Andy Main: TUF 12 Contestant Talks UCC Championship, Training with GSP

With his confidence riding at an all-time high, Andy Main is looking to prove that he is one of the sport’s most promising up-and-coming featherweight contenders—one fight at a time.

After winning his way onto "The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck" with a first-round submission victory over Jason Brenton during the competition's elimination round, Main was subsequently taken out of the tournament following a loss to current-UFC lightweight Kyle Watson.

Now less than 24 hours away from a featherweight championship bout against Felipe Arantes under the Urban Conflict Championships banner, Main is looking to work his way back to the an opportunity to compete in the UFC.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Andy Main about, among other topics, his upcoming championship bout, his time on "The Ultimate Fighter", and training with Georges St-Pierre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

How you feeling going into bout on Friday?

I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a big step-up in competition from my last fight—I’ve been in there with some good guys, but this guy has momentum behind him; a five or six fight win-streak, 13 and three. He knows that there’s a good chance that if he beats me he could get picked up by the UFC and I know the opposite is true for me as well. It’s a pretty exciting fight.

Do you feel that Felipe is your biggest challenge to date?

I think he could be. I think he could present a lot of problems for me, but it’s just another fight. I’ve been in there with pretty good guys—Kyle Watson is a guy that has had 25 fights, so he’s probably the toughest guy I’ve fought and I’m not sure if Felipe will be better than him or not. It’s tough to say; everyone is different and you just need to take it one fight at a time—that’s the best thing you can do. I can’t really look at him, like, “Oh, he’s the toughest guy I’ve ever fought,” he’s just another opponent and I have to do my best to go in there and beat him.

What problems does Felipe pose to you?

His style is a little bit different than guys that I’ve fought, you know? I think that’s probably the biggest thing. Honestly, I’ve changed my game so much over the last year and a half and it’s just another opponent. He’s a tough guy and he’s going to be in shape. My cardio is good, my strength and conditioning is always good, but he’s not one of those guys that I can count on out-pacing, because he might be able to hang with me—I’m not sure. I expect him to be good in all areas and I expect him to be in good shape. I can’t go out there and have a bad day, thinking I might get lucky and get away with it. If I have a bad day, he’ll take advantage. I feel that I’m better in most aspects of the game, but he is one of those guys that I know I can’t make a mistake against. That’s a big part of fighting; it’s not just about being good, it’s about not making mistakes.

Do you have a prediction for how it’s going to end?

I don’t really make predictions like that for myself—I’ll do it for other fights—but not for myself. I have a game-plan and I have things that I plan on doing—depending on how the fight goes—but I don’t want to say that I’ve got a prediction about how it’s going to end, because then I feel like I put pressure on myself to create that scenario and fights rarely go exactly as planned.

Have you always had this outlook?

Yeah, I’ve always been a mellow person; I’ve always taken it one day at a time. When I fight—everybody is different; some guys get wrapped up in their fight, like, “I have to watch all of this video; I have to study my opponent and have the exact game-plan.” That’s alright; that works for a lot of people, but then there are people like me that are more concerned with being prepared. If I prepare to the best of my ability; I’ve done all of my strength and conditioning, I’ve got all of my road-work in, I’ve got all of my technique in—my boxing is up, my Jiu-Jitsu is up, my wrestling is on point, all you can do is fight. There are so many different ways that fights can go. You can game-plan all day and then you walk into the cage and the guy punches you in the face right off the bat, your game-plan might go out the window. For me, it’s just about being confident and relaxed and going in and having confidence in yourself performing.

What would a UCC championship belt mean to you at this point?

It’s a stepping-stone. It’s more for other people than it is for me. The only belt that really matters to me is the UFC belt—that’s the only one that really counts in the long-run. I think it’s just more for my team and my family and my fans; it’s more for them because they see me working hard and they’re super-excited to see me fight for belt. It’s all about bringing it home for them; being a champion in the area. For me, it shows that my hard-work is paying off—one step at a time. I don’t want to say, “I’m the champ.” I’d never call myself “the champ” because I won this belt, you know? It’s exciting for my friends and family, so it’s more for them.

Assuming you win, what do you think the next step in your career would be?

