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I was always a big fan of Kazushi Sakuraba and he used to dye his hair orange. FiveKnuckles.com: So I take that as long as you're in the UFC, you're going to be corporate Justin Buchholz and not rock the boat?
Justin Buchholz: (Laughs) Yeah, that's right. I'll be walking out for my next fight in my suit, tie and black hair.
FiveKnuckles.com: Justin, describe how you got your start in MMA for fans that don't know?
Justin Buchholz: My first fight was in 2005. That was in the professional ranks because they didn't have any amateurs in Alaska. I started on the local scene so there was obviously no money in it for me. I fought some fights for two-hundred bucks. I also went into a couple fights where I didn't know when I was getting paid, nor did I care. I meet a lot of guys these days that get into the sport for the money, but that wasn't the case for me back then. Money was the last motivating factor for me to fight.
The sport has evolved a ton in recent years. I remember I was one of those guys who just wanted to take my opponent out. These days, I have no ill will toward any one of my opponents. It's all about competition and respect. There's nobody calling me out and nobody chooses which opponent to fight for the most part. This is just the way the game works and I'm cool with it. I don't have to prove anything to anybody and I'm the same person before and after the fight.
FiveKnuckles.com: That's a great way to look at it and it takes a lot of hard work to put on a great show? Not many people get to see everything a fighter goes through leading up to a fight.
Justin Buchholz: There will always be those people out there that think this sport is savage, but the skill set the modern UFC fighter has is unbelievable. I do my strength and conditioning at Results Conditioning and Physical Therapy, which is a prominent facility around here. NFL players, Major League baseball players, tennis stars, and a lot of the top level college athletes from Northern California all go there to train. I know firsthand that other athletes don't train as hard as fighters. My workout is non-stop for almost two hours and the rest of them workout for 35 minutes. When they see me train, their jaws drop, but those are the guys making million dollar contracts. If they knew what I make per fight, they'd probably laugh.
FiveKnuckles.com: Talk about some of those intense training methods.
Justin Buchholz: I'm blessed to have great conditioning coaches in Kyle Yamashiro and the rest of the staff at Results. He started training Urijah [Faber], myself, and a couple other guys from our gym. I've probably been training there for about a year, but I've really started to notice my improvements over the last four to five months. I'm doing stuff I never thought I could do like plyometric handstand push-ups. I can pump fifteen straight with a hop in between. When I do pull-ups, I'm pulling myself about three feet over the bar, clapping my hands during the hang time, and grabbing the bar on my way...
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