Recently John Edwards of Shamrock FC Radio had a chance to interview Cedric Marks. Marks, a veteran of Xtreme Fighting Championships has also squared off versus former UFC fighters Pete Spratt, Drew Fickett and Yves Edwards. Cedric is preparing for his upcoming Main Event match on the Shamrock FC OnSlaught card versus “Vicious” Bobby Voelker which takes place this Saturday Night at Ameristar Casino & Hotel in Kansas City, MO.
Shamrock FC Radio: Thanks for a few minutes of your time. You are a guy with more than fifty professional matches under your belt, does the training get old?
Cedric Marks: Actually I always have to do this but I actually have over seventy professional bouts, most online websites don’t keep track of all the fights, all the non-sanctioned fights before the commissions came in. Training is what it is; training is a way of life for me so even if I wasn’t fighting I’d still be training.
Shamrock FC Radio: You are a fighter who can stand up and also you can take fights to the ground, which one are you more comfortable with?
Cedric Marks: Stand up for sure, if you look at my record most of my losses have come by submission, but I’ve won most of mine by beating people up I’m not big into getting people into submissions, one of the things I’m most proud of is the fact that I have never been KO’d or TKO’d in a fight, so that’s what I’m bringing to the game.
Shamrock FC Radio: How did you get started in MMA, you have been around the game a long time now?
Cedric Marks: It was very much by accident, I wanted to fight and I saw the first UFC and it juiced me up and started me on that path. In late 1998, I was helping a friend who was getting out of the Army down here in Fort Hood and I just happened to pass a kickboxing gym here and I asked to spar and of course they told me I couldn’t just spar with students but if I wanted to fight they were having an event at the Bell County Expo. They gave me the number of the promoter, and my first fight was against Anthony Macias and back then I had no idea who that guy was because there was no YouTube but apparently he was already a UFC vet. I lost that match but I loved it so much and did so well they offered me a job to teach mixed martial arts and I moved to Texas from Oklahoma and started my fighting career there.
Shamrock FC Radio: You and your opponent both like to stand up, are you expecting a fifteen minute war?
Cedric Marks: From what I understand he has a pretty solid wrestling background, with both of us having solid stand up what I found out in the past is when you hit someone hard enough they get tired of getting hit and they are gonna try to take it somewhere else, so we will see which one of us decides to make that decision. I know he can take a lot of damage so I’ve heard; I’ve only watched two of his fights and from what I’ve seen he can take a lot of damage and obviously I can take a lot of damage too so we will see we may be two very beat up individuals that night but somebody’s got to win and somebody’s got to lose but I’m expecting to be the winner that night.
Shamrock FC Radio: Do you have a prediction for this fight?
Cedric Marks: I don’t ever try to make too many predictions; you always look stupid when you’re waking up on the canvas when you’re because of making a prediction; but of course I’m looking to do my thing which is to KO or TKO this guy; I never look for a TKO because it tells me I didn’t put my guy to sleep and that’s what I’d prefer to do to any opponent.
Shamrock FC Radio: Cedric, I appreciate a few minutes of your time and good luck this weekend
Cedric Marks: Thank you