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Looking Back At Bart Vale And Looking Forward To Conan By Chris Onzuka www.fcfighter.com Photo by Joel Gold Dan "The Beast" Severn should change his nickname to "The Busiest Man In The NHB Business." Severn is a true competitor. He balances competing in NHB and professional wrestling along with promoting his own NHB events, always on the move, always competing. From all accounts, Dan Severn destroyed Bart Vale to win the Continental Free Fighting Alliance Heavyweight belt at the Continental Free Fighting Alliance Collision. The Beast has quieted the critics after his surprise loss to Josh Barnett at FutureBrawl. This fight against Vale was fairly low-key and not many people had heard of the match up until after the decisive results. Now Severn has been paired up against another fighter who recently came back and revenged a loss, Marcus "Conan" Silveira. This looks to be a classic match up of wrestling versus BJJ. This has the makings of a great match, but then again, what else would you expect from Jamie Levine's World Extreme Fighting?
FCF: You just came off a loss to Josh Barnett at FutureBrawl and came right back and beat Bart Vale on March 25th. Tell us about the fight. Dan Severn: I think it went a little into the second round, the rounds being 8 minutes a round. It was typical of one of my matches where I try to take the man off his feet and take them to where my strengths are. I tried some submission moves, which he tried to block and he was open for strikes. FCF: Bart Vale has been in this game for a while. It seems like this was a battle of the NHB legends. How did this match come about? DS: Basically the promoter of this event contacted me and I was available and...[laughs] it kind of sounds anti-climatic there maybe, but I have been busy with all the different things that I do. I was contacted, I was available and so I did the match. FCF: Vale is mainly known for his striking skills and you are known for taking opponents to the ground. Obviously, everyone knew both of your strategies coming into the fight, did you have any trouble implementing your strategy? DS: Well, I don't care necessarily for rings, let's put it that way. I prefer going into a caged environment. I think it's more conducive to this type of competition in the first place. He boxed me off pretty quickly in there. I could have stayed there and let him load up and start kicking away or move and attack. Whether it be upper body, mid-level, or lower body attacks, take him off his feet, end up in his guard and try various forearm chokes, neck cranks, key locks, things of that nature. And as he defended one thing, you're definitely open for something else. I just kind of took advantage of some openings. FCF: It was recently announced that at the next World Extreme Fighting 9: World Class [May 13th], you will fight Marcus "Conan" Silveira, who just came off a big win over Maurice Smith. Did Jamie Levine set this match up or did you want to fight Conan? DS: No, he more or less contacted me for the match. It's probably not the most opportune time for me though. The match was there so I'm going to go in there and do it. FCF: Why is this not the most opportune time for you? DS: Because I have a lot of things going on around the same date. I kind of wish people would contact me a bit earlier. Realistically, I don't think too many people would have taken the match based on the schedule that I have. I'm busy with the professional wrestling world and the full contact world, on top of doing a lot of appearances, autograph signings and seminars, things of that nature. So, I have a number of things going on around that time, which are going to affect my training. FCF: Do you feel that this is going to present a problem for you in this fight? Or do you think that Conan won't present that much of a problem for you? DS: I can't say that because I really don't have any idea what Conan been doing for a while. You know, I am just finding out from you that he has had some kind of recent win over Maurice Smith. I really don't follow the fight game. The girl that works with me, I'm sure you know her, Becky Levi, she's the one who kind of keeps me updated on those kind of things. I really don't follow the fight world at all. I'm busy with a lot of other things. FCF: Both of you prefer taking the fight to the ground. You haven't fought a BJJ practitioner since fighting Royce in the UFC. Are you concerned about his submission skills? DS: Doesn't everyone claim to be a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner? FCF: I guess what I mean is a true Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. A guy whose primary training is in BJJ. DS: Oh, okay. I didn't think that presented that big of a problem with Royce. I think it will kind of be the same scenario with Conan. Granted, he is a little more powerful opponent. FCF: Other than this fight, do you have anything else scheduled or coming up that you would like to share with us? DS: A week after that, I've got our Danger Zone event in Fort Wayne [Indiana]. That's why I said it wasn't the most opportune time to take the Conan match because I already had another one scheduled at our event. Our date was set in Indiana and then all of a sudden we have another organization scheduling the weekend before. I kind of think that they should have checked the schedule and see who was running an event, especially in the same state. But like I said, that's not the most opportune time because the two events might hurt each other. That's my concerns right there, granted I would like to see this whole industry prevail, but I know which companies are doing the most for the fighters out there and the Danger Zone is the number one fight company amongst the fighters. Ask any fighter that ever competed for us, we do more things. I know first hand, I have been the main event on quite a few shows and know what the competitors want and need, and we basically try to give it to them. I'm a competitor first and a promoter second. FCF: Is there anyone out there that you would like to fight? DS: I get asked that question a lot. That's not exactly my cup of tea. It's almost ironic that I don't even follow the fight game. Even to this day, I do not consider myself a fighter. I'm from the world of amateur wrestling. I have been a competitor my entire life. So when people ask me the question of who I would like to fight, I say, "well there's really no one out there that I would really want to fight." When I think of people that want to fight each other, I think that they have a dysfunctional problem and can't function in society in any other capacity other than through physical force. [laughs] FCF: Alright, what if we change the question around and ask if there is anyone you would like to compete against? DS: There are still a few people who I would like to compete against. I would like to have opportune time to train for it. There's a few people out there towards the top of this game that I wouldn't mind competing against. FCF: Like... DS: I'm not even going to throw out any names at you. I'm not throwing out any bones. [chuckles] FCF: Man, what a build up and let down. [laughs] DS: I kind of feel like I'm not giving you what you want for an interview. My mind's kind of pre-occupied now. When Becky updates me on what people are saying on the Internet, about people bashing me for various things like doing quite a few matches and about me doing worked matches and things of that nature. You know there will always be armchair quarterbacks out there. There are people in the bleachers who watch life go by and there are people who go in and engage the game. Well, I have engaged the game my entire life. Like the Bart Vale fight, people thought that would be a totally worked match. Go ask Bart Vale if that match was a work. FCF: I haven't seen that fight, but from all accounts, you beat him pretty bad. DS: Actually, I feel bad about that match. That's the part when [I am reminded of the question] do I want to fight anyone. That match I felt bad and a number of other matches I felt bad about striking people. Maybe I'm losing my fighter's edge, I don't know. Being out there, striking in not my forte. It's something that I had to acquire and I kind of feel bad when I have to utilize it. It's not the right frame of mind to have, being in this type of competition, but never the less, I still feel bad when I have to utilize it. FCF: How old are you now? DS: I'll be 42 [years old] as of June. FCF: How long do you plan on fighting? DS: Realistically, in my mind, I told myself that I would be out of it at age 45. But it could be sooner than that if I'm not enjoying it. I know something that we looked into is the mandatory drug testing of athletes. I know that there are athletes out there that are not competing on their own ability and couldn't carry most people's jock strap if they had to compete on their own abilities. I guess that's my opinion. I just don't think that's a true champion. How can you look at yourself in the mirror and be proud of what you accomplished? At least in my opinion, you can't. I'm a lifetime chemical free athlete and I've achieved a lot of success. If you knew literally, how much I actually trained at times, it's mind boggling how much success I do have. I even think at my age, I can make a large impact on this industry, if that's all I did! But I have a life, above and beyond the NHB world. FCF: I appreciate you taking the time out for me, I hope you find the time for some quality training time and good luck. DS: I'll do the best that I can. |
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