Reese Andy - ex-IFL Seattle Tigershark, co-owner of Westcoast Fitness in Renton, and head of the West Coast Fight Team - is now in Las Vegas, counting down the hours and the weight to his UFC debut bout with Brandon "The Truth" Vera at 205lbs this Saturday, July 19th 2008, as the co-main event at UFC: Silva vs Irvin. Reese last fought at the June 1st,'07 IFL event in Everett, WA, where he got a narrow split decision win in a 3 round war with Krzysztof Soszynski.

After that bout, Reese took some time off to get and recuperate from two surgeries done on his knee and his elbow. Healed up but with the IFL's stoppage in putting on shows, this left the door open for other promotions to come a courtin'. But at 7-1 and now 35 years old, Reese held out for the right opponent and the right opportunity, and this came in a big way with the matchup with Vera, a six fight veteran of the Octagon but who is coming off 2 losses in a row - beaten by Tim Sylvia last October and just a little more than a month ago at UFC 85 by Fabricio Werdum. Vera is dropping down from heavyweight to make his octagon debut at 205 lbs and it will be seen if the weight cut from a guy who walks around at 230-235 pounds will have any effect on his performance. Reese, who fought at both heavyweight and light heavyweight for the Tigersharks, has a much less severe cut as his walkaround weight is about 215 lbs. At any rate, the matchup should be a great one with Reese looking to utilize his world-class wrestling and ground skills to make a believer out of Vera and the MMA world at large. We had a chance to speak with Reese recently before he left to Vegas...

NW Fightcene: How did this fight with Brandon Vera come about?
Reese Andy: Well, Ken [Reese's agent Ken Pavia] has been on me the last couple of months to do something but the fighters I was going to fight didn't want to fight and the money wasn't any good anyways. So it just worked out that the fighters wouldn't take the fight. So Ken called me up and said "I got a real good one for you. Are you sitting down?" And I said "Sure I'll sit down." And he told me the event and against Brandon Vera and I said "That's perfect!" Fighting the best guys in the sport who have a name and get paid well doing it... instead of going backwards.

How do you see the fight going with Brandon?

Well it all depends. His fights all go to the ground too. All mine as well. He's probably going to be one of the best strikers I faced... but he's going to be cutting down to 205 [from about 235]. I've cut out soda, I've cut out coffee. I've been up on cardio... I'm doing a lot of things I wouldn't normally be doing... getting the shape going, being its 3 fives, instead of 3 fours.

Who are you training with specifically to get yourself ready?

Well I'm training with guys at our gym. And then, Demico Rogers from Ringsport United. He's about 245 pounds, 6'4". Victor Solier, he's a world champion kickboxer. Jim Stevens was a world-ranked kickboxer. My brother Darren who was fourth at Abu Dhabi [in 2007 in the over 99kg class], he's 250. And Otto Olsen who was 2nd at Abu Dhabi [in 2003 in the 66 to 76 Kg class] and a 3x All-American at Michigan is coming in.

Last year, you had orthoscopic knee surgery, and then elbow surgery to clean out bone chips. How have both areas healed?

I think they've healed up pretty good. Hats off to the two docs... it was a big thing that I didn't have to fight two months after getting surgery, or to train hard and compete. I mean I wasn't very comfortable getting under a bar or running hard... So sometimes time off is good to let your body heal up.

Were these old injuries that just kind of built up over time?

Yeah, You just do all the wrestling and you just get the little tears going. The elbow from jabbing and fighting armbars, I'm sure the small stuff start chipping away. That last fight was pretty brutal on my body. He locked the armbar pretty well and I wasn't tapping so it messed it up pretty good. Prior to that, we'd do a couple of hard days in a row and I'd have really bad tendonitis in the elbows. But after that fight when I'd try to put together one or two days in a row, I couldn't even straighten it or bend it. The knee was something that's gotten worse. So the doctor said you need to shut it down and get the MRI and they looked at the film and the film showed six bone chips in there. So when I was working out, it wasn't going to go away, it would just lock up again.

Tell us about the MMA program at Westcoast Fitness.

We started it up in '06 right when we came into the gym. We took out walls and put the mats up, and heavy bags, and the ring and the Tigersharks were using that place to train... but as the IFL collapsed, I said we're not going to keep it available for five, six, seven guys and some coaches, if we're not all going to be fighting at the same time. So we can get more instructors and got more classes... and so we just incorporated the class with the training. So if the guy's done it for a while and has a fight coming up, then have those guys do rounds. But for a new person we have him just doing new techniques, hitting the focus mitts or hitting some Thai pads. We try to keep them from sparring and doing any hard rolling for at least a month. Try to keep them in there. The intensity is kind of hard... Some of these guy who come in pretty regularly, the intensity's pretty up there. So that a new guy's not going to come in and shy away...

So you ease in the beginners slowly?

Yeah.... We're getting a good mix and figuring it out. August will be two years... added more time and added more coaches, more students. With our guys getting successful at some of the shows, and the instructors keep getting some exposure, I think it'll keep growing.

Who are the instructors at the gym?

There's myself. And we have Travis Doerge, he's a Muay Thai Kickboxer. He's a pro. Shad Lierly's an instructor. He's a pro. Scott Norton, he's a pro. And then we have John Lifendahl , Coby Parmentor and John Maryanski. So we have seven coaches, 4 pro and 3 amateur. We have two classes Monday through Friday, and two classes on Saturday, so six days a week.

