Cage Ring Championship 4 goes down this weekend from the Airside Arena in Swords and has a top notch and unique card featuring Muay Thai, K1, Grappling and MMA all taking place inside a ring cage hybrid, an experience in itself.
Wayne Grant (6-1, Fantom Team) vs Sevket Karaoglanglu (14-4, Tieu Team) will serve as the main event of the evening under Muay Thai rules in what should be an excellent contest. We recently spoke to Grant ahead of this fight.
Check it out the interview below:
How long have you been training? What got you into the sport?
I have been training a long time but only seriously about two years now. By serious I mean going to the gym and putting in the work every day, no drinking, no partying etc. I originally trained K1 more, Muay Thai was always there but I started putting real effort into that after I was injured and stopped training K1. I have Thailand to thank for that. I fell in love with Muay Thai after my first trip there.
Talk about your last few fights and what you've learned from them.
I learn a lot from fighting, win or loose. Every fight shows a little bit of something extra or something lacking. My most recent fight was with Dylan Meagher and it was a cracker. He is a great opponent and a gentleman too. That fight was a great test for me. I only have six pro Muay Thai fights, with and no ammy career at all, and I just jumped straight in with the top of the game. This proved I deserve to be at the top with such few fights.
All of my opponents have been very tough and all at the top of the ladder. I fought in Thailand for the first time during my last visit which was an amazing experience. The guy was ex Thai national champion and had over 500 fights and I think that was just my 4th. I learned it really doesn't matter about your experience. Without sounding cliche, I come to fight, it's not ballet, and win or loose I'm going down swinging.
You train in the Fantom gym, a gym that seems to be going from strength to strength with its fight team. Talk about the gym and the coaches.
Fantom gym is run by Pawel. He is a lunatic (haha) but he knows what he is doing. He's very involved in the fight team training and in mine personally. I have a regular pad man in Sebastian Czucaj. It's kind of a symbiotic relationship, I get him ready for fights and vice versa. My proudest moment with him was preparing him for the Daryl Flood fight. It was the best performance he has had.
He is gone to Thailand so now I have another pal of mine, Coach Danny King, pushing me until breaking point, which I need. We start training every morning at 7am and finish about 9.30, it is grueling but this is a tough game.
Talk about your opponent this weekend. And what sort of fight are you expecting?
My opponent is good but so have all my opponents. I rate them all very highly. This one, like all of them, create certain obstacles and styles to overcome. I'm never gonna toot my own horn and say I'm gonna do this or that or I'm gonna win or get the KO.
How do your styles match-up? And do you have a prediction?
All of my opponents have an equal chance of being the victor in there. Anything can happen on the night and that is what makes it so amazing- its unpredictability. Everything can change in a split second. He will go with his game plan and I will adapt to whatever happens like I always do and the result will speak for itself.
Does being the main event give you any extra motivation?
Being the main event really makes no difference to my motivation. This is just another fight.
