Fight night for the Hands of Stone

The UFC is making it's second landing in Canada on April 18 and one of the combatants on the card is none other then London's own Sam ‘Hands of Stone' Stout. I had the opportunity to catch up to the 155lber before he headed off to the French province for his bout with Matt Wiman.

Trent Williams: Sam, it's been a long and grueling training camp, how ready are you for this fight?
Sam Stout: The training has been going great, I just got back to London from Las Vegas and that was great. Got to train with my coach Shawn Tompkins, as well as some other top guys like Tyson Griffin, Gray Maynard and Junie Browning, which was great. Now, I'm just back in London finishing up then heading to Montreal.

TW: To train with those guys like Maynard, Griffin and so on, how important is that for your development?
SS: It's really key, you know you can only get as good as your training partners allow you, so the higher the level competition in the gym the better for me when it comes to fight.

TW: What does it mean to you to have the UFC in Canada yet again, and have you be on the card?
SS: You know, it's a big honour and last year was a great time. I have fought in the TKO organization many times in Montreal but last time the UFC was here it was a huge event and it was nice to have the Canadian crowd behind me. There was like 23,000 people there and to have 22,500 cheering for me was quite a thrill.

TW: You're going in facing Matt Wiman, what have you done to specifically prepare for him?
SS: You know I'm going to go in there and do what I do and keep it standing, that's certainly my strength and he's more of a wrestler, not a real technical wrestler, but a more push the pace kind of wrestler. I think if I can keep up with his pace, stuff some of his takedowns and you know break his spirit, I'm going to be able to pick him apart after that.

TW: London's been a hotbed for Ontario when it comes to Mixed Martial Artists, so what does it mean to you to really represent your city at a high level and put London on the map in the MMA world?
SS: It's a huge honour you know, and not only am I representing Canada but more importantly London. I was born and raised here and it's a great place to train. Since the Adrenaline Training Centre went up it's been even better for development and to have my trainer Shawn Tompkins come back to London with me for the final two weeks of preparation was really special as well. All the guys here in London coming out to help me get ready it's just a really great place to train.

The fight goes down April 18 in Montreal, Quebec and it should be a dandy of a card. I already broke down the main event fights between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites as well as the Chuck Liddell and Shogun Rua fight. So all that there it left to do is sit back and enjoy the show because the UFC has put another dandy card together. I hope you have enjoyed my articles this year on MMA, it's been a pleasure writing them.