Cutting weight is never easy. Dieting down 15 pounds while training full-time as a professional fighter with one’s home gym next door to the Original Pancake House is probably Hell.
That was the calorie-pinching task set in front of Dan Miller for his welterweight debut last June. The svelte, 170-pound Miller was successful in not only making the cut, but he earned a hard fought Submission of the Night victory via third round guillotine choke. It’s a new weight class, but it’s the same granite chin and the same fight-ending chokes UFC fans have come to expect from him.
“I know there are a lot of good fighters at 170 pounds, but I faced a lot of good fighters at 185 pounds,” states Miller. “I think mentally I could hang with some of the best at 185 pounds. There are still going to be tough fights at 170 pounds, but I’m pretty sure I can hang with every single one of them.”
The Pine Plaza on route 10 in Whippany, New Jersey unassumingly holds two hidden gems in its strip mall: one of the best MMA gyms in AMA Fight Club and, arguably, the best bacon this writer has ever eaten at the Original Pancake House. While one is busy deliciously fattening up America, the other is creating lean and mean fighting machines like the 14-6, 1 NC Dan Miller and his younger brother, UFC lightweight Jim. After a 5-5 record as an undersized middleweight inside the Octagon, with the losses only coming by way of decision, Miller’s negative attitude about dropping divisions finally changed after being physically outmatched by the incredibly muscular Rousimar Palhares at UFC 134.
“The guy is just a beast,” remembers Miller. “It was hard for me to compete in that fight because I physically couldn’t keep up with him. Mentally and far as talent goes, I think I matched him well. Physically, there was one time when I shot in to take him down and he, literally, just took me with one hand and threw me against the cage. I fell back and he just jumped on top of me and was pounding my head. It was just one of those things where I was like I either need to get a lot stronger or I need to cut. I think it was a pretty clear path that it was time for me to move. It was probably a little late. I probably should’ve made the move earlier in my career, but I was stubborn. I wanted to avenge those losses and I feel like I was in pretty much every single one of those fights.”
At UFC on FX in Atlantic City, there didn’t appear to be an ounce of ring rust on Miller following a 10 month layoff when battling Brazilian “Golden Boy” Ricardo Funch. “When I was walking in, it felt like it was yesterday, it felt like there was no time off,” tells Miller, who took the fight to the Team Link prospect for two full rounds before dropping Funch in the third with punches and capitalizing with a submission. The guillotine finisher has become Miller’s trademark with his nearly decapitating, highlight reel standing guillotine on Dave Phillips in the IFL as well as his lightning fast 63 second choke of Jake Rosholt and his power guillotine, aka “ninja choke,” of John Salter at UFC 118.
“If you’re going to put your head there, then I’m going to try and choke you,” affirms Miller. “He kept putting his head down, so I kept reaching for it. It really wasn’t until the third round because I kept trying to do a standing guillotine. I kept trying to wrap him up, and Jim actually yelled at me in between rounds to stop going for a standing guillotine and to commit to it, commit to the guillotine because I had it. A couple times, I had it under the neck and if I had committed to it earlier maybe I would have been able to finish him earlier, you never know. I had it under his chin and Jim yelled at me in between rounds and when I locked it up in the third he said, ‘Commit to it!’ And I did in the third. I jumped into the guillotine and I finished him.”
The 31-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has put his grappling skills to good use, with nine of his 14 wins via submission finish. With a background in wrestling at Sparta High School, Miller and his brother began training BJJ in June 2005 with their eyes set on fighting professionally, which they started doing six months later. Brothers who learn armbars together get black belts together, and the Millers got theirs under Jamie Cruz, who is a black belt under Renzo Gracie; specifically, Dan received his in January 2010. Recently, the Millers have continued their ground training inside the Gracie tree of black belts with Brian McLaughlin of Precision MMA, a black belt under Rob Kahn who is UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie’s first black belt.
“I wasn’t a standout wrestler,” says Miller. “I was a good local Jersey wrestler. I was a district champ. I took second in regionals, but I never made it to states, so I was ok. I probably had better wrestling than most guys at the time when I started training, but now we have a lot of Division I wrestlers we’re training with and I can’t even compete with. But Jim and I from the beginning, we wanted to learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I didn’t want to use my wrestling to beat up Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys; I wanted to be a black belt. I wanted to learn this sport. Right from the beginning, I always started on my back. In the beginning, I thought I was going to be able to knock everyone out (laughs). I was going to be a sprawl and brawl, Chuck Liddell. After training and doing it, I have a knack for grabbing a hold of somebody’s neck. I have a good scramble, and I usually catch guys in a scramble. I can wrap up their neck and I’m just able to beat guys in that way.”
