Elvis Sinosic is in the house – interviewed at the SBJJA Stockholm Academy, Elvis takes time out of his training schedule to talk to crazy eyes Voice of Europe, Carl FisherCarl Fisher- Why are you here in Sweden Elvis?
Elvis Sinosic- I`m here to fight in Fighter Extreme 3; it`s a great event in the Nordic community and an up and coming sport out here. I wanted to get back into fighting myself and I like to support the sport throughout the world and as much as I like fighting in the big organisations, I like to get out to the up coming ones and meet the fans and compete under different conditions and to test myself and see how I`m going to do.
CF- Are you familiar with the Shootfighting rules or is this another test you`ve given yourself?
ES- I am familiar with them, I`ve fought in Rings before which is a similar kind of style, a cross between kick boxing and submission wrestling, two skills I am good at anyway, so it`s good to put them together; it allows me to get back into MMA fighting, without having to worry about cuts and ground and pound. I can concentrate on my submission game and tighten up my stand up, so as I return into the sport I can pick up the pace and jump into the big events again.
CF- How long have you been away from fighting?
ES- It`s been about eleven months now; after my last match in the UK against Babalu, although I went the distance, I realised that competing against world class fighters, you can`t do it part time. Even though I have had success, teaching at the academy, juggling a full time job and trying to train and have a life, I was splitting my time too much and I didn`t want to start fighting again until I could put more effort into it. I have my own academy now and at least it`s in the sport, so even though I may not be training the whole time, I`m staying involved and am happier to get back into fighting and feel I can prepare myself better than in my last previous fights.
CF- August Wallen is your opponent; do you have any inside info on him?
ES- I know he`s undefeated, a little over six feet tall, ninety kilos, 7-0; when you`re undefeated it doesn`t mean you`re unbeatable, just that you have the skills, so I don`t underestimate him at all. He`s got good stand up and ground skills and he comes out hard and to win and that`s what I`m going to do and hope to win the fight. It`s going to be a great fight.
CF- How did you become involved with August and Scandinavia?
ES- I have a large exposure on the Internet and have fought in K-1, UFC, ADCC, Rings, UCC etc and also through my web site, which was where Marko Ervasti contacted me and through that we had a chat and they were interested in bringing me out. I liked what they were doing out here, but had never got the chance to travel here; they have a good event, they are looking for skilled fighters and want to promote the sport, so it was a great opportunity to meet the fans as well.
CF- How long have you been here now?
ES- I`ve been here since Monday, quite a hectic schedule, thirty hours travelling in all, what with delayed flights, changing routes mid flight and I was exhausted when we finally arrived but am getting better each day now, still in the jet lag zone.
CF- Where are you staying?
ES- At the Solna centrum, a hotel close by to the stadium and all the other fighters that are flying in are staying here as well, plus I`ve had a chance to see a bit of Sweden as well, which ahs been nice. I have a few extra days after the event, which came by with a bit of luck, as the only flights back were two days after the show, and they were happy to let me stay the extra few days, so I`m looking to see a bit more of Sweden and maybe visit a few gyms and roll with a few guys.
CF- Have you managed to visit any gyms since you arrived?
ES- I`m not sure of the name of the gym, the guy is called Jargo, it`s a WTF Taekwondo school, a brown belt Christian Kennedy trains there and they`ve been kind enough to let me train there; Richard has been kind enough to let me train here tonight and tomorrow and I`m looking forward to meeting Marcelo Yogui who`s also out here, as we`re kind of affiliated here through academies and stuff.
CF- Who`s helping you prepare here for the fight?
ES- I have a guy here called Ben Cordoni, he`s one of my training partners and students and has come out here to corner me and help me train and more importantly, he`s here to make sure I train properly and meet schedules and get enough sleep, watch my weight and it`s good that there`s someone there to help me do it, it takes a little pressure off. He`s doing a great job.
CF- I`ve noticed you`re wearing the fight issue Slayer gloves; are you comfortable with them?
