ICF 13 Post-Event Interview with Marcus Finch (9/9/09)

A few weeks ago, I attended ICF 13 at the ICF Fight Club in Cincinnati, Ohio. Among the exciting fights that went down that night was a match between Marcus Finch and George Oiler for the 185 amateur title. It was a three-round war between two extremely talented guys and an easy choice for Fight of the Night. I caught up with Marcus after the event to speak with him about his win.

Here is what Marcus had to say.

Brian Furby: Marcus, you had what looked like a tough unanimous decision win over George Oiler tonight – how’d you feel going into the fight?

Marcus Finch: I felt good. I knew we had a gameplan we had to execute – George is dangerous on the ground, very very dangerous on the ground so I knew if I could nullify his takedown and stay the hell away from the ground I would be okay. I got a little discouraged in the second round because I slipped [and fell] but I ended up getting my guard and I was comfortable there.

Brian Furby: You defended your 185 belt tonight – how soon do you think you’ll fight again?

Marcus Finch: I just want to do some more training. I feel like I had a lot of mistakes. The only thing I really liked was that I had good takedown defense. I could’ve struck more, but I just should’ve looked for more angles and moved more.

Brian Furby: Are you still feeling good at 185?

Marcus Finch: Yeah, I feel good. I wouldn’t mind going up to 205 since I was originally supposed to fight Mark Crawn [Oiler’s teammate], I wouldn’t mind that if Steve okayed it. I walk around at 205 anyway.

Brian Furby: So are you going to chill out for a little bit now or get right back to training?

Marcus Finch: I will be training Sunday [in two days]. I’d do it tomorrow, but I have to take my daughter school shopping [laughs].

Brian Furby: Congratulations, Marcus – anybody you want to give a shout out to?

Marcus Finch: I would like to thank Steve Stanton, the one that put this together and made it possible for me to showcase my talent. Chad Hinton, the person who welcomed me into his gym and let me turn it into a home. All my coaches, they give me a lot of one-on-one, and I’ve been training with all of them - my muay thai coach Dahei Haile, my American kickboxing coach Marty Sloan, my jiu jitsu coach Corey Boyle, probably the most unorthodox jiu jitsu guy there is right now, and he gears it all toward MMA; my boxing coach Brian Kinamore, and I’d like to thank the Lord.