It’s really hard to say; this game changes every single day. Getting on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ was a total-surprise to me; I tried out assuming that, at least, I’d get my name in the system and then, down the road, try out again. To get on the show—at this point in my career—was crazy. It’s so hard to say what exactly what my next step would be, but I’ve got a couple plans. If the UFC would like me back in their 145-pound division, that would take precedence, but I plan on starting a professional boxing career and, maybe, seeing where that takes me in-between fights—and just keep fighting. I want to find another good opponent. If I beat Felipe, I’ll be the champ and I’ll probably have to defend the belt—if I don’t get picked up by the UFC right away. It’s hard to say, but there are a few avenues that I can take.

What inspired you to get involved in mixed martial arts to begin with?

I was always an athlete in high-school and I never really found anything that intrigued me enough to stick with it; I ran track for a while, I was a pole-vaulter, I played soccer, I was a skateboarder for a while. A friend of mine had gotten involved with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. We wrestled around and he choked me out enough times to get me down to the gym to try it out. I loved it; I loved the competition of it, I love the technique, I loved how much we learned every day. Then, we started competing and that was the form of competition I was looking for. Another friend advised me on trying to fight—I did and I realized that that was the next level of competition I was looking for. When I started fighting, I had no intention of making it a career; I wasn’t one of those kids, “Oh, I want to be an ultimate-fighter; I want to be a UFC champ.” I was, like, “I’ll try fighting—why not?” I won and then I won again and won again and things just happened to work out. Right now I’m at a point where if things keep working out, I’m going to keep going forward. If things stopped working out, it wouldn’t kill me; I’m not one of those guys, like, “I have to fight, I have to fight.” I do it because I enjoy it and it’s fun for me and I’m doing well. That’s where I am right now.

What’s going through your mind when you step into the ring?

It’s funny; it’s almost like cruise-control at that point. You’re thinking, “If this happens, I’m going to do this and if this happens, I’m going to do this,” but by the time I get up to the cage, I’m not thinking anymore. You get to the point where you just start to react. As the fight goes on, you might start to relax and get into the mode and you might start thinking again, but before that, it’s just reaction. For me, it’s just cruise-control; you just let your body work. I work so hard every single day and you get to a point where you know that your body knows how to fight—you know that you know how to fight. You don’t need to be thinking too much, you just have to go out there and do what you have to do.

You said that you’ve improved quite a bit in the last year and a half. To what do you attribute your development as a mixed martial artist?

A big part of it has been from ‘The Ultimate Fighter’; it opened a lot of doors for me—as far as being able to reach out to the next level of coaching and I’m also able to train with some of the best in the world. I have a great team at AMA Fight Club and I train with a great group of guys, but since the show, I’ve been up to Montreal to train with St-Pierre to train with his team; I train with Frankie Edgar about once a week now—I train with a lot of good, good guys. My Jiu-Jitsu instructor—John Danahar—is considered the best in the world at teaching. I’ve got a high-level boxing coach and a high-level strength and conditioning coach—guys that can take my game to the next level. Opportunities have presented themselves and that’s the biggest thing. Also, getting to watch someone like Georges St-Pierre—I’ve never been able to watch someone at the top of his game train. It really has taken my game to a new level.

What does having such a strong camp mean to you?

It’s everything; I truly believe that you’re only as good as your camp, you know? You can be a great athlete, you can be a tough guy, but you can’t do this without having a strong team behind you; without guys to push you. If you’re the best in the room at a so-so gym, you’re not going to get anywhere; you need to be challenged everyday by guys that are constantly pushing themselves to be the best in the world. Like I said, we’ve got Jim Miller—who is, arguably, number-three in the world at 155 and around my weight-class—and we’ve got a lot of other solid guys. Again, I’m training with Frankie Edgar—who is considered number-one at 155 right now. When you train with guys like that, how can you not get better? You have no choice but to get better or you’re just going to get beat up every day. Having a strong camp is huge, but also instruction; it’s a big deal to have guys that have your best interest in mind and really have a fire for what they do. My strength and conditioning coach loves what he does and he’s so smart—he’s so good at it—it really takes your game to the next level in whatever you’re doing. With my boxing coach, it’s the same thing; he’s so passionate about what he does and it really inspires me. Since I’ve been training with this guy, I feel that I can compete at a professional level. It’s a combination of everything.

Do you think having such a strong team adds any pressure to the task at hand?

