There was a time when Ricardo Almeida was widely considered one of the top middleweight fighters in the world. He retired on a six-fight winning streak as the Pancrase middleweight champion. So how is it that one of the toughest guys in the world can also be one of the nicest? FiveKnuckles' Mike Williams recently sat down with Almeida at his jiu jitsu school in Hamilton, NJ and found out that the Big Dog's bite is definitely worse than his bark.

FiveKnuckles: Have you ever fought at welterweight before?

Ricardo Almeida: No, never fought at welterweight. My last fight with Kendall Grove, at the prefight weigh-in I weighed 187 which is lighter than which most guys start their weight cut. I'm about 192 right now, about 7 weeks out. By the fight week I'm going to be 185 and I'll cut that last 15 pounds. I'm looking forward to seeing how that's going to turn out. I'm confident in my skills. I'm confident in my game but that cut, I think that's going to play a big part in my success in this next fight. A lot of people think I'm a big middleweight but my last two fights I was only 190 at fight time. I think welterweight is going to be better.

FiveKnuckles: What made you decide to move down to welterweight?

Ricardo Almeida: I had an injury last year, a sports hernia, and I had to really get away from lifting weights and things like that and it actually really helped me tremendously. I feel like I'm quicker, my martial arts in every aspect from jiu jitsu, takedowns, striking has gotten better from me being lighter and I'm just looking forward to fighting with the guys out there. Actually, I was training with Georges St. Pierre and he was like "Ricardo, how much do you weigh?" and this was right before I fought Matt Horwich, I was 191 pounds, we still had a couple of weeks before the fight and I said "191". He said, "you know that Andersen Silva walks around at like 220 pounds?"  I was like "yeah" and he goes "are you crazy man?" (laughs) You know there are guys who cut an enormous amount of weight and it's almost like cutting weight is that fourth discipline. You have jiu jitsu/grappling, takedowns, and striking and if you don't cut weight, you're going to get beat by someone who does.

FiveKnuckles: You've been working with the Gracie family for a long time and you're a humble guy. I wonder if you're able to really grasp how much people admire your skill in what to do.

Ricardo Almeida: Yeah I think now we're getting a lot more spotlight but jiu jitsu has been around for a while and we've had our schools for a while. My hope is that people will see a guy like me fight, or like Renzo (Gracie) or Rolles (Gracie)and they'll start to see that mma is not just great to watch but that it's also great to practice. It seems like the way that mma is presented in the UFC that a lot of poeple look at it and they're like "wow" and they think it's great to watch. They have a beer in one hand, the remote control in the other hand but not many people associate it like "wow, I can do that. It's going to help me be in shape, it's going to be something that will be beneficial" and this is what we...

Make sure to check back with us the day of the event for free, live, round-by-round coverage of UFC 111 right here at FiveKnuckles.com! Join expert analyst Mike Williams as he takes you through the entire fight card blow-by-blow and then keep it right here for all the post-fight news and notes you can handle!