WEC veteran, Bryan "Kid Lightning" Caraway, has returned to his native state of Washington to fight this Saturday, Dec 4 at the Rumble on the Ridge XV taking place at the Snoqualmie Casino.  Bryan, originally training out of Yakima MMA and then with Dennis Hallman's Victory Athletics, moved to Sacramento earlier this year with his girlfriend and fellow Pro MMA fighter, Miesha Tate. There, they joined Urijah Faber's Team Alpha Male and are training out of Faber's Ultimate Fitness gym with the likes of such fighters as Urijah, Joseph Benavidez, Danny Castillo, Chad Mendes, Justin Buchholz, and Kyacey Uscola to name a few.

Miesha and Bryan

Inside the cage, Caraway fought twice this year for the WEC, dropping his debut fight with the organization in January when he was caught in an armbar by Mark Hominick, and then in August he came out on the short end of controversial split decision to Brazilian Fredson Paixao. Caraway has since been released from his contract with the WEC and is currently a free agent. On Nov 30th, NW Fightscene spoke with Bryan about his upcoming fight, his release form the WEC, his thoughts about the fight with Paixao, and much more...

NW Fightscene: You're going to be fighting this Saturday...
Bryan Caraway: Actually I was. I just found out my opponent got hurt so I don't know what's going on now. They're trying to scramble. They gave me a list of like five names. I'll fight whoever, whatever. So I'm just kind of waiting now.

NWFS: OK. Tell us about your release from the WEC?
Caraway: I talked to [WEC Matchmaker] Sean Shelby personally a little about possibly cutting my contract. He said he wanted to still keep me in there if somebody fell out or somebody got hurt. I actually was having some management problems. The only way I could get out underneath my current management was basically get a new contract. I was asking him to cut me out because I didn't want to be stuck under that contract with my current agent... Went down to Vegas for a WEC card and talked to him and he's like 'yeah, I'm just going to let you go'. Because my last fight was kind of controversial, that's why they wanted to keep me.. But I asked to be released because I wanted new management.

NWFS: Lets talk about that last fight against Fredson Paixao which ended in a split decision loss for you. What are your thoughts about it now? 
Caraway: I went back and watched it a bunch of times and I don't understand how I lost. I still thought I won. Faber thought I won... I thought I went out there and pretty much controlled the fight. I backed him up the whole entire time. I had complete cage control. I outboxed him ridiculously the whole first two rounds. I don't think he hardly even threw any punches. I took him down every single round. He took me down once in the 2nd which I got immediately right back up. He clearly didn't want me to get back up. I let him up purposely on every takedown afterwards because I was outboxing him. He did land some leg kicks and a couple of them did hurt pretty bad to be honest. But most of them, it was that he had such an awkward style, I didn't know what to do, to check or to take him down. So I was kind of freezing because I could see the kick coming and I would try to get out of the way at the last minute. I think the sound was making a bigger thing [in the judges eyes] than they actually were doing... I don't know how I lost the fight... It is what it is. There's a lot of bad decisions in this sport and you have to have a short memory, move on, and win the next fight. 

NWFS: The run in the WEC was I'm sure disappointing for you but I know you want to get back into the mix. What'd you learn from the experience this year?

Caraway: I learned that I just need to have more confidence in myself. I'm in the gym and I'm competing against Faber. I'm winning rounds against world class guys. And I have a lot of talent, I just have to get my mental straight. This last year I realized that I belong there and I need to not hold back. The Fredson fight I could have pushed so much harder. I had two or three more gears I could have clicked up and just really pushed the pace but I figured hey, I'm winning the fight. I'm playing it safe. No need to push the pace and go crazy, take him down and maybe get caught in a sub because he's a six-time world champion. Just take that factor out. I'm winning the fight cautiously. But I realized I shouldn't do that for sure, especially if it goes to a decision. I just need to turn it up and give 100 percent. I would have been happier if I went balls to the wall and got caught, then lose a controversial split decision I thought I'd won. It was kind of lackluster and I don't want to be know for that. I want to exciting and I want to show people what I can really do.

NWFS: Originally you were supposed to fight Paixao in March but got injured. What was the nature of the injury and how is it healing?
Caraway: I hurt my knee before the Hominick fight in my training camp. I tore my meniscus. And during the Hominick fight, I re-hurt my knee and it was kind of something that never went away. Right before the Fredson fight [in March], I was in training and hurt it again. Same exact side, same knee. I think I just re-tore the meniscus or tore it even further and that's pretty much what happened. Its still not the same as it was before but its not hindering my training at all. It'll get caught every once in awhile but your meniscus is not the most important ligament by far. I think its as good as its going to get right now.

NWFS: You're at Team Alpha Male. How's that training going?

Caraway: Down there the biggest thing is that they have a ridiculous mentality and that's why I moved there. They have a really really strong mentality and they do a lot of mental coaching and they have a phenomenal work ethic. And I think with the strong mentality and the hard work ethic, you can do anything. Urijah Faber's a multiple time world champion, Joseph Benavidez has fought for a world title, Chad Mendes is 4-0 in the WEC. We have guys in there that are phenomenal world class athletes that have an amazing positive mentality and an amazing work ethic. And I heard from everybody, Greg Jackson, Faber, Hallman that I am one of the most talented people in the world. I keep hearing this but I need to work on my mentality and I need to start believing in myself a little bit more. That's always kind of been the issue with myself, is that I've been in the way of myself this whole time. I think that down there that's the thing that is helping me come out of my shell. Success breeds success, confidence breeds confidence, and being around those confident people that have a good work ethic, I think its wearing off on me and making me feel overall more confident.

NWFS: You and Miesha are both in James Z. Feng's upcoming documentary
"Fight Life". How'd that come out about and when will it be released?

Caraway: Me and Miesha both fought on Strikeforce on the same card a long time ago, and we met them [the filmmakers] there. It progressed that they ended up getting a hold of Lyle Beerbohm because he was fighting and I was over there doing a training camp with Lyle. They saw me and they saw Miesha and like 'Oh Man! They're a couple' . They didn't really put two and two together beforehand. They started talking to us and we pretty much told them our living situation out at Dennis [Hallman's]. We bought an RV and we really were just saving money and really trying to focus. They really thought we had a very interesting story that shows how fighters sacrifice and come up through the ranks. What we have to give up and what we have to do... It really worked out awesomely. Hopefully that'll be coming out. I think its been finished but they're trying to sell it to somebody big.

[Check out the trailer to the film HERE]

NWFS: Who do you have sponsoring you right now?

Caraway: Urijah Faber's Form Athletics. They'll be sponsoring me for the fight. Nielsen's Construction, Excavating and Landscaping. I have One Hit Quit fight clothing. Always got to support Vicious Fightgear out of the Northwest.

Fight University has been a huge help to me, out of Spokane.

NWFS: Who do you want to thank? 
Caraway: I'd like to thank my girlfriend Miesha Tate for helping support me and being there every step of  the way. I'd like to thank my new team, Team Alpha Male, Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez, all Team Alpha Male and Ultimate Fitness for being so welcoming. I want to thank Rich Guerin, Julie Guerin and Yakima MMA for helping me out while I've been up here. I'd like to thank my mom for pushing me and being there for me and helping me with my confidence, and thank my whole family. I'd like to thank NW Fightscene and all the people helping promote me. Last but not least I'd like to thank God. And that's it.

Merry Christmas to everybody.

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