Joe Riggs got the opportunity of a lifetime, when Karo Parisyan announced to the UFC that his injury wasn’t healing, and he would not be able to fight for the welterweight title against Matt Hughes. Needing an opponent, the UFC reached out to Riggs, who was scheduled to fight against a fighter making his UFC debut, Kieth Wisniewski, on the same night. Knowing the opportunity may never come again, could Riggs resist?ADCC: Can you confirm that you are fighting Matt Hughes for the UFC welterweight title on November 19th? JOE: Yes I am.ADCC: You were originally scheduled to fight Keith Wisniewski on the same date, no disrespect to him but he is not on the level of Matt Hughes. Will you be prepared now with the change of opponent? JOE: Oh yeah I will be prepared. I’m coming off a two month training camp in Cincinnati for my last fight, and I only took a week off. So I’m in good shape. Matt is only a one dimensional fighter so there’s not too much I have to worry about. It’s a five round fight and I’m ready for it.ADCC: You have trained with Jeremy Horn in the past and he has been with Team Militech and Matt Hughes for a while. I assume you are not training with him. JOE: I just talked to Jeremy now and he is staying out of it. He is not training with me or Matt, so no hard feelings. I’m still hanging out with him everyday. I told him I understand and I won’t be training with him.ADCC: Who will you be training with for this fight then? JOE: Rich Franklin, Joe Doerkson, Travis Wiuff, and I’m probably going to bring Frank Trigg out here.ADCC: If this fight goes five rounds, are you prepared to go the distance? JOE: Oh Yeah, I’m ready to go five rounds. He is not going to sit there and trade with me on my feet and that’s what really tiring. If he does, take me down, I’m not going fight it. You guys will see how good I am off my back. I am real composed and I can ‘ride’? out five rounds, but I’m hoping it doesn’t go that long.ADCC: What’s the prediction for this fight? JOE: It’s going to be bloody and I’ going to shock the world.ADCC: Looking back on your last UFC fight, you fought a good friend in Chris Lytle. How did you feel after that fight? JOE: I didn’t like seeing Chris’ face all busted up. It looked like his jaw were swollen, his eyes and his head. I didn’t like to see that, but you know, it’s a sport. I wasn’t too happy with my performance. I thought I didn’t perform too well, but I got the win over a tough guy. I stopped a guy who has never been stopped before. But I was pretty happy with it, besides Chris getting hurt.ADCC: Anything to say to the fans? JOE: Just keep on the look out, I’m coming. I’m coming to take the title.
