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Ray Sefo on CroCop, being owed $700k by K-1,

FO: All sorts of names were in the mix for this fight; how did you end up being CroCop’s opponent?

Somebody tweeted me asking if I would fight CroCop and I was like ‘yeah it would be a great opportunity but I believe CroCop is retired’. Then the following week I had all these other people tweeting about it and I started to think there must be something to it. So I called a mutual friend of mine and CroCop’s in Croatia and it turned out he was promoting a show and CroCop was to be the main event.

He asked if I would be interested in fighting on the card and I said yeah great love to, then a while later he called me back and said how would you feel about fighting CroCop and I said yeah, its on. I was super-excited about it because although I’ve got nothing but respect for CroCop and his achievements in kickboxing and MMA, its a fight that was meant to happen nine years ago, ten years ago, then he pulled out a few weeks before and I ended up fighting Mark Hunt.

So when the opportunity presented itself [recently] to make the fight I jumped at it and here we are now, a few days from getting in there and banging it out.


FO: Obviously ten years ago you were both younger and therefore faster and more explosive and so on; can we expect a classic fight?

I’ve watched pretty much all of his fights. I agree to a certain point that he has lost some speed, I don’t feel I have lost speed or power, I move just as fast now if not faster than my last four years of K-1 because I work with a strength and conditioning coach now.

It depends how you train, I live in the gym. People might think I am old for the game but I don’t drink, I don’t smoke I don’t do drugs I don’t party. I don’t do drugs. I live in the gym, six times a week, twice a day. I’m always in the gym. So I can last a lot longer, I think, than a lot of people.

We will not see the final bell. I guarantee you one hundred per cent. One hundred per cent. No decision. Not at all.


FO: You’re predicting a stoppage win for yourself then?

Oh I have no doubt in my mind. I am confident, I know that I am going to be very aggressive, my training has been tremendous. I am a fast starter, a fighter that is in your face, and CroCop is a very slow starter and is a ‘mover’. I think I am a really bad match-up for him.

Well yeah when you have been fighting as long as I have you are always going to be carrying some battle wounds and so on, but its mind over matter. You get in there and you do your thing.


FO: Sorry to deviate here but its just occurred to me that you just said you don’t drink, which is funny because I used to watch this New Zealand film called ‘Once Were Warriors’ all the time and I always pictured you being from that sort of background, don’t ask my why!

Ha! I’ve never drank. I mean, I’ve tasted alcohol but I’ve never had the desire to drink. I never liked the taste, I hate it. I have seven brothers and two of them drink occasionally but the rest don’t drink any more. They used to drink here and there but its never been a thing in our family. I remember as a young kid my dad would bring a couple of bottles home with him after work, have a few beers with his dinner and that was that.


FO: I think you’re probably the only Kiwi I have ever met that doesn’t like a beer or three.

Haha! Well, Kiwis work hard but they like to play hard too, you know what I mean? I’m sure there’s a lot of people in New Zealand who don’t drink but a lot of my friends do. Its something that’s fun I guess but its something that just never appealed to me, drinking and alcohol and all that. But each to their own, I can still go out and have a great time without having to touch alcohol.


FO: So living in Sin City Las Vegas but not being a party animal, what do you do in your spare time?

Well the little free time that I do have I spend with my family and my son.


FO: Las Vegas is an MMA mecca but not really somewhere you would call a kickboxing hotbed. Have you found it hard to stay ‘K-1 level’ ?

Fortunately we have guys that come into our camp from time to time, like the guy I am working with now is a kickboxing and boxing trainer who has switched to MMA. He worked with Mike Pyle for his last fight and I liked the way he worked so I got him to hold pads for me and its not bad at all. And we have a couple of boxing coaches in the gym so the striking part is top level really, and of course I have my own input as well. So overall its pretty good.


FO: What’s your general take on the standard of striking in MMA?

I think it is improving a lot, if you look at ten years ago compared to today its improved a lot - a lot, a lot! Nowadays guys aren’t afraid to stand and bang, even the ground guys are learning how to strike and MMA today is really a complete game now. Ten years from now it will have kept evolving and jiu jitsu guys and wrestlers wont hesitate to stand with strikers.

Ray Sefo on CroCop, being owed $700k by K-1, - Fighters Only