This Saturday night, Duane “Bang” Ludwig will make his highly anticipated return to an American K-1 ring. It’s been quite some time since fans in Las Vegas witnessed the
Bas Rutten (Pictures) disciple exchanging blows, and Ludwig hopes to give those hungry fans what they expect.
Fighting in one of the super-bouts on the “Mayhem at the Mirage” card, Ludwig is anxious to get things going against the unknown but tough Remy Bonnel.
Sherdog.com had the chance to briefly nab a quick one-on-one with the busy warrior for an exclusive interview. Laid back as ever, the dangerous striker candidly spoke about not knowing much about his opponent and how he still covets a return to the UFC one of these days.
Sherdog.com: You are fighting Remy Bonnel. He isn't a well-known fighter to the casual fan. What are your thoughts on him and how well do you know him?
Duane Ludwig: It's Wednesday now and the fight is in three days and I have yet to watch a single fight of his.
Sherdog.com: Was Remy scheduled to be your opponent from the start or did K-1 have someone else in mind?
Ludwig: Remy has been the scheduled opponent for a while now.
Sherdog.com: This is your first fight in Vegas in a long time. In your words, what has taken so long for K-1 to bring you to Vegas for their shows?
Ludwig: The reason why I have not fought in the Las Vegas K-1 shows has to do with me being a MAX signed K-1 fighter and K-1 Las Vegas is for the heavyweights.
Sherdog.com: What does K-1 have in store you as far for future events or the Max tournaments?
Ludwig: Good question. I wish I knew. Things kind of just pop up with this business.
Sherdog.com: Have you signed an exclusive deal with K-1, or is this just a one-fight deal?
Ludwig: K-1 and I have a two-year deal going, but it's for K-1 MAX and not K-1 Las Vegas. The Vegas fight is a one-fight deal but I wish I could fight in America more often.
Sherdog.com: Many fans of yours want to see you back in the UFC. What is up with your MMA career and do you ever see yourself back in the UFC?
Ludwig: Fighting for the UFC again is one of my main goals but I took time off to concentrate on K-1. After my fight with Genki, I didn't roll for over a year and was asked to fight B.J. (Penn) so I took it on two weeks notice because no one else would step up. Then I had issues with my weight and decided to go back to 170 pounds and get back into MMA but lost my comeback fight and took a little time to see what I really wanted to do. Training started and my weight came down and now I'm walking around at 165 and I feel good. This would be my dream, to win the K-1 MAX tournament, then jump back and forth from 170 and 155 for the UFC and K-1 MAX. But there are a lot of things that are happening right now that we are just waiting to see what materializes.
Sherdog.com: Do you get recognized more frequently as Duane the kickboxer/Muay Thai fighter or Duane the MMA fighter?
Ludwig: [I get recognized for] MMA in America for sure, but for K-1 in Japan.
Sherdog.com: How has your training been this time around and what all did you do?
Ludwig: I've been training for about two and a half months now and my timing is good. My conditioning is really good, too. I have no injuries from my fight with Ramon Dekker, which was a scary call to take that fight three weeks before this fight but it turned out just fine actually. A few weeks ago, I made my first trip to Thailand for some training and got a little bit of sparring in there and here with Nate Marquardt. Things have been going really good, man.
Sherdog.com: Who was in your core training team as far as sparring partners?
Ludwig: In Colorado it's Marquardt, Christian Allen (Pictures), Oscar Martinez, Aaron Romero and Verno Phillips who is a straight boxer. He just fought Ike Quartey. In California, it's Bas and Amir Rahnavardi (Pictures).
Sherdog.com: Do you have a prediction as to who will win the K-1 World GP this year?
Ludwig: I'm not too sure who is all in it but I'd like to see Bob Sapp (Pictures) win it — an American.
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