 170, but they are bigger and at 155 they are a lot quicker, but when you get in the cage, it’s about the same,” Volkmann said. “If ever I do get that belt, then maybe I’ll go challenge a 170-pounder. I’d like to get my revenge on Kampmann and Paulo Thiago, but that’s on hold.”
Volkmann had a rude welcome to the UFC welterweight division, losing a decision to Thiago in his debut and being submitted by Kampmann in his second outing.
Should he win this weekend, Volkman is looking to fight a top 10 guy that will help to elevate his status in the division.
“I need a top 10 guy. Well a good fight, I’d like to fight [Clay] Guida, Jim Miller, [Charles] Oliveira or [Donald] Cerrone.” Volkmann said. “[Anthony] Pettis that’d be fine, it’d be the same kind of fight with Guida, what I’d have to try and do is take him down and just ground and pound. I think it would be much more fun with Guida, that would be a really fun fight.”
Maybe he is right, often when two wrestlers are pitted against each other, the wrestling is nullified and the fans are treated to a stand-up war.
Everything in camp is on schedule for this fight and Volkmann was happy to say there were no disturbances. For his last fight, Volkmann wasn’t exactly getting a good night’s rest.
“I had a kid just before my last fight and I was up most of the night with the kid sleeping on me.”
Volkmann had quite a bit of time between his last fight and his fight this weekend. During that time, he rested up and went back to his wrestling roots for a bit.
“I did senior nationals for Greco, it was back in April I think it was, just to get my weight back down because I was up to 185-190 [pounds].” Volkmann said.
He told Bleacher Report that he went 3-2 in the competition.
With wrestling in his roots, Volkmann remains involved in the wrestling community, and when he isn’t training, a lot of his time is devoted to coaching wrestling.
“I got this month off, part of July off and part of September off, and other than that, I am coaching non-stop.” Volkmann said.
That’s all the time Bleacher Report had with Volkmann. Watch him fight Castillo at UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle on the under card which starts showing at 4:45 ET on the UFC’s Facebook page.
Should he win, it will be interesting to see if he has anybody as popular as the President to call out.
Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report, Follow @Leon_Horne
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