UFC lightweight contender Luke Cummo talks about upcoming clash with Luigi Fioravanti at UFC 82. Check out what he had to say about the fight, his thoughts on Lifefood, his future plans and much more.
PC: How is everything going?
LC: Everything is good man, thanks!
PC: How is your training going for your fight at UFC 82?
LC: It's going really good!
PC: How beneficial is it to you to train with Matt Serra and Serra Jiu Jitsu?
LC: My ground game is tested every time I go to training. It's like a million guys that can help me out as far as teaching me new things and tightening me up on other things. Long Island is very densely populated so most of the guys who are successful in wrestling in high school and college, this is something that they want to continue afterwards because most of them still have that competitive drive when it comes to championship wrestling and Jiu Jitsu. Matt is known for having one of the best schools on the Island so we get a lot of great wrestlers. It's just so much talent there and it's a great environment to improve.
PC: Everyone knows how good your Jiu Jitsu is, but I think your hands are very underrated. Do you expect a standup war with Luigi at 82?
LC: Yeah, definitely. I think we're similar in a lot of ways in that we're both Italian, we have good chins, like to standup and we have good Jiu Jitsu, more for defense, but if he goes for takedowns or anything like that, I will be prepared for that also. You can't assume anything in there.
PC: We haven't seen you fight since September. Would you like to be more active in 2008?
LC: After this fight, my wife is going to go back to work, she's a teacher, and I'm going to be "Mr. Mom" until the end of this spring and then, when the summer comes around, I'll be able to pick back up fight training so after this fight, I probably won't fight again until maybe the end of the summer.
PC: What do you think will be the difference in this fight to assure yourself that your hand is raised at the end of the night?
LC: Nobody is punch proof and with those little gloves, all it takes is really one punch to start a landslide. I'm going to be very focused and stick to my gameplan and keep everything so tight that he won't be able to squeeze anything in. His offense will be nullified. I feel like I will press the action and test his cardio. I'm going to be like a burst of energy and I'm going to short-circuit him.
PC: What do you think of Luigi as a fighter?
LC: I think he's a threat to anybody because he obviously has heavy hands. He's thick so some moves are going to be hard to pull off on a guy that's thick like that. He's a tough kid. The only fight I've watched is the Fitch fight. We have all of his fights on tape, I just haven't watched them yet. I think this is a great fight for me at this point to really test myself and show what I'm capable of.
PC: I thought we would have gotten a fight between you and Marcus Davis by now. What do you think of his progression as a fighter and a potential fight with him?
LC: We were actually scheduled to fight. I was supposed to be fighting Ross Pointon and I got injured and then he got injured and right after that, I got injured. Me and Marcus were supposed to fight. We sparred a couple of times. Actually, this one particular time I could remember on TUF 2 when they were doing the evaluation. I always thought I had decent hands. I did a lot of boxing sparring in my gym. I made the mistake of going toe-to-toe with him and he hit me out of nowhere, well it seemed like nowhere because his boxing was so refined, but I had my moments too and I think that, even when we fight, it will also be a great fight. I'll fight anybody they put in front of me and even though I like Marcus as a person and we got along on the show, it's a business. If it happens, I will go over a gameplan with my team and come ready.
PC: Do you feel like you haven't been able to showcase all of your Jiu Jitsu skills?
LC: I guess the best people got to see of my Jits was against Stevenson and that was more of my defensive game because he's such a great grappler. A lot of my Jiu Jitsu game is defense because coming from a stand-up background, some guys get a taste of the stand-up and they want to take the fight to the ground. My takedown defense is improving and one day, I might get somebody who is a good wrestler and not so great at Jiu Jitsu and I'll submit them. I might get somebody who's a good striker and I may take them down and do something with that, you know. It's so many things to work on in mixed martial arts. Eventually, no stone will be left unturned as far as Luke Cummo is concerned.
PC: Anderson Silva against Dan Henderson is a fight I've been waiting on for a long time. What does it mean for you to be a part of this card?
LC: That card is stacked man. That fight is one for the ages. I think that's the best possible match-up you could make right now in the middleweight division. I would say my fight would be televised if not for the amount of named fighters. I heard that even Arlovski's fight is not going to be televised because of the names on this card. I'm excited; I'm looking forward to it.
PC: I know you put Ken Pavia through the Lifefood diet. How was it having Ken out there for a couple of weeks to do that with him?
LC: Ken is a great guy. I really enjoyed spending time with him and learning another side of mixed martial arts with him being a great agent. I got to hear him on the phone with some fighters and it was really cool just hearing the business side of things. He's a great guy and I really enjoyed hanging out with him. My only complaint was that he was still on California time so I was going to bed about 3 hours late every night.
PC: Could you explain what Lifefood is all about?
LC: Lifefood is only about the future of human kind and the planet. There's nothing more destructive to the earth than the way people eat. Lifefood is really for a sustainable future. As soon as people learn about this way of eating, the better off we'll be. Some people could be driving their Hybrid cars to a restaurant and be doing more harm than good. They don't have an understanding of how their choice of food affects the earth and themselves. I'm just going to keep winning my fights and getting this message out.
PC: Where can people find out more about this diet?
LC: There are a few books on amazon.com if someone were interested. If someone was interested in sampling some Lifefood dishes, they have a Lifefood recipe book out there. They also have a little bit of the scientific reasoning behind how the diet will help people heal themselves. If they're interested in reading a little science and they don't mind reading a little technological mumbo jumbo, they can get "Soul Rejuvenation" or "Secrets to an outgoing Body" are 2 other books. Jubbs Longevity, which is the Lifefood restaurant in New York City where I continue to learn, do like a work study although I can only get down there like twice a week because of training, but you could go to jubbslongevity.com. I don't really know what's up there right now because my computer's down. I have a forum on my website dedicated specifically to Lifefood and that's at lukecummo.com. I think the best thing will be for people to get one of those books or look at the website.
PC: What's your goal as a fighter for 2008?
LC: My goals is to win, number one, and number two is to get enough money to put a down payment on a house and number three is to get a fight on live TV, either Spike or pay-per-view.
PC: Luke, good luck in March. We'll get a lot more with you. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
LC: More and more people are waking up every day and they're realizing that there's a lot more out there than what we've been told or what you can find in the main stream media. People who are making all of the money want us to be consumers, but it's really a great thing for everyone to be consumers of information; good consumers of information. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm going to keep winning for everybody to continue to wake up and spread the message to all their loved ones and everybody else and that's about it. I'm looking forward to March and thanks to you Percy and everybody on my forums and the other websites for their positive support.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]