A win against a game opponent, a W in a new division, a SOTN bonus, and a third round stoppage (the first of his career) are all well and good, but Miller’s noticeable tears of joy in the cage weren’t entirely about his solid performance. Outside of the cage, Miller has received a lot of attention and support concerning the health issues of his son Daniel Jr. After a successful living donor kidney transplant from his Aunt Kathy in September, Miller tweeted, “Surgery went well today, never thought I’d be so happy to see some pee!” Danny is making great strides physically, urinating like a champ to his father’s delight, and is providing tons of positive motivation to his happy dad.
“He’s been doing awesome,” gushes Miller. “He’s been making leaps and bounds in physical strength. Just everything. Before the transplant, it was tough on him and he wasn’t walking. But basically before he got sick in January he was scooting around, he had just learned that, but he kind of lost that with him having the stroke. But now, he’s standing and he’s this close to walking. He said ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ before, and now he’s talking in sentences. Everything is just kind of exploding. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds and see what he’s going to be able to physically do. It’s awesome.”
Up next for Miller is a Montreal melee at UFC 158 against former Strikeforce standout Jordan Mein. At only 23 years old, “Young Gun” has a tremendous amount of cagefighting experience with 34 fights and a record of 26-8. The Canadian, trained by his father Lee Mein, captured MMA fans’ attention with his vicious TKO by elbows win over Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in the Strikeforce cage. Mein is a known for his aggression and the majority of his wins are due to KO/TKO (14).
“I think he’s a tough fighter,” admits Miller. “He’s very good all over the place. He’s got good striking, he’s quick, good elbows, good knees. It’s going to be a good fight and I’m excited to get in there with him. I expect it to be a three round fight, but I’m going to be going for the finish the whole time. I expect a tough fight from him. It’s going to be tough to take him down, tough to put him in bad positions, but I think when I get in there, when I hit him, it’s going to change everything.”
In preparation for the bout, Miller is busy training with head coach Mike Constantino and the bevy of pro fighters at Constantino’s AMA Fight Club. Besides the previously mentioned McLaughlin, Miller has been working on his ground game with Penn State University wrestler Jared Platt, who will be making his MMA debut in April. As far as the standup game, Miller has had a slew of coaches who have helped in that area, but it wasn’t until he met John Fagan of Final Round Boxing and Fitness that Miller’s development as a striker really hit its stride.
“I want to evolve into a fantastic striker,” reveals Miller. “I want to be able to choose where I want to go. I want to be able to beat people up on their feet and when they feel threatened and they can’t handle that anymore, then take it to the ground and submit them. I want to be great at every aspect. Jim and I didn’t train much striking when we first started and I didn’t really have a coach that I ever clicked with. I have had fantastic striking coaches, but I never really clicked with any of them. Now, I have a striking coach I click with. When John and I hit pads, we don’t really have to say anything and we hit pads and we go through it. Finally, it’s clicking for me. My striking is improving a lot. Not that I didn’t have good coaches in the past, it was just never that connection that you need to learn it. I obviously got better before, but it was never at the speed that it needed to be.”
The final piece of the puzzle that every fighter needs is a solid chin, and Miller’s famed iron jaw is all thanks to good genetics. “Our father has probably the hardest head out of anyone and I have the exact same shaped head,” says Miller, who then provided an amusing anecdote about his dad getting walloped on the back of the skull on a construction job by two 2×6’s. “It looked like he had another head growing out of his head, but no concussion or nothing. It knocked him completely out of the forklift, onto the ground, and he got right up with this huge thing on his head and his eyes were bloodshot, but he got right up. He just has this hard head and everyone says I look exactly like him, so I kind of knew I was going to have a hard head.”
This Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada, welterweights will collide as Miller meets Mein inside the Octagon. “I want to go in there, beat him up, take him down, and submit him,” affirms Miller, who will look to put together a win streak at his new weight class and give fight fans a show while doing it. “I want the fans to be entertained. I want the fans to think I’m an exciting fighter to watch. I obviously want to go in there and put on a good fight, and I want to go in there and finish him dominantly.”
With a win over Mein, someone needs to throw Miller a pancakes and bacon after party.
Cutting weight is never easy. Dieting down 15 pounds while training full-time as a professional fighter with one’s home gym next door to the Original Pancake House is probably Hell.
That was the calorie-pinching task set in front of Dan Miller for his welterweight debut last June. The svelte, 170-pound Miller was successful in not only making the cut, but he earned a hard fought Submission of the Night victory via third round guillotine choke. It’s a new weight class, but it’s the same granite chin and the same fight-ending chokes UFC fans have come to expect from him.
“I know there are a lot of good fighters at 170 pounds, but I faced a lot of good fighters at 185 pounds,” states Miller. “I think mentally I could hang with some of the best at 185 pounds. There are still going to be tough fights at 170 pounds, but I’m pretty sure I can hang with every single one of them.”
