Fight Hub TV fight correspondent Dustin Del Torre caught up with San Diego based fighter Joe Duarte as he talked to us about his upcoming fight with Saad Awad on the stacked card that is Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley this Saturday on Showtime.
FHTV: Talk about your upcoming fight against Saad Awad?
Joe Duarte: I had been training about 7 or 8 weeks into camp preparing to fight Antonio McKee in Shark Fights. Then I got a call for this fight so I then went ahead and went with Strikeforce. A few days after signing the Strikeforce fights the UFC bought out Strikeforce, it’s a great opportunity.
FHTV: Fighting in your backyard in San Diego is there any added pressure fighting in front of a lot of your friends and family? Or does it motivate you little more and give you some comfort?
Joe Duarte: Honestly I am a clinch fighter. I do well under pressure. I think that is what separates me from some fighters out there. Some fighters are really good in the gym and can’t put it all together in the cage. Having the crowd behind me and my people here is cool but Saad isn’t too from here as well; fighting out of Los Angeles he would be considered a local Californian. But being from San Diego and fighting in San Diego it is a rush man. Every fight I have fought here in San Diego I have done great because I have felt the energy off the crowd and have vibe off of that.
FHTV: Would you take a last minute fight anywhere in the world?
Joe Duarte: You know I have done that before, and I’ve learned my lesson. This fight I went down the checklist and have done everything to prepare for this fight with a full 8 week training camp with some great training partners such as KJ Noons, Jeremy Stephens and the group of guys we have here at Arena MMA and getting to work with world class boxing coach Robert Garcia and my buddy Vince Salvador who came in and helped me with this camp. I can honestly say that this is probably one of the most complete training camps I have ever had.
FHTV: We are a week away form weight-ins, how much do you currently weight right now?
Joe Duarte: This is the lightest I’ve been in a long time. I have never walked around at this weight. I am walking around at 163 pounds so my cut should be cake. I don’t even know if I am going to have to spend any time in the sauna because the science we got going on behind this. The day of the fight I will weight 175 or 180 being ready to go with tons of cardio behind it
FHTV: If a fighter doesn’t have any cardio is he doesn’t have anything right?
Joe Duarte: I always say this. A fighter can control two things; his cardio and his weight. I’ve killed myself to make weight before and have not ever made weight. Like they say conditioning can make a coward of us all and I refuse to be a coward.
FHTV: Talk about your experience on TUF?
Joe Duarte: It taught me a lot. It was probably one of the most important fights of my life. It taught me to never take anyone too lightly and that hard work does beat talent. He is (Phillipe Nover) definitely a talented guy but I think I am more talented then him. He was there and ready. I had fought a month before the show and had not trained for a month before the show. My mindset was I was undefeated and was going go into the show and mop everyone up and to be honest ignorance is what got me into trouble. I ended up getting matched up against Nover. Nobody knew anything about Nover and fuck he came to fight and it really surprised me. I didn’t know he was a BJJ black belt, I didn’t know a lot of things about him. Basically when we touched gloves that was the first time we had ever come into contact. It was really eye opening to me to work hard and no matter how much talent you have you have to work hard and to push yourself and that fight was truly a life lesson for me.
FHTV: You are from Guam how does it feel to be living a good life here in the states and knowing what you came from?
Joe Duarte: I came from Guam where there aren’t many opportunities. We have a lot of gifted athletes and we grow up with this consciences that’s it is the end road at the end of high school. The chances of getting a college scholarship are pretty much slim to none. I always knew I was a good athlete and when I was 18 I sold everything I had and decided to follow my dream and move to California. From the time I was 15 when I saw my best friend big John Calvo fight and win a championship fighting out of Guam, it really made me realize that this shit can be done. It made me want to take it to the next level where I could do this for a living and show people out in Guam that this can be done and kids can now see that this guy from Guam, “if he can do it I can do it”.
FHTV: Do you think that is one of your motivating factors knowing where you came from and knowing that it will push you?
Joe Duarte: Yeah I grew up with nothing and came from nothing. There is really nowhere else to go but up from what I came from. I have a daughter and a wife now and that’s my motivation; to provide a good life. I want my daughter to have the choices that I never had. I want her to have options in life that I never had, I just wanted to do something that everyone said that couldn’t be done.
FHTV: Would you say you are living your dream?
Joe Duarte: I could honestly say I am living the dream, not because I am professional fighter but because I am happy. I live where I always wanted to live and I have a family. To be honest when I lay my head down at night my family is what makes me happy, fighting is only a small part of my life, it’s an important part but a small part of it. My daughter is the main objective in my career. She is a little over a year and a half, she is my will. When I think of quitting I just think of my wife and daughter.
FHTV: Talk about your training partner KJ Noon’s punching power? How do you deal with it?
Joe Duarte: It’s funny some people say I have more power and KJ has more pop. I feel like I have more raw strength, it is something that we vibe off of each other. I feel from what I lack he makes up for it and what he lacks I make up for it in a sense that makes us the perfect training partners for each other. He makes me sharp and I do the same for him. Having him not only as a best friend but as my main training partner has pushed my game to the next level; I know that banging with KJ I can bang with anyone in MMA.
FHTV: How do you see your fight with Saad playing out?
