Nothing Learned: 'More efficient' Nick Ring looks to take out Costas Philippou at UFC 154

UPDATE: Nick Ring is sick and his fight with Philippou has been canceled. Read all about it RIGHT HERE.

At UFC 154: "St. PIerre vs. Condit" later tonight (Nov. 17, 2012), Canadian 185-pound mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Nick Ring will make his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) pay-per-view (PPV) debut at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The Alberta native currently hold a 3-1 record in the organization and is looking to continue to build momentum in the division with a second consecutive win when he takes on dangerous former boxer Constantinos Philippou.

In his last fight at UFC 149 in July, "Promise" won a controversial unanimous decision over The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 11 winner Court McGee. Many felt Ring was undeserving of the win -- even Ring himself acknowledges it could have gone either way -- but it doesn't matter because he walked away with his win bonus.

Now he is on to bigger and better things.

With a tough fight behind him, Ring discussed the lessons learned (or lack thereof) in the fight with McGee, as well as the improvements to his game since last July, what effect fighting on the main card has in terms of sponsorship and, of course, his thoughts on Philippou.

Check it out:

Mike Bohn: How's your training for this fight gone?

Nick Ring: Training has been really good for this. You know only one more day then it's go-time.

Mike Bohn: Going back to your last fight, you had the tough fight with Court McGee at UFC 149. Some people thought it could have gone either way, but what's the one thing you learned most about yourself as a fighter or your game from that fight?

Nick Ring: Well you know what? Yeah, I mean it was a tough fight and I agree with everybody, it could have gone either way. But, that's how it is, it's like sometimes it's a photo finish and that's what they did. Anyways, learning from that fight, I don't know if I learned anything. I don't know if I learn anything ever. I'm still living, I'm glad to be here, I'm looking forward to the next challenge. Saturday will be my next one and yeah, I don't know. In short, I learned nothing from my last fight.

Mike Bohn: So maybe not learned, but what do you think you've taken from that fight to use in your game going forward? Where have you improved most since then?

Nick Ring: I think each fight you should be getting a little more efficient in whatever it is you're doing. Your game plan, I don't know, it's probably implementing your techniques appropriately and hopefully you see a good progress each and every time. So I guess we're going to see, I'm going into this next one hoping to smooth everything out a little bit more than the last time so, I'm looking forward to it.

Mike Bohn: What do you think about this fight? What do you think about Costas Philippou as an opponent?

Nick Ring: I think a lot of Costa. He's a good athlete; he's a skillful martial artist so I think we're going to see a very technical match.

Mike Bohn: What do you think the best part of his game is? He's obviously a very talented striker.

Nick Ring: Obviously his striking, it's the best part of his game. You know, he's -- I would be very surprised if he doesn't have a good ground game, too. Given the guys that he's training with, you know, there's nobody in MMA right now who's totally one-sided, they've all got something. Who in MMA right now doesn't know how to grapple? Who in MMA -- you know everybody's a good athlete, it's just about what match ups, who makes the best matches ... Some fighters do better against others. You don't know which ones are going to be the best matches necessarily and who prepared the best, you know? But knowledge-wise, you got to be prepared for everything. So grappling, striking, whatever right.

Mike Bohn: You had the incident in Calgary where you saved people from being attacked earlier this year, I know we did talk to you a lot about that before your last fight, but is there anything still coming out of that? Do you still receive a lot of attention for those heroic actions?

Nick Ring: Well I think the UFC will be relieved to hear I didn't do any vigilante work between my last fight and this one like I did the last time. So, you know what? I'm healthy; I'm ready to go. And yeah I did, I received a lot of attention before that fight for that. Even to this day I get stopped in Calgary, they recognize me from the papers as that guy who saved those kids. That is kind of nice, but you know again, I'm more trying to move forward. Just focus back on my fight career and off the vigilante stuff.

Mike Bohn: I know this fight was supposed to take place on the preliminary card then in got bumped up to the main card.

Nick Ring: Yeah, I heard that a couple weeks ago. I was training down at Tristar and one of the guys there, Steve Simms, he just turned to look at me and said, ‘Hey man, they moved you up to the main card.' I thought that was pretty cool. It was supposed to be a prelim and yeah, I don't know. In just a moment time I'm on the main card. So I'm pretty happy about that.

Mike Bohn: What impact does that have on you in terms of sponsors and everything outside of the fight?

Nick Ring: Well, I'm not; it does have an impact for sure. I try to keep my head away from that stuff, that's not my important role or job. Again, I've got to focus on being the martial artist and yeah, I'm sure, I'm very happy for my sponsors. I've got a lot of people who have been loyal to me throughout the years, helping me get to this point. For those guys, I think it's a huge impact. They're getting a lot more exposure; a lot more bang for their buck by me being on the main card. Again, I've got to focus on my job, and that's to train martial arts and be ready for a competition.

For more on the Middleweight showdown between Constantinos Philippou vs. Nick Ring be sure to check out our complete fight archive right here.