Interview with Joe Camacho before his ShoXC fight on Saturday April 5, 2008

Joe, I've heard that you have been into martial arts since you were six years old and I've also heard that you wanted to become a professional skateboarder also. That said, how did you end up with a bachelor's degree in art and design?

Well I mean I've always been into art. My mother always wanted me to stick to the books first, you know, stick to my talent, and stick to what I put my all heart into which was art. Growing up I was always drawing, coloring, entering art contests, and getting scholarships and grants from all over. I won a poster contest from the LAPD, and they gave me a scholarship, going to art school and so forth, so yea I mean art has been a big part of me growing up and that kept me out of the negative surroundings. You know, growing up in East Los Angeles, although I mean, I am from East LA but like I didn't grow up in the bad area of East LA but being that I was raised by a loving family and a loving mother, she kind of guided me in the right direction.

So I guess that kept you out of trouble? Even so, even though you grew up in the good part of East LA, have you ever had to use your fighting skills out in the streets?

Um, yea, I mean growing up I did get into fights because I was defending myself and defending myself from getting my skateboard stolen or bike stolen. You know, you get some thug trying to jump me for my bike or something, I had to fight for it. If he's gonna get it he's going to get hurt going for it. But, then I wasn't into fighting, I didn't take a martial arts structured class then you know, back then I was into the martial arts theatrics, you know the movies, Bruce Lee, Kung Fu Theater, so I've always followed the martial arts in that way because my mother wanted me to be so involved with school and books and sporting events as far as after school activities, you know. She knew that by keeping me in sports it would help improve my grades because she knew that in order for me to stay in sports I would have to have good grades.

I heard that you went to the same High School as Oscar de la Hoya and even graduated the same year in 1991. Did you guys know each other?
Oscar and I grew up in the same area. We both met in Jr. High School. We met skateboarding. We hung out with a small group of friends who all skated. Then, he didn't speak of boxing too much because that was his hobby at the time just as skateboarding was. After Jr. High, we both ended up going to Garfield High school in East Los Angeles and from there our circle of friends kind of grew apart. Oscar focused on his boxing and quit skating and me, I kept skating and focused on high school sports, like football, track, etc. Oscar and I graduated in 1991 and the rest is history.  I give him all the respect in the world and I support him 100%. My hat's off to that guy. He made it. Oscar had a dream and he made his dream come true. That's where I'm at now, making my dream come true.
Do you think Oscar de la Hoya would ever want to fight in MMA?

Actually, Oscar is crossing over to MMA. He's not going to fight in MMA but being the business man that he is, he sees a market and the rise of MMA and plans to put his hands in the pot of gold. Word on the street is Oscar and Affliction Clothing are teaming up to produce their own MMA show and plan to debut it sometime in July. Word has it that the fight card has been made and will wow many people's eyes when the word is released revealing the names on it. All I can say is if Golden Boy Productions get involved as Mark Cuban did, MMA will finally gain its respect and more major sponsors will want to get involved with the sport to help support it and match fight purses that boxers get.

Oh definitely, my mother disciplined me with tough love as you said and I didn't have an easy childhood growing up, I had to earn my keep. There were chores that had to be done. If I wanted something I had to work for it, I had to save my allowance if I wanted to buy something. My mother taught me the value of a dollar. So, yea my mother, she helped me through tough times. My mother raised me as a single parent so she knew that she had to play the role of my father as well so she guided me in the right direction. She knew I had to follow my dream, follow my heart and anything that I wanted to do she was going to support me 110% as long as I was doing well in school.

Getting back to the Kung Fu films and the martial arts films of the 80s and 90s, I also heard that you used to be a big Jean-Claude Van Damme fan, is that true?

Well I mean Jean-Claude in the 90s he was the guy in the limelight. In 1991-92 I think he was in "No Retreat, No Surrender", "Blood Sport", "American Kickboxer", so kickboxing was a big influence in the 90s for me growing up. In the 80s it was all about Kung Fu and Kung Fu Theater; you had Bruce Lee showing off his Jeet Kune Do but when kickboxing came into the picture I was so wowed and amazed by one of the characters in the movie kicking the pillars with his shins, you know I was like, "wow, that's awesome".

