'Relentless' pursuit: MMAmania.com UFC 109 interview exclusive with Mike 'Quick' Swick

Mike Swick was just one win away from earning a title shot when he stepped into the cage this past November at UFC 105 against British striker Dan Hardy.

It would not be his night, however, and Hardy would land the more significant strikes and largely control the fight. The unanimous decision loss would be Swick's first at the 170-pound limit in his UFC career. It was a major setback.

Hardy will now move forward to challenge Georges St. Pierre for his welterweight championship belt in March.

Swick, on the other hand, will look to right the ship when he takes on the dangerous Brazilian Paulo Thiago on February 6 at UFC 109.

"Quick" took some time out of his busy schedule to discuss his last fight, what Hardy's chances against GSP will be, Jon Fitch's words of wisdom, and how he got into the screen printing business.

Check it out:

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): I wanted to start out by asking you to give your thoughts on your new teammate Herschel Walker. What can we expect from him on January 30 in his first professional fight?

*Mike Swick: I'm excited. He's training really hard. It's very inspirational having him come in because the guy is a millionaire who isn't a fighter. He's a big fan of the sport. Because of that love for the sport he came in and trained full on for a fight. He's come in and done everything. He's done all aspects of training from circuit training to the sparring to grappling. He's a great athlete, especially for his age. He works as hard as or harder than anyone else.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): What about Takanori Gomi? Is he going to be training with you at AKA as well or was he just in to visit a few weeks back?

Mike Swick: I'm not sure. I haven't heard anything. I don't really know.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): Let's go back to the fight with Dan Hardy. What was the basic game plan going into that fight and why were you not able to execute it the way you intended?

Mike Swick: The game plan was not what happened. Nothing went right. I don't want to sit here and make excuses for it. I just want to say that I'm 100% confident that I'm a better fighter and I really want a rematch. I went over there and I fought him on his terms in front of his crowd. I really want a rematch here. I want him to come and fight me here, but I'll go back if I have to. For my true fans and my supporters out there I want to make up for it. I don't want to make excuses and say this and that. We both showed up and he won. There's nothing I can do to change that.

It's nothing against Dan Hardy. He's a great fighter and a great person, but it's hard to swallow when you were beat by a guy you didn't think was going to beat you. Right now I have a very tough opponent ahead of me. I'm fighting on short notice. I'm just trying to focus on getting ready and getting in there and getting back on the winning track.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): We know Hardy has plenty of confidence, but does he have the skills and the game plan necessary to defeat Georges St. Pierre in March and earn the welterweight belt? I talked to your teammate Jon Fitch a few weeks ago and he told me he didn't think Hardy was prepared and that GSP's wrestling would be the deciding factor. What is your take on the fight?

Mike Swick: I know it sounds like everyone is beating up Hardy. He's a cool guy but I don't see a possibility. I don't. GSP is not going to play the same game like I did. He's going to go out there and get it to the ground. His ground game is going to be levels above someone like Dan Hardy.

Even in the exchanges with me he landed the significant punches. He just happened to catch me right on my jaw early with a two punch combo, which kind of changed the whole fight. If you look at the later exchanges, even after I was hurt I still had to chase him down to make the action. He's a counter fighter. He was just sitting there waiting on me. Even though I did get rocked I still chased him down. If you look at the exchanges in the second and third round I feel I won most of those.

He landed the more significant blows. He didn't knock me down, but he definitely had me rocked. He could not have landed those two punches any better than right on the tip of my jaw. Having that kind of impact back-to-back on two separate punches, my hat goes off to him. I know for sure I can get back in there and out-strike Dan Hardy. I can do it nine out of ten times. It's just one of those things. We fought and there's nothing I can do about it. I just have to focus on the road ahead, think positive, and get out there and get a win against Paulo Thiago.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): Of course Thiago beat your teammate Josh Koscheck a while back. Then Jon Fitch was able to take care of him a couple months ago. He's taking turns fighting everyone at AKA it seems like. Would it be fair to say Thiago is the anti-Matt Hughes in that regard?

