Fightline.com: In 2003, you fought referee Herb Dean, how is it with him now?

Joe Riggs: Yeah, in 2003, Herb was in King of the Cage. I was fighting locally in Arizona for Rage in the Cage, and him and a couple buddies came down to Phoenix and fought, and I ended up beating him up pretty bad in the first round. He still doesn’t like to referee my fights now. He’s a really good referee. He doesn’t want anyone to have complaints or a conflict of interest, or something like that, but he’s a great referee. I wish he would ref some of my fights.

Fightline.com: You have fought with a lot of organizations. I want to start and go back to your time with the UFC. You’ve fought some of the biggest names in the sport, like Matt Hughes, Nick Diaz, and Diego Sanchez while you were with them. How would you characterize your time in the UFC?

Joe Riggs: The UFC was kind of early in my career. It was, um, I wasn’t given any breaks in the UFC. I was rushed to a title shot when I wasn’t ready for one. I had a title shot when I was like 22, and just wasn’t ready for it. I went like 4?4 in the UFC. A lot of the guys that are coming up now are reeling off 5?0 records in the UFC because they're fighting nobodies, you know. I love the UFC and never have anything bad to say about them. But they never did me any favors. They gave me one easy fight. My UFC debut was against Joe Doerkson, who at the time was ranked #3 in the world. After that, Matt Hughes, Nick Diaz, Chris Lytle, Mike Swick, back-to-back tough guys, and you know, it’s tough but it’s good. When you get put though the ringer like that, you’re ready for anything.

Fightline.com: Since you left the UFC, you signed with Strikeforce. How did that come about?

Joe Riggs: After my loss to Diego Sanchez, I had back surgery, and then I went back to the UFC and they weren’t doing me any favors. They wanted me to fight Nate Marqardt in my first fight back. I wanted to have a tune up fight. I had just fought Diego and had just gotten knocked out by Diego, which was horribly embarrassing. I wanted them to do what they do with a lot of other guys - when you have a loss, you try to build them back up with a victory, and they never did that for me. After I lost the [UFC welterweight] title fight to Matt Hughes, usually they bring you back with an easy fight. I fought Nick Diaz, I asked for it, but they wouldn’t give me an easy opponent. Right after back surgery, I asked for my release and they gave it to me. StrikeForce is very good to me, they pay me well and they’re starting to gain a lot of momentum in the sport, so it’s exciting to be with them.