205 Live: 5 questions with UFC light heavyweight contender Misha Cirkunov

Calling Misha Cirkunov "white hot" would be an understatement.

In a division starving for fresh stars, the fast-rising light heavyweight has forced his way into the contenders' conversation with finishes in his first four UFC appearances. Cirkunov re-upped with the promotion in March and he's set to co-headline an event in Stockholm this Sunday against Volkan Oezdemir.

Heading into the biggest fight of his career, Cirkunov spoke to theScore to sound off on Canadian pride, where he sees himself in the 205-lb division, and how Georges St-Pierre's comeback has left him deflated:

UFC president Dana White made it sound like there were some difficulties in your contract negotiations, how was the vibe on your end?

There was never any personal or any kind of problems. It's a negotiation and I've never really been doing those negotiations myself. Before, I got a contract and I honored the contract and I go and fight. But in this case, we're talking about the elite of the elite and being in the top 10 and all of those things. So it took a little bit of time.

But it wasn't that bad. It was under three or four weeks, something like that. In my opinion, it worked out pretty fast because some other negotiations go months and months and months before people come to an agreement. In my case, it was a lot faster and I'm just very, very thankful to Dana White and (matchmaker) Mick Maynard and everyone in the UFC that we were able to come up with a good agreement and move things forward.

You're based out of Toronto, but born in Riga, when you step into the cage do you feel you're representing both Canada and Latvia?

When I step in the cage, number one I represent Misha Cirkunov. I put everything on the line, I put my face on the line, I represent myself.

Having said that, I do feel like I'm a Canadian. I've been in this country since I was 12 years old. I'm 31 now, so more than half of my life I've lived here. I represented this country in judo, in wrestling, in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and now mixed martial arts. ... I represented this country in four different sports internationally and I feel like I've represented it really well. I'm happy to call myself Canadian and I'm going to keep doing that.

When you fought Nikita Krylov at UFC 206 in Toronto last December, were you able to fully appreciate the moment?

Before the fight I try to zone in because as I was walking out I saw so many of my friends and teammates and people that I know. I was so impressed because everywhere I looked I saw familiar faces. So I tried not to pay attention to that, but then after I won the fight and I got on the cage and I yelled and then seeing the response that I got from the crowd, I've never experienced anything like that ever in my life.

It was mind blowing. Eighteen thousand people screaming and yelling and everyone was so happy. It was a breathtaking moment, I'll never forget it. It was one of the coolest experiences in my mixed martial arts career that day when I got on the cage, seeing the response, how genuinely happy the public was that I won. It was amazing.

How close are you to being ready to compete for the UFC light heavyweight championship?

The reality is I'm fighting Volkan Oezdemir right now and he's ranked No. 5. If everything goes according to plan I'll be able to beat him and I'll be ranked top four or five and I'm in that mix of super dangerous guys, now I'm one of them too.

I'm going to be coming with many wins under my belt as well. A lot of those wins are not just decisions or close calls, they're solid stoppages. I feel like the time will come and slowly, with hard work, I will earn my chance to represent Canada anywhere in the world.

Speaking of Canada, Georges St-Pierre is one of your idols. As both a fan and a peer, what are your thoughts on how he's handled his comeback?

I was a little bit disappointed in terms of him having a crazy opportunity to fight (Michael Bisping for the middleweight title) on pay-per-view and make amazing money and I'm surprised that he didn't jump on it. He kind of said that he's interested, then we didn't hear anything. … I know myself and other fighters would kill to be in that position and to have the possibility to fight for the belt. I was disappointed that it took him so long to come back and when he did come back with an answer it was after summer, but then it's not after summer, it's after October.

I wish GSP came back sooner because he's a professional athlete. He's not married, he doesn't have kids, all he does is fight. If he doesn't want to fight - I don't know. I wish that he was fighting. He's in his prime, you know? Why would you not fight?

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)