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At the time, it was really no different than fighting anybody else. Those fights were a long time ago. The level of success that Matt Hughes has reached is his accomplishment, not mine. It's awesome that he did well with his career which does makes me look better, but everybody loses at some point. I'm a guy that fights at a quick pace and he's a guy that's susceptible to being caught right off the bat. Those are my strengths and those are his weaknesses. It just so happened that our styles matched up and that's a big reason why I was successful against him. To be honest, the wins over Hughes did open some doors in my career. As far as confidence is concerned, I've always been confident in my abilities. If I prepare for a fight correctly, I don't have to worry about what my opponent is going to do and I can concentrate on what I'm going to do. I can't figure to perform great against somebody else based on the fact that I beat Matt Hughes twice. Every fighter is a different story. I trained my ass off for John Howard. I can't go in to that fight saying "I beat Matt Hughes twice" so I don't need to train for John Howard. I've never done that.
FiveKnuckles.com: Being a twelve year veteran of mixed martial arts, you've pretty much seen everything the sport has to offer. With that being said, how has the sport evolved since you're early days?
Dennis Hallman: It's crazy how this sport has evolved. It's kind of like skateboarding. When skateboarding first came out, everybody hated the skaters. Nobody wanted the skaters around. Skaters had a bad reputation. Next thing you know, they're selling skateboards at Wal-Mart, and then everybody wanted to be a skater. It was the new cool thing to do. People started to build skate parks around the city and started embracing it. It's the same thing with MMA. I can remember the police threatening to arrest me for fighting in shows. I remember being called an animal. I remember being in a fight against Leigh Remedios back in 1998 where we were allowed to kick each other in the balls. Now I go to Big 5 and they're selling Century MMA gloves and there's UFC teardrop bags hanging up there.
It's amazing what MMA has become today when back then, one catastrophic injury could have ended the entire sport. Now we're beyond that and I don't think there's anything that can stop the train. Dana White is a very smart man. He's practically a magician in what he's accomplished over the years. Whatever he did, it worked. I'm happy to be one of the grass roots guys in the sport. It's something that I can be proud of and tell my kids when they get older.
FiveKnuckles.com: Do you expect mixed martial arts to keep growing in the right direction?
Dennis Hallman: I definitely expect the sport to keep growing, but I don't think MMA is ever going to be at the forefront of American sports. It's obviously surpassing boxing and I could see it surpassing hockey. From now on, I think it's always going to be around as one of the major sports, but nothing is...
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