Dennis Hallman has proven that he is one of the top fighters pound for pound bar none. He put a stop twice to the human wreaking crew and current UFC lightweight champ, Matt Hughes at 170 pounds. He recently lost a decision to UFC bantamweight champ, Jens Pulver at 155 pounds. Now he's back in action at a new weight class, 185 pounds and looking like he should have been at that weight all along. He faced a tough Amaury Bitetti at the Shogun event in the Hawaii Convention Center on December 15, 2001 and lost a controversial decision. On top of that, news has broke that Hallman has left the prestigious AMC Kickboxing and Pankration, who is headed by his long time instructor and trainer Matt Humes. I sat down with Dennis both before and after his fight at the Shogun event to clarify his future plans and find out what's going on with him as we speak.

Shogun Pre-Fight Interview December 13, 2001 at Dave and Buster's Honolulu

FCF: First of all, what is your weight? Your original opponent was Egan Inoue who fights at 185, then it was Paulo Filho who fights at 185-200 and now it's Amaury Bitetti who must be about 185.
Dennis Hallman: About 188.

FCF: Do you normally walk around at 188 or did you gain weight specifically for this fight?
DH: I will normally walk around at this weight from now on. I didn't gain weight especially for this fight. I planned on putting on the weight right after my fight in the UFC. I was just going to fight at 185 after that this fight came up and Helen [Miller, the promoter of Shogun] actually called me. I talked to Joe Silva [UFC matchmaker] and let him know that I was going to be fighting at 185 for the future and he told Helen to call me and hook the fight up.

FCF: You seem to be dominating at 170. Why not go back to the 170 lb. division?
DH: I already beat the champ at 170. I was forced to fight my way back up. I beat the champ at 170 twice [Matt Hughes] and I can't make 155 anymore. After making the weight at the UFC, I realized that I was cutting too much weight and so I just figured I go up to 185, maybe be marketable for Pride and other organizations that are looking for heavier fighters.

FCF: Do you feel that the weight gain to 185 may be too drastic after fighting at 155 in the UFC?
DH: Well, I put on up to about 175 naturally right away. The weight gain came back from the weight I cut to make 155 so ten pounds will affect my cardio, but I've been working on that a lot. I don't think I gained the weight too fast.

FCF: What do you think about your latest opponent Amaury Bitetti?
DH: I really don't know much about him at all, except that he is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu National Champion, I believe [Note: and two-time Black Belt World Open Weight BJJ Champion] and I saw one of his fights and he looks like he likes to throw hands and he just wanted to fight so it's a good thing for me because that's what I go out to do.

FCF: Since your specialty is the ground and he is considered one of the best Jiu-Jitsu guys around, do you think you can hang with him on the ground?
DH: I believe at 185, there are not many people better than me on the ground so I believe that I'm better than him on the ground.

FCF: Do you plan on standing up with him or immediately taking the fight to the ground and trying to finish him there?
DH: You know, I don't think he's ever fought somebody who likes to clinch so I'm going to make the fight go to the clinch and if he wants to try to take me down, that's fine. I'll beat him on the ground. If he wants to keep it on the feet, I'll beat him there.

FCF: There has been some news floating around that you have broken away from Matt Humes and AMC. Can you explain the situation behind that?
DH: Basically, Matt's a pretty busy guy. He's traveling all over and I live about an hour and a half away from him and I'm ready to do things on my own.

FCF: Was there a specific incident that prompted you to take things on your own and leave AMC?
DH: Not really, just the training time. I didn't have time to go down there and train. I have my own school and my own students and a group of fighters down south from AMC and I feel that it's better that I represent where I train. I wasn't training at AMC so I shouldn't represent AMC.

FCF: So all this time you had your school going and you would just go periodically to Matt Hume's school to train?
DH: Yeah, about once every other month I'd go up there and train. I've had my own school since October of 2000, before I fought Matt Hughes. I've probably only trained at AMC five times since October of 2000 so I wanted to represent my own school.

FCF: Have you left with hard feelings?
DH: There's no animosity. Our organization up north the UFCF, the United Full Contact Federation, which was actually the first sanctioning body to sanction a fight in Hawaii, they sanctioned the original Super Brawls [Note: The events were actually called the United Fighting Championship Federation, not Super Brawl] and I'm a member of that organization and we work together to supply fighters to our cards and there is no animosity between us at all.

