Following is Part 2 of my translation of Masato's interview with K-1, posted in Japanese on the K-1 site.
Q: Glorious?
A: Yes, I want to go out in glory.
Q: For example?
A: Yesterday, I was going through my videos, and came across some videos of Ernesto Hoost. I felt like I wanted to be like Hoost.
Q: Hoost?
A: Yes, I just watched his fight with Andy Hug where he knocks him out. I felt like this time, I would be Hoost and Souwer would be Hug. I definitely feel like that's how it will be.
Q: After Petrosyan became the 2009 K-1 World MAX Champion, you requested a fight with him. There was a lot of excitement at the time.
A: I could tell what people wanted. I wanted to fight Souwer, but people wanted a fight with Petrosyan. I didn't like it, but that was what people wanted.
Q: He did have quite a strong showing that I guess you couldn't ignore. How did you feel when the fight was canceled after Petrosyan's injury?
A: It meant I could get my revenge against Souwer. It's my destiny -- fate, really. Fate. It gave me that chance. Because, if I were Souwer, I wouldn't do it. There wouldn't be a need to. He's beat me twice. But he wants to fight anyway, even though there's no reason to.
Q: Did you think he might turn down the fight?
A: I would. There's no reason for him to fight me.
Q: He must be confident.
A: Sure he is, but so am I.
Q: So this is really your motivation to beat Souwer.
A: That's right.
Q: Do you feel differently about your last fight?
A: Not at all. It's just another challenge. I would if I were just fighting some easy exhibition fight before retirement. And Souwer might not really want the fight, but for me, it's a challenge. I don't think I'll feel sad or any other emotions until it's really over, because we've trained so hard leading up to the fight.
Q: You don't seem like you're about to retire.
A: I said when I announced my retirement that I wanted to retire at my strongest, and all I'm doing is making good on that.
Source: www.k-1.co.jp
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