Chris Riley interview

The Fighting Photographer speaks to Chris Riley

Chris Riley was in the UK alongside Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, as Rampage prepared for UFC 75 against Dan Henderson; I grabbed a few minutes with Chris at the Wolfslair Gym and asked a few questions…..

Hi Chris, tell us a little about yourself

Hi Carl, I’m the owner of Legends MMA Centre in Hollywood, round the corner from the Avenue of Stars, right in the heart of the tourist area, alongside Randy Couture and Bas Rutten; I’m here in the UK as Rampage’s Thai coach.

How long have you been involved in Thai boxing?

Since the age of four so that puts me with about thirty years experience; I retired from fighting three years ago and have been full time coaching since then. I used to own the Bomb Squad in LA and then about a year I opened up Legends with Bas and Randy and have been getting some top names come through the doors, it’s going real well right now.

Any big names training there now Chris?

Quinton is our biggest name at the moment, but we work with Jason Miller and Jeremy Williams, boxing fame from the Contender show and has now made the cross over and is now 6-0 in MMA. We have a few upcoming fighters such as Connor ‘The Hurricane’ Huen, who competes in the IFL; Josh Hall is one to look out for, who was discovered by Jason Miller, he’s fought against Jeremy Horn and other big names and quite a few other guys who will be breaking through in the near future.

How has the training been going at Big Bear?

We go every time he fights, six weeks up there to get ready, which is great, a chance to get out of the city and train in the clean air and at high altitude, which helps with the conditioning. It’s about ninety minutes away from home, we drive up and train through the week and return at weekends.

What are your thoughts on Mike Bisping?

It’s been great having him the last six weeks, he has an incredible work ethic, trains hard, a tough guy and is very good for the sport and a future bug star, he’s a star right now but he’s ready for more success that’s for sure. For the UK to be involved with the UFC, I think it’s great, we’re making it an international sport; we were in Belfast, I had Hector Ramirez fighting there, another one of our top guys, he fought Forrest Griffin. It’s great to see the UFC spreading out and hosting shows in other countries.

Your prediction for the fight?

(Laughs) you put me on the spot here now; with Chuck Liddell, that was an easy one to figure as we’d seen Chuck fight before and I knew it would be an early knockout. With Dan, it’s harder to predict to be honest, he is a less predictable fighter, he’s a very tough guy and we’re giving him a lot of respect and we’re training really hard for him. I feel Rampage will be a little too big, a little too fast and he’s well prepared and will get the knockout, but it will take him a little longer to get there.

Many thanks Chris for your time

My pleasure Carl