For Joe Riggs, It’s Win ‘Fight Master’ or Retire
Joe Riggs has had his ups and downs, but his career could be looking up again after getting a shot on Bellator’s “Fight Master” reality show.
The 30-year-old veteran recently joined the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show to discuss his career, his future and much more.
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On his biggest accomplishment: “My biggest accomplishment in my career is probably outside the cage. Probably beating addiction. Inside the cage, it’s probably getting the title shot in the UFC, getting a title shot in Strikeforce or being the WEC champion, something like that.”
On his lowest point: “The lowest point in my
career was definitely after I lost to Diego
Sanchez. I’m not taking anything away from him, but a big part
of that was from addiction. Blowing an opportunity like that and
being on drugs and lying to my family and all that stuff, I think
that’s definitely an addict’s low point. Every addict has a low
point, and if they hit their low point, they go up. Some addicts
hit their low points several times … but that’s the time that
sticks out. Right after my son was born, I was really struggling.
I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life. I’m just glad to be
finally on an upward steady swing.”
On taking pain pills before fighting Sanchez: “I took them the day of the fight. I took them probably 15 minutes before the fight. It wasn’t a good thing. … I got dropped by a little shot because [if] you hit a drunk guy, he’s going to go down a lot easier. Same thing, you hit a guy that’s [on] narcotics, [he’s] going to go down a lot faster.”
On fighting again in Rage in the Cage, where he started his career: “It’s embarrassing, man. It’s embarrassing to my family, to my friends, the people you think are fans of yours. I mean, it’s embarrassing. To go back to where you started, to go from making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, to go to fighting for a couple thousand -- that’s embarrassing. It sucks. It’s embarrassing on so many levels.”
On “Fight Master”: “My wife was tired of living like a fighter. It’s either feast or famine. We both agreed: If I go on this show and it doesn’t pan out the way I know it can … if I don’t go on the show and win it, then I’m going to retire. You’ve got to find out if I retire or not. I might have to retire after this whole thing’s over or I might just keep going on.”
On getting talked into doing the show: “I talked to one of the producers and I was like, ‘I just can’t leave my family.’ My son was 5 at the time. My daughter’s 3. Every day, you can’t take those days back. I was real hesitant to leave, so I said I can’t do it. They coaxed me with some other stuff and they just talked me into it, and I hopped on the plane and left. I take it back. That’s the biggest accomplishment, to be able to survive mentally seven weeks without my family and do what I did on the show so far up to this point.”
Listen to the full interview (beginning at 34:40).
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