by Derek Callahan

With several titles and a reputation as a fierce fighter, Pete Secret Weapon Spratt has made a name for himself as a top-flight kickboxer who shows unlimited potential as a welterweight mixed martial artist. Always amicable to fans Spratt knows what he wants from the fight business and with skills proven time and again, he only needs a window of opportunity to jump through to get to his goals.

Inside Fighting: Beyond the fight with Georges St. Pierre for TKO, what can we expect from you?
Pete Spratt: St. Pierre is sometime in late November I dont know exactly when. Its right around Thanksgiving so thats when ill be stepping in and doing my thing again so its going to be an interesting show. You know Ive got some things to prove and some mouths to shut so; Im looking forward to this opportunity. Its basically been pushed back, we were supposed to fight in September but St. Pierre pulled out due to injury.

IF: What are you expecting from him in that fight?
PS: Im expecting him to try to take me down and try to ground and pound me like he does like hes done to his previous few opponents. You know hes going to do something that everyone is going to try to do when they fight me they either try and take me down and sub me or take me down and ground and pound me. Thats just what I expect because nobodys going to strike with me. Hes not going to do anything different than nobody else has done.

IF: Is there anyone specific that youd want to fight down the road?
PS: You know not specifically. Id like to get a title somewhere whether it be TKO or UFC or whoever it may be. Id like to fight somebody thats got a title and get one of the major title belts out there.

IF: Weve been curious at InsideFighting, hows your website coming along?
PS: My website? Its not really coming along right now. I havent had my web guy do any updates on it so its kind of sitting in limbo right now but once I get some constants to put up there then Ill do some things with the site.

IF: What did you think of UFC 44?
PS: Yeah it was a good show man, I enjoyed that, it was a real good show.

IF: So who have you been training with lately?
PS: Just my Muay Thai trainer, thats it.

IF: Hows he been helping you with your game, just with the striking now or have you been practicing any grappling?
PS: Nah I do my take down defense, I train a little bit of jiu-jitsu with Kathy Brothers whos a brown belt under Machado and shes trained with the Gracies as well for quite some time so Ive trained a little bit with her and shes very technical, very knowledgeable on the ground. I like training with her because she is a female in a male predominant sport and for her to be successful on the ground she has to be technically sound because she cant overpower a lot of guys. Thats one of the things that I get from training with a woman.

IF: Do you ever feel awkward training with a woman, just as a pride or confidence thing?
PS: Basically I did back in 99 when I was first getting ready to turn pro I was down at Guy Mezgers at the Lions Den in Dallas and she was the jiu-jitsu instructor. I was like Im not gonna have no chick teaching me nothing, or fighting, and this was back then thats how it was until I saw how knowledgeable she was so you know I started working a little bit with her. And its been pretty good shes been taking some Thai boxing from me as well so its been pretty good.

IF: Backing up now to Robbie Lawler, did that fight go as you expected?
PS: Well I didnt expect him to quit, but yeah it was pretty much going the way I thought it would. He didnt do anything I didnt train for; everything he did I expected him to do. It was just a perfect game plan for me at that particular time.

IF: Would you like a rematch against Carlos Newton?
PS: Yeah I would actually. Im definitely interested in a rematch with Newton at some point in time, I dont know when that will happen but I think eventually it will happen one day.

IF: Now this I was dying to ask you, howd you get the nickname the Secret Weapon?
PS: Thats one of those things when I was fighting, coming up in the early days, and Id be the lone Texas guy thatd be flown out to the fight and nobody knew anything about me and you know I got in there, I did my thing, provided an exciting fight and the people would say that must have been the promoters secret weapon of the show because no one knew about me. They didnt know anything to expect and when they saw what I brought it was like whered this guy come from? And thus the moniker Secret Weapon kinda popped up.

IF: Now that Pride FC has opened its doors to welterweights, you can pretty much guess what Im asking now. Would you be interested in fighting overseas?
PS: For sure. There was an opening for the Pride Bushido cards against one of their Japanese fighters and they contacted my manager to get Duane [Ludwig] on the card and there were only two problems: Duane has a commitment to K-1 next month and he also doesnt fight at 170 anymore, so my manager threw my name out and Pride wasnt interested in having me fight their guy. I dont know when theres gonna be opportunities to get in Pride, this is the second time this has happened to me with Pride.

