By KOTC Staff When Joe Riggs arrives in Cold Lake, Alberta this week to fight Samurai Khardassian at King of the Cage Canada’s September 18th “Sentinel” event, the former UFC contender will be looking to demonstrate that he remains a world class fighter. Despite the fact that Riggs will head into this weekend’s fight having gone 4-1 in his last five bouts, with impressive wins coming against Luke Stewart, Phil Baroni and most recently Louis Taylor, the 27 year-old understands he needs to keep building momentum.
“I’m just trying to put together another win streak you know,” said Riggs (33-11), who has also competed for Strikeforce and the WEC throughout his near decade long career. “I just want to put together a big streak as the bigger winning streak you get going the more money you make. It always looks better. And to be perfectly honest with you I just want to fight.”
According to Riggs, Strikeforce has offered him a bout in October, but due to his aforementioned desire to compete, Canadian MMA fans will have an opportunity to watch the highly regarded fighter Saturday night. While Riggs will likely be a familiar face to many in attendance at “Sentinel”, his opponent Khardassian may not, as the experienced grappler is a relative newcomer to professional MMA in North America.
“No,” said Riggs, when asked if he knows much about Khardassian, who represented Israel in the European trials of the 2009 Abu Dhabi Submission Grappling World Championships. “I hope to knock him out; give the fans something to cheer about.”
“Yeah, but I’m still one of the very best fighters in the world,” Riggs noted, conceding that Khardassian will likely have seen the former UFC contender fight numerous times, while he knows very little about his opponent. “I don’t think a guy like this is going to pose me a problem; it doesn’t matter what he does. I’ve gotten to where I am because I’ve beaten the fighters that I have.”
Throughout Riggs’s extensive career the former heavyweight has demonstrated time and time again that he is a well rounded fighter, finishing opponents while standing or on the ground. Perhaps it’s because of this proven track record that Riggs maintains he’s not bothered, about not knowing what kind of game plan Khardassian might employ.
“I’m really well rounded, so I’m not worried about it,” said Riggs. “I’ve been boxing for about 20 years now; I’ve been wrestling about the same amount of time and I’ve been doing BJJ for about 10 years. I like to stand up; I fought on a Strikeforce card a couple of weeks ago against Louis Taylor, who I didn’t really know much about other than that he was 11-1, or something like that, and I went out and took him out.”
And as far as Riggs thoughts on returning to Alberta for his 45th pro bout?
“Well I’ve fought in Canada before; a couple years ago I fought in Edmonton,” Riggs stated. “I hadn’t heard much about the place but I know now that Canadian fans are pretty educated about the sport.”
“Sentinel” will be hosted by Cold Lake’s Energy Center and will also feature Riggs’ training partner Shannon “The Cannon” Ritch, who will face Canadian up-and-comer, Chris Kizuik.