It could—it depends on how you look at it. Actually, yeah—it does. I don’t think it applies pressure to the actual fight, but it puts pressure on you to perform and get better in the gym—which will, in turn, push you to perform better as a fighter. When I first walked into this camp I got beat up by a lot of these guys—and I thought I was pretty good. Where I had come from, I was a big fish in a small pond. I came in and I said, “Oh, my gosh. I’ve got no choice but to get better or I’m going to get beat up until I don’t want to be here anymore.” It put pressure on me to get better; I needed to get my ducks in a row and figure out what I need to do to compete with these guys. It also takes pressure off—in the fight situation—because when I go into a fight, even with Felipe, I know who he’s trained with; I know what camp he comes out of and I know for sure that the guys he’s training with aren’t nearly as good as the guys that I’m training with. Like I said, I’m training with the number-one, number-one, number-three, number-four—I’m training with top, top level guys. How can I go into a fight thinking that this guy is going to have something that I haven’t seen before? There’s going to be nothing that I see in the cage that I haven’t seen before from these guys. I feel like it takes pressure off; it makes it easier to step into the cage.

How were you feeling going into ‘The Ultimate Fighter’?

I was excited; I was hoping for anything and I didn’t know what to expect. I know a couple people that have been on the show and they gave me a heads-up on how things work. Again, the show is evolving as much as the fighters are, so it was very different in a lot of ways than from what people told me. I was just excited for the opportunity; for me it’s just about opportunities. One of the greatest things about where I’m at now is that I get to travel so much for training and fighting—it’s awesome. There are always opportunities for me to go and train with all of these awesome people and all these great instructors and visit different parts of the country and different parts of the world—it’s about opportunities. When the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ opportunity came along, I was just happy to get out there and be a part of it and see how it went. Obviously I was also training for a fight, so I was in that mode, as well, you know? I did a full six-week camp before the show to get in shape and to be in peak-physical condition for my first fight—I was just excited.

How would you describe your time on the show?

[Laughs] It was 50-50; half of the time, I loved it. Looking back, making relationships with those guys—it’s one of those things that’s once in a lifetime and you know it’s once in a lifetime and it’s one of those things that so few people get to do—that’s where that bond comes from with those guys in the house. You realize that you’re brothers for those six weeks and then it’s over and there are so few people that get to do this—you become really good friends with everyone in the house. And then there were times when you hated it. They cut you off from everything; there are no books, there are no cell-phones, there’s no music—nothing. You don’t know what’s going on for six weeks and it’s weird! It makes you a little crazy when you know there’s stuff going on in the world and at home and you have no idea what’s happening with them; you have no idea what’s happening with your friends. It’s just a weird feeling. It’s not so much time, but while you’re there, after about two weeks, you’re just thinking, “What’s going on at home? What’s going on here?” And it drives you a little crazy at times.

Occasionally, guys will leave before the tournament ends. Can you blame them for that?

I want to say “no”, because I understand it; there are times when you really want to go home—especially when you’re done in the tournament. When you’re still in the tournament, you’ve got something to focus on. That’s where I was at until I lost, and there are a lot of guys like that. Early in the season; we got there on a Saturday and we fight on Tuesday—within four days of starting, the guy that lost is already out of the competition and he’s just got to live there now. He can train—there are some good things—but he’s just got to live there, cut off from everything, for six weeks. It’s not hard to understand why someone like that would want to go home. Somebody that’s still in the competition, it’s hard to agree with that—at all. It’s a huge opportunity, and when you’re in the competition and you just walk away from it—that’s hard. There are so many people every day that wish they were in your spot and to walk away from it is a little shameful. Everybody is different; some people can’t handle the environment and would rather get out and ruin their chances of ever fighting in the UFC. In my eyes, that person would’ve probably never made it, anyway.

How much would you have regretted stepping away from the competition?

Huge. It’s not that much time—you have to be mentally-strong and you have to have mental-resolve and tell yourself that it’s fine. It feels like a lot of time, but it’s not that much time; looking back on it, I can’t believe how fast it went. It felt so long and then the second they said “Alright, the cameras are off.” And it’s over and you’re like, “It’s over? I feel like I just got here.” It’s really crazy. I would be completely regretting it. Having tasted that level a little bit, I want to get to the UFC and I want to be there, but having done something like that, pretty much, completely ruins your chances of ever competing in the UFC. Very rarely do those guys come back—unless they go on a crazy win-streak and the UFC says they want them back—but very rarely do those guys come back. If I left, I’d be talking to you, “Yeah, I’ve got a fight coming up.” But in my eyes, what’s the point? If my end-game—which is the UFC—isn’t possible, what’s the point? I probably wouldn’t be fighting anymore.

