I know what you're thinking: man, all this guy does is interview Canadian fighters.

Well, not entirely, but we have this weird idea up here in the Great White North where we do our best to help our fellow Canadians succeed wherever we can. Crazy, right?

Sam Stout is no different; the minute I contacted the London, Ontario native, he accepted this invitation, opening the door to a cadre of questions about his upcoming fight with Phillipe Nover, a potential trilogy fight with Spencer Fisher and whether Tyson Griffin does in fact have a gigantic ass.

This is the K2 Interview Series... with Sam Stout.

Thanks for doing this.

How did London turn into a hotbed for MMA talent?

Shawn Tompkins was the one who kind of brought MMA into the city of London.

When I first started training with him, we were mostly doing just kickboxing, but then TKO out of Montreal started to take off and he saw it as an opportunity for us to get more fights and explore new venues.

He got myself and Mark Hominick and a couple of our other guys some mixed martial arts fights up there and the rest is history.

Who wins a fight between all the London boys?

Almost all of us are different weight classes, but we all have our good days and we all have our bad days where some days I come out on top, some days Mark comes out on top and some days Chris (Horodecki) comes out on top. Really though, we're all just trying to make each other better.

Dana White recently announced that the UFC would be making a stop in Vancouver in 2010, while a trip to Toronto has yet to materialize. What do you think is holding up the legislation for bringing MMA to the biggest city in the country?

I think there are just a couple people who are not seeing the potential or have some kind of bias against mixed martial arts. I don't think that will last much longer.

I think they'll start seeing how much money these shows bring in, how much revenue they bring to the cities that hold these events and they won't be able to keep it illegal much longer.

Overall, what do you think of the state of MMA in Canada right now and where do you see it going in the future?

It's just going to keep growing. As time goes on, more and more people are getting into it.

I'm getting recognized more and more often by people; little old ladies know who I am sometimes and it's pretty interesting to see how mainstream it's become and I think it's just going to keep growing the way it has been.

So you've got your eighth fight with the UFC coming up next week against TUF 8 alum Phillipe Nover.

First off, how has training camp been going and tell everybody where you spend your days getting ready to fight.

Camp has been going great. I started off at the Adrenaline Training Centre, my old gym, in London, Ontario. I was able to work with Nick Johnson who is a wrestling coach of mine at Xtreme Couture in Toronto and about six weeks ago I flew out to Las Vegas and am training at Xtreme Couture with Shawn Tompkins.

The guys out here are unbelievable; there's myself, Gray Maynard, Tyson Griffin,...