Undefeated Strikeforce Fighter, Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm (14-0) will be fighting Josh "Killa" Calvo (3-1) on Oct 30th in the main event of Rumble on the Ridge XIV at the Snoqualmie Casino. Lyle spoke with NW Fightscene this week about the fight with Calvo, his future with Strikeforce, his new documentary "No Submission", about being a dad with a new baby, and much more...

NW Fightscene: You got this fight Sat with Josh Calvo. How'd it come about?
Lyle Beerbohm: Strikeforce offered me a fight with Josh Thomson after my Vitor Ribeiro fight. I was injured going into the Vitor fight with my back. Been having bad back problems for a while. I took some time off and now it's all healed up and ready to go. But Strikeforce didn't have nothing for me until January 2011 so they gave me permission to get on another card. So I called around and talked to Joe [DeRobbio] and he got me a fight, and Josh Calvo was the guy, and it's as simple as that.

NWFS: What do you know about Josh?
Beerbohm: To tell the truth, I don't know anything about him really. I've watched one fight of his when I went and cornered Mike Hanks and he was on the card and I watched that fight, and besides that I don't know nothing about him. I don't like to study [my opponent] a whole lot unless it's somebody like Vitor with really outstanding grappling or really outstanding striking, and I don't think Josh is either of those. So I'd rather just put my gameplan in effect and just go beat him up. So that's what I want to do.

NWFS: So with Vitor, did you study a lot of tape on him and how did you feel about your performance with that fight?
Beerbohm: I studied lots of tape, I knew what he was going to go for. And I felt pretty good going in, I felt confident. My gameplan in the first round was to put him against the cage and that's what I did. It was boring but he's a tough style for me. When you got a world-class Jiu-jitsu guy and I'm a ground guy, so that's a tough matchup for me. So I wanted to get him tired out a little bit. I wanted to put him against the cage and hold him there and do what I needed to do. So I felt pretty good. I felt like I won the fight.

NWFS: A lot of drama with Strikeforce earlier this year, but it's all kind of smoothed out now it seems with you most recently making a public apology to them on The Underground. What did you learn from the whole experience?
Beerbohm: You know, I'm in a contract that I can't do anything about and I shouldn't have went public. I went public and I just got mad. When I'm fighting people and I got paid six grand to fight, or I should say three grand to show to fight [Duane] Ludwig and he got 15 grand. And I just got irritated with stuff like that and I just cant let that get to me. I put myself in that position. And so now I'm just going to fight and go from there.

NWFS: So who's on the Fancy Pants Fight Team and where you are training at? 
Beerbohm: We really got a good squad of strong fighters. We got Cody McKenzie, Mike Hanks. Dave Courchaine, Travis Bush, Mike Chiesa. I got a whole group of guys. I train at Sikjitsu and I train at the Spokane School of Boxing & MMA.

Mike Hanks, Beerbohm, Cody McKenzie, & Sikjitsu's Rick Little

NWFS: I know you guys are coaching & training yourselves, but are you also managing yourselves in terms of your pro careers?
Beerbohm: I learned the hard way unfortunately, managing. I'm bull headed like most fighters. And fighters think they can do it themselves. I thought I could do it myself and I've done more harm than good for myself. And I'm trying to teach my guys. Like Cody, he just signed with Monte Cox. We're learning. We're a really, really young team. We've only been doing this for just a few years. I'm learning while I go and I learn everyday new stuff. it's just a learning path for me. And I do learn by my mistakes. It might take a couple times but eventually I'll figure it out.

NWFS: You're 31 now, coming up on 32 and have been fighting for 4 years or so. How have you seen your game evolve & where do you see it going in the future?
Beerbohm: Well, right now I've got the skill. Before, a lot of my fights I didn't have the skill. I just had the mental toughness and the heart, and that got me through. But now I got the skill to back it up. And so it should be pretty fun. Strikeforce told me one big fight on TV and then they're going to give me a title shot. So I'm two fights away from being the champ. And right now I'm really looking forward to fighting a couple more years and really competing and going for that title.

That's my only goal is to be the Strikeforce Champ.

NWFS: It's said one learns more from a loss than a win, but you're undefeated!