The Pine Plaza on route 10 in Whippany, New Jersey unassumingly holds two hidden gems in its strip mall: one of the best MMA gyms in AMA Fight Club and, arguably, the best bacon this writer has ever eaten at the Original Pancake House. While one is busy deliciously fattening up America, the other is creating lean and mean fighting machines like the 14-6, 1 NC Dan Miller and his younger brother, UFC lightweight Jim. After a 5-5 record as an undersized middleweight inside the Octagon, with the losses only coming by way of decision, Miller’s negative attitude about dropping divisions finally changed after being physically outmatched by the incredibly muscular Rousimar Palhares at UFC 134.
“The guy is just a beast,” remembers Miller. “It was hard for me to compete in that fight because I physically couldn’t keep up with him. Mentally and far as talent goes, I think I matched him well. Physically, there was one time when I shot in to take him down and he, literally, just took me with one hand and threw me against the cage. I fell back and he just jumped on top of me and was pounding my head. It was just one of those things where I was like I either need to get a lot stronger or I need to cut. I think it was a pretty clear path that it was time for me to move. It was probably a little late. I probably should’ve made the move earlier in my career, but I was stubborn. I wanted to avenge those losses and I feel like I was in pretty much every single one of those fights.”
At UFC on FX in Atlantic City, there didn’t appear to be an ounce of ring rust on Miller following a 10 month layoff when battling Brazilian “Golden Boy” Ricardo Funch. “When I was walking in, it felt like it was yesterday, it felt like there was no time off,” tells Miller, who took the fight to the Team Link prospect for two full rounds before dropping Funch in the third with punches and capitalizing with a submission. The guillotine finisher has become Miller’s trademark with his nearly decapitating, highlight reel standing guillotine on Dave Phillips in the IFL as well as his lightning fast 63 second choke of Jake Rosholt and his power guillotine, aka “ninja choke,” of John Salter at UFC 118.
“If you’re going to put your head there, then I’m going to try and choke you,” affirms Miller. “He kept putting his head down, so I kept reaching for it. It really wasn’t until the third round because I kept trying to do a standing guillotine. I kept trying to wrap him up, and Jim actually yelled at me in between rounds to stop going for a standing guillotine and to commit to it, commit to the guillotine because I had it. A couple times, I had it under the neck and if I had committed to it earlier maybe I would have been able to finish him earlier, you never know. I had it under his chin and Jim yelled at me in between rounds and when I locked it up in the third he said, ‘Commit to it!’ And I did in the third. I jumped into the guillotine and I finished him.”
The 31-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has put his grappling skills to good use, with nine of his 14 wins via submission finish. With a background in wrestling at Sparta High School, Miller and his brother began training BJJ in June 2005 with their eyes set on fighting professionally, which they started doing six months later. Brothers who learn armbars together get black belts together, and the Millers got theirs under Jamie Cruz, who is a black belt under Renzo Gracie; specifically, Dan received his in January 2010. Recently, the Millers have continued their ground training inside the Gracie tree of black belts with Brian McLaughlin of Precision MMA, a black belt under Rob Kahn who is UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie’s first black belt.
“I wasn’t a standout wrestler,” says Miller. “I was a good local Jersey wrestler. I was a district champ. I took second in regionals, but I never made it to states, so I was ok. I probably had better wrestling than most guys at the time when I started training, but now we have a lot of Division I wrestlers we’re training with and I can’t even compete with. But Jim and I from the beginning, we wanted to learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I didn’t want to use my wrestling to beat up Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys; I wanted to be a black belt. I wanted to learn this sport. Right from the beginning, I always started on my back. In the beginning, I thought I was going to be able to knock everyone out (laughs). I was going to be a sprawl and brawl, Chuck Liddell. After training and doing it, I have a knack for grabbing a hold of somebody’s neck. I have a good scramble, and I usually catch guys in a scramble. I can wrap up their neck and I’m just able to beat guys in that way.”
A win against a game opponent, a W in a new division, a SOTN bonus, and a third round stoppage (the first of his career) are all well and good, but Miller’s noticeable tears of joy in the cage weren’t entirely about his solid performance. Outside of the cage, Miller has received a lot of attention and support concerning the health issues of his son Daniel Jr. After a successful living donor kidney transplant from his Aunt Kathy in September, Miller tweeted, “Surgery went well today, never thought I’d be so happy to see some pee!” Danny is making great strides physically, urinating like a champ to his father’s delight, and is providing tons of positive motivation to his happy dad.
“He’s been doing awesome,” gushes Miller. “He’s been making leaps and bounds in physical strength. Just everything. Before the transplant, it was tough on him and he wasn’t walking. But basically before he got sick in January he was scooting around, he had just learned that, but he kind of lost that with him having the stroke. But now, he’s standing and he’s this close to walking. He said ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ before, and now he’s talking in sentences. Everything is just kind of exploding. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds and see what he’s going to be able to physically do. It’s awesome.”
