Dominic Clarke isn’t someone who is new to the fight game. He’s a fighter who has been working, fighting and making a name for himself. A Strikeforce veteran, Dominic “All Day” Clarke recently fought on the debut of WAR, the newest MMA promotion launched by Nick Diaz. Dom claimed a victory in his fight to improve his record to 6-2 – three of his last wins coming as finishes.
With thanks to Jay at Fresh Start Entertainment, Dominic recently sat down to talk with us about his latest victory and what the future holds for this rising star.
How did you prepare for this latest fight (on the debut of WAR)?
Well, I had a lot of guys in my training camp trying to box me. I had people watch tape on Chris Quitiquit and then kind of essentially told people to do their best to make a Nate Diaz impression – you know, with straight punches and aggressive pressure fighting, and that’s kind of how I took my training camp. Just tried to deal with a lot of pressure. The game plan was to mix it up, counter hard and keep him guessing.
Was there anyone over at your training camp over at PKG that really helped you out?
Really everybody there. Chad George was really helping me to construct my training camp, which went really well; helped me bring in guys and things of that nature. Everybody was involved, so it was really great.
In terms of your win itself, were you happy with the way you won (re: doctor stoppage)?
I’m happy with the win…
One, because regardless of however it’s taken it still goes down as a finish…
…and two, because I feel like regardless of whatever fights that were going on that night that had some cuts or doctor issues I feel like mine was the least best example to use. I really feel like my fight was the beginning of the end, which is what I’ve kind of been telling myself. Obviously, I am not taking anything away from my opponent; he was tough as nails. However, I hit him with some really good shots – especially towards the end. I feel like, barring a doctor stoppage, the fight way headed that way (in my favour) – that’s just my personal opinion. Who knows, he’s a tough guy – maybe he could’ve come back.
How close to do you think this moves you to a shot in the UFC?
I think it moves me closer. I think that this being finish also helps to move me closer; that’s three finishes in a row. I know that they (the UFC) like to take chances on guys who finish fights or at least attempt to finish fights. So, yeah I think I am really close. My thoughts are I need to be 7-2 or 8-2 to have a chance to go. I think after my next fight or two.
The only thing that’s really slowing me down right now is this hand injury that I sustained, so I’m just trying to deal with that.
With the hand injury in mind, when do you think the next time is that you think you’ll be fighting?
Well, I’ve gotten diagnosed, but I haven’t gotten fully diagnosed. Which means that they’re contemplating whether we go the route of setting in place and doing it from there, or doing some surgery and going from there. The problem is that it’s not a simple break. A couple of bones in my hands were dislocated, so now they have to check on tendon damage. We know that I could be looking forward to being in a cast for two months, and then from there it’s a matter of recovery. I am already thinking in my head that I am going to be out for three to four months, which is my guess – which really sucks.
I probably wouldn’t have fought for two or three months anyway, just based on my schedule. I was probably going to fight August/September – so, it’s not like the end of the world, but what I am going to be coming back from is going to be a little tougher than I anticipated.
Would you fight in the WAR promotion again?
It would be cool to maybe have them bring someone in for me, or have it out of town – so, it isn’t me versus the world. It was very interesting and it was a challenge that I wanted to take on, and I felt like I did a pretty good job. Dealing with everything that night (being booed by the crowd), you don’t really experience anything like that until you do it, and that’s kind of what happened with the fight. I couldn’t simulate two-to-three thousand people cheering for this guy who is walking out the back with what looks like half a gang, with twenty people coming out from his corner, people cheering for him. I felt like I handled it. I just really tried to tune it out once the fight got started.
I loved the promotion and thought that it was run great. It ran just as smoothly as a Taichi or Strikeforce fight that I’ve done. The arena was nice, the venue was great. The one down thing was that it didn’t start on time, but again the reason for this was that the stream wasn’t working – and I know they wanted to make sure that was working properly before the event started, which is understandable… I had a blast!
Is there anyone after this recent victory that you have in your sights?
We don’t have any names involved, but we had a couple of venues that we had talked about for August, which I am a little upset about… because it was either on the under-card of the World Series of Fighting. Names from there, there aren’t really many lightweights that I’ve seen from there that have really impressed me. I feel like I could easily compete with Jacob Volkmann or Bryan Cobb or Justin Gates; I mean all those guys are really though, but I feel like I can easily compete with them.
Either that or Taichi Palace came back, which is unfortunate because I had such a great experience with them the last time. Nobody in particular, just fixated on fixing myself.
Lastly, do you think Chris Weidman has a chance against Anderson Silva?
I think he (Weidman) is a younger more ferocious fighter, very similar to the qualities that made Chael so successful against him. Weidman likes the takedowns, likes to fight a little bit more than a Chael Sonnen would. That being the case, I think that Anderson Silva can kind of chill and duck and dodge and lay on his back and not worry. That said, a guy like Chris Weidman he throws his punches with bad intention and he’s a big boy and he hits hard. I think he can take Anderson Silva down, it’s just a matter of how he does it. I think he has more than a good chance… I’ve almost got it 50/50.
We want to thank Dominic for sitting down and talking with us again. We continue to be really big fans of his over here at Last Word on Sports and will continue to watch his career flourish as he moves ever closer to the big stage of the UFC!
We also want to give a shout out to Jay over at Fresh Start (@jayfreshstart) for setting everything up!
Follow Dominic on Twitter: @DomALLDAYClark
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