Joe Duarte: I picture Saad coming out hard and pushing me but I want that because I will come just as hard and the difference is I won’t get tired after three rounds; I’ve been training to fight five, five minute rounds. Using an elevation mask using fresh guys every round, making sure I am winning every round when I spar. I know he is going to come to fight but I am going to bring the fight right at him too. I think that is why they matched us because he is a scrapper and so am I. I think we will meet in the center of the cage and lock horns. I think he is going to try and out will me but I don’t see that happening at all. I have seen the worst of the worst on the planet and he will not be able to break my will. I feel this will be an exciting fight.
FHTV: Now that the UFC owns Strikeforce how does the usage of throwing elbows to a downed opponent change the fight?
Joe Duarte: It is weird because during training my trainers were getting mad at me because I was throwing elbows and my trainers were always telling me “No Elbows No Elbows!!!!” A few days later I heard that elbows were going to be allowed. To be honest I think I would have got caught up in the moment and thrown an elbow by accident. I like throwing elbows from the top or the bottom.
FHTV: I think it will be one of the differences now for the Strikeforce fights.
Joe Duarte: Yeah it will; I am sure the Japanese fighters won’t like it too much but in America that is how we do it!
FHTV: Predictions for the Diaz vs. Daley?
Joe Duarte: I have Diaz winning that fight. He is coming off a close win against KJ and Cyborg Santos. To be honest I think if Cyborg couldn’t stop Diaz I don’t see Daley winning the fight. Cyborg is good on the ground and on his feet, he does have the chance that everyone has and that is the punchers chance.
FHTV: Gilbert Melendez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri?
Joe Duarte: Melendez is going to take it to Tatsuya Kawajiri. Melendez has fought a lot better competition then Kawajiri. A while ago I probably would’ve have gone with Kawajiri. I think a lot of the Japanese guys get a lot hype and a lot of them haven’t been able to live up to it.
FHTV: Aoki or Beerbohm?
Joe Duarte: I think I will go with Aoki on this one.
FHTV: Do you think Aoki is to one dimensional to be successful fighting here in the states?
Joe Duarte: I think he is too one dimensional, but he is fighting a grappler and that is to Aoki’s advantage. He has fought some tough guys that can bang and managed to take them down and submit them.
FHTV: Aoki did have a hard time fighting in the cage when he fought Melendez?
Joe Duarte: Yeah he did. I think that fight exposed Aoki some.
FHTV: To me it seems like other fighters get in Aoki’s head? After he realized he wouldn’t be able to take down and sub Melendez he seemed to unravel.
Joe Duarte: I think a lot of times the mental aspect of fighting is the most important. There are a lot of guys that are physically fit and in shape but they get overwhelmed mentally and they break. I think that is the main reason why the fighters from Japan don’t do well out here. They are out of their comfort zone and don’t have the Japanese crowd behind them and now they are fighting in another country fighting guys who are poster boys for MMA here in the states.
FHTV: Sticking to the game plan during the fight, how hard is it? We just mentioned Gilbert Melendez and he had a perfect game plan for Aoki.
Joe Duarte: That is why he and the other guys from his camp have belts; that’s what makes champions, being able to take a game plan and executing it under any circumstance by any means necessary. Most guys get out of there realm. If they are a good boxer they get stuck brawling rather then boxing.
FHTV: Do you ever find yourself in the cage not being able to hear your corner?
Joe Duarte: Yes quite a bit, the crowds are loud and you can’t hear. But that’s the part as a fighter that is why you had training camp to go and does those things where you can put yourself on auto pilot because you already know what you need to do. There are things that you will need to adjust like keeping your hands up or not backing up with your chin up and that is what your corner is good for. Most of the time you should be able to fight on auto pilot with the corner just reassuring you of what you have done, by that point you should know what your corner wants. Unless the game plan gets smashed then you kind of have to go with plan B.
FHTV: Do you think a fighter saying “oh shit” during a fight is a bad sign for things to come?
Joe Duarte: Yeah you just have to expect what will happen. I expect that I may get mounted and he may get on top of me. These are things that happen in a fight and they are going to happen. You may get caught and dropped. A lot people don’t know KJ got rocked by an upper cut from Nick Diaz in the first round. He didn’t remember anything until the fight hit the ground. Most guys would’ve looked for a way out thinking he just rocked me and was on top of me, most guys would break.
FHTV: When formulating your game plan with your camp do you tell them what you want to do, do they tell you what they want you to do or is it a little bit of both?
Joe Duarte: I’ve been with my head trainer Vince Salvador since 1999. KJ and I have been training for awhile now. We get together and sit down and they know what I am good at and that I am pretty well rounded. I am a BJJ brown belt, I can wrestle and I have good striking. So it makes it easy for them to form a game plan because there aren’t too many places where I don’t like to be or I can’t be. They usually look at my opponent and tell me what I should do and how I feel and we test it during the training camp. When we formulate the game plan we all have a little bit of input but it is basically how I feel I want to fight the fight. I listen to Vince and KJ a lot. I am very open to what they have to say.
FHTV: I want to thank you for taking the time out of schedule to sit down and do the interview. Thanks to Arena MMA for welcoming me in with open arms to do that interviews. Would you like to thank any one?
Joe Duarte: I want to thank you, and Fighthubtv.com for having me on. I really appreciate it that you guys wanted to do an interview. More importantly I want to thank the people who have supported me my entire career and not just now. I want to thank the Chamorro people of Guam and I want to thank all the people who will be there on Saturday to watch me scrap.
You can catch Joe Duarte take on Saad Awad this Saturday, April 9th on the under card of Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley from The Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, CA. The event will air live on Showtime.
