D. Herbertson/Sherdog.com
Trigg will answer the bell once more when he throws the leather with former titleholder Matt Serra in a featured welterweight tilt at UFC 109 “Relentless” this Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Another loss, on the heels of his 85-second blowout defeat to Josh Koscheck in September, could bring an abrupt end to his latest UFC run.
“If it’s over for me, it’s over for me,” Trigg said. “It happens; that’s the nature of the beast. [Coming to terms with] that took a lot of pressure off of me. A lot of guys think, ‘If I retire, what am I going to do?’ I have a definite plan for what I want to do next. I want to go into the media.”
A former Icon Sport middleweight champion, Trigg hinted at retirement from the sport altogether should another setback force him out of the UFC.
“I thought I’d feel a lot of pressure,” said Trigg, who owns notable victories against 2006 Pride Fighting Championships welterweight grand prix winner Kazuo Misaki and current Strikeforce middleweight contender Jason “Mayhem” Miller. “If I get released, I know I can still fight on smaller shows and people will pay to watch me fight, but I really don’t want to do that.”
Serra, who, at 35, may also be nearing the conclusion of his professional mixed martial arts career, has no sympathy for his foe.
“I don’t want to hear anything else from him,” he said. “He’s talking about working in fast food [if he doesn’t win this fight]. You’re not going to get a pity win, bro. He’s got his back against the wall, and that puts a lot of pressure on him.”
Serra, seeking his first win since he upset Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight championship at UFC 69 in April 2007, vowed to unleash all his weapons against Trigg.
“He’s a tough guy, and he’s beaten down a lot of tough guys,” said Serra, a decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who has not competed since his unanimous decision loss to future hall of famer Matt Hughes in May. “I’m going to pull the trigger. I’m going to take risks.”
During the lead-in to their welterweight scrap, Serra and Trigg took turns trading public barbs and seemed to take delight in doing so. Respect runs deep between them, as does their apparent dislike for one another.
“I could just smack the guy,” Serra said. “The tramp stamp, the nail polish -- do I need to say anything else? It’s kind of like that professional wrestling shtick, almost like Thunder Lips from ‘Rocky.’”