Are you still a fan of his?

Um, I'm not a fan of his now, you know as you grow older you get to know about movie magic and that Van Damme had a character that he played in the movies but hey, you know, he was an actor and in acting all these fights are choreographed. You can appreciate his art you know, it an art form. I appreciate it but I'm a fan of other fighters now, now that I'm a fighter myself.

Since you are a fan of other fighters, what fighters do you look up to? Who do you have the most respect for in professional Mixed Martial Arts?

Well, um, it would have to be, I respect Rickson Gracie, I mean in the jiu-jitsu world he believed in pure jiu-jitsu, in pure technique, and the smaller man defeating the bigger man. He was a more methodical person, he's a more methodical fighter and that's what I consider myself, a more patient fighter, methodical fighter, and in the MMA world it would also have to be Randy Couture. Randy Couture stood for what he believed in and Randy Couture is Captain America, he represents America and when he's out there fighting he's not out there representing himself, he's representing his people. You know, I'm a Latino fighter so when I fight I represent Latinos not Mexicans, because I am Mexican but I represent the whole Latino community. I don't single out nationalities like other fighters do. I represent the Latino community and the American Hispanic community you know.

We were also speaking about the Gracies. I heard that when you first saw Royce Gracie fight that you didn't like his style and you actually thought that it was, in your words, "gay". How do you go from an extreme dislike of jiu-jitsu to becoming a black belt in it?

Well, just like in anything else in life, before you knock it you gotta try it; how does that saying go, you gotta try it before you knock it, or Don't knock it till you tried it, well that was my frame of thought after I really realized that I had to know the ground game of fighting. You know, growing up, like I said I've always been into striking styles of fighting, while my cousin Charlie Valencia, he's a wrestler. He's a wrestler and jiu-jitsu stylist and Judo stylist so he was the one that introduced me to the art of ground fighting. I didn't really like it because I like to see action packed fights and when you're on the ground it was just boring. I didn't understand what they were doing, I thought they were just two guys just hugging each other and sweating all over each other, so I didn't really like that until when I actually joined a jiu-jitsu class and learned about it, then I started to understand, like oh okay, now I know what they're doing. Its a methodical game. It's a chess match is what it is you know and now I appreciate the art and it's and art that I've just come to love and I've been in it for already 12 years and now I'm a black belt.

Since you started out as a striker, is that how you got your nickname "Manos de Piedra" or "Hands of Stone"?

Um. I got that nickname from Chris Cordero at King of the Cage. He would call me "Manos de Piedra" and that means, ya "Hands of Stone" and he called me that because I was just knocking out people with my hands. Yea, that's my nickname but I'm also known as "JC Plenty", "JC Plenty of Skill" meaning, JC Plenty was my Internet name. JC Plenty was like my rap name. Growing up I was into hip-hop, so it just evolved into my martial arts career you know?

Describe for me a typical training week for you. How often do you train each day?

When I'm not training for a fight, you know I'll train every day, I'll train with grappling and I'll work my hands with focus mitts and some kicks. I'll dabble into a little bit of everything, kickboxing, wrestling, boxing, jiu-jitsu. But when I'm training for a fight it gets more serious. Now I have to train twice a day vs. training just once. I also teach as well. When I'm training for a fight I'm no longer the instructor, I'm training for a fight, I'm focused on my fight so, when I'm training for a fight I have to train my conditioning in the morning and my cardio, my core training and then in the afternoon I'll spar, I'll kickbox, I'll wrestle, I'll just train everything that I need to train in when I'm preparing for a fight. If I have to work my hands more, if my opponent is weak with striking I'll train harder with my hands so I can attack with my hands. If I'm going to fight a strong wrestler then I'm going to train in wrestling to defend the take down. I have to know my opponent and know what his strengths are so I can defend against it and force my game, and my game is, although I am a black belt in jiu-jitsu my game is striking firsts. I always look for that knock out.

Speaking of cardio, how do you feel your cardio is right now?