IF: Whats your favorite and least favorite part of being a fighter?
PS: Fighting, is my favorite part and the politics that comes along with the sport is my least favorite part.

IF: Delve into that a little more the politics.
PS: Ive just been finding it hard to get fight opportunities for the right amount of money. Basically if I want to go back to when I was having to try to prove myself when I was younger, now thats the type of fights that Im getting offered, the type of money I was getting early in my career and I feel like Ive been pretty established by many polls, Im the number five ranked 170 lb fighter in the world and Im getting awfully crappy money to fight. Thats the part I dont like about it but it comes with the territory I guess.

IF: Would you ever consider going back to more kickboxing fights?
PS: Ever since I hooked up with my trainer Saekson, there have been little or no opportunities for me to fight in kickboxing.

IF: Why do you think that is?
PS: Well, I was knocking people out when I didnt have nay formal training in Muay Thai, and now Ive got a great instructor under my belt and Ive been with him for three years, and people know the type of reputation that Saekson has, and the reputation that his fighters have, and nobodys wanted to offer me fights.

IF: Yeah, I can see where that could be a problem.
PS: Its pretty messed up you know. I threw out a couple of names to a couple of promoters and its basically like Spratts too tough, I dont want my guy knocked out. It kinda sucks I would like to do a lot more kickboxing and try to step away from MMA a bit, but the promoters are notIm not getting any offers to fight Muay Thai or anything like that. Ill fight a lot of people I want to fight Cung Le. They keep giving Cung Le scrubs and he keeps winning against scrubs, people that havent had any fights in that style. Its completely absurd. If hes going to hold the title he needs to freakin step up and fight somebody that has a legitimate shot at beating him and he doesnt want to do that. Ive been trying to fight Cung Le for a couple years now, and he still wont fight me. At first it was I didnt have a big enough name to fight him, and I dont know what the deal is now. Maybe Im just too tough for him now because I do have a name now, and maybe Im just too tough for him but whatever. If these guys want to hold on to these belts and fight these scrubs, then thats their prerogative but most of these guys in our sport, in mixed martial arts are looking to step up and face the toughest competition and not hang on to a belt and fight these guys that arent any good.

IF: Would you fight Cung Le under San-Shou rules?
PS: Yeah I want to fight him, under his own rules, and take his belt. Period. Im not gonna ask for anything to be modified for me Ill fight him under his own rules thats no big deal. When he fought Shonie Carter I had my manager contact him about fighting him and he chose Shonie carter instead of me because Shonie Carter doesnt have the striking that I do. Ill fight him in his rules. It doesnt matter. Its no big deal because Cung Le is not that big of a threat.

IF: I know theres one guy that would like to strike with you (as he does with anybody) Phil Baroni.
PS: Im not interested in fighting at 185 in mixed martial arts. Now the only reason for me to go up in weight would be to fight Muay Thai and thats to go to K-1. I have no interest in going to 185 and fighting guys cutting down from 220. I naturally walk around at 175 so itd be an interesting fight. But quite honestly Phil would probably overpower me and take me down. Now I wouldnt be worried about his striking, but he would probably overpower and take me to the ground, ground and pound or do whatever he does. But as far as standing up, I wouldnt have any problem with Phil standing up.

IF: Or any heavier fighter for that matter?
PS: Exactly.

IF: Thats pretty much all I have for you for now, anything else youd like to say?
PS: Nothing specific. Look for me to be back in the UFC in 2004 whether it be the second show they have in 2004Ill be back in the UFC then. Look out for the results of this next TKO come November. Im just looking to do some things, make some things happen and shut some people up.

IF: All right well on behalf of InsideFighting man thanks a lot for taking the time to do this.
PS: No problem, my man.

With a TKO and UFC appearance lined up, fans can expect to see more of the explosive Spratt as he continues his quest for a major title. If he can keep his sprawl sharp and his fights on the feet, theres no telling what he can accomplish, but even then, hed be prepared, and thats what MMA is all about.

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