Have you instituted a wrestling program in the gym?

Well, Saturday I have some high school wrestlers in at 10:30... some privates. Kind of it's a little wrestling club, and some of the MMA guys come just for more wrestling, not MMA. But as you know, you need takedowns too... We have some Highline Community College wrestlers coming in with Scott Norton [who is head coach of the college's wrestling program]. And they're starting to gravitate towards MMA and I think the mat time will just make them better.

What's the total size of the West Coast Fight Team right now?

I would say we got about 20 guys who actually fight and about 80 students in total.

Any fighters on the team that we should be looking out for?

You know, my younger brother Mike Andy. He's a horse, he's 2-0 as an amateur.

What's his background? Kind of like you, came out of Montana wrestling...

Yeah, he was a 2x high school state champion wrestler. He was a 3x football All-American playing linebacker for Rocky Mountain College, an NAIA school.

How about your older brother Darren, are we going to see him doing MMA?

No... I think he'll just continue to do some grappling. Unless I can show him a big big check, and if my younger brother starts getting some success, who knows. He's a big guy. He's 6'1, 250, solid. He's been rolling on the ground a couple of years, like I said he got 4th at Abu Dhabi. He's willing to do some ground and pound with us but he doesn't like doing sparring on the feet.

You've started promoting your own shows starting with the successful Washington State Cage Fighting Championships last month at Highline CC. Your next show originally scheduled for Saturday July 19th has been moved to the 20th, as well as having the venue changed now to McCabe's in Tacoma. What's happened there?

...we were going to do it nearby our gym [at Eastside Catholic] but trying to get through the school, the facility there, it was just going to be a hassle with waiting, so we stayed with our date... it was the bar who changed the date on us. Now, it's a Sunday... I mean I wasn't really happy with moving it from Saturday to Sunday, but want to make sure that our guys get to compete. I'm not happy to train them this long and tell them it's off. So we're going to try that. And we'll be back at Highline Community College on December 13th, try to get some guys throughout the state doing some other shows. Tad Bremer's got two lined up as well. August 22nd at the Little Creek Casino, Travis Doerge is the main event against Julio Paulino from Alaska and we have a couple amateurs on that card. He's also got one lined up January 10th... and we're going to go support that. We're going to be around and we're probably going to be busy every month. Having the guys get some exposure and getting some fights.

Let me change topic a bit. In Montreal on July 3, the Association of Boxing Commissions made some proposals to changing the Unified Rules for MMA, including instituting a number of new weight classes. What are your thoughts about that as a fighter and promoter?

If they are going to add more weight classes than it's going to make more room for the sport to grow. The less weight classes than the less people want to do it because it forces you to be at a certain weight... In high school there are 14 weight classes in wrestling. College there is 10, and then when you get to the Olympics there are 6. Makes no sense. The growth of MMA is going so much so if you did do more weight classes then you'll get grown men 110, 120 pounds, not many of them but they're out there... They are doing that in Japan. And even at the Heavyweight division, If you had a 220 division, that would be say a cruiserweight, then a light heavyweight would be 205. Then you could throw in a 135, and you got the 145 in the WEC. There's room for three to five more weight classes. You could have a Giants division where you could do anything over 275. So guys like Bob Sapp or these ex-NFL players, maybe they get drafted and don't make it. They still want to compete, maybe they did wrestling in high school too. Why force a guy down to a weight class that he's never going to be able to do. So you do 275 and up. It'll sell tickets, you got some big guys out there with some names, it's already proven... Then you have the speed and athleticism of the smaller guys.

What do you do in your off hours?

Well, I hit Emerald Downs sometimes on Saturday and Sunday. Play cards on Thursday night pretty regularly, a bunch of us play. Watching TV and online poker, that's about it.

Who are some of your sponsors?

We have a local bar near the gym, Dino's. Blood Oak. Hitman Fight Gear is a big one. Condom Depot. Vicious Fightgear. Hooligan.

Any shoutouts?

...Everybody who's training and sparring and helping me get ready, the gym especially, have all these fresh guys rotating in on me. All my teammates and stablemates and guys that are training at other gyms who come in and help me out. Come in from Tacoma and Olympia. Like Brad Blackburn comes up at least once a week.

 Reese fights against Brandon Vera in the co-main event this Saturday, July 19th at UFC: Silva vs Irvin from the Pearl in Las Vegas. (Among Reese's many cool sponsors, look for the NW Fightscene logo on Reese's entry banner!!)

 The event airs live coast to coast on Spike TV, starting at 6 PM Pacific, 9 PM Eastern, and in Canada you can catch it live on Rogers Sportsnet.

NW Warrior and Reese's old teammate from the Tigersharks, Brad Blackburn, is also making his UFC debut on the undercard against James Giboo.

For the full fight card, go to www.UFC.com

On Sunday the 20th, Reese and the West Coast Fight Team crew (though Reese may not be present), will be holding their 2nd fight night at McCabe's American Music Cafe, normally a country dance bar. McCabe's is loacated at 2611 Pacific Ave in Tacoma. For more info, visit the team's website at www.WestCoastFightTeam.com

Reese's gym is Westcoast Fitness and is located at 1755 NE 48th Street, Renton, WA (Located just off I-405 at exit 7 (for NE 44th) at the Base of the Kennydale Hill). The gym number is 425-226-3808 and online you can find them at www.WestCoastFitness.net

Reese is on MySpace as well at www.MySpace.com/ReeseAndy