My cardio is great. Everybody laughs at me every time I jump on the treadmill because every time all my friends and students see me on the treadmill they're always in shock. They're like, "what, Joe is on a treadmill?" Cause they never really see me run in the treadmill in the gym. I like to run outdoors. I like to breathe that fresh air and sometimes that smog, whatever, you got to get used to the LA weather anyway, but I'm sorry, I got lost in the question, um…

We were talking about your cardio leading up to the fight.

Yea, my cardio is great, I've been jump-roping, running and swimming and testing myself in the sparring matches. When I'm sparring I can tell how long I can last by the rounds I go in my sparring sessions and so far I haven't gassed out. I've been working intensively with focus mitts and kicks so I haven't gassed out at all so I feel that my conditioning is good right now, it's top notch.

How about your diet? What is your diet like typically when you aren't preparing for a fight or trying to make weight?

I don't really diet to much because I'm fighting at the 160 weight class and I walk around at 165 so when I'm training I naturally cut weight just from training intensively. All I have to do is just maintain my weight and within my diet I'll cut out salts and sugar. I don't drink sodas at all. No juices, no orange juice. I just drink water and eat chicken; a lot of healthy chicken. You know, I like steamed chicken or my favorite place to go is El Pollo Loco, that's where I get my healthy food; my healthy chicken. So that's pretty much my diet, it's eating chicken and protein and some processed carbs for energy.

Now you were talking about how you had a lot of respect for Randy Couture. Now Randy is, I guess, getting pretty old in the MMA game. Now, you're 35 years old now, right? How many years of fighting do you think you have left in you?

Well, It's hard to say because, although I'm 35 I still feel like 21. I feel young; I feel great and it's how you live your lifestyle, it's how you eat everyday, it's how you train and I need to get that rest. If you get that rest you feel young. But I know that I'm 35 and I'm not going to be in this fight game forever. So I'm just going to fight until my body starts to shut down. Once it starts to shut down then that's when I know that I can just hang up the gloves and call it quits. I want to be just like Randy Couture, fighting at age 42 you know, I want to keep going until I can't anymore. Age is just a number, you know, as they say 35 is the new 25, so age is just a number to me, so until my body shuts down that's when I'll call it quits.

When you do call it quits and hang the gloves up what do you think you're going to do when you retire from MMA?

Well when I do call it quits it would be hopefully when I already have my own school, my own gym and I have my fight team already established and I have a bunch of championship belts hanging on the wall. I'm gonna have that credibility of me being a fighter. I'm going to use that and give back to others and teach students and travel around the world and do seminars. Open up a non-profit organization because that's what I want to give back to my community as well. I also want to manage up and coming fighters and turn them into all-stars. I want to just give back to the fighters, I want to let them; I want to give them a chance to shine and give them a taste of what I went through.

What kind of a non-profit do you want to open?

Well since I grew up in East LA I want to go in that area. I want to help the inner-city kids go into the lower community and open up a workshop where I can teach these kids for free and granted that, all the money that I earn it's going to go back into the school and just keep recycling the money an giving back to the community. I want to give back to the community and I want to just open up opportunity for them. That's pretty much what I want to do. I want to get them out of the gangs and show them that there's other things to do other than turning to your knucklehead friend that befriends you and tries to recruit you to be in his gang. I don't want that. I want to show that these kids have opportunity and they have a chance.

I know you've defeated Thomas "Wildman" Denny. What did you think of his last fight with Malaipet? Some people said that he took the easy way out to get the win. Would you agree with that?

Um, well, who knows. Malaipet is a world class kickboxer and when he throws those elbows, those elbows are coming down hard and if I were hit like that, I know I'd feel that pain. But I saw that fight and I saw what Thomas Denny did after the fight, yea he went down yes, he couldn't continue, but he said that he couldn't move his neck but in the video he was moving just fine. Personally I think, you're the headline fighter, I think you should take that five minutes, take it and suck up. You know, you're a fighter, you're a pro fighter. You're there to entertain the crowd and you're there to show the world what you got. If you're going to fight expect to get hurt. Yea they'll give you the time to recoup so take that five minutes and suck it up. I broke my hand in a fight and I didn't whine and complain about it; I kept fighting you know? But like I said, who knows what Thomas Denny felt. If Thomas Denny felt those elbows coming down then it must have really hurt bad for Thomas Denny to not come out. But I saw his second interview and in his second interview he was good to go. He even said it himself, you know, look at Malaipet, he's all beat up and me, I'm good to go, he said it himself. So he made himself look like a fool amongst the whole MMA community. You know what, I used to respect that guy, now I lost total respect for him. Not because of the loss but because he doesn't take a loss like a grown man. I knocked him out and he's not giving me credit for knocking him out. You know, he's going around the Internet and in interviews telling people that I hit him with a lucky punch or I hit him with a dorky punch as he called it. Whatever the case is man, you got knocked out. You've never been knocked out before and you got knocked out. You're my tenth knockout guy.

