
When Matt Mitrione entered The Ultimate Fighter’s 10th season, he was an ex-NFL player with no professional MMA wins.
Now, after a successful UFC debut, Mitrione is becoming a true mixed martial artist.
Mitrione’s next opponent is, Kimbo Slice. The TUF 10 castmates will meet at UFC 113 in Montreal on Saturday’s pay-per-view portion of the card.
“I’m extremely comfortable, extremely confident for this fight,” Mitrione told The Free Roll show on the MMA DieHards Radio Network. “I’m glad that Kimbo wants to eat a ‘Meathead’ sandwich because he’s sure going to get all of it he wants. We’re going to get in there, we’re going to bang. I firmly believe that I’m going to put my hands on him and put him to sleep. He thinks the same thing, and that’s what the fun part of the fight is.”
Mitrione also responded to a statement made by TUF 10 champion Roy Nelson, who said that Kimbo’s ground game was better than Mitrione’s.
“Roy Nelson saying that my ground game’s worse than Kimbo’s is one of the dumbest comments you can make,” Mitrione said on the show. “And if you’re going to base your opinion on my ground game off of the show then I can base my opinion of Roy’s ground game on the show and say Roy’s ground game sucks too, because Roy did as little as possible, he sandbagged everything. So it’s just kind of silly. It kind of gets me when people speculate on dumb shit like that. I respect Roy, but I think he’s out of place by throwing that out there.”
Speaking of the ground game, Mitrione says that his is constantly evolving and improving, and that fans will be surprised when they see how much so.
“I’m trying crazy shit (in practice) that I’ve never tried before, and I’m pulling it off probably 40 percent of the time,” Mitrione said. “I’m trying to make my own submissions up. I’m going to name something the ‘Meat-o-tine.’”
Mitrione talked about working with usual Free Roll co-host Duke Roufus and fellow UFC heavyweight Pat Barry, his striking technique, and new sponsorship with Dell Computers’ Alienware brand. Plus, guest co-host Hector Castro volunteered host Cameron Gidari for a dance-off against Mitrione and Barry. No word on whether or not Barry would bring his best Techno Viking imitation to the contest.
To hear full episodes of The Free Roll, listen live every Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast by searching “MMA Radio” on iTunes.