FCF: I'm standing here with Dave Menne, right after beating Jutaro Nakao in Super Brawl XIII [Honolulu, HI, September 7, 1999]. What did you think during and after the fight?
Dave Menne: I tried to stay outside his lead leg, tried to circle left. He did hit me with one of those kicks in the mid-section. But for the most part, I think my circling was working out. It kept him from landing any more. I would have liked to have landed a little more of my hands and opened up, but at this point I was trying to take the win. I did not want to take too many chances, which sometimes can hurt you and sometimes can help you. But I felt like I was winning on points and I felt like I wanted to continue to win and what I was doing was working. So I just pushed what I was doing.

FCF: When you split apart from Nakao on the ground and stood up, apparently to display your dominance by taking down Nakao again, Nakao tried to catch up on some points by coming out with some intense flurries of strikes. Did the flurries have any effect on you? Did any of the strikes hurt you?
DM: Not especially. I covered up on a lot of them because I didn't want to take the punishment or the chance of getting knocked out. I'd have to see the tape, but I felt like I was winning the exchanges. The only thing he really ever hurt me was in the first round when he hit me with a kick to the mid-section. I think I caught it and took him down afterwards and got into the half guard. Besides that, I didn't feel like anything really phased me too much. He hit me and I would cover but, like I said, I felt like I was winning on points I didn't want to take the chance. If I fought him again, I think I would push my endurance in my training. I was a little winded. I didn't get to train the way I would want to for this fight, even though I knew this was a tough fight. I had a lot of other things going in my life. I had to win the fight through adversity [he didn't want to comment on the type of adversity he was going through]. But I think I could dominate on the feet, if I let my hands go more. It's a matter of getting more experience and getting more fights. I would have liked to work that upper cut a little bit more. I didn't get it in there. I threw more crosses and a couple hooks. I guess I'm never really satisfied unless it's perfect.

FCF: And it never is.
DM: And it never is, but I would have liked to work the hands a little more and kept a little bit better form. My endurance should have been a little better. But such is life, you got to take it as it comes.

FCF: You definitely didn't just come up out of no where. You've had some fights and always seemed to come out on the winning side. You have fought in the mid-west and in Japan. Tell us about where you started and your background.
DM: Oh, my background, I have wrestled for years. I was the Minnesota state finalist for wrestling. I walked on in Iowa and wrestled for a couple years. I never started, but it's a tough school. I beat some good college wrestlers and I lost to some good college wrestlers. I don't think I was ever as passionate about wrestling as I am about fighting. I have trained a lot harder for fighting, than I ever did for wrestling, even though I did train extremely hard. You have got to be pretty much obsessive to wrestle at Iowa no matter what, walk on or not. I actually had a scholarship and was recruited by Minnesota, but I…long story there. I started doing some Muay Thai in Santa Fe with one of the Dog Brothers, Arlen Sanford [Salty Dog], who does Kali. I lived with him for a while. I got my first taste of Jiu-Jitsu with some people he knew. And he's a good guy. I moved back to Minnesota and started training more Jiu-Jitsu with Greg Nelson, out of Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. He helped me out a lot, as far as training and giving me the chance to fight. I did some Muay Thai with him and from there I've just been fighting, took a little time off and then traveled again. I have been fighting hard for like a year now, where I have been taking it seriously. For a period of time, that's all I have been doing is fighting twice a month or three times a month. I had some odd jobs, but mostly fighting has been supporting myself.

FCF: What are your aspirations with regard to fighting?
DM: I don't know. I'd like to maximize my potential, which I don't think that I have come anywhere even close to doing yet. The people that train with me realize that. They see the fights that I fight. I have been doing well, but they know my potential, if I open up more and take it where I think I can take it. I'd like to take it to the top, I guess. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to. Of course there's going to be a lot of guys standing in my way.

FCF: Where is the top? A Shooto Championship, the UFC lightweight title?
DM: Anywhere and everywhere, I guess. I'd like to take it to the top anywhere, until I get stopped. I get stopped, I get stopped, that's the way life goes. I don't really care anymore. I just compete. I just don't give a fuck. [laughs] I don't like losing, I hate losing. It takes a little bit of your soul every time you lose or something. I really don't like it, but I don't dwell on it before a fight. I just go out there to fight, I guess. Before the fights now, I don't have a lot of anxiety. Ten years from now, I'm going to be 35 [years old] and I'm probably not going to fight anymore, but I hope to be able to look back and know that I got to go to a lot of places and hopefully start to make a little money. That would be nice.

FCF: Do you want to become a teacher or do you just want to fight until you can't anymore and then do something else?
DM: Yeah, I thought about it, there's people who want me to open my own school in my home town, in Minnesota. It's up north a little bit. I'm kind of tied in at the place I'm training now. Right now it's kind of like a crossroads for me, I've won a lot of fights and people are beginning to look at me and there are some opportunities. And I'll take those opportunities. But it's like this fight, I fought kind of conservatively because I know if I lose a fight like this, for the most part, I would have to win ten more fights to get to where I am right now. Nakao on the other hand, if he loses a fight, it might not be that great for him, but he's established in Japan a little bit. I'm not really established, I live in the mid-west, no one's really taking me that seriously. Some are here and there, but at this point in my career if I lose a fight it's a big thing. That takes a little bit away from my fighting because I have to win in order to continue.

FCF: How was your experience in Japan? What do you think about the Japanese fighters?
DM: Great fighters, good technique. I love fighting in Japan, personally because they treat you really well and their productions are really nice. Everything goes smooth, from here to there. The fighters are all professional. You don't see a lot of hoopla. They just go in to fight, some are getting a little more flashy than others, but I'm more of a guy who just goes in there to fight, win or lose, then you leave. I'm not going to put on a wig and put on a jig in the middle of the ring.

FCF: What's up next for you?
DM: I'd like to put on a little more weight, like 5 lbs. of muscle. Actually I'd would like to put on 10 lbs. of muscle for the Abu Dhabi [World Submission Wrestling Championships] because I will be fighting in a weight class one above what I should. I have four or five months to try and pack on more muscle. I won the qualifier [to compete in Abu Dhabi], so I have to train for that. I have a big lightweight tournament in November, a lot of stuff but you know, you got to stay busy, stay sharp and keep on training.

FCF: What kind of things do you feel you have to work on or improve upon?
DM: Getting more confident while I'm in there, and hitting what I know I can hit. Doing transitions from hitting to takedowns and hitting to submissions. That's a big part of what I'm working now. You know your working your ballistics to your pull muscles, sometimes it's hard to ingrain that in your head or get that into your body because it's got to be a reaction. I'm doing a lot of timing sparring, with take downs, hit to submissions, circling and hitting, just more of the finesse of the fight. I tend to not have problems with the tenacity, I don't quit too easily. I keep on coming, so I'd like to work on subtleties of fighting.

FCF: Any specific fighters that you want to fight?
DM: Uh…no. [laughs]. I'll fight whoever comes. We'll see. I don't like saying that, that's not my style. Whoever's at the top, maybe not now, but in a couple weeks. [laughs].

FCF: Thanks and congratulations on another win.
DM: Thanks.