Suture Magazine - Do you think fighting for Elite XC is the greatest accomplishment of you career?
Jaime Jara – Probably so far… between them and PFC (Palace Fighting Championships) I think there both pretty big events, so yeah.
SM – You have won multiple titles in many different organizations, what would it mean to you to win a title in Elite?
JJ – It would be, to me, just another belt you know, but it would be an honor though.
SM – You hold the Pure Combat belt at Middleweight; would you hold the Elite XC belt higher than that?
JJ – Yeah I have the Pure Combat belt, and if you're asking if I would hold it higher, yeah I think so, because Robbie Lawler has that belt right now, and he's one of the best fighters, that I think at that weight. That would be a big accomplishment if I were to be able to take that belt from him.
SM – With all of your experience, how do you expect to perform under the Elite XC banner?
JJ – I fought for Elite XC before, I did well. I knocked Jeremiah Metcalf out in the first fight that I fought for Elite XC. The second fight, I fought against Seth Kleinbeck and I didn't do so well. So Im 1 and 1 with Elite XC right now.
SM – So what do you think about your opponent your fighting on the 26th?
JJ – Cheva? I think he's got some really good Jiu Jitsu, you'd have to have some good Jiu Jitsu to have 11 wins with 10 wins by arm bars. I think Im more well rounded than him. I mean he's got good Jiu Jitsu, but I got good stand up and I got ok Jiu Jitsu too. If you look at my last wins, I mean I got just as many wins by submission as he does, but I know he's like a world champion in Jiu Jitsu, Im not going to play his game, my stand up is good so I have no reason you know to go down to the ground, I mean Im going to punish him, he's going to wanna go to the ground and Im going to punish him.
SM – That's what I was going to ask, what kind of game plan are you going in there with?
JJ – My game plan is to not play his game. He wants to do Jiu Jitsu? Fine we'll stand and he has to take me down. And Im a good wrestler so unless he's a better wrestler than me and able to take me down, he's gonna have a hard time with me. Im in pretty good shape, I took this fight on short notice too, and Im in good shape considering I only had 2 weeks to train for it.
SM – Did you take the Pure Combat fight on short notice as well too?
JJ – No, I knew about that fight ahead of time, thank god because it was five 5 minute rounds, so I was in good shape for that fight, I was ready to do it…Steve Heath was a tough opponent too, that guy man, that guys got some heart.
SM – Who do you think your toughest opponent to date is?
JJ – Id have to say Rashad Evans, he was pretty tough
SM – Do you think you earned the right to fight for the UFC?
JJ – I think I've earned the right to fight anywhere, on any organization, I mean I've been busting my butt man, you know.
SM – Seems like you're fighting consistently.
JJ – Yeah Im fighting every 6- 8 weeks, yeah I'll fight anyone, I don't care, you know for the right amount of money I'll fight anyone.
SM – Hows your training regiment? I mean what do you do on training days?
JJ – I wake up, I have breakfast, I have about an hour before I need to be at Cassio Werneck's Gym. Im at Cassios at 11am, you know I'm there from 11am – 12:30pm training. I come home, I eat, I take a little break then Im off to my gym, and I work my boxing there. I was going to Cassio's for his night class but Im working my conditioning pretty hard and so its taking a lot out of me. So I train twice a day, I train pretty hard, Im putting my time in, so you know my opponent better keep his hands up and his chin down.
SM – Team Carnage is going through some facility and location changes, you wanna tell me a little about that?
JJ - Man, every time we get into a location, it seems like its not zoned for an MMA team to be there, so we get everything set up, were training for fights then we get evicted out of the places. There not zoned for a fight team, you know, so were bouncing around, you know, were just trying to make due right now… we gotta do with what we got.
SM – Any goals you want to accomplish before you step away from the game?
JJ – I'd like to collect a couple more belts, Im lookin' to get that PFC belt next. Id like to put myself in a situation where I can somehow, when Im done fighting, make money somewhere along, you know teaching, or coaching, or having my own gym or something along the lines of the fighting game. I got a couple of teammates coming up that I'd like to see get into belts and so I wanna be around to help those guys too.
SM – So on a different note, theres a lot of misconceptions about the tattoo that you have on your chest. The HATE tattoo, do have any background or any meaning of that tattoo?
JJ – The reason I got that, is for my opponents to see, you know, I like getting into peoples heads, the more I can get into my opponents heads, the better it is for me. I got that for my opponents, I got it in big red letters just for my opponents. Hahaha
SM – Any plans on adding more tattoos after this fight on the 26th?
JJ – Hahaha, man, as long as I have room on my body Im getting tattooed.
SM – right on, right on, so anything you wanna say to your fans and supporters.
JJ - I want to thank all of my fans for there support when I fight. Especially when I fight here in Sacramento, all the fans that come out and support me, I want to thank them.
SM – Well good look on the 26th Jaime, Im looking forward to some good action on ShoXC