How much alcohol is in the ‘TUF house’ at any given time?

They keep it stocked; they keep the beer fridge stocked and they’ve got some alcohol. It’s no secret; they like to see a little bit of drama and they know people will create more drama when they’re a little drunk. They’ve got their Miller Light fridge and there was a joke that if you went to go grab a beer from the fridge, the beer you grabbed is already restocked before you walked away. They like to keep the alcohol fridge nice and full.

Do you think that’s a good idea?

It will expose people—which is what they want. They want to see who is the drinker and who does this and who does that and how they will react. For the show purposes, it’s great! Another thing, Dana White said to us that this show gives us the opportunity in two ways; it gives you all the tools to succeed—it’s huge—but on the opposite side of show, this is why it’s so hard, they give you all of the tools to fail. They fill the fridge and we can eat anything we want, but we’ve got to stay at weight and the alcohol and they don’t require anything of you; you don’t have to go train. If you wanted to, you could sit in the house all day—no one would ever do that. He said, “Listen; you’ve got all the tools to succeed and you’ve got all the tools to fail.” It’s a good idea because it makes the show interesting and it makes living there interesting. They don’t show the half of it; they show a very small amount of what actually goes on in the show.

Was there anything that you thought should’ve made the final cut but didn’t?

From my perspective, yeah. There was a lot of cool stuff that should’ve made it, but then there was also some other stuff—I understand why they didn’t show it—but there’s a lot of stuff that happened. There’s so much that it’s hard to pinpoint any one thing, you know? I understand that they have to show the training and they have to show the fight, so they really don’t have that much time to show what goes on in the house. They’re filming 24 hours a day for six weeks and they have an hour of play-time—it’s hard to say. There are a lot of things that I think should’ve made it, but then something else wouldn’t have made it.

Do you think some guys go on the show, more with the intention of getting on TV, rather than with the intention of getting a contract with the UFC?

No, I don’t think so. With most fighters at this point, it’s about winning and making it to the UFC. There are guys that really like being on TV and play it up more, but the thing is; you have to fight to get in. You can’t just be, one of those guys, like, “I just want to get on TV.” Because you have to perform in the tryouts and you have to fight to get on. Most of the guys that get on are pretty legitimate fighters. This past season, they don’t have to fight to get on—which I think is a huge mistake—because you end up with guys like the first guy who fought—who was horrible. I don’t think it’s more to get on TV—most guys want to get in the UFC—but once they’re in, a lot of guys play it up for the camera a lot more than others.

Do you feel that your experience would’ve been any different had you been chosen to fight under Georges?

Yeah, absolutely. I think GSP ran his team much better; his coaches were better—everything was better about it. Would it have changed the outcome? Maybe or maybe not. I can’t say anything about that; that’s just one of those things where you either fight well or you don’t fight well. I didn’t fight well when I fought Kyle; I don’t know if I would’ve fought well on GSP’s team. I think, as far as training goes, it would’ve been a lot more fun. I went up to Montreal and GSP is just an awesome guy. I think it would’ve been a greater experience.

Going into the show, were you hoping to be assigned to Georges’ team?

Like I said, I went in with an open-mind. I would’ve preferred to be on Team GSP—not necessarily for GSP, but because of John; everything is different and that would’ve been a slight-advantage or it would at least make it more comfortable. I went in with an open-mind and I didn’t know if Koscheck was going to be a good coach or not; I didn’t think negatively of him. He does his little act and people don’t like him, but I don’t look at people like that; I assume that a lot of that was for the camera. I went in with an open-mind. After I got picked by Koscheck and the first week training with him, I thought it was awesome and then things, kind of, went downhill. But it wasn’t a big deal.

How would you describe Josh as a coach?

