| James
Schiavo 
Team
Le Banner member James Schiavo talks to Carl Fisher March 16th 2003,
Cagewarriors 3,
, Southampton UK Congratulations
on the result tonight; how do you feel? I
feel great but if it had been possible I would have liked to show more of my striking
skills tonight as I have been training hard in this area and I did not get the
chance tonight; straight after the clinch we went to the ground and that isn’t
my usual kind of fighting, I like to kick and punch more, but a win is a win I
suppose. Was this
your first time fighting on Dougie’s event? Yes
it was; I came here before to corner my brother in Cagewarriors 2 when he fought
Jean De Silva. I previously fought in Paddy
Mooney’s Cage Wars event at the start of 2002 and that’s been it
so far. Have you
enjoyed the experience here in the UK? Yes
I enjoyed it a lot; the cage is a lot bigger than Cage Wars and the venue was
excellent I really like the whole thing set inside a nightclub and the fans are
really supportive when ever Sammy and I fight in the UK. Why
do you enjoy it so much? Firstly
MMA fighting and the hosting of such events is banned in France so we have to
fight outside our own country which is a shame; secondly we have a bit of a following
that’s slowly picking up more fans and a lot of people support us here so
that’s why we like it here. Who
did you train with for this fight? Initially
with my brother in the mornings and in the evening we train with Kasha and the
rest of my students at the academy, we have about thirty guys here. Kasha
also had a very good fight tonight and is one to look out for in the future? Oh
yes indeed he fought very well tonight, I am very happy for him and I hope big
things will happen for him. Kasha is skilful in both areas, standing and on the
ground and he is fast becoming a great all round fighter. How
did you get involved with Team Le Banner? I
want to say that my brother and I did not leave French Konnection to join Team
Le Banner, we have no problems with the other guys at all; the main reason was
that we lived so far away from Paris in the South of France, not so far from the
Riccio brothers and it was very hard to get together with the other guys in Paris.
It’s not enough just to say we are French Konnection members, you have to
train regularly with the guys if you are to stay with a team and we found we could
no do this on a regular basis because of the distances involved. So we decided
to fight only for our gym and after this Jerome called us on the phone and invited
us to his gym to train just for fun, to spar and then do a little ground work
and then he saw we were very technical on the ground and there are not many VT
specialists in France so for Jerome to say all this we felt very honoured. Jerome
asked us to send us tapes of our fights and after watching them he’s invited
us on board. So what
next fight wise? We
have a promoter who is looking for fights in the US for us, it’s Jerome’
US manager, but this was only a few weeks ago so it’s early days yet, but
we will keep our fingers crossed. I think in this year, some US fights are looking
possible, both for me and Samy. Well
best of luck with everything; I’ll let you get back to the changing rooms
and we’ll have a drink to celebrate later tonight. Thank
you Carl Anyone interested
in having the Schiavo brothers can contact them on _bushido_academie@yahoo.fr Interview
and photo Carl Fisher
Related
links: Training
at Brennan's Academy
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