So what do you take away from your wins?
Beerbohm: Having 24 fights, that's a lot of fights, and I've learned every fight. And having a fight like Vitor where you had to go three rounds with somebody like that, that's just ring experience. You can't get nothing better than that. And now I know  I can get in with the best grapplers, with the best [fighters] you know. So it's just confidence. I'm a confident person, but now I've got even more confidence. If I'm healthy and ready to go, I'm going to be tough to beat for any lightweight in the world. And I truly, truly believe that. I know I can lose. I get knocked out in practice and choked out in practice all the time. So I know how easy it is. But I just know, unless I get caught, I'm going to give the lightweights in Strikeforce hell.

Beerbohm beats Ludwig by Schoolyard Choke

NWFS: You're involved in a few projects, a couple documentaries called Fight Life and No Submission, and a book project with your dad. Tell us about them.
Beerbohm: No Submission is my newest documentary (NoSubmissionFilm.com). That's just about my trials and tribulations from selling drugs, to using drugs and committing 8 felonies, to going to prison, to getting out of prison, to 8 days out of prison getting in the cage, and haven't looked back, you know. And that's what that film is about. I tell all. A lot of people are not going to like me. They're going to hear about the things I used to do. But it's going to be a documentary that people are going to be like 'Wow!' I tell all. I'm not ashamed of it... Well, I am ashamed of my past but that's that person and I can't take it back.

And the other film is Fight Life by James Feng (FightLife.tv). It has a bunch of good guys in it like Gilbert Melendez, Diaz, Jake Shields, and me, and that's coming out too. And they're both filming me for this fight actually, so it should be pretty fun.

NWFS: Have they been released or are both these films still in production?
Beerbohm: No, both are them still in production. It'll probably be January of next year we're hoping. And then my dad's book, that really gets into the little bad things I used to do. Because I put my dad through hell, he wants to get me back a little bit. He's really doing it on me.

NWFS: EA Sports has you in their newest MMA video game, and I heard you went down and they did a photo shoot with you. How'd that work out?
Beerbohm: Yep, they did a photo shoot and that was pretty funny. They had me do all sorts of funny faces and all sorts of stuff like that. Fedor [Emelianenko] had come down and did it and so I asked them what did Fedor do when you asked him to do the faces?. Because they made me do some funny faces, the weirdest faces... and they said Fedor said "I don't do funny faces." (laughs)... So it was a pretty fun experience. I haven't even checked the game out but I've heard a lot of people say good things, so it's pretty cool.

NWFS: I also heard you recently had a baby boy with your fiancee. How's it feel to be a new dad with the baby?
Beerbohm: You know, nothing better really. It's really a new experience. It's great. I have my MMA, but now I have my family and that's more important. I got my life. I traded my meth addiction for my MMA addiction, and now I don't need neither of them. Now I got my family. So it really worked out. I mean someone was watching over me and I got lucky.

NWFS: Who do you have sponsoring your for this fight?
Beerbohm: I've got IronMaster. They got weight lifting equipment and kettle bells and all sorts of good stuff. That's IronMaster.com. If it wasn't for them, I'd be in a tough position. They've really really helped me out. So I want to really thank them.

NWFS: Anyone else you want to thank?
Beerbohm: To my training partners and to Sikjitsu MMA, & all my friends & family.

NWFS: Last question. Where can we get some Fancy Pants?
Beerbohm: Fancy Pants! My mom's still making them and she has a bunch of new fabric. We're out of the old fabric so we are reordering that but we got a whole bunch of different stuff. lylebeerbohm@yahoo.com. If you guys want some Fancy Pants, hit me up.

Many thanks to Lyle for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk with us. Catch him fighting Josh Calvo in the main event of Rumble on the Ridge XIV at the Snoqualmie Casino on Sat, Oct 30th. More info at snocasino.com. Lyle trains in Spokane at Sikjitsu located at 7228 N Division (facebook.com/sikjitsu) and at the Spokane School of Boxing & MMA (spokaneschoolofboxing-mma.com) at 1212 N Pines in Spokane Valley. Lyle is online at facebook.com/lylefancypantsbeerbohm and at myspace.com/lylebeerbohm. There is also a fan page for his new documentary facebook.com/pages/NO-SUBMISSION-The-Lyle-Beerbohm-Story/136254809740392