Author: Ben Fowlkes

For Brendan Schaub, Nothing Motivates Like Sheer Terror

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveWHEAT RIDGE, Colo. – Enough about the ear. It’s big, red, and it stings something fierce anytime someone touches it. When your job consists of hitting and being hit all day, that happens fairly often, so it’s not as …

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WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. – Enough about the ear. It’s big, red, and it stings something fierce anytime someone touches it. When your job consists of hitting and being hit all day, that happens fairly often, so it’s not as if Brendan Schaub is any danger of forgetting about the mass of tissue hanging off the left side of his head.

Still, the remarks keep coming, mostly from Grudge’s head trainer, Trevor Wittman.

“Can you even hear through that thing?” he asks. Yes, Schaub can hear, perhaps a little too well when it comes to the non-stop cracks about his ear.

“Does it hurt?” Wittman wants to know. It hurts like hell, Schaub tells him, and talking about it doesn’t seem to be helping all that much.

Despite Love of Boxing, Trevor Wittman Happy to Have Moved on to MMA

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveWHEAT RIDGE, Colo. – Trevor Wittman has a case of strep throat. Maybe. At least, there’s a chance he does, and for a top MMA trainer, a chance is too much.

In his line of work, which requires getting right in the f…

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WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. – Trevor Wittman has a case of strep throat. Maybe. At least, there’s a chance he does, and for a top MMA trainer, a chance is too much.

In his line of work, which requires getting right in the faces of elite professional fighters who are anywhere from several months to several days away from important fights, he can’t risk the possibility that he might accidentally infect them. They have enough to worry about, and he can practically feel the white spots popping up on the back of his throat every time he swallows. This explains his uniform for today.

“I swear I don’t normally dress like a ninja,” the 35-year-old Wittman explains as he leads me into his little office inside the Grudge Training Center.

Falling Action: Best and Worst of UFC’s Fight for the Troops 2

Filed under: UFCOn Saturday night the troops at Ft. Hood got a show worthy of getting dressed up in camouflage for, and the UFC raised a considerable chunk of change for brain trauma survivors — a good night for all outside of the cage.

Inside the ca…

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On Saturday night the troops at Ft. Hood got a show worthy of getting dressed up in camouflage for, and the UFC raised a considerable chunk of change for brain trauma survivors — a good night for all outside of the cage.

Inside the cage, however, we saw some stars rise while others went plummeting down. Won’t you join me below for a look at the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between after the UFC’s Fight for the Troops 2 event?

The Truth About Trading Tomorrow for Today

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, FanHouse ExclusiveFor 15 years, Frank Shamrock suffered through the bumps, bruises, and breaks that come along with being a pro fighter, and he never had to wonder whether it was worth it.

Not until one afternoon when h…

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For 15 years, Frank Shamrock suffered through the bumps, bruises, and breaks that come along with being a pro fighter, and he never had to wonder whether it was worth it.

Not until one afternoon when he was on his living room floor, trying to help his baby daughter learn to walk. A sudden back spasm struck him – one of many in a career plagued with lower back problems – and briefly paralyzed him on the floor.

“My daughter was around one [year old] at the time, so she didn’t know what was going on,” Shamrock said. “But I was like, I can’t even get up to help her, so I’m not sure how much more of this I should be doing. That’s about when I decided to stop.”

Suddenly, The Idea of Fighting Seems ‘Very Stupid’ to Pat Barry

Filed under: UFCPat Barry may be the only fighter in the UFC who’s willing to admit it, but he’s pretty sure he’s not the only one who feels it.

When his impending fight against Joey Beltran at the UFC’s Fight for the Troops 2 finally began to seem a …

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Pat Barry may be the only fighter in the UFC who’s willing to admit it, but he’s pretty sure he’s not the only one who feels it.

When his impending fight against Joey Beltran at the UFC’s Fight for the Troops 2 finally began to seem a little more real this week, he wasn’t exactly feeling eager to get in there and slug it out. More like eager to get it over with.

“Honestly, I don’t think it’s anything new or particular to me,” Barry said. “I think most guys feel this, but they won’t tell you. Hell man, I can admit it. It’s the week of the fight; I don’t want to fight no more. You know? [Laughs] It’s like all of a sudden, the idea of fighting is very stupid.”

Melvin Guillard Aims to Silence Detractors in Fight Against Dunham

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveMelvin Guillard woke up one morning and realized that he had to change his life. Then he did. It’s as simple as that, the UFC lightweight told MMA Fighting.

“I made a lot of mistakes after my father died,” said Guil…

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Melvin Guillard woke up one morning and realized that he had to change his life. Then he did. It’s as simple as that, the UFC lightweight told MMA Fighting.

“I made a lot of mistakes after my father died,” said Guillard. “I made a lot of excuses for myself, and that’s something I don’t do now. I don’t make excuses. Everything I did, I did because I wanted to do. Nobody ever forced me to do anything. I used my dad’s death as a scapegoat to be able to get away with things I was doing, and that was wrong. My dad taught me not to make excuses, and using his death as an excuse is one of the most hurtful things I could have done.”

Some of Guillard’s personal problems are already a matter of public record, such as when he tested positive for cocaine following a loss to Joe Stevenson in 2007. But beyond just that, Guillard said, was a core problem with his attitude toward life.