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Devin Cole is The Portland Wolfpack's Heavyweight competitor. Cole's strengths are his seasoned wrestling skills, and his ability to finish opponents by (T)KO or submission. Previously having faced world-class opponents such as Jeff Monson, Allan Goes, Ben Rothwell, Krzysztof Soszynski, Mike Kyle and more, Cole loves to compete against the world's top talent. His opponent from the Tokyo Sabres is the 6'2" 265lb Wayne Cole, who is coming into this bout off of a KO loss in March, and sports an MMA record of 7 - 4 - 1.
NWFS: Thanks for your time my friend! How have you been?
Devin Cole: I've been good. Just training real hard to get ready
for this
upcoming fight.
NWFS: In April you nabbed a very important win against NY Pitbull Bryan Vetell by KO in the second round. What kind of pressure were you feeling to walk away with a "W" from that fight?
Cole: I was feeling a lot of pressure actually. I wish that I could say I wasn't, but I was. Coming off of the [4 consecutive] losses that I had - I needed a win badly. I just needed to get back on my winning ways to get my confidence back up.
NWFS: Well, congrats! Did you change your training regimen for that bout?
Cole: I didn't really change any of my training. I was always training hard. I just got back to what got me this far, my wrestling. I was learning new stuff and trying it in fights instead of sticking to my bread and butter.
NWFS: What's it like training with Matt Lindland, Team Quest, and the Wolfpack?
Cole: The best thing about Team Quest is the training partners that you have. [On] any given day you have three to five Top 10 Fighters in the world all beating the crap out of each other. I firmly believe that you are only as good as your training partners, and nobody has better training partners than I do.
NWFS: You've been with the IFL for over a year now.
How do you feel the company has done so far from where you sit?
Cole: I am very fortunate to be with the IFL. I feel lucky to have been with them from the beginning. They take care of us. I like their philosophy. It is, "What can we as a organization do for you the athlete?" instead of, "What can the athlete do for us?"
NWFS: How has your life changed since being a pro fighter on the
Wolfpack?
Cole: My life has changed quite a bit since becoming part of the Wolfpack. First my wife and I moved to Portland so I could train full time. That is the biggest thing my wife had never been away from her family so it was pretty hard at first. Plus it never rains in Medford, and it seems like it's never sunny here! That's taking some time to get use to. The second is having a team and coaches there for me whenever I need them.
NWFS You fight another big guy in Wayne Cole in Everett next.
What do you think of that match-up?
Cole: I like the match-up. He is a good wrestler and so am I. I fight well against other wrestlers. Probably my best fight was against Travis Wiuff who was a national runner-up. I am better than Wayne at every aspect of the game including wrestling, so I see this fight going my way.
NWFS: How do you see the team match-up breaking down with
the Sabres that night?
Cole: I think that we have some tough fights but I think we can win every one of them. The Sabres have really improved since last year but I think we are still better than them. We need this win to make the playoffs. We have to go and take it.
NWFS: You gave up, or postponed, your aspirations to be a teacher to fight?
Cole: Yeah, after I graduated from college I missed the competition that I had when I wrestled. This was the closest thing that I could find fill that void and plus I get to make a living at it. What a dream, making a living at doing something you love!
NWFS: Where do you see yourself in five years? What are your goals?
Cole: I see myself still fighting. I will be a world champion by then, mark my words! I'm still new at this, and when I get some more time under my belt I'm going to be unstoppable.
NWFS: Who are your favorite fighters to watch?
Cole: I have to say Matt Lindland and Randy Couture. Matt because he is so scrappy. There isn't a guy out there who loves to kick the crap out of someone as much as Matt. Who doesn't like Randy? He has done so much and you can never count the guy out. He just keeps going and going. Is he ever going to be too old? I don't know!!! (All laugh)
NWFS: Got a funny Wolfpack experience for us?
Cole: At
the last fight in Connecticut Matt Horwich wanted to get a ride to the store to get a sandwich, and was asking us who was driving the van. We told him that Don Frye was driving so he needed to go ask him for a ride. Of course Don wasn't driving, but Matt didn't know this. He went up and asked Don for a ride and Don turned around and asked him, "What do you want?!?", because he was confused to why Matt would be asking him for a ride. Well, Matt took this as: "What kind of a sandwich do you want?" so he started giving Don his order! It was pretty funny!!
NWFS: What would you like fight fans to know about Devin Cole?
Cole: I appreciate all the fan support I can get. A fighter is only as good as his fans and we have the best fans here in the Northwest.
Fighters would be nowhere without their fans. What would a fight be with no one in the stands? Keep watching me, I'm making leaps and bounds in my training so I'm just going to keep getting better!
NWFS: Any shout-outs you'd like to blast?
Cole: I would like to thank all my training partners and coaches at Team Quest, especially Mike Dolce. He puts in so much time with all of us helping us with our strength training conditioning and diet.
Check out his web sit at
www.StrengthCoachOnline.com.
Also I would like to thank Darren and Lucinda Sparks and
Fairtex.
NWFS: Thanks again for your time Devin.
Best of luck on June 1st! We'll see you there!
Cole: Thank you, I'll see you there!
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