Mike Swick: With both of those cases it's nothing against them. It's not AKA against the world or anything. We just have three guys at the same weight. We're obviously going to have to mix it up and fight guys that others have fought. We've already fought a bunch of the same guys. Koscheck and I both fought Jonathan Goulet. Fitch and Kos both fought GSP. It's nothing like that. Kos was going out for his rematch and he got injured. I'm a welterweight on the team and we felt like since we weren't going to be able to take this fight then we'll bring someone else from our team.

I actually wasn't even training at the time. I was about to head down to Brazil and take some more time off. I took a little time off after the Hardy fight because I trained back-to-back camps for Martin Kampmann and Hardy so I was a little burned out. I just needed a break. It (the loss) caught me off guard but it really got me pumped up and back in the gym fast.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): With regards to Paulo Thiago. He has decent standup. He's got very good submissions. Fitch exposed his wrestling a little bit. Did he essentially lay the blueprint for how you should approach Thiago?

Mike Swick: He definitely helped me out with a lot of stuff that you can't see from film as far as his strength, his positioning, and his movement on the ground. But it's a different game plan. I'm not going to go out there and fight the fight that Fitch fought. We are completely different fighters. Fitch is going to grind you down and wear you down and be relentless.

I'm more of a striker. I'm going to go out there and go for the knockout, try to land the big punches, and finish the fight fast. Two completely different styles, but since I'm fighting a guy that is good at the ground game it is very likely this fight could go to the ground. I'm obviously going to have to be aware of what to expect down there and Fitch has done a great job of preparing me for that. 

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): I also wanted to ask you about Spartan Screen Printing and your Combat Life clothing line you have based in San Jose. Can you give me a sense of why you took on this venture and what you hope to accomplish with it?

Mike Swick: Combat Life started as a charity. I started it because I was going around to military bases and I wanted something to hand out to the troops. I trademarked the clothing Combat Life because I think that signifies the kind of life that soldiers live. I started just printing T-shirts and caps and stuff and I would take them to the bases and hand them out to the soldiers and they loved it. Giving a serviceman a hat and a cap means the world to them. They really appreciate it. I started giving stuff out in Iraq and Afghanistan and it started out like that.

It ended up getting a lot bigger. Now we have a website CombatLifeBrand.com. Then I opened up a screen printing shop to print all my stuff exclusively. We opened up a huge 5,500 sq. ft. screen printing facility in downtown San Jose and I print all my stuff for Combat Life there. I am also open to the public. We print for a lot of big companies in Silicon Valley and fight teams and gyms. I'm helping out a lot of people in the fight game. It's a cool business. It really is.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): I've seen some pictures of the facility on your Twitter. You pimped it out. You got a game room and a lounge set up in there. It looks pretty sweet.

Mike Swick: The facility is Spartan Screen Printing. Then inside the warehouse we built a military bunker. Inside the bunker is the headquarters for my clothing line. We have a lounge, pool table, theatre seating and a plasma TV, and then we have storage for all of Combat Life. We're starting to design new stuff and store all of our clothing. Then all around the bunker is Spartan Screen Printing. We have all state-of-the-art equipment, automatic machines doing all the printing for Combat Life and then for the public.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): Any shout outs or sponsors you want to thank before we go?

Mike Swick: I just want to thank the fans. I've been getting a lot of great feedback on my Twitter page (@OfficialSwick) and my website MikeSwick.com. I appreciate everything. I do my best to answer back all the questions. I do as much as possible to give back to the fans. Also, if you visit my Combat Life brand at CombatLifeBrand.com that would be awesome.

Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): Sounds great Mike. Thanks for the time as always.

Mike Swick: Awesome man. Thanks so much buddy.

* Interview was done just prior to Walker's debut.

Derek Bolender is a contributor to MMAmania.com. He is also a syndicated writer to FoxSports.com and SI.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/DerekMMAwriter.