Interview W/ "The Giant" Gan McGee (part 1)
Reported By: BoxingInsider - 08.16.2003 02:13 AM
Part I - Interview with "The Giant," Gan McGee
By Chris Colderley ©
In Emma Calvé, Author Robertson Davies wrote, "In case you don't know it, being a giant is a very expensive business. The cost of food and drink, not merely for oneself but for one's fellow-giants and one's scores of attendant gnomes, is a very considerable item. And the cost of jewels for a female giant is really fabulous."
The Giant, Gan McGee, has little time to concern himself with such trivial matters. In fact, he isn't worried about feeding giants or attendant gnomes or even buying giant jewels. His attention is focused on another UFC giant, heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia. On September 26th, the 6'10", McGee will square off against the equally imposing, 6'8", Sylvia for the heavyweight championship of the world.
After losing his UFC debut on November 17th 2000 to Josh Barnett, McGee was forced to retool his arsenal and prepare for another chance in the Octagon. It would be almost two years and another three fights before McGee darkened the octagon with his enormous shadow again. This time, he was pitted against super striker Pedro Rizzo. Everyone expected McGee to use his superior wrestling skills from his time at Cal-Poly and the University of Iowa, but it was his striking that opened everyone's eyes to his potential. After trading with Rizzo for the whole first round, McGee unleashed a wicked punch with seconds remaining that opened a large cut on Rizzo's face. With that, Rizzo's team conceded defeat between rounds.
McGee returned again at the UFC 41 to face Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Alexandre Dantas. In a fairly one-sided affair, McGee was able to fend off Dantas' attacks before delivering several right hands on the grounded fighter. With the ever-changing landscape in the heavyweight division, McGee remains the strongest challenger by virtue of his recent dominance in the octagon.
Photo: Joshua Hedges/UFC.tv
In this two part interview with Chris Colderley, McGee talks about his upcoming fight with Tim Sylvia, gives comments on his relationship with Chuck Liddell and "the Tito Ortiz situation," and provides a very insightful breakdown of the current state of the heavyweight division.
BoxingInsider.com: First of all, how is your training going?
Gan McGee: It's going pretty well. Right now, I am not going too nuts, just trying to keep my weight down.
BoxingInsider.com: What are you working on specifically for the Sylvia fight?
Gan McGee: Nothing different than what I always do: a lot of kickboxing, a lot of wrestling - a little bit of everything.
BoxingInsider.com: What is your game plan for the fight?
Gan McGee:I only want to go out there and bang with him. Just go get him standing up. If it goes to the ground, it goes to the ground. I am not really worried about it, but mainly just keep it on my feet.
BoxingInsider.com: You are going to go toe-to-toe with a guy who has ten straight knockouts?
Gan McGee: Sure!
BoxingInsider.com:Let me go back to your fight against Josh Barnett. In that fight you actually took it to the ground, what did you learn from that experience?
Gan McGee: The only thing I really learned from the Josh Barnett fight is not to fight if you are not 100 percent - if you are not ready to go. I had pretty bad bronchitis, and I just ran out of gas.
BoxingInsider.com: What about this fight? What are doing as far as your conditioning goes or will that not be an issue because you are healthy?
Gan McGee: It's not going to be an issue. I am going to be in great shape for this fight.
BoxingInsider.com: Could you give me a rundown of your experience, how you became involved in mixed martial arts, and what your disciplines are?
Gan McGee: I started from wrestling. I wrestled at Cal-Poly. I wrestled at Iowa for a year - University of Iowa, Dan Gable and all of them. Then I was wrestling out here [in California] and I knew Chuck Liddell. I met him through wrestling - Scott Adams, actually. I was on the wrestling team with him, he's Chuck's business partner in the gym. In the off seasons, I started going there and training. I started doing mainly submission wrestling and things like that. They got me a fight in Colorado at the Bas Rutten Invitational. I just went in, took the guy down, and punched him in the face a lot. I kind of decided that I didn't really care about submissions that much anymore - just hitting people.
BoxingInsider.com: You are an excellent wrestler. When I talked to Tim Sylvia earlier, he agreed, "Gan is an excellent wrestler." How have you become such a good striker?
Gan McGee: It's something I just picked up quickly. I started working out a little boxing and kickboxing, and then Chuck's trainer, John Hackleman, started working with me. After a couple of months with him, I was knocking people out, feeling good!
BoxingInsider.com: When you train with John Hackleman, what does he emphasize in terms of striking? What does he really make you work on?
Gan McGee: Right now, he lets me go. That's what I like about John. When he works out something with your form, it's not about what your form looks like. He doesn't care what your punch looks like; he cares that it lands, and that it hits right.
That's what I like. It's just real nuts and bolts. If John tells you something about your technique, it's usually how to get more power on it, not how to make it look pretty.
BoxingInsider.com: You mean if he was golfing with Chi Chi Rodriguez, he wouldn't tell him how to swing?
Gan McGee: What you have to understand is that if you are doing something and it works, he's not going to try and correct it. He's not going to try and change it. He'll let you go. Then, things you need to work on, he is going to fix.
BoxingInsider.com: What is one of the things he has really emphasized with you in terms of what you had to do to improve your striking? For example, before the Pedro Rizzo fight. You shocked everybody by going in there and standing with him, and then by knocking him out. What did you work on before that fight that gave you the advantage?
Photo: Joshua Hedges/UFC.tv
Gan McGee: It's kind of weird. We don't work a lot on particular things. It's just about being an overall better striker.
We don't go over specific things, and I am not a big game-planner. I think I should go out and do what I am good at. I should go out and do what's there, what I am feeling right then. I have tried to be a really technical game-planner before, and I end up, usually, just throwing it out.
The Pedro Rizzo fight? Yeah, just take him down that was the smart thing to do. If you get him down, you can finish him off. But, when I was out there, I saw the punch happen so I hit him!
BoxingInsider.com:You hit him a few times, I think. [Laughs]
For the Tim Sylvia fight, you are not going to sit down and watch the tapes - prepare? You are pretty confident?
Gan McGee:I have actually watched Tim fight in both of his UFC matches. I think I know what to expect. I might go over a tape and watch it, but I am not going to nitpick every little thing. I am sure he's going to be working on things, and he's not going to be the same fighter. We'll see what happens when we get out there.
Stay tuned with Boxinginisder.com for part 2 of this interview with Gan McGee.
Chris Colderley is a freelance writer and a boxinginisder.com contributor. Chris Colderley can be reached at Colderley@hotmail.com
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