Can Serra Stand the “Heat”?

Sherdog.com: Have you prepared for Parisyan any differently than other opponents?

Serra: I always make sure cardio is there, and I always study the tapes of each guy. I know his strong points, which is not to say he hasn’t developed others — we all do. But the one constant is cardio. Especially a guy like him; he’s an aggressive guy like myself. Cardio might be a factor, and if it is it will definitely not be a factor for me because I know I’m ready. And I believe that at 170 it will be even better than at 155, because I won’t be killing myself to cut weight the day before. I’ve been running constantly, I do long, low intensity runs, and I also do the hills, the versaclimber, different interval training. I get the best of all worlds.

Sherdog.com: When we first spoke you were really pumped because you said, “Styles make fights.”

Serra: I think the fight with Karo is great for everyone, for the fans especially. It’s really going to be an exciting fight. I’ve never seen the guy go backwards, he always goes for it and so do I. His main strengths lead to my strengths. So if he gets his wicked judo throws on me that leads to my strongest points. I’m sure he feels like he can deal with it because he’s fought other black belts, but we’ll see. More than anything, I want this to be an exciting fight. Sometimes I get people approaching me — and sometimes it’s not even about a fight I won. For example the Shonie Carter fight, they enjoyed. It’s a fight I lost. I really just want to get back to putting on a clinic and having a real exciting fight for everybody.

Sherdog.com: You mention the Shonie Carter fight. We’ve seen plenty of great fighters — Rampage is the latest example — who have one or two difficult fights and can’t come back from it. They’re just not the same after a tough loss. But you not only came back, you came back stronger. How did you do that?

Serra: I remember why I got into MMA in the first place and I try not to let the pressure get to me. I fought in the pressure cooker before. My fight after Shonie was with a more dangerous striker in Yves Edwards. That was my second fight in UFC, and that was at a time when I had to really deal with the pressure, because if I had lost again I would have definitely have been out, and I needed that winning purse to open up my first school. If I would have sat there and dwelled on it, it could have crushed me. So I said to myself, “I’m getting paid to fight, I love to fight, take [the loss] for what it is. Don’t make it out to be this huge deal. And don’t start thinking about things like, ‘Oh man, what if I get hit with another shot like that?’ because believe me, if you start waiting around for that shot to land, sooner or later it’s gonna land.” I stayed focused and remembered why I got into the game.

Sherdog.com: Why did you decide to take this fight at 170 as opposed to 155?

Serra: Basically a couple of reasons. To begin with, UFC doesn’t have as many fights at 155 anymore. I was offered the fight with Karo, so why not? I feel good at this weight; I’m not going to have to cut that much weight. I may not be the tallest guy out there, but I am pretty thick, so 155 is brutal for me. I’ll do it for the big show — I’ll do it for UFC but I don’t know if I’d do it for anyone else. A lot of guys want to cut weight because they don’t want to end up on their back. God forbid they wind up there and they’re smaller than their opponent. But I don’t have that problem as much because I can be dangerous off my back. I have a guard. If a guy throws me then the fight is just beginning so I’m not sweating that. So I feel I can put on a pretty exciting show at this weight and I think I can be very tough at this weight for anybody.

Sherdog.com: Any prediction for the fight?

Serra: I’m expecting a war. If it ends earlier, great; if not, I’ll be there for 15 minutes battling it out. I want to take him out, though, that’s always the game plan.