Fight Night 22 Special: Exclusive interview with Jared “The Messenger” Hamman

Up and coming UFC Light Heavyweight Jared Hamman will step inside the Octagon for the third time in his career, this time facing the TUF 8 cast member Kyle Kingsbury. Holding an impressive professional MMA record of 12 (8 KO’s, 2 Subs, 1 Decision) wins and 2 losses, Hamman will look to get a second consecutive victory, after edging Rodney Wallace via Unanimous Decision at UFC 111.

Currently training at Vladimir Matyushenko’s VMAT Gym, here’s what Jared Hamman shared with LowKick.com visitors, just one week before his fight at UFC Fight Night 22:

Your next fight is against Kyle Kingsbury next week at UFC Fight Night 22. How are your preparations going for this fight?
The preparations are going fantastic. It’s a bit longer camp that usually, because I’ve been helping Vladimir Matyushenko in his fight for Jon Jones. So it transitioned right into my camp. I’m training my butt off, so it’s all been good.

Of course you mentioned Vladimir Matyushenko. How does it help you to be around such an experienced fighter?
He’s been in this game for such a long time now. Vlad brings kind of coolness to my fire, we’ll call it that way. I’m really aggressive and really like to go out there and fight hard. Vladimir brings a little bit more technical aspects to my game. So it’s great to have him in my corner and to be my coach.

Last time when I interviewed Vladimir Matyushenko, he mentioned a team of big name fighters, such as Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve and Antoni Hardonk. Are they still around to help you in preparations for Kyle Kingsbury?
Yes, I still go down to the Affliction Center, ‘coz that’s where Fabricio Werdum is. And when Stefan Struve was here to help Vlad for his fight, I learned a lot from him. So basically all these guys who helped Vladimir in his preparations for Jon Jones, I had a chance to spar with them.

Recently, every fighter I interview prefers not to give out his gameplan. Would you like to reveal something about your gameplan for Kyle Kingsbury?
Well, I think it’s pretty obvious what I’m going to do. I’m an aggressive guy and I like to go out and fight hard. Kyle has the same mentality. We’re both football players, so I think it will be a strong slam-banging fight. And working with Antoni Hardonk, Fabricio Werdum and Vladimir Matyushenko helped me to have more tools for this fight.

So, just to sum it up – you’ll be looking to knockout Kyle Kingsbury?
To be honest, I actually prefer TKO’s. It’s a kind of a weird thing. Because sometimes when you knock out someone, they can say “ah, you got a lucky punch” or “you got a lucky submission”. When you TKO somebody, this means you are beating him up, because someone has to pull you off to stop this. So I actually like TKOs more, because there’s no excuses.

It looks like there’s a pretty tough competition, when it comes to the fighters who fight at the prelims. What in your opinion it takes to get noticed and become a top contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship?
I think that you have to put up exciting fights to get noticed. It’s not necessary something outstanding from the technical aspect of the game. The UFC want to make fights that are exciting for the fans.

Do you think the former TUF members have an advantage in the UFC, when it comes to being more familiar to the fans?
I think yes. Just for a recognition and exposure. They are seen on TV, so obviously it’s a some sort of advantage.

You went to Decision for the first time in your career, in the last fight against Rodney Wallace. Did it have any psychological effect on you, all of a sudden letting judges to decide on your fight?
I hate the idea of letting my fights to go to decision. But I think that it was a good experience, because it allowed me to have more ring time. A lot of practice inside the ring. I usually finish my fights in the first or second rounds, so to me it was a good thing to get that much time inside the Octagon.

You lost to Alexander Gustafsson via a flash-quick KO in the first round. Would you like to get a rematch against him at some point?
Well, I actually spoke to Alexander after the fight. He’s a cool dude. So if UFC allow this, it would be great. I think that any fighter would love to have a rematch against a guy he lost to. So yes, it would be great.

Great. Any message you would like to pass to Kyle Kingsbury and your fans at LowKick.com?
Of course. I would like to thank everyone who supports me and follows the UFC. And to Kyle, I just hope that he will come to give an exciting fight on Wednesday.

Make sure you follow Jared Hamman on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. UFC Fight Night 22: Marquardt vs Palhares will take place at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas on October 15th. The event will be aired on Spike TV.