Don Frye

Pride Fighting Championship: What's new, Don? Don Frye: Well, I feel younger. I'm looking younger. (laughing) Frank (Shamrock)'s been training me, forcing me to work hard and learn new skills and use my body like I didn't know it would work.

Pride:	What's the toughest element of training with Frank?
Frye:	Uhhh, getting some place on time (laughing).
Pride:	How are the injuries?
Frye:	I had surgery on both shoulders in January. This time they scoped them. They cleaned out scar tissue, bone spurs and bone chips. Cleaned the garbage out.
Pride:	Does it bother you in training?
Frye:	Yeah. It was doing good until we did a couple of workouts and then it flared up again. But, such is life and I feel younger and I look better!
Pride:	How many times a day were you training?
Frye:	We trained 2 or 3 times a day. It depends on whether we got a wake-up call or not. His wife was really efficient in the beginning. She had our itinerary printed out and taped on the wall. Then, after a while, the itinerary disappeared, the cohesiveness disappeared and we were lost. I got adopted real fast. I'd drop something and she'd say "PICK THAT SHIT UP!", "YOU'RE GONNA DO YOUR OWN LAUNDRY" and "DON'T MIX YOU COLORS WITH YOUR WHITES!" (laughing)
Frank Shamrock:	Yeah, Don fight right in. (laughing) He was in just as much trouble as I was on a daily basis.
Pride:	I know you've been waiting for this match for a long time. Now that it's here, do you still have the motivation you had 7 years ago?
Frye:	No. No. I lost it when I was supposed to fight Mark last year and he got injured. They said he was paralyzed and it scared the hell out of me. Mark's a father with 2 little girls. You don't want that kind of karma coming back at you. As a father, you want to be able to enjoy your family. You want to be able to walk down the street with them, pick them up and hold them. You want to be able to play with them.
Pride:	Are you going to take it easy on him?
Frye:	I will until he hits me. Then, it's on. Mark's still a great athlete. He's still a dangerous athlete. I respect him more than anybody out there. Yoshida got lucky but Mark beat the hell out of me.
Pride:	What do you think is Mark's weak point?
Frye:	Right now it's mental because he's got too much shit on his back.
Pride:	Do you feel that you have good karma, generally?
Frye:	Generally, yeah. I sign all the autographs I can, even when I know the guy's had me sign 5 of them and he's selling them. I try to collect all the good karma I can because I've done some shit?? I try to balance out my sins.
Pride:	So, you're going to be 38 this year, right?
Frye:	Nope. 29. (laughing)
Pride:	Has there ever been a time in your fighting career that you were worried?
Frye:	Like I am now?
Pride:	So this is the time?
Frye:	This would be the time. If I was going to be scared of anybody, it'd be Mark Coleman. He gave me an 11 minute beating, which I haven't had since my dad whipped me as a boy. So, Mark gave me the second worst beating of my life.
Pride:	You're notorious for being humble in interviews. Before you fought Abidi, you said he's younger, he's this and he's that. But then you took him down and kicked his ass.
Frye:	Yeah, I got lucky. He had a bad trainer. (laughing) (*Note: Abidi's trainer was Don Frye's current trainer, Frank Shamrock, who was in the interview room.)
Pride:	How do you think the fight will unfold?
Frye:	I don't know. I quit making predictions after the last 2 fights. When I predicted that I was going to KO Le Banner with a minute and a half. When a minute and a half rolled around, I was on the canvas looking up. When Yoshida came around, I predicted that I was going to break his arm. Six and half minutes later, I'm laying on the mat with my arm way over there! (laughing).
Pride:	So now you have to predict that you will lose.
Frye:	(laughing) Yeah, I predict it's going to be a terrible fight. I'm going to put roller-skates on and run around him until he gets tired. I'm going to send Frank out there to wear him out.
Shamrock:	Yeah, he can chase me around.
Pride:	Is that legal?
Frye:	I didn't see it in the rules!