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so it wasn't that easy, but it also wasn't that tough. Travelling is tough, especially when you're doing it on a shoestring budget, when you've invested all your means into doing it, which is what I'd done. I'd invested every single cent that I had into traveling and training and fighting. So that's why it was a great opportunity to have everything taken care of. FiveKnuckles.com: When you made your UFC debut, you competed as a welterweight, but you made the decision in 2009 to move down in weight to the lightweight division. How would you compare the challenges of fighting in each division, and how big an adjustment has the weight change been for you?
Sotiropoulos: The adjustment was actually pretty easy, believe it or not. It wasn't that hard. The difference is, there's obviously going to be a size difference, but I think there is also a technical and speed difference in between the two divisions. The lightweight division is slightly faster, as it is in every sport, whether it's boxing, or wrestling, or judo, or whatever it is. The lighter divisions get quicker. The hardest part, and one of the hardest things for fighting, is always dieting and getting your weight down, that's one of the biggest challenges for any fighter. But because I train so much, and I'm dieting, the weight comes off easily because of the training. But obviously I'm walking around lighter than what I was before.
When I decided to enter lightweight, my weight came down first. Because I was out for a year (with an injury), I decided to get my weight down to prepare for fighting, and I dieted so much that I got it down to 167 lbs., and I maintained that for weeks, maybe two months. And then I decided that maybe I should do a trial cut to 155, so I woke up one morning and I cut 10 pounds, and I thought that wasn't too hard. And then I decided to fight at that weight. And the last two times I fought, I never had to cut weight, it just came off. I just dieted down to the weight, and on the day I was on the money. So obviously it's still challenging to do, it's not easy, but it's not that hard either if you're targeting that weight year round. I watch what I eat, my diet's very strict, it's very clean, it's very natural, there's no artificial foods in there, or preservatives, or additives, or so on. I know what I can and can't eat, which is fine. I enjoy being healthy anyway, but I also enjoy eating a lot of food after I fight.
FiveKnuckles.com: After you finished your stint on "The Ultimate Fighter", you followed your coach Matt Serra to New York to train at his gym, but you are currently training at Fisticuffs gym in Vancouver, Washington with Leonard Gabriel. How would you compare training at both facilities, and what prompted the move?
Sotiropoulos: The training is completely different. First of all, I moved from New York to Las Vegas. I lived in Las Vegas for about 10 months, and then I moved to Washington to train with Leonard. I had met Leonard a couple of years back through Enson Inoue, who I trained with and lived with in Japan, and both Leonard and Enson were very good friends. So when I was in New York I would come and visit Enson when he travelled from Japan to visit Leonard, and hang out with him at Leonard's place. Leonard was a boxing coach...
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