The man of the hour, Mr. Shipp himself also had some words for me.
Brian Piepenbrink: How’re you doing Wade?
Wade Shipp: Good.
BP: A lot of people on the east coast and in the Midwest haven’t heard of you. Where did you grow up?
WS: In Houston Texas.
BP: What was it like growing up there?
WS: I had a pretty normal childhood I’d say.
BP: When did you move out to San Diego?
WS: I moved to San Diego about six years ago.
BP: Did you come out here to fight or for other reasons?
WS: I was living in Kansas and I just wanted to get out of the Midwest. I pretty much just picked a city, San Diego. I knew I wanted to fight so I wanted to go to a city that had some good training.
BP: Now the first camp you went with was the Lions Den. Tell me about that.
WS: I knew a Lions Den was opening up in San Diego so I got here at about the same time. I trained there for about four years.
BP: What was the training like there?
WS: The training was really good at the Lions Den. The only reason I left the Den was because it pretty much broke up. Ken was busy doing his own thing and everybody kind of split up and did their own thing after that.
BP: You’ve been pretty successful in King Of The Cage. Who has been you toughest opponent thus far?
WS: My toughest opponent wasn’t my best opponent. My toughest opponent was the one I lost to, Kauai Kupihea. I’d say the best fighter I’ve fought was Aaron Brink.
BP: Now you won the Aaron Brink fight but a lot of people don’t know that. Why is that?
WS: Um, that has to do with the organization. The Hitman, I think they’ve gone under since then, I’m not sure. But the DVD was never released. I’m still waiting on that. I blame them for the lack of publicity.
BP: You’re married. How long ago did that happen?
WS: I actually got married on the way out here to San Diego. I stopped in Vegas and did that.
BP: Did you already know here or did you just pick here up in Vegas [laughs].
WS: [laughs] I already knew her.
BP: Now you’re at San Diego Fight Club.
WS: I’ve been here about two years. Since I’ve been at San Diego Fight Club, I think that’s when my career took off.
BP: So for people who are wondering about you’re style, how would you describe yourself?
WS: I’m a kickboxer who does jujitsu. I’d say that’s my style.
BP: Do you like the ground or standup better?
WS: Honestly, I’d say I’m equal at both. With most people I’m either have better standup than them or I’m better on the ground than them. So it doesn’t matter to me.
BP: I saw you training in here a few weeks ago, and for a big guy you looked pretty good fighting from your back.
WS: Yeah, I’d say most heavyweights are wrestlers and I’m not a wrestler even though I’ve learned to wrestle that’s not my background. So I just start from my back a lot and I get a lot of submissions from my back.
BP: What do you know about your opponent, Jonathan Wiezorek?
WS: Like I just said, He’s a wrestler and a big guy. He’s strong and he’s beat Dan Severn. Basically that’s all I know about him.
BP: What do you think you have to look out for. I know some people have said that he hits hard but I don’t know if he’s had any formal training in striking. What’s you gameplan?
WS: The game plan is to either knock him out or submit him on the ground. I know it won’t go the distance.
BP: Tell me about some of your training partners.
WS: I’m training with K-1 kickboxers, Olympic level wrestlers, judo players. I’ve been training with a lot of big guys, good guys.
BP: How is training at San Diego Fight Club different than any training you’ve had in the past?
WS: Well actually I haven’t trained at a lot of other places. We get a lot of guys to come in here. A lot of jujitsu guys… we have access to a lot of sparring partners.
BP: So I heard you got into a little street-fight a couple of weeks ago. Tell me about that.
WS: Uh, yeah. That wasn’t meant to get out but I guess you heard when I was telling the story. I was just at the theater and some guy insulted my wife. I had to do what I had to do.
BP: [laughs] You didn’t hurt anyone too bad did you?
WS: No, no. I was thinking about this fight, I was about to hurt him real bad and I was thinking “I probably end up breaking my hand on this guy’s head”. So I just used my knee instead.
BP: Is there anything you’d like to add?
WS: I’m looking forward to fighting in the UFC. I’m going to fight with everything I’ve got like I always do. It should be good.
BP: Thanks Wade.
WS: Thanks.