Hermes Franca asked to train with BJ Penn and more

Ramma · 12-21-2007, 10:08 AM

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UFC lightweight contender Hermes Franca gets us caught up on what he's been doing to stay busy during his suspension as he informs us that he'll be helping BJ Penn prepare for his lightweight title clash with Joe Stevenson. Check out what he had to say about his future plans, the recent verbal war between BJ Penn and Sean Sherk and much more.

PC: Long time, no hear! How have you been doing?

HF: Yeah, I've just been training and teaching, you know? I've been doing some seminars.

PC: Have seminars been what you have been doing to keep busy?

HF: Yeah, definitely. That's what I like to do. I like to teach. I've booked a lot of seminars through January, February and March to keep me busy and to keep doing what I like to do.

PC: You still have until July till you can fight again, but how is your weight and have you been staying in shape?

HF: I've been training. I'm at about 174. Of course, I'm not training like I have a fight coming up. I've been rolling with my students. I have a guy who came from Michigan, he's a fighter and he's here for 2 weeks so we're working together. It's not just my job, I really like to do MMA training and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I always do something. I don't want to let nothing push me down, you know? I try to keep in shape.

PC: Definitely! You went 5 tough rounds with Sean Sherk. What did you learn from that fight?

HF: I learned a great lesson. My life wasn't too easy in 2006-2007. I was fighting fights all of the time and I forgot about my family a little bit, friends and my social life. I was always fighting and my body started to fall apart. I hurt my ankle, shoulder and knee and after my fight, I said, "Now I really have to take a break!" I have to take a break, but now I've put my life in a hard situation and I have to take that shit for the rest of my life. Everybody is human and makes mistakes.

PC: What do you think about BJ Penn making a lot of remarks towards Sherk for his role in the steroid issue?

HF: A lot of people don't know yet, but BJ just called me like last week and I'm going to help BJ Penn train for this next fight! It's a game. He can say whatever he wants, you know? When he says things about me taking steroids, he's not lying. What am I going to do, get pissed? No! Hey, he's right (laughing). It's like, if I call BJ a punk, I'm right, you know, he just got probation (laughing). I'm not lying. It's a game. Everybody thinks it's an MMA war. No, it's a game. You get enemies and then after the fight, we get together and shake hands and go get drunk. He's playing the game. If he says something about me about steroids or whatever, he's not lying. What am I going to do, get pissed and say BJ's an asshole? No!

PC: You recently left the Armory and started your own gym. How is that going and what made you want to do your own thing?

HF: I'm 33 years old and I learn a lot. It's really hard to work for somebody. I think I still have a great name, I'm professional and I'm going to try and grow my own name in the future because it's hard when you depend on somebody. It's the best time to start it. I just have a small gym with a small space and some mats, but it's just the beginning brother, it's going to grow.

PC: Where are you located?

HF: It's in West Palm Beach in a great area.

PC: Do you do kid and adult programs?

HF: We're going to start with kids next month. It's the holidays right now so we just have adults there. We're just starting off and I hope, in the future, to have a great gym.

PC: I hope the best for you with your gym. What did you think of the fight between Huerta and Guida?

HF: Great fight! It looked like my fight against Jamie Varner. I was losing in both rounds and then, in the last round, I came with a knee and caught him. I finished him with a submission; it was similar styles. Both guys are really good friends of mine and it was a great, great fight. It could be the fight of the year. It's funny because when I came to the UFC, I was supposed to fight Roger Huerta and he hurt his elbow so I fought Joe Jordan.

PC: Do you feel like you really have to make some noise when you return with the arrival of lightweights like Nate Diaz and Huerta?

HF: The UFC has grown so fast, they need elite fighters and I think I'm like one of the guys that are old UFC and new UFC. A lot of guys know me and I'm happy and I think the UFC has enough space for everybody. It's good for everybody; it's good for the fighters. I remember before, it used to be 3 or 4 UFC's in a year and now it's like 3 in a month. I just hope that they could pay better in the future, like boxing. I hope they have healthy competition. I hope another organization gets bigger like the UFC. I hope that one day, we could fight in front of 60-70,000 people.

PC: We do have HDNet Fights and Elite XC making big moves. You feel like this is good for the sport?

HF: That is healthy competition. It's no Pride anymore and when it was Pride, fighters could make a deal with the UFC like, "Pride is going to pay me this much." You could say, "Pride is going to pay me 30" and the UFC would say, "we'll give you 35." Now there's no Pride so the UFC could say, "look here, I give you $10." What are you going to do? You have to fight. When you have competition like HDNet, Strikeforce and the UFC, you could make more money because you could have a better negotiation and that's good for us. UFC is number 1, no doubt. I'm glad to be a UFC fighter and I hope to come back to the UFC and I think they're number 1 right now; they're trying to buy Couture and Fedor in October, so you never know.