FCF: Will it be to the point where your fighters will fight his fighters?
DH: Yeah, we've been doing that for since I opened my own school. Our amateur fighters fight each other.

FCF: Do you have any type of green light from Joe Silva that you will have future fights in the UFC at 185?
DH: I'm not going to give Joe Silva the choice to decide whether he wants to include me or not. I'm just going to beat everybody and make him include me. So that's my plan. I don't like to leave it up to politics. There's a ton of politics involved in the sport, in the UFC. There are guys getting title shots that never fought at weight classes ever and after losing at a weight class above. It's not like Murilo Bustamante beat Chuck Liddell and then deserved shot at the title. He lost to Chuck Liddell, whether it was a bad decision or not. Joe Silva made the decision to give Murilo a shot when I think there are a ton of guys that deserve it more than he does. I'd like to fight Matt Lindland or someone like that in the UFC and I just want to fight their number one contender. I want to beat everyone on the way there. I fought Dave Menne before I think I can beat him. I think I beat him the first time we fought. I lost a decision, but decisions are in the eyes of the judge.

FCF: Is part of your decision of going to 185 based on the fact that the UFC is fairly thinly stocked in that weight class?
DH: Basically, I wanted to make myself marketable in other realms, Pride, UFC, and Pancrase. They tend to like heavier fighters and a lot of it's money too. The UFC is the only organization that pays decent money for the lightweights and once I go up to 185, I can make good money in any organization.

FCF: Are you going to wait for the fights to come or are you aggressively pursuing more fights at 185?
DH: I'm talking with John Lewis right now. I want to fight on his show. I'm interested in working with him so as soon as this fights over with, I'll be talking to him and what ever comes.

FCF: Good luck on your fight.
DH: Thanks a lot.

Post Fight Interview December 15, 2001

FCF: I'm sitting here with Dennis Hallman after his fight with Amaury Bitetti in the inaugural Shogun event. It was a split decision and a very controversial decision. Let me get your initial reactions of the decision.
DH: It's garbage. There's no way. I lost the third round. I won the first two rounds. There's no way else to look at it.

FCF: What would you see the scoring of the rounds to be?
DH: 10-9 me, 10-9 me, 10-9 him. There very best decision in the whole world for him would be 10-9 me, 10-9 me, 10-8 him, but he scored no knockdowns. He did nothing more to me in the third round than I didn't do to him in the first.

FCF: Was the weight a factor as the fight went on?
DH: In the third round I got gassed. First time going hard for fifteen minutes. I mean I did practice, but it's not like a real fight. I gassed in the third, couldn't help it.

FCF: Do you think that it was a direct correlation to your weight gain?
DH: Of course.

FCF: After this fight, are you going back down to 170 or staying at 185?
DH: I'm staying at 185. I just beat this guy. I don't care what the judges say. I'm sick. I just got to finish the fights I guess, go for more submissions.

FCF: Have you ever contested a decision before?
DH: No, I never did. The only other decision I could have contested was with Caol Uno and even Uno thought that I won the fight, but it wasn't so disgustingly biased. One judge had to 10-8, 10-7 for Bitetti in the first and second. How in the hell do you give Bitetti a 10-8 in the first and a 10-7? There's no knockdowns. There's no catches. How do you even justify a 10-8? If this sport is going to survive, you got to have judges that at least know how to judge. I'm going to go to the president. I want someone to review the fight on tape and I want the judges reviewed too. I want the judge to be able to explain how he gave Bitetti a 10-8 in the first and how he can give him a 10-7 in the second. I want that judge to explain how he scored that fight that way and if he can't explain it in a mixed martial arts sane manner to where other mixed martial artists would agree, then I want the judgment over turned. Plain and simple.

FCF: How do you feel that future judging problems can be remedied?
DH: Make sure you have judges that are real judges. You just don't pick someone who has a boxing background, "Oh, you can be a mixed martial arts judge." Judges who know the sport. If you don't know the sport, you shouldn't judge. If you're just a Karate guy, you shouldn't judge. You should be a mixed martial artist or at least be around it to be able to judge. Have a certification. Make these guys get certified. No more BS.

FCF: Thanks for your time.
DH: Thank you.