I guess he underestimated you. Have you ever underestimated an opponent?

I've never underestimated any opponent because in MMA anything can happen. All I know is that in a lot of my past losses, a lot of the losses are because of my own mistakes. A lot of the losses are because of me trying to be a superstar and do something fancy and something crazy; some cool trick. That was in the earlier days of my career and doing that bit me in the butt. Now I know to stick to the basics cause the basics is what works. When I go out and fight my opponent I'm gonna respect him just like I respect any other fighter and I know that he's out there to hurt me so I gotta be conscious and aware of that, so I gotta beat him before he beats me.

Now you've lost twice to Joe "Daddy" Stevenson. Do you think you'll ever want to avenge that loss?

It's a tough call. I always want to avenge all my losses. I have to avenge all my losses just because I know that, every time I see the videos I know I could have done better. Every time I see a video of my past fight I say, I could have done this and I could have done that, but Joe Stevenson beat me twice, I can't say anything about it you know. He beat me fair and square, submitted me twice and he was a bigger man those nights. Of course I'd love to fight that guy, but it's not just that guy; I'd love to avenge all my losses. I'm not gonna dwell on my losses. I like to take them as a positive and learn from them. Yea they are Ls on my record but as I've said in past interviews those Ls are lessons learned, not losses.

Let's talk about Saturday's fight. Like you, Fabricio "Morango" Camoes is a black belt in jiu-jitsu. How do you think this fight is going to go if it ends up on the ground?

Well, he's a black belt, I'm a black belt, it's gonna be a chess match on the ground, you know, it's his game vs. my game. Yea, he's a black belt, but the game is different when you add punches and kicks. Let's see how he does without the gi. But he's an awesome fighter though. I've seen his highlight reels on youtube. He can grapple, he can strike. So, he wants to trade leather with me; I can tell just by seeing his highlight reel. And if it goes to the ground then he's gonna want to push for submissions. If he wants to trade submissions, so be it, I'll trade submissions too. I'm confident in my game.

What other strengths do you think Fabricio is going to bring t the fight?

I don't really know too much about the guy other than what I've seen on youtube, and the only thing that I say that he has on his side is Portuguese (laughing). He can understand his corner, I won't be able to understand his corner at all so I won't be able to know what they're saying.

You've got an impressive 80% knockout average right now. Is that how you want the fight to end against Fabricio?

I'm always going for the knockout. That's why, in my contracts I negotiated a knockout deal 'cause that's what I shoot for first, the knockout. And that's what fans want to see; they want to see knockouts. They want to see me finish the fight convincingly.

What, if anything, have you done differently to prepare for your fight with Fabricio?

It would have to be just training three times a day. Normally I train twice a day, but this time I'm training three times a day because it's a Showtime show and I want to look good on camera too. I want to look good in the public eye. I want everyone to finally see Joe Camacho, you know, before these outsiders, the people on the outside looking in, they were always looking at the UFC being the main show to be in. And, since they haven't seen me in the UFC then they don't think that I'm a fighter. They think that I just train or I fight in these small shows. Okay, so now's your chance to see me fight. Now these people are going to see me fight on Showtime and I'm going to go out there and just give the performance of my life.

So you want this win really bad then?

Oh, most definitely. I'm out there too stun everybody.

Do you get nervous before a big fight?

Um, in the beginning I did. I used to get nervous. I used to pace back and forth. But I've fought already 27, 28 times and I'm already used to that. But now this is on Showtime and I'm pretty sure that the butterflies will set in. I'm like one of those guys; I don't like to be the last fighter. I just want to get the fight over with, but in this case I'm the co-main event. So, I'm going to have to sit through all these fights and just twiddle my thumbs just waiting to step in the cage and show my stuff.

