MMA Insider got a chance to sit down with ONE FC bantamweight Casey Suire to talk about his recent win and how he intends to prepare for his second appearance in the ONE FC cage. Who: Casey Suire, 37, is a native of Lafayette, LA, who has lived the last 7 years in Indonesia as a manager in the oil & gas industry. The MMA enthusiast decided to go pro recently and his decision has been showing positive results.
After coming off his debut win against Raymond Tan last November, Casey Suire, known from his moniker “The BuGil” (Bule Gila, or Crazy Westerner) will return to ONEFC on May 30th.
Once again, Suire will be put against another hometown hero in Stephen Langdown, who came off a win on his maiden professional fight against Mark Marcellinus on ONEFC: Total Domination in Singapore in October last year.
We had a chance to sit down with The BuGil to share his experience on the fight.
Q: First of all, congratulations on your first win last November. Certainly a good way to start your international pro career, especially against a hometown favorite.
A: Thank you.
Q: Now, coming to your upcoming fight, what do you know about your opponent, Stephen Langdown? What do you think of his game?
A: The guy is an online social media star with like 85,000 followers, that's impressive. He is young and athletic, but I believe he has some work to do if he wants to defeat me, but hey, it’s a fight, anything can happen so I can’t underestimate him and how much he has improved since his last cage appearance. I saw his last fight, he landed some good kicks, it would have been nice to see more, but he did his job well and finished the fight. Of course, that is my goal every fight too, take it out of the judge's hands and get the finish!
Q: So, how will you prepare yourself for this fight?
A: I take every next fight as the hardest one I’ll ever face. I am preparing this fight as if I’m about to face the devil himself. Not like last time, where I only had 2 weeks to prepare for my fight, I will have a full 8-week fight camp to prepare for the fight, and I’m going to do a fight camp in KL at Monarchy MMA.
Q: Are you switching camps? Didn’t you do your last camp at Synergy MMA?
A: No, I’m not switching camps since I am currently based in Indonesia and that would not be realistic. It just happens that Niko [Han, founder of Synergy MMA] will be with his family overseas so he cannot assist in my prep. But I still have other people to help me prepare for my next fight, like Fransino [Tirta, recent ONEFC signee]. He has been in my corner & mentor since my pro career started, and he will be here for this one too. And of course, I have Samir Mrabet [ONEFC fighter] and the team at Monarchy to help me prepare for this fight. Those guys are great, and I am grateful to have this opportunity to split my time between Indonesia and Malaysia for fight camp. Learning from new instructors and other pro fighters can only help you to improve, which is my ultimate goal prior to any fight.
Q: Why Monarchy, then?
A: Monarchy have a wide array of trainers and training partners to work on your game. They have a good team of trainers – BJJ black belts, Muay Thai champions – and they just added some pro boxers too. But most of all, and this is the great thing about MMA...it's the brotherhood and camaraderie between gyms. Monarchy's hospitality is genuine & I can’t thank them enough for even offering to assist in my preparation.
Q: What motivates you heading into the fight?
A: Coming late into the game in my mid-30s, I had my fair shares of critics saying that I’m too old for this sport, but after winning my last fight, I heard something from a few older friends that told me that I was an inspiration for them. That gave me goose bumps. I never thought my actions would have that kind of impact but, WOW..... What do you say to that? When I get my hand raised, I know that the win is not just for me, but also for those who believed in me, and that by itself is great source of motivation.
Q: Finally, what can we expect from The BuGil coming into the fight?
A: I heard people doubting me after the last fight, saying that my debut fight was a fluke, and that my opponent was not on his natural weight class. I had proven my critics wrong, and I will prove them wrong again. And if people think that’s all I have of my MMA game during my last fight, then I want to show that there is much more to it. I had 2 weeks to prepare for that fight, and now I have a full fight camp to prepare, so you will definitely see a lot more of The BuGil.
Q: Thank you for your time, and good luck on your next fight.
A: Thank you.