PC: Do you feel like your punishment was a little too harsh?

HF: What can I do? It's nothing I can do. I'm really upset about the athletic boxing commission. I think Sean Sherk had an illegal substance in his body, right? He says, "No, I didn't take anything." I believe him if he say he didn't take it, but I need some proof. You have to prove you didn't take it. On the other side, the athletic commission, for no reason but Sherk saying he didn't take anything, reduces it to 6 months. They did not give Sherk a chance to prove he didn't take it. It doesn't matter if it takes 2 or 4 years, you have to prove this. For no reason, they give him 6 months. I'm not saying Sean Sherk took anything because I'm not the guy to say that and he has all my respect, but make me feel like I'm stupid for the boxing commission to…What can I say about the boxing commission? People can take it and say, "Oh, I didn't take it." In 6 months, they'll be fighting again. You just have to prove it, so let's go guy, prove it. Then It's like, "Oh, you can't prove, ok, a year for you. You say you didn't do it, ok, 6 months."

PC: You're out until July with the suspension. Would you like to be fighting in the month of July when the suspension is lifted?

HF: I want to just keep busy training and feel healthy. I want to definitely fight in July. I can't wait!

PC: I appreciate the interview my man. Call me anytime. Is there anything you want to say to your fans in closing?

HF: I would like to say thanks to all my fans because, right now, with my situation, I really know who my real fans are. I really know who believes in Hermes Franca and I'm so happy for them. I want to thank Premier Martial Arts, my sponsor.

Source - FIGHTHYPE \\ CONTENT

Okay, I am going to be honest.. BJ asking Hermes to train with him make him look hypocritical

He goes on and on about Sherk, who did roids, but asks Franca, who also did roids, to come help him get ready for Stevenson? That looks bad.

sodium_nitrate · 12-21-2007, 10:19 AM

every fighter reveals himself as a hypocrite if you give him enough time.

CESSPOOL · 12-21-2007, 10:38 AM

He is outspoken about it being cheating and he doesn't want to fight a cheater, but he isn't fighting Franca, he is training with him. It kinda makes sense. You take 2 guys that are equally skilled, but 1 is on roids, that person should win, shouldn't they? If BJ trains with a guy that is on roids, then to fight someone who isn't will be a step down won't it?

ninjastix · 12-21-2007, 10:49 AM

My question is why train with Hermes to prep for Sherk... it's not like what Hermes did worked unless they're going to drill that knee plant over and over again...

But you need to bring Hermes Franca to do that?

If I was Penn I'd train with a striking camp and look to keep the fight standing, hurt Sherk with shots and pray for a cut. If that's the case he should be over with Florian or Alves...

Ramma · 12-21-2007, 11:01 AM

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Originally Posted by ninjastix

My question is why train with Hermes to prep for Sherk... it's not like what Hermes did worked unless they're going to drill that knee plant over and over again...

But you need to bring Hermes Franca to do that?

If I was Penn I'd train with a striking camp and look to keep the fight standing, hurt Sherk with shots and pray for a cut. If that's the case he should be over with Florian or Alves...

He has Hermes training him for his fight against Stevenson, not the possible fight against Sherk

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Originally Posted by CESSPOOL

He is outspoken about it being cheating and he doesn't want to fight a cheater, but he isn't fighting Franca, he is training with him. It kinda makes sense. You take 2 guys that are equally skilled, but 1 is on roids, that person should win, shouldn't they? If BJ trains with a guy that is on roids, then to fight someone who isn't will be a step down won't it?

BJ is acting like he is disgusted by roid users. He is driving the bandwagon of Anti-steroids right now. For him to welcome a roid user makes him look foolish.

That is like someone being against child molesters, but letting one come into his house to have a dinner.

ninjastix · 12-21-2007, 11:04 AM

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Originally Posted by Ramma

He has Hermes training him for his fight against Stevenson, not the possible fight against Sherk

Now I'm really confused...

Hermes is training BJ in what exactly?... Conditioning? BJJ? Striking?... cause aside from conditioning I think Penn should be the one training Hermes...

I would have thought Penn would have rather train with a wrestler to prep for Stevenson...

killerinstinct · 12-21-2007, 11:14 AM

This isn't hypocritical at all. Hypocritical would be BJ Penn actually taking steroids. For instance I don't think people should get pregnant when they're teenagers, but that doesn't mean that I'd stop hanging out with one of my friends if they got pregnant.

Jza · 12-21-2007, 11:17 AM

I don't know, BJ Penn is going out to get the best training partners possible.
He's saying he doesn't want to fight anyone with steroids in their body, he's not said anything about not liking them has he.
I'll admit I'm a big BJ fan so probably have my views based on that but I hardly see the problem, he's training with a BJJ blackbelt it's only going to help him improve.

End of the day this is his job and he needs to do what is best for it doesn't matter what else comes with it imo.