It’s only fitting that MMA-Freak.com’s first interview of 2014 is with another MMA freak. Former TUF The Smashes star, current BAMMA Lightweight contender and the baddest clown in all of MMA, Colin ‘The Freakshow’ Fletcher, has taken time out of is busy schedule to talk to us:
First of all thanks for talking to us Colin and I want to start by awarding you your first accolade of 2014. One of my MMA-Freak.com colleagues voted you as having the best ink in all of MMA! Tell us a bit about the tattoos and in particular that awesome centre piece on your chest. Heheheheeeee why thank you. Yeah the tattoos are a bit of a miss match really. I got my first tribal ones when I was 15, then I kind of let my mate tattoo some sketchy devil hands on my chest. I later had them covered over with the ones that are on now.
The tattoos obviously form a huge part of the whole Freakshow character, who or what is the inspiration behind Freakshow? I didn’t actually set out to invent a character. It’s really just a bunch of things I loved, along with my strange personality, so when people at the gym were calling me a ‘freak-n-freaky’ I just put it all together. But to be fair I was dressing up weird before I was fighting. I used to do it in my younger days when I was a DJ.
Have any of the promotions you’ve fought for tried to reign you in a bit or are they happy to let you be who you want to be? Yeah totally, the UFC told me a few times I was making MMA look silly. I also remember somebody once said to me your doing well now isn’t it about time you stopped the clown thing! But that’s a bigger part of me than the fighting is to be honest. Like I say, I was doing it before and I’ll do it after! I’ve got to be myself above all things.
Does anything actually freak you out? Just little things like kids walking to close to the road and stuff. Nothing too weird freaks me out really.
It’s hard to believe it was back in 2012 since we saw you in TUF The Smashes. You really were the stand out on the show and the whole series wouldn’t have been the same without the costumes and the mischief. How was the whole TUF experience for you and do you keep in touch with any of the other guys? It was great fun in the beginning. All the guys were wicked, even the Australians! In the end we had some unreal funny moments, a lot of which will never be seen as they didn’t make the show. We all still chat every now and then on Facebook and stuff.
There was a lot at stake for your UFC career the night you fought Mike Ricci. Looking back, did you feel any added pressure of what was essentially a must win fight? No, totally not. I never feel pressured to win. But I did feel like they’d cut me if I lost as I wasn’t feeling very welcome anyway. The fight was an awful experience for me; I was feeling pretty ill, I was actually sick from weighing in till fighting. I felt I never got out of first gear and that’s what frustrated me more than anything else in that fight. I don’t mind losing when I fight but I didn’t put on a true performance that night.
You mention how the weight cut made you feel really ill. Personally, I think MMA needs much tighter regulations on how much weight a fighter should be allowed to cut. What is your opinion on the subject, do you think current regulations should be reviewed? I defo agree bro. It’s a tricky one because I think a lot of guys now are cutting a lot of weight just to stay on a level playing field, and because everyone else does. In my first few pro fights I didn’t cut any weight but I started thinking daaaaaaamn these guys are big, so then I looked at the weight below witch is 7 kg less. Maybe if there were more weight classes it would make people less likely to try and push it so far.
Of course you are signed with BAMMA at the moment and I believe you are one fight away from a rematch with Monsour Barmaoui for the BAMMA Lightweight Championship. Do you feel now is your time to take home the gold? Yeah, I hope so. I am just loving my life at the moment. I train really hard, about 6-8 hours every day. BAMMA let me be me, and in the UK I’m getting a lot of love from my fans for it so I’m just taking one fight at a time and having loads of fun.
Personally I think the UFC is a much poorer place without you, there is no one else in MMA doing what you do. What’s the plan for your future? is it to win the belt and solidify yourself within the BAMMA ranks, or win the belt and look for another crack at the UFC? No not really, I’m pretty sure the UFC didn’t like what I brought to the table and they never got to see me at my best so they’d probably not want me back, but that’s fine. Obviously I’d love to fight the higher caliber of guys in the UFC, but as long as people want to come watch me fight they’ll find me somewhere doing silly entrances and swinging my arms about.
The North East of England is home to some of the countries best known fighters; there is you of course, Ross Pearson and Andy Ogle to name but a few. What is it that you guys are doing right over there? I think it’s a generation thing. A lot of us in the same area grew up fighting and being bullied a bit so it kind of made us really tough. So when we got into MMA, with a lot of us being very competitive and hungry to prove how good we were, it fetched us all up to a very high standard.
You have had a lot of fights of the years but not everyone will know that you faced your most high profile opponent to date recently, not in the cage but on a bridge in the North East of England. So can you tell us exactly what Kermit the Frog said to you that day to make you publically beat his ass and throw him into the Tyne River? Heheheeee, I actually didn’t mean to kick him in the river. I was supposed to make him walk the plank but I got caught up in the moment.
It’s been a blast talking to you Colin and we wish you all the best for 2014. Finally, any message to the MMA-Freak.com Freaks? Just enjoy the ride and keep it freaky peeps x
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