Former IFL Wolpack fighter and well-respected Strength and Conditioning Coach, Mike Dolce sat down with NW Fightscene's Steve "Spaniard" Valentine recently...

NW Fightscene: Your last fight was WCF 6 March 14th, a TKO win over Nuri Shakir.
Mike Dolce: Yeah it was a TKO, I basically had him out on his feet. The ref jumped in just before he crumpled. It was a good night.
 
I've heard some about it but not everyone's gotten to see it. So for us that weren't there, kind of go through the fight for us.
It was actually profiled on [HDNet Fight's] InsideMMA just last month. Benji [Radach] was on the show, Josh Barnett was the co-host. That was awesome for me. I was psyched to be profiled on that show, it was a pretty good fight... I'm Rampage's [Quinton Jackson] strength and conditioning coach now, so I did two training camps with him over in England for Wanderlei [Silva] and [Keith] Jardine, and at the beginning of the Jardine camp, we got word that I had the opportunity to fight at the WCF. They've got ties to the UFC and whatnot, and it'd be a good time for me to get back into the mix after leaving Team Quest, under suspect conditions I'll say, last summer. So I basically joined my personal training camp with what I was doing with Rampage. And he fought March 7th and I fought March 14th, and he came out and cornered me for that fight. And it was just beautiful man. I think I'm finally starting to fight up to my potential. And getting into the ring with Nuri, I had so much fun. The walkout to the ring I had a huge smile on my face. Normally I just grimace as I try to get angry and whatnot, and that's not my style. That was a style that I adopted. That's what my coaches were telling me to do with Quest and whatnot, but that's not me. I'm kind of a nice guy, a happy guy. Yeah, I like to hurt people but I do it with a smile on my face.

That's what I did out there with Nuri. I just demolished him. I picked him apart, I kept him at range. He wasn't able to take me down. The whole fight was fought basically in his corner, with his back against the ropes. I just picked him apart the whole time. I didn't want to finish him right away as I needed a little bit of ring time to shake off the rust. I figured the second round was how I was going to finish him. And I came out in the second round and picked up the pace, as soon as I put together a real combination, not just some of that pitter patter, range finding that I was doing in the first round, I connected with a clean straight left and just put him on queer street. He stumbled back and I just unleashed a 15 punch combination, just from all angles. I probably landed about 6 punches out of the 15, and the ref jumped in and saved him.

NWFS: What was it like training out of the States and then coming back into the States and fighting, all that traveling, did that effect you at all?
It was crazy. I was traveling for 7 months out of the 12, I was away from my family, away from my home, which at that time was Portland. Jumping from the West Coast all the way to Liverpool, England, that's an eight hour time difference. And then I flew back to Ohio for Quinton's fight, flew back to California to get my medicals, and then flew to Boston for my fight, all within a short period of time. And honestly it didn't affect me until I got home after the fight, I had insomnia for almost three weeks. But I had my paycheck in my pocket, I had my victory around my waist, and I was taking time off anyways. But the insomnia was brutal. Finally I'm able to get to bed about 3 AM which is awesome compared to I wouldn't be able to fall asleep until 8 or 9 in the morning the next day, if I slept at all.

NWFS: Now training at Wolfslair, whats that like?
Picture the sport, with Stallone in his compound in Siberia all by himself, that's the best example of the Wolfslair. I don't know if you saw the [UFC] Countdown show for the Jardine fight. It showed us training... basically we're in there, we got two pairs of sweatpants, hoodies, wrestling shoes on, all geared up.. you can see your breath the whole time you are training. There's rain dripping through the ceiling, its frickin' hardcore. And the Wolfslair, they could fix it, but they don't want to. They've got tons of money over there, they're hugely successful, very intelligent guys who run that camp. They keep it like that because it keeps the wannabes out of the gym and only the tough guys show up to train at 6 o'clock in the morning. And come in at 6 o'clock to spar and those type of conditions. And us being West Coast Americans, I'm down here in Huntington Beach right now where everyday is a sunshine day, and we go over there and we're freezing if its 60 degrees out. And there its 20 degrees Fahrenheit inside the gym and we got to warm up to get ready, so it really kept us very focused on the job at hand. And I think all the performances from myself, from Rampage, Cheick Kongo, [Michael] Bipsing, Paul Kelly, we all fought in a pretty short period of time and we all dominated. 

NWFS: Now Mike, a lot of people know this, you're a nutritionist and a strength and conditioning coach for Rampage and probably a lot of other people. How did that come about, how did you fall into that role?.
Yeah, I've been a strength coach for almost 20 years, I can honestly say that and getting paid to do this. Back in high school I already started with the guys, the captain of my wrestling team. And I started putting guys on programs and right from the get-go I was hugely successful at it because that is where my passion lies. In the biology, the physiology, and the anatomy of the human body, and what we need to do to illicit responses, positive responses in the direction we want to take our body, our life, and what not. So I've been doing it for twenty years. I've been getting more active with bigger athletes, Olympic athletes, NBA athletes. And I got into fighting myself, boom, I'm out at Team Quest and now I have this huge stable of who's who of professional athletes. I think I work with over 40 UFC, Pride, K-1 athletes just in MMA at this point in my career. Rampage being the most notable. Duane Ludwig just hired me, he's fighting the main event in Strikeforce in June so he's bringing me out 4 weeks before the fight to run his training camp out there in high altitude in Colorado. So with Rampage, he kind of knew about me I guess like other people did, through the grapevine. And I did the show with him, and he noticed on the show every guy on our team was using me as a coach. They'd bring one coach, I don't know these guys, they bring them in the locker room. In the end Rampage was saying, you know, you're here more than I'm here. Are you a coach.. like all these guys seem to love you. So there was something special about me he thought, and then oddly Matt Brown and Dante Rivera from Forest's team chose me as their coaches also. Because they had to fight the same guys on the team and that kind of blew everybody's mind.

