MMARising.com: Has John given you any specific advice yet or have you really had any time to prepare for Daley at all?

Martin: I haven’t really had any time to prepare for him yet, but another guy that I train with, Jay Hieron, was supposed to face Daley in Affliction. Jay had a pretty good breakdown of what Daley does and he was mimicking him pretty well, so I’ll probably do some more of that stuff this week.

MMARising.com: Yeah, that really ties back to getting to train with the best, especially when they’ve been set to face opponents of yours in the past. Can you offer a prediction as to how you see the fight with Daley going and how it comes to an end?

Martin: I don’t care if I knock him out or get a submission. I’m going to try to win either way. As long as I get the W, I’m happy. As long as it’s a good fight, that’s what I’m going for.

MMARising.com: The fight was originally set to be a #1 contender’s bout to determine the next challenger for UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. Daley is obviously not someone that you want to overlook at all, but if you get past him and move on to face St. Pierre, what are your thoughts on that fight?

Martin: Actually, I’m not sure if this is going to be a #1 contender’s fight now that Swick’s pulled out because Swick has a lot more name recognition than Daley does here in the States. No disrespect to Daley at all because he’s a really tough guy, but he doesn’t have the same name recognition here that Swick does.

I don’t know if this fight has the same contendership status as the one with Swick, but that’s up to the UFC. As far as I know, I shouldn’t expect to get the title shot right away now. It doesn’t matter, though, because I’m going one fight at a time.

It was the same thing with Swick, too. First, you have to get past him and then you can worry about the next fight. As far as the title contendership, I don’t want people to say that I didn’t earn it, so when I do earn it, I would love to fight GSP.

MMARising.com: I would think that you would probably still be next in line for a title shot if you got past Daley, but maybe the UFC will have another fight for you afterwards. Outside of simply continuing to find success in the UFC, what are your other goals for the upcoming year?

Martin: Well, I’d still really like to fight Swick, but like I said, I’m not looking past anybody. I’ve still got to beat Daley. As for my goals, I just want to keep moving up the ladder. I had a goal to become ranked in the top 10 and I was very happy to accomplish that.

Now, I have a goal to become a champion as well, so I just keep striving higher and try to reach as high as I can. We’ll see how far that goes. There’s a lot of tough fighters out there and tough fights, but you’ve got to strive high.

MMARising.com: If you were able to capture UFC gold at some point in the next year, what would that mean for your career and for your life as a whole?

Martin: Oh, it’d be great. It would be like a dream come true.

MMARising.com: Do you have any final comments or thanks that you would like to pass along to fans or sponsors?

Martin: Thanks to all of the guys at Xtreme Couture for helping me train for this fight. Thanks to Hitman Fight Gear and MMA Agents. Thanks to all of the fans for their support. I appreciate it.

MMARising.com: Thank you very much for taking the time for this interview. We wish you all the best for your fight at UFC 103.

Martin: No problem, man. Thank you.

MMARising.com sincerely thanks Martin for his time for this interview, and we look forward to his fight with Paul “Semtex” Daley at UFC 103 on September 19th.