Frank Shamrock:

How do you handle the verbal attacks that go on before a fight?

“To me it’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s good to have an antagonist to promote a match. It can’t just be you. I think it’s hilarious. We need people to stir up the pot and prove that the fight is worthy. The fight is going to happen regardless. There has to be some passion behind it. I think Nick’s a wonderful guy. It doesn’t bother me personally. I’ve been around way too long for it to.”

Nick is an emotional fighter in the cage. What are the positive and negative aspects of fighting such an emotional fighter?

“The positives are that his focus can be broken because your emotions tend to cloud your judgment a little bit. But on the flip side, someone who is passionate about something will go above and beyond their own physical ability. I always worry about the quiet guy and the emotional guy. I think for Nick it works. He’s at the right age where he can go in there and get his emotions out.”

What will your approach be once you get into the cage?

“I’ve made some statements in the past about wanting to be less entertaining. When the game is on I work it as an art form which means I try to do the most amount of damage with the least amount of effort and the least amount of damage to myself. I’ve had the skill set where I could play around and mess around but I normally don’t cross that line unless I really feel like I’m completely dominating somebody. I have changed my entire style over the past decade being one that is exciting and somewhat dangerous. But I still hold true to the principle of not damaging myself. I’ve just gotten distracted in past years with the entertainment aspect. I want to get back to the basics of just finishing people as quickly as I can and not messing around.”

How does a fighter build mental toughness?

“It’s really three-fold in my opinion. The first is to make a conscious decision to do something which a lot of people have a fear of. The second thing is that every time you do something you feel more confident in it. And the third thing for me is having a community or a foundation of general support like getting someone to pat your back and say you did a good job. If there is one factor that factors into all this is that you have to take your lumps because that is what teaches you to understand what it is and to not be afraid of it. I don’t think a lot of people take those lumps even if they have that nice support system in there. You got to get your butt kicked every once in awhile to know that you can survive it.”