Frank 'Twinkle Toes' Trigg

talks to the mighty Frazor San for SFUK June 7 2000, photo by Frazor San

 

Frank Trigg Age: 28

Weight: now, 180; wrestles at 167.5

Hobbies: video games, as far as fighting games: Tekken 3, going to movies, cooking, eating out, wine, cigars.

Frazor: Frank, thanks for your time. Please could you give British MMA fans a brief description of your training background?

Trigg: Well, I wrestled for 16 years, I did kung fu when younger, judo since 1994 or so, when moved to Norman, OK. Also kickboxing, boxing, and I've been doing yoga for last 6 months

Frazor:Many people rate you as one of the worldâs top five lightweights. Where would you place yourself?

Trigg: First. Letâs see-is there a number better than one? No? Well, first then(laughs).

Frazor: JJ Machado's corner threw in the towel at JVT 98 due to heavy bleeding. JJ is noted as an extremely aggressive and world class submissions expert, what was your strategy for that particular match?

Trigg: Don't get submitted, and hit him as many times as I could (laughs). Actually that was our strategy for the whole two weeks of training before that fight. All we did was work on counters to submissions. Thatâs all we did. Because we came to the realization that I was not going to submit him. No matter how good my submissions are, I wasn't going to be able to submit a guy that was that good at submissions.

Frazor: You also dominated Fabiano Iha in Pride 8, so who would you rate as your toughest MMA fight to date?

Trigg:Paul Herrera, because when I fought him I didn't know anything. I was just a straight ground-and-pounder with no skills at all, just straight wrestling. No striking skill, no submission counters, no submission skills, nothing.That was one of my first events. My 16th or 17th professional fight. You have fought relatively few times, why is that? I've fought 31 times! The reason why people think I fought so few was because I fought so many before I fought with RAW. I fought in tournaments in Texas, several fights a night - I had 24 fights in two months. I fought every weekend for eight weeks. I fought all time time.

Frazor: Why did you start fighting in MMA events?

Trigg: We were hurting for money. My wife was in nursing school, and we didnât have much money. It got to the point where Pat (Burris) was like, "I know youâre hurting for money, I got this fight - you want to go down and fight?".....I had just started doing judo with Pat to improve my wrestling. I fought all the time, it was crazy!

Frazor:You're in training to qualify for the Olympics in wrestling yet the majority of your fights have been won by strikes. Do you spend an equal amount of time training in striking?

Trigg: Hell no. If I got a fight, they'll tell me "you got three weeks before a fight!". Oh, good- I'll start two weeks before the fight, then start training my striking.

Frazor: Is that all you need to train for a fight? Two weeks?

Trigg: Me personally, yes. because I'm always training, I'm always doing something, I'm always working my grappling. It's not like I sit on my ass doing nothing- like boxers, they have to schedule their fights like four or five months in advance because theyâre not doing anything. When the'âre not fighting, they're not doing anything.

Frazor: Why do you paint your toenails?

Trigg: Go look at the RAW web site! (From www.rawteam.com: "Okay, I paint my tonails, big deal, I have soft nail pads." says Trigg, "I used to use a clear polish, it was my wife's idea to use colors like metal flake blue.")

Frazor:So what is your favorite brand of nail varnish?

Trigg: Donât have one, it's whatever my wife picks up. We have like 20 bottles at the house, and theyâre all different colors, all different brands. It's the flavor of the day - you know?

Mrs. Trigg - I'll put on a color that matches the dress I'm going to wear, then whatever I put on he wears too.

Frazor:Do you have any upcoming fights to let your fans know about?

Trigg: Nothing until after the Olympic trials. I was going to fight in Pride 9, but Shoji didn't want to fight me. He's the guy that Coleman fought first in the second round of the Pride GP. I probably won't fight again until after the Olympics. A lot of the shows are hard to come by, and when you get them they are right around the same time as the Olympics. The Olympics are my priority right now.

Frazor: How did you hook up with RAW?

Trigg: I'm a fighter and a wrestler (shrugs). They called me up. Actually I was wrestling at a Sunkist (Sunkist Kids - Frank's wrestling team) tournament in Phoenix, AZ and Lou Chiapparelli was there watching, and he asked me if I wanted to fight. So I said, "well, ok" and he said "here, sign the contract." I had already been fighting, so it was easy. I make a lot more money now!

Frazor: There has been talk of a RAW gym in LA. Any news about that? -

Trigg: It's going to open soon. We are looking for a location now. I can't really give an official opening date, but I think it will be up and runing by January first of 2001. The plan is that the gym will open up, my wife and I wil move to LA, and Iâll help manage it. We are going to have personal training, and seminars- not just us, but we are going to bring in other people too. It's gonna be a good deal.

Frazor: Who would you consider to be the toughest fighter at your weight other than you?

Trigg: I really don't pay attention to the fight scene much at all. I don't have a clue. I just now saw the fight between Pele and Militech and I wasn't too impressed with either fighter. Mikey Burnette I guess is pretty good, but he just left to become a professional boxer. I couldn't tell you. The toughest guy at my weight is the next guy I gotta fight. Thatâs just it.

Frazor: Do you hold any grudges against past opponents?

Trigg: I don't have a grudge against anybody. There are some fighters out there who are not as good as they think they are. They don't test themselves except in their own forum. Like Renzo tests himself - he fights in Abu Dhabi against submission guys, and he's the best submission guy at our weight. He beat Machado in Abu Dhabi, so obviously he's the best submission guy right now. But he only tests himself at what he's best at. So I donât have a grudge against anybody per se, but there are some fighters out there who think they are better than they are. Some people put me in that category, but I don't care if I win or lose when I go out there. I fight for the money. I get a certain amount to show up, and more if I win. If it wasn't set up that way, I would settle for a draw or a loss. The only reason I fight for the win is because I get more money!

Frazor:Do you have any plans to train or fight in Europe at any time?

Trigg: Um, yeah! Actually the wife and I are thinking about it. She wants to go to a foreign land. I thought we might pack up at some point and go somewhere for 6-8 months training. Maybe after I am done wrestling. I'll be done wrestling long before I'm done fighting. Probably after 2004 I'll be done wrestling, and I always wanted to go to England. We've thought about Australia too.

Frazor:So you will continue to fight after you are done wrestling?

Trigg: Oh, yeah - just because I need to have something to do. I canât just sit around. I have to keep training. I want to train and travel around. Not to become a better competitor, but to become a better teacher. I love to teach.

Frazor:That's great! Thanks again Frank, and good luck with your Olympic ambitions!

Trigg: Thank you!

 

And thanks to The Triggs and raconteur extradinaire, Frazor San from SFUK !