ES- In all honesty I don`t particularly like them; it`s not some much excess padding, more so that when you hit with them, they kind of roll your wrists back a little and you tend to lose your grip, a little restrictive, but not enough to change your game.
CF- Judging by your training top, you`ve teamed up with Anthony Perosh?
ES- Yes, we formed a school about eleven months, teaching BJJ, Thai, wrestling, MMA, self defence, kid`s classes, women`s classes, Yoga, the full works, trying to bring the sport to everyone; we are based in Sydney in the suburb of Concord and you can check us out on www.sinosicperosh.com.au and you`ll find out all the details.
CF- Perosh is in the ADCC Finals once again?
ES- Yes, we both competed at the Oceana qualifiers and he took the 98K division and I went into the over 99 division; not realising there was slamming allowed I picked up an injury in my semi final match and he beat me on points and is a big guy, about 120K of muscle and Greco background, so I was disappointed at my result but I wanted to test myself in the higher weight division. I normally fight light heavy weight but I wanted to see if I could hang in with the big guys, you have to test yourself some times.
CF- What next after this fight?
ES- One step at a time for me, not looking further than this fight; I have possible offers after this but will have to see how things go with this fight first. My main focus is August Wallen and if I start to look past this fight then it`s not good for me, I never look past the fight that lies before me.
CF- Last word to the fans?
ES- I`d like to thank everyone who`ve supported me in my lay off, I`ve received emails from people all over the world and have not had the chance of replying to them all yet; thanks to my sponsors Fairtex Muay Thai gear, Musashi supplements in Australia, Showdown fightwear in Canada, Brainquicken a great supplement. Also a big thank you to Ben Cordony in helping me prepare for this fight, as well as Anthony Perosh, they`ve both helped to push me along.
Post fight interview
CF- Well done Elvis, a great fight; how did it go for you after such a long lay off?
ES- It went well and good to get back in; I wanted to play my stand up to feel him out. If I felt I wasn`t going to knock him in the first half of the match, I was going to take him down to the ground. His stand up was tight, but I never felt in serious danger, you`re always in danger whenever you face a good striker and I thought if the match went the distance it would have gone to a decision and that`s not what I wanted. I took a couple of opportunities to take him down and tried a few throws, but his posture was good and I didn`t want to shoot to early and waste energy so I took him to guard and felt out his defence. With the shin pads on it was going to be hard to get the arm bars and triangles so I was looking to sweep him, something we had been working on in the gym. At the first chance to do this I took it and I didn`t let him put me in guard by keeping his hips pinned with my head which worked well; he did have a knee bar attempt but it didn`t worry me and after having Frank Shamrock trying to leg lock and coming out on top over Frank, I didn`t expect August to come out on top of me, especially without heel hooks, they change the pace of the game.
It was a matter of getting to front control and start looking for kimuras and arm bars and was switching left to right and kept him moving until he made a mistake and I picked up the arm. He defended a kimura pretty well and I dropped into an arm bar and cranked it on; I put it on and part of the ring rust came through and I put it on hard and released the pressure, as I do in training as you don`t want to injure your partner and at that moment the pressure came off, August felt this and started to roll out of the lock, so I had no choice to crank it until he tapped and I let go and that was that.
CF- Do you feel on track now?
ES- Yes I suppose so, I feel I could have done better, but it was OK, my stand up was OK reasonably tight, I wasn`t in any immediate danger; having one eight minute match you don`t have time to wait, you have to attack, attack, attack and I could feel my breathing was laboured, nothing to worry about too much, but the important thing was that I could hear August`s breathing and he was breathing harder than I was and I kept him busy until he made a mistake.
CF- What`s your overall impression now of Scandinavia?
ES- Very enjoyable, I`d like to come back again, I made a lot of friends and trained at a number of places; the jiu jitsu guys are very friendly, it doesn`t matter where in the world you are and what team you represent, the guys accommodate you and make you feel welcome; the only thing that disappointed me was the weather, I hope they have the decency to invite me back to better weather next time (laughs).
CF- Elvis thanks for the time, enjoy the after show party.
ES- Thanks Carl