| VISIT THE REST OF OUR SITE BY CLICKING THESE LINKS | |||||
| SUBSCRIBE | FCF SHOP | HOME | PICTURES | VIDEOS | FCF TV SHOW |
Tony Galindo Returns To KOTC Action Tonight With fast hands and even quicker instincts, Tony Galindo's nickname "the Bull" thoroughly befits his talents. Charging in head first, Galindo quickly captured the praise of fickle fans three years ago with his "swing first, ask questions later" attitude. As a member of Ken Shamrock's elite Lion's Den team and with a string of successful fights in King Of The Cage, hopes were high that "the Bull" would stampede through the competition and to the top. But so it goes, an injury sidelined this 5'6" middleweight potential and has kept him dormant for the last year and a half. Yet so it goes, it takes more than an injury to keep a determined soul down for long. Spiritually hungry and physically ready to take on the mantle of fighter once again, 30-year old Tony Galindo will make his return to KOTC tonight in hopes of rekindling the magic the Lion's Den once spun. The future of the Lion's Den, rehabilitation, opening his own school, branching out to train with other teams, Ken's loss -- conversation dips into all of these areas. Lucky for us, Tony handles interviews like the way he fights. He holds no punches. 
FCF: Let's refresh the fans memories with regards to what you've been up to. Your last fight was September 9, 2001 at Gladiator Challenge 6 against Brian Sleeman…TG: That's a horrible memory. FCF: Tell us about it. TG: Well, with my last fight, I was really ready for it. I was in great shape. (Tony pauses.) Can I speak freely? I was enjoying kicking the shit out of this guy constantly and his leg was almost back and blue, when I threw one kick that was too hard. I tried to retract it back and I don't know if I pulled my ACL then, but I kinda slipped on the mat and had to land with my heel. Right then I felt a pop. I just didn't know what it was. This is in the first round. So, as the round continued, I felt a crunch and suddenly my knee started wobbling. I had no footing. Every time I went to throw a punch, my knee seemed to slide off the joint. It threw everything off. I couldn't shoot. It was almost like watching a bad movie in slow motion. Second round I still threw a few more kicks with that leg and that's when it really set in. The pain got too severe. FCF: Who was in your corner to stop the fight? TG: Pete Williams. FCF: And you were training with Pete at the time? TG: Yea, Pete. Vernon [White]. Miguel Reyes. All the old San Diego Lion's Den guys. I went back to San Diego and got an MRI. They saw that the ACL was completely gone, so they had to operate. I got it fixed within the forty-eight hours and the doctor that did it was a stud! Dr. Murphy. He worked on both of Junior Seau's knees. You know Seau. He's the quarterback, I think, for the Chargers. FCF: I'm not familiar with basketball, Tony. TG: [laughs] He took a tendon out of my patella, the front ligament of the knee and put it where the ACL used to be. Now I'm kicking even stronger which is good. It took me a year to where I could completely go out, balls to the wall. This is the first time I've ever gone through an injury like this, so it's made me realize that I'm getting older. FCF: And in that year of rehabilitation, what else have you been up to? TG: I got really good at video games. Going to the 24 Hour Fitness, got really familiar with the regular, everyday people. Swimming. Watching a lot of movies. Riding horses with my girlfriend, of course and all the other fun things you get to do with your girlfriend. God bless her. [Tony recently got engaged to Ute Werner, who is currently guesting as a spokesmodel on The Price Is Right.] FCF: I'm sure you've been keeping up with the fight game as well. With the way the middleweight class has blossomed in the last year, were you anxious to get back in the mix? TG: Yea. Of course. The only thing is that I've got two friends that I feel awkward with, especially with the King Of The Cage. That's Dean [Lister], because I'll never fight him--he's like my partner. And then there's James Lee. He's a stud of a friend. He's cool as hell. That's another person I just don't want to fight because he's a dear friend. FCF: I know in the last year you have also been quite invested in keeping the Lion's Den going in San Diego. How is the Den these days? TG: Okay. Here is how it goes and this is just from me--my opinion. As far as the school, the school is doing great. I've got a lot of students. I teach three times a week. I have a lot of fun with my students and that takes up most of my time. As far as the team goes, which is separate from the school, we're going through a bit of a turmoil right now if you want to see it that way. Ken is spending a lot of time with his family and kids. I haven't gotten to see Ken a lot. He's busy, I understand. Vernon's the only one really there. Then we have Wade [Shipp] left. Instead of getting the special instruction from say, having a Thai boxer come into the school or having a boxing instructor coming in to train us on this day--now we have to go out and search on our own. We still have our guys that we grapple and do our no-holds-barred with, but to be a better fighter and more effective these days, you have to go get specialized training for certain things. That's what I'm doing now. FCF: Who are you