The reputation from the fighters themselves, I think that's really what I'm getting at. You know, around the campfire, the fighters, the actual athletes, we kind of cut through the shit to find out what works, and my name and reputation got out there, and it got all the way to Rampage who was sitting world champion at the time. He brought me up to the Forest Camp just to get used to me. And after the show, I didn't have any input, I was just kind of like a fly on the wall training and what not. And any suggestion I offered it got funneled to higher people and then he decided to do what they did. Rampage fired them and then he brought me into the Wanderlei camp. And I think that speaks for itself. What he was able to go out there and do against Wanderlei and then come into Jardine, he was in great shape and was in better shape than Keith, and he should have been much worse considering the short turn around time he had with all the injuries, we were able to keep him together for that.

What about the book, you're doing The Dolce Diet, is that out?
You know, I did a manual, the Dolce Diet. It was a short manual, called "The Dolce Diet. Three Weeks To Shred It." What I did in that manual, I just outlined what I do to cut weight personally and what I did in the weeks leading up to my fight with Antonio McKee in 2007, where I came down from 212.8 all the way down to 170 lbs.

And I detailed what I did specifically the last three weeks, to the day, to the meal for that fight, and gave a lot of ... philosophy and excerpts from the large book I have coming out which is called "The Dolce Diet: Living Lean". And what that's really going to be is its going to be the lifelong story of what I've done, what got me into the strength and conditioning, nutrition, and performance field. I'm not just a coach and I think this is why I'm so successful, because I'm an athlete. I was a high level high school athlete into a division one wrestler, into a national champion power lifter, now I'm a professional mixed martial artist. So since I started being a coach I started being a competitor, with weight classes the whole time. 

Well Mike, I know there's not much you can't do. On Ultimate Fighter Season 7, you had some of the most [widely] read blogs and you actually write a lot.
Yeah, I have a regular column in Extreme Fighter magazine. And I have a regular column in Real Fighter. I'm talking to some of the other magazines out there. I'm looking to branch out a little bit, and obviously keep my roots in MMA, but I think what I have with the job and the lifestyle, I want to branch out and I truly want to help people. I want to see people live to 120 years old instead of dying at 60 or 70 years old, that's bullshit. Its just because people are lazy, or they're uninformed, but mostly its because of both. So I want to make it my job to inform everybody what is the right thing to do, and motivate them to get out there and do so. I want to be playing with my great grand kids and I don't want to be sitting in my chair, drooling on myself. I want to be out there, running around and throwing the ball. Jumping in the ocean. There's no reason why that isn't obtainable. Looks what's going on with science, putting a man on the moon like 40 years ago we did that. Its amazing people haven't looked inside the human body to really find the ways to enhance our own lifestyles. I'm kind of making that my mission. 

Another question, The Ultimate Fighters house, I have to ask this to everyone who's been on it. What was your experience? Did you hate it? Love it? 
You know, I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. I enjoyed the experience. I made some lifelong friends on that show, if it wasn't for the Ultimate Fighter I wouldn't be Rampage's strength coach right now... so it was a great experience. It brought me places, just the exposure is huge. I wished the show was run more like an athletic tournament instead of a reality show. [But] That's what they need to do to sell the product, to bring advertisers, I understand the business behind that. That's my biggest flaw with the show but you know, it is what it is. Would I do it again, I've been asked multiple times, I don't know. It all depends on the situation, where I'm at in my life and what the opportunities are like at that time.

So what's next for you Mike?
For me, I'm getting back into shape right now. I'm heading out in mid-May to start working with Duane Ludwig. Getting him ready to dominate on the next Showtime Strikeforce. And hopefully I'll be fighting at that time maybe a week later, maybe back in the WCF even. I'm speaking with that Joe Cavallaro, the promoter out there. They love having me and I love being out there at on the East Coast. I'm kind of fielding offers right now. I'm looking to get into the UFC. I know I need to kind of build my record back up and put a good winning streak together, and I'm just looking to fight tough guys and I'm looking to finish everybody. I want to be exciting, kind of like the Chris Leben, Marcus Davis, Spencer Fisher mode. I think I'm that type of fighter. I'm not fishing for titles. I'm just fishing for knockouts and the fans approval. I think that's what my career is going to be shaped by.

Do you have any sponsors, anybody you want to give a shoutout to? 
I got to mention the Dolce diet. Keep looking for it. Jump on my website, at MikeDolceMMA.com. Also my wife owns a travel agency, Dolce Travels. And the guys at Cage Fighter I have to give a big fat thanks, they helped me out so much. Steve Marino over at Sprawl, he's awesome. Dakine, Mike over at Dakine. If you guys don't know, check out Dakine.com, if you want sick ass luggage and gear, go there. And MHP, they were one of my sponsors when I was a power lifter, and they stuck with me through everything and they're still with me now, so Maximum Human Performance company. Check them out man. They are awesome. Yeah the Wolfslair and Rampage Jackson. And all the guys. Next Level MMA up there in Tigard, Oregon. You know, those guys, Nate Quarry and Greg Thompson. That's my home base. Those are my people. And all the athletes at Team Quest, still love them.

NW Fightscene would like to thank Mike for taking the time to speak with us.

Check out all the latest on Mike and learn more about The Dolce Diet by visiting www.MikeDolceMMA.com