By Joe Burns

I recently interviewed former UFC fighter and TUF alum SamHoger.  During the course of theinterview, we spoke about his lay-off from fighting, his opening of theMiletich Fighting Systems Gym in Houstonand his upcoming bout with Braden Bice in World Fighting Championships’September 19th card. 

JB: Sam you havetaken some last time off since your last fight. Tell us what you have been doing.

SH: Well, I camedown here to Houstonand I have been spending a lot of time here building up this gym and expandingthe Miletich Fighting Systems and bringing it to the south so that we cancontinue to expand as a team and as a unit. 

JB:  Now, has opening up the gym taken timeaway from your training or have you been able to keep up the same trainingschedule?

SH: I have beenable to maintain a pretty decent shape at least relative to training.  Despite just opening a gym, training takes alot of time and effort, a lot of hours. You know a lot of those hours fit right into training, training withother people, trying to make them better. So, thankfully, I think it has taken a little away but not much. 

JB:  With your school being in Houston now and with youtraining down there, who are your training partners and who are your coaches atthe school?

SH:  Well, of course, my head coach, as always,is Pat Miletich and then coaches down here are Ken Mosel Yves Edwards’s oldtrainer.  I have Bruce McGraw.  He is one of the guys I am working my JiuJistu with and then Leroy Franklin; he is my strengthening and conditioningcoach. 

JB:  Now with your time off did you focus on anyaspect of the game to improve it for MMA?

SH:  Well, yeah, one of the things I have beenfocusing on besides working with my students is my wrestling base.   I havebeen improving it a lot and working with a national wrestler we have here.  He comes in and trains with us and I havebeen really working on my wrestling. Trying to make sure when I get tied up in the clinch I have a betteridea of what to do and what to expect.

JB:  So, after fighting such fighters as Stephan Bonnar, RashadEvens and Lyoto Machida, what was the toughest fight you have had and what haveyou brought away from your fights with these fighters?

SH:  The toughest fight I had was actually in myamateur career with the pro fights.  Whenever I fought Lyoto Machida and I fought Rashad Evens they were good fights butby that point in time I was well prepared by MFS.  I didn’t feel that they were that tough offights.  I mean my hardest fight was inmy amateur career that was against a guy named Jason Braswell.  That was one guy that just pushed and pushedand I had to keep pushing to stay on top. Like when I fought Machida,which was just a fight that he was constantly running.  I didn’t even feel like was in a fight afterthat.  With the Evens fight it was a goodscrap.  The same thing with the Bonnarfight…  they were all high intensityfights but I was better prepared for those fights compared to my amateur career. 

JB:  How did your upcoming fight in the WorldChampionship Fighting come together?

SH:  We have spoken about it in the past andyou know Braden Bice is a guy with two belts and I think he has done well inthe past.  I really thought it would be agreat fight for me to take so he proposed the fight and I checked him out and Ithink he is a strong wrestler with heavy hands. It should be a good time. 

JB:  It looks like World Championship Fightingis putting on quality shows.  What do youthink of the organization?

SH:  W.C.F. is making some big moves.  I am really surprised at the quality of theshows they are putting together and the attendance there is just electric inthe arena.  I don’t know what JoeCavallaro is doing, but from what I seen it been a colossal event every singleshow.  I think since the inception of thepromotion they have had UFC fighters on every card.  Now they’re having this show at the ShrinersAuditorium Friday the 19th of September and are going to keep up thehigh action pace that comes with every WCF show.

JB:  Was it easy to scout Braden Bice?  I did some research on the internet and Ireally didn’t seem to find any information or videos on him.

SH:  No, I haven’t been able to find anything on himbut I have heard a lot about him and I have seen the belts he has won.  He seems like he is coming to fight.  

JB:  Sam that is all I have for questions.  Do you have any people to thank?

SH:  I would like to thank Joe Cavallaro andWorld Championship Fighting for letting me fight on their card.  I would like to also thank Dana White and theFertitta brothers for everything they have helped me with in the past.   I wantto thank my girl friend Erica Lynn Dugger for all the help she has given me andbeing there and making this all come together. Of course I want to thank my team at Miletich Fighting Systems Houstonand Miletich Fighting Systems.  By theway, to get tickets to the World Championship Fighting show on September 19thvisit www.WCFighting.com

For more information on Sam Hoger visit Miletich FightingSystems Houston web site at www.mfshou.com

For full information about World Championship Fightingincluding fight card, ticketing prices and directions visit www.WCFighting.com