branching out to train with? TG: I'm training at City Boxing. I'm training with Dean. I'm training with a really, really good Thai boxing instructor from Fairtex. This guy is by far, with all the guys that have trained me--this guy is the best. His name is Mike Regnier. I hope I spelled his name right, because I don't want him to accidentally kick me. His techniques, the things he's having me work on, which are basically traditional things I've never worked on before. He's showing me knee sparring with the clinch from the neck. Now, I've got a big neck. My neck is 19 and a 1/4 inches at 5'6". That makes me really stumpy and let me tell you. My neck is dead after this. And with the new things I'm learning from Dean, I'm excited again. I feel like I did when I started at the Den back in the day. This is good for me. FCF: It sounds like your game is expanding tremendously from your days with the original Lion's Den. TG: My game has improved a lot. From before, I have a strong hand and I'm very aggressive--but I didn't have a lot of the techniques and skills, so I was very limited to what I knew. Now, in the year its taken me from not being able to do anything in the beginning till now, it's made me a much smarter fighter. And this is just my opinion about me. I feel much better when I spar now. I can not only tell now when people are going to do certain things, I can tell who I can get in on and who I can't. I'm much more adept to it now. I feel up with the times. I can't wait to fight. FCF: As an instructor, what do you teach? TG: I teach two-hour classes. I do conditioning on both days. On Tuesdays, I teach takedowns to leg and ground submissions. On Thursday, I add kicking and punching and it becomes more like a no-holds-barred day. That's the day when most of my students show up. This is my first time opening my own school and I want to make sure my guys are badass dudes. FCF: Has Ken stopped by to ensure that the Lion's Den name is being upheld the way he wants it to? TG: Like I said, Ken's very busy with his family and he hasn't has much time to stop by. FCF: But he must be happy that you are carrying on the Lion's Den mantra? TG: Yes, he's happy. FCF: At King Of The Cage, you'll be facing face New Mexican scrapper Joey "Pancho" Villasenor, who is also returning from an injury he sustained at the WFA 2 last July. Villasenor's style is somewhat similar to your own in that he likes to stay standing and trade. What kind of fight do you want to give the fans? TG: I want to give them what they want--a lot of fireworks. I have nothing bad to say about Joey because I've always gotten along with him. All I can say is that he's 185 pounds. How's that? FCF: That's all you can say about him? TG: I knock out heavyweights. I train with guys that are like six feet, 240, 250. The guys that are my weight and under I pretty much scoff. I hope he's good. FCF: Among the members of the Lion's Den you are particularly close to Ken Shamrock. You were there for his UFC 40 fight against Tito Ortiz. What were your thoughts about his loss? TG: He trained in Texas with the Den guys there and I think he seriously just overtrained. He was very small. FCF: But Ken had to make a lighter weight than what he's used to, right? TG: It was too much. He was scrawny. He didn't look like Ken. When he's about fifteen pounds heavier than that, he's a Mack truck. He was too small. As far as Ortiz--he did his homework and he was in great shape....(Tony trails off)..it was just really hard for me to see. FCF: As a mixed martial artist, where would you like to go with your talents? TG: Probably the UFC. One step at a time though. Whatever road may take me. I'm loyal to KOTC. They've always been good to me and taken care of me. FCF: In the UFC middleweight class, who do you think you'd match-up well against? Anyone you'd like to fight? How about Phil Baroni? TG: He's my boy. I like him a lot. FCF: Your friends with him? What if they gave you money to fight him? TG: That would be awkward. We've done a lot of crazy things together. FCF: Matt Lindland? TG: Sure. What an awesome thing to say I've fought and Olympic wrestler. It would be an honor to fight him. FCF: With yourself, Joe Hurley, Vernon White (and select others from time to time) still fighting from that core group of original Lion's Den members, do you feel pressure to keep the Lion's Den name alive? TG: No. I did at first. Now after Ken's fight I did feel the pressure because Guy lost his last fight. Joe Hurley lost his last fight. I felt a little bit of pressure, but I don't feel it anymore. I'm pretty excited to fight and that has overtaken my other emotions. I just want to go hit somebody. In this case, it's Joey, but oh well. FCF: What's your response to those that say the Den is dead? TG: Have they never heard of reincarnation? FCF: Do you predict the Lion's Den will rise again? TG: Oh yeah. As long as I'm around, I'm going to knock somebody out. That's all there is too it. Whoever is a fan of my fights, I'm going to give a good five or six more years of the same old, same old and I'm just going to get better along the way. |
| © All materials contained in the Full Contact Fighter web site are protected by copyright and to be used only for personal and noncommercial uses. Public display or copying for sale or public distribution of any of these materials is strictly prohibited. |