FightTicker Exclusive: ICF TurfwaR Post-Event Interview With Tim "The Machine" Cook

After the recent ICF: TurfwaR event, I caught up with a few of the fighters to get thoughts on their match-ups. The first fighter featured in this post-event series is Tim Cook who has previously been featured in FightTicker.com Social Issues Contributor Dave Mayeda's posts here and here.

FightTicker: Tim Cook, fresh off five stitches [over your eye], how are you feeling?

Tim Cook: I’m feeling okay, other than just being beat. My pride’s hurt more than anything.

FT: What did you think about your fight tonight?

Cook: It didn’t really go as planned. I didn’t feel like I could control anything. I had problems getting any kind of a rhythm down. We got to the ground – I knew he was a good wrestler – I tried to stay calm and tried to work my sweeps. I’ve got good submissions, I actually had an armbar I working on, trying to bait him, and I felt like the second I got it locked down, he just nudged his elbow past the cup and got it to safety. When I tried to get back into guard, that’s when he hit me with an elbow that kind of rocked me. I think it actually split me and from that point on, it was hard to kind of get my brains back, just trying to survive from there. It just didn’t go down as planned.

FT: I know you are supposed to have a fight on April 25th – did you get a medical suspension because of the cut tonight?

Cook: Yeah, this is going to be 45 days, so actually April 25th I have the fight set up, but I think mandatory every time you get stitches now in the state of Kentucky, which runs concurrent to Indiana, is a 45-day minimum suspension, which is about right for somebody to safely get back in the cage. I’m ready to fight again, that [the loss] did nothing but anger me – not at him [Daniel Straus], he did his game, I was just really upset with myself. I felt like I couldn’t get anything together. Taking my first [pro] fight under nine days notice – regardless of that, I felt good going into the fight. Right now, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a torn muscle in my back, from the training, which kind of came up out of nowhere, so it was hard for me to throw anything on my right side so I kind of covered and threw a lot of hooks and jabs, overhand stuff, but I think he actually hit me with a kick on the left side after I dropped my hands, so I just couldn’t get things together. I’m pretty upset with myself.

FT: After you got hit with the kick, I saw you trying to reach in tie up his legs – was that just a reflex or do you think the Ref stopped it early?

Cook: I really don’t think that they stopped it early. I know I always watch it – you sit on your couch and watch it with your buddies and don’t understand and you’re like, “Oh, he’s fine, you know, he’s got to be down dying and bleeding” – well that’s not necessarily true. I think it was a good stoppage. It would’ve been real hard for me to get things going from there. I don’t disagree with the stoppage, it was for my safety. It’s a human game of chess and I should’ve never put myself in that position - if I wanted to argue about it I should’ve never dropped my hands and took that kick to the head.

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Cook was a great guy and I’m looking forward to his successful return to the cage. After we were finished talking, it was apparent that even though he was disappointed by the loss, he was ready to go again. As he got ready to leave he took a second to say “This isn’t the end for me. This is my life.”

-PreView