Describe how it feels the moment that you know you got the K.O.

It's an awesome feeling man! It's an awesome feeling. It's like opening up a gift on Christmas and you get the gift you've always wanted. It's like wow. Sometimes you don't even know what happened until you look over your shoulder and you look at the replay on the big screen and you're like wow, you know, it's just an awesome feeling man. I should have came out striking earlier in my career. As a fighter I should have been more the striker then because then I was pure jiu-jitsu, I always relied on my jiu-jitsu and that's why I lost 'cause I was always on my back. But now I'm always going out for knockouts. Every time I knock someone out that's just another notch on my knockout sheet. It's an awesome feeling.

What do you like most about fighting professionally?

The notoriety is one thing, it's fun. I like when I walk out in public. I like being noticed and people coming up to me, people taking pictures and autographs and my name in sky lights and seeing my face in magazines and being on TV. That's awesome. Never in a million years did I think I'd become a professional fighter. I thought I was going to be a pro skater. That's what I put all my heart into growing up. I quit skating because I was into females (laughing) and look at me now. I'm a pro fighter; go figure.

MMA is getting a lot of media attention. There are all kinds of big deals being made recently. There are movies coming out about MMA. Do you think that just about anyone with the right kind of training can be a professional fighter, or do think that it takes a certain kind of person?

I think, if you want to be a fighter you have to pay your dues. People like to come into the fight game and want to get in a big show so what they do is they'll pad their record fighting tomato cans. Test yourself, you know, if you want to be a fighter pay your dues. Do what fighters do; train hard, discipline yourself, train, train, train, and work your conditioning, work your cardio; train like fighters train and man up when it comes to fights. Don't fight a guy that you know you're gonna walk right through just so you can pad a record. Test yourself. Fight a guy that is as equal as a fighter as you. I think a lot of fighters get into these shows because they pad their record. And then when they step in the main show they end up losing because they aren't used to fighting guys twice as good and you never see them ever again. Or if you do, they end up going back, starting all over and paying their dues. So if you want to be a fighter all I have to say is just pay your dues. Go in the gym and just train, train, train and when your instructor thinks you're ready, then you're ready.

If there's one thing that you could say to your fans about Saturday's fight, what would it be?

All I can say is, for those of you who get Showtime free, thanks for your support; thank you for tuning in. And if you've paid for it, just to watch the fight, thank you for supporting MMA. Without your help the sport wouldn't be where it's at today. All I can say is, you're gonna see an explosive fight that night. I'm gonna come out guns blazing. I'm going to go out sharp as a blade. I'm going to go out there and I'm gonna saw right through my opponent. I'm gonna go out there to finish him.

Now is there anyone that you'd like to thank or give a shout out to?

I'd like to thank all of my sponsors, all my supporters; Ed Hardy, SMET, Christian Audigier, Crystal Rock is a new line under Christian Audigier. Full Contact Fighter just picked me up for this fight so I want to thank them for stepping up the plate and helping out. I want to thank both of my parents; my mom, my step mom, my dad and my step dad, they've been really supportive. I'd like to thank my girl Zoey and Lauren. I'd especially like to dedicate this fight to my cousin Pete Acosta who just suffered a rare virus called Gillian Beret Syndrome and he was paralyzed because of that virus. It just hit him overnight and he was paralyzed, so I want to dedicate this fight to him and also dedicate this fight to Rudy Munoz who's also fighting for his life; he has sclerosis of the liver. He's fighting for his life; he's a good friend of mine so I want to dedicate this fight to him as well.

Joe, thank you, very much, for the opportunity to interview you. I know that you are going to go a long way as a professional fighter in MMA.

Thank you very much. Also one more thing, I forgot to name a few people so I'd like to thank Monaco Gear for hooking me up with my signature t-shirts, thanks a lot guys. And I'd like to thank Jiu Jitsu Pro Gear and Koral Kimonos for supporting me and being there from the beginning. So thanks a lot and if I forgot anybody, sorry about that, but you know I love you guys.

Thanks again Joe.