To check out audio interviews with Brandon Vera and Anderson Silva, click here. 

Brandon Vera has made a name for himself as one of the top heavyweights in mixed martial arts, but "The Truth" makes the move down to light-heavyweight to take on Reese Andy at UFC Fight Night 14 on July 19 on Spike TV at The Palms in Las Vegas.

I caught up with Vera after a recent taping of "Out of Boundz" on Cox/3.

Here is what Vera had to say:

On the UFC going up against Affliction's pay-per-view on July 19:

"I like it. I mean, (UFC president) Dana (White) takes no prisoners. We do have the elite organization in the world. The UFC is it. There are a lot of shows that come, like we were talking about earlier. A lot of shows put on some great shows. Uhm, I'm sorry, put on one great show. So we gotta see how they do, you know."

On White bringing out big guns like Anderson Silva and himself to counter-program against Affliction:

"They are not messing around. That's Dana's style. You gotta respect that. I love it. I mean, he's a go-getter and the guys in the UFC are down for the UFC. I mean, everybody took the fight on short notice like, 'Yeah, let's do it. We'll do it.' So it's cool. It's refreshing to see. People aren't just saying, 'Well, maybe we'll fight or maybe  we won't.' It's like, 'Let's do it.' It's cool to see that fighters are still fighting the good fight."

On how long it took him to accept the fight against Andy:

"They talked to Matt first, then they went through a couple of different opponents and then it came to me. So that's when I took the fight.

"The only thing I was ever concerned with was the weight, but we got over that real quick."

On facing a tough wrestler like Andy:

"He's fought in SuperBrawl. He's 7-1. He's got a good record. He's fought in the IFL. He's decent. He's coming in trying to make a name for himself off of me. He's a three-time All-American, so that means he knows how to grind and he knows how to fight. He's going to be there the whole time. My job is to try and put him away as early as possible."

On his last fight against Fabricio Werdum and the controversial stoppage to the fight:

"It for sure was a quick stoppage. The whole thing going on with my thought process after Fabricio started to mount me, in my head I said, 'Wow, this guy is going to mount me. I need to go ahead and defend.' I knew we didn't have much time left. I just put my arms up and started trying to roll from side to side and shrimp. I remember counting Fabricio's punches, listening to him breathing, hearing the referee talking to me and telling me to defend myself and talking to the referee, 'I'm OK. I'm OK. I'm OK.'  I said it three times. There was no way that fight should have been stopped.

"Twenty seconds left, man. Are you kidding me? Are you new? That was my whole thing to the ref. I was like, 'Are you new?' We put in a formal complaint to the ref (Dan Miragliotta). It's not going to do much good. It's just something to keep track of him being him. Previously, the week before, you saw how he reffed (in the EliteXC event in New Jersey). You saw how that fight turned out.

"It's just ... it's frustrating, you know. I want to say it's water under the bridge, but it's not. I'm still kind of mad about it. I still have some unfinished business with Fabricio, but I need to get past Reese Andy first and foremost."

On his plans for the future:

"I'd like to bounce back and forth (from light-heavyweight to heavyweight). It all depends. It's up to the management group and the UFC and what they need most.

"I don't mind at all. There are some great fights at 205. There are some great fights at heavyweight, too. B,ut the who's who and the what's what in MMA, right now ... you can grab the UFC roster for 205 and somebody's name on the street and I'd bet you 10 people would know who he was. There are so many good guys at 205. There will be some good fights."

On how he feels at 205:

"It's too early to tell. I haven't fought at 205, yet. Let's get with Reese Andy first and see what happens. Everybody has been asking me, 'How do you feel?' I don't know, yet. Let me do the fight first and I'll let you know after."

On his recent trip to the Philippines:

"It was overwhelming and awesome at the same time, just to see how much pride they had in me just because I'm Filipino, fighting and representing the Philippines as well as me being American. It was cool to see that they accepted me with open arms and took me in as one of their own countrymen even though I was born in the States. It was more than I expected. It was one of my most memorable moments in my life."

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.