New ROH champion Davey Richards recently gave an interview with Pro MMA Now.com. The following are highlights of the interview:

-Richards on where his interest in MMA came from: "When I first moved back to Washington from Atlanta there weren’t any pro wrestling schools there and I had always wanted to compete.There was a Pancrase Gym in Spokane, Washington called TKO Martial Arts. I started going out there, but then I moved to Charlotte and I started going to a Gracie jiu-jitsu gym and I kind of just fell in love with jiu-jitsu there, so when I moved to St. Louis I found Absolute Martial Arts and really dove into jiu-jitsu and I’ve just been plugging away and competing at that ever since."

-Richards on what it meant to win the ROH World Championship: "For me personally it means closure to a lot of personal things. For my career it just means that I’m the top guy now. I’m the best pure wrestler in the world. It comes with the title. The fact is that I have to earn the status of that title. I have to go out there and train harder and fight harder, which I’m more than willing to do because I have something to show for all of that now. To me it’s a motivating factor to go out there and prove to everyone that I’m the best."

-Richards on why he chose pro wrestling over MMA: "Well when I started looking at wrestling, mixed martial arts was not extremely popular and I had grown up watching professional wrestling. Those guys back when I was growing up, like Dynamite Kid, were every bit as tough as an MMA fighter. It wasn’t like today where you’ve got a lot of guys who are on there who wouldn’t last three seconds in a real fight. To me a pro wrestler was every bit the athlete that a mixed martial artist was. I have an equal love for both, but I grew up watching professional wrestling. That’s what I wanted to be for a long time, but it doesn’t negate my love for mixed martial arts or martial arts period."

-Richards on how his MMA training has helped his wrestling career: "I mean you can tell a real athlete from a pretend athlete in wrestling. I’ve said that for a long time. I have no interest in doing pretend wrestling and being a pretend athlete. I’ve been an athlete since I was 10 when I started wrestling, and I’m an athlete today through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. That’s something that people can tell. Athletes have a different mindset. When things get hard they work harder. They don’t quit and they don’t back down. You can’t teach someone that. Only if you’ve been out there and you’ve been in deep waters as an athlete can you understand that. So it has helped me a lot."

Shore's Slant: There's a ton more to the interview, and I suggest you read the whole thing. Davey sure isn't making any friends here with his comments about other wrestlers being pretend athletes and not lasting three seconds. I have no doubt Davey could beat my ass, but his comments come across as markish for himself, not tough. Somebody should let him know that he is a "pretend wrestler" even though he has no interest in being one.

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