This Saturday July 18, Music City MMA will host “Rock & Havoc” at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. Headlining the card will be Ultimate Fighter veterans Shane Primm (2-1) of TUF 8 taking on Mike Dolce (4-6) of TUF 7.

Shane Primm began his mixed martial arts training in 2004 about 45 minutes southeast of Nashville, in Murfreesboro, Tenn. at Guardian MMA. He eventually turned pro, began training at Gracie Tampa, and was cast for The Ultimate Fighter season 8.

After losing his last bout back in December against the larger and much more experienced Krzysztof Soszynski at the TUF 8 Finale, Shane is moving down to middleweight for the first time. Shane will be looking to get back on track and what better place to do it than in front of his home crowd? PRO MMA (promma.info) recently caught up with Shane for a few questions.

PRO MMA: This is your first fight at 185, obviously with your height and natural size you should have a pretty good size advantage over many of your opponents as a middleweight. Have you seen noticeable improvements in speed, endurance, or any other attributes of your game at 185 as opposed to 205?
SHANE PRIMM:Seeing as I was fighting at 202 in the 205 division I didn’t really have to diet to make 185. I did though. Cut out a lot of fat, worked on a lot of fast twitch exercises and cardio. Overall I feel great. As far as I know I’m the biggest 185er around, and that’s much better than being by far the smallest 205er. I’m faster, stronger, and my cardio is excellent. I should have made this cut a long time ago.

PRO MMA:You are headlining the Music City MMA event this weekend against another TUF veteran in Mike Dolce. He is coming up to185 from 170. How do you think you match up with his strengths as a fighter?
SHANE PRIMM:I think its a good matchup for me. Standing, wrestling, and jits wise I feel I have an edge. He is good though so I’m prepared for a war, and to be honest I’m very excited about that.

PRO MMA: What was the number one thing that you walked away with following your time in the house on The Ultimate Fighter?
SHANE PRIMM: That I would never be able to survive in prison.

PRO MMA:You are from Murfreesboro, but have been training in Tampa with Rob Kahn at Gracie Tampa. Should we expect to see you fighting more in this area as MMA events are becoming more frequent with the recent legalization here in Tennessee, or do you have your sights set on getting back into a national organization?
SHANE PRIMM:I definitely am looking at getting back in the UFC, but I don’t want to rush it. I want to get a good 6+ fights under my belt at 185 and make sure the next time I step in the UFC’s Octagon, I make a statement. Tiiimmme is on my side…

PRO MMA: I know you have trained in the past with UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. What did you learn from your time training with him, and how did that training improve your game?
SHANE PRIMM: Honestly I stole a large amount of his game and incorporated it into my own. I’m not as fluid at it obviously as he is, but give me 4 years to work on that haha. Overall he showed me that you don’t approach a fight like “I have to win” you go in there expecting to win, but your only real job is to perform to your ability. After that, it’s fate.

PRO MMA:What do you consider to be your biggest improvements since the show’s (TUF) finale?
SHANE PRIMM:I hate saying this but, everything. I’m three times the fighter I even thought I was back then. That has little to do with me too, I just showed up. The credit for that goes to all my trainers, Rob Kahn, Joe “Bamboo” Wissmann, Jeremy “Butter” Thurlow, and Dan Rawlings, and then all my training partners. With that said, I never guarantee wins, but I guarantee I’ll bring my A game and fight my ass off and put on a good show. We are going to try to end this one early, and then, watch out Nashville.

PRO MMA: Is there anyone you want to thank or do you want to send any shout-outs?
SHANE PRIMM: I want to thank all my sponsors: Fighter Warehouse, Full Tilt Poker, Combat-IN-Effect, Aroundtheoctagon.com and of course you guys Denny and PRO MMA (promma.info), keep up the good work.

By:  Denny Hodge

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