At this point, he’s not a very good coach. You have to give these coaches the benefit of the doubt, because you need to remember that these coaches are always guys who are at the top of their game and preparing for big fights; you have to remember that those coaches aren’t coaching—they’re being trained and they’re being coached by their coaches. Everything is about them, so you can understand why a lot of these guys would be selfish. I think Georges St-Pierre was one of the best coaches, not because he’s a good coach, but because he walked into the room and he said, “I’m not going to coach you guys; I’ll help you out but I’m not going to coach you guys. I’m going to bring in all of these different coaches to help you guys.” They had a bunch of guys who were actual coaches; Koscheck, and a lot of other coaches in past seasons, came in and said, “I’m going to try to coach these guys.” But they’re not coaches; they haven’t been doing it and everything has been about them getting to the top. He forgot to turn us over to his coaches and he took control and he’s just not a good coach right now. Had he been coaching for the last five years and working with other guys and getting other guys good, then he would’ve been a better coach. It was too much about him, rather than us. It’s understandable, because everything has been about him up to that point; he was the number-one contender in the world and why would he focus on other people? That’s how it goes.

Nam Phan told me earlier that within a few days of filming, Kyle Watson had told him that your squad was going to be cast as the villains of the season. Did you realize, during filming, that your team was going to be portrayed as “the bad guys”?

Of course. The whole thing was about Koscheck versus GSP, with GSP being this gentleman and whatever. I was aware of that, but I tried to stay away from them as much as possible—like when Koscheck was playing pranks or saying stupid stuff—I would just be behind the scenes; I would go behind the cameraman.

Does that kind of stuff bug you at all?

Yeah. I didn’t like it. It’s not me, and, like I said, John is my coach and Georges was part of my team—we’re both Renzo Gracie affiliated fighters—it was, kind of, like them messing with my cousins, you know what I mean? [Laughs] Yeah, it bugged me but I just ignored it. It’s about mental fortitude and you’ve just got to be strong and focus on what you’re doing and forget about the petty stuff like that.

How did you come into contact with John Danahar?

I’ve been training with John almost since I started. I started training with a Renzo Gracie-affiliated school and I started training with Renzo Gracie in New York City about five years ago. He was always one of my favourite instructors and as I got up the ranks, I got to know him a little bit better. I hadn’t gone in for a year or so before the show—I was working on other stuff and travelling—and it wasn’t at the point where I would go up and talk to him, but I knew him and he knew me. When he came onto the show, it was like, “John—I haven’t seen you in a while.” And he said, “Make sure you come to the city when you get back.” After that I got hooked back up with John and ever since then I’ve been able to train with him and St-Pierre.

How much of an impact has John had on your career?

A lot, you know? Jiu-Jitsu has been my base since I started. It’s nothing in particular, but he’s taught me a lot of my Jiu-Jitsu and my Jiu-Jitsu is my background. I guess, a lot.

How would you describe your experience in Montreal?

It was great. Like I said, it was mostly just amazing to watch how Georges trains, how he eats—everything. It’s, basically, just shadowing him. He was two or three weeks out from fighting Koscheck—really in the heart of his camp—and I got the chance to see how he works and then go home and try to emulate that as much as possible. For me, it’s not just about the training; it’s about the relationships.

What did you take away from your time in Canada?

More than anything, just the style of training; it opened my eyes to a lot of ways that Georges trains. You get so used to training a certain way and you don’t realize that some people train totally differently, you know? It’s interesting to see, too; what they’re doing that’s similar and what they’re doing that’s different and what works and what doesn’t. There were things that they were doing in Montreal that I didn’t want to do and there was stuff where I was, like, “Why aren’t we doing this? This is amazing.” It’s more about that.

Do you plan on going back?

I plan on going back and training. It depends on what opportunities open up. Like I said, right now I’m just focused on this fight and after that I’ve got to see where I’m at and who I’m fighting. Will I have time to spend a week up there? Do I have the money? I will, eventually, so it’s just a matter of time. I plan on going out to Albuquerque to train with Greg Jackson. I’ve got a lot of plans for down the road.

How far do you think you can go in this sport?

I have no idea, man. I think I have the talent and the team and the coaches and the work ethic, so I think I can make it to the top. At the same time, I think there’s a deal of luck and good-fortune that takes you a certain amount. I could work as hard as I can but I can get caught. I can go out and get knocked out on Friday night and be set back two or three fights or I could go out and knock him out and I’m in the UFC and, maybe, five fights away from a title—it’s just so broad. I take it one fight at a time. I’m a dreamer; I like to imagine myself with a title and fighting the best in the world, but I’ve just got to focus on where I’m at right now.