Up next for Miller is a Montreal melee at UFC 158 against former Strikeforce standout Jordan Mein. At only 23 years old, “Young Gun” has a tremendous amount of cagefighting experience with 34 fights and a record of 26-8. The Canadian, trained by his father Lee Mein, captured MMA fans’ attention with his vicious TKO by elbows win over Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in the Strikeforce cage. Mein is a known for his aggression and the majority of his wins are due to KO/TKO (14).
“I think he’s a tough fighter,” admits Miller. “He’s very good all over the place. He’s got good striking, he’s quick, good elbows, good knees. It’s going to be a good fight and I’m excited to get in there with him. I expect it to be a three round fight, but I’m going to be going for the finish the whole time. I expect a tough fight from him. It’s going to be tough to take him down, tough to put him in bad positions, but I think when I get in there, when I hit him, it’s going to change everything.”
In preparation for the bout, Miller is busy training with head coach Mike Constantino and the bevy of pro fighters at Constantino’s AMA Fight Club. Besides the previously mentioned McLaughlin, Miller has been working on his ground game with Penn State University wrestler Jared Platt, who will be making his MMA debut in April. As far as the standup game, Miller has had a slew of coaches who have helped in that area, but it wasn’t until he met John Fagan of Final Round Boxing and Fitness that Miller’s development as a striker really hit its stride.
“I want to evolve into a fantastic striker,” reveals Miller. “I want to be able to choose where I want to go. I want to be able to beat people up on their feet and when they feel threatened and they can’t handle that anymore, then take it to the ground and submit them. I want to be great at every aspect. Jim and I didn’t train much striking when we first started and I didn’t really have a coach that I ever clicked with. I have had fantastic striking coaches, but I never really clicked with any of them. Now, I have a striking coach I click with. When John and I hit pads, we don’t really have to say anything and we hit pads and we go through it. Finally, it’s clicking for me. My striking is improving a lot. Not that I didn’t have good coaches in the past, it was just never that connection that you need to learn it. I obviously got better before, but it was never at the speed that it needed to be.”
The final piece of the puzzle that every fighter needs is a solid chin, and Miller’s famed iron jaw is all thanks to good genetics. “Our father has probably the hardest head out of anyone and I have the exact same shaped head,” says Miller, who then provided an amusing anecdote about his dad getting walloped on the back of the skull on a construction job by two 2×6’s. “It looked like he had another head growing out of his head, but no concussion or nothing. It knocked him completely out of the forklift, onto the ground, and he got right up with this huge thing on his head and his eyes were bloodshot, but he got right up. He just has this hard head and everyone says I look exactly like him, so I kind of knew I was going to have a hard head.”
This Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada, welterweights will collide as Miller meets Mein inside the Octagon. “I want to go in there, beat him up, take him down, and submit him,” affirms Miller, who will look to put together a win streak at his new weight class and give fight fans a show while doing it. “I want the fans to be entertained. I want the fans to think I’m an exciting fighter to watch. I obviously want to go in there and put on a good fight, and I want to go in there and finish him dominantly.”
With a win over Mein, someone needs to throw Miller a pancakes and bacon after party.
20 Age at which Wanderlei Silva began fighting professionally 36 Current age
1998 Year in which he made his UFC debut
48 Total number of career fights
2 Missing word from this quote
by UFC on FUEL TV 8 opponent Brian Stann about Wanderlei: “He’s done
more for this sport in any ___ years of his career than I’ll ever do.”34 Total number of career wins
26 Wins via KO, TKO or tapout due to strikes
26 Combined wins in PRIDE and UFC, the most of any fighter
1 Wins via submission to something other than strikes
6:32:33 Total combined UFC and PRIDE fight time, more than any other fighter
36 Time, in seconds, it took for Silva to knock out Keith Jardine at UFC 84
3 Number of fights he’s won in 30 seconds or less
1 Number of sons named Thor
25 Knockdowns in UFC/PRIDE competition, more than any other fighter 1,940 Number of days “The Axe Murderer” held the PRIDE middleweight title
4 Number of UFC Fight of the Night bonuses – Fight of the Night vs. Rich
Franklin at UFC 147 and UFC 99, Knockout of the Night vs. Jardine at UFC
94 and Fight of the Night vs. Liddell at UFC 79
1
Number of amazing tribal head tattoos
1002 Significant strikes landed in UFC/PRIDE fights, the third most of any fighter (behind Georges St-Pierre and Quinton Jackson)
4 Number of successful/consecutive PRIDE middleweight title defenses
18 Consecutive wins in PRIDE, the most in the organization’s history
3 Number of career losses Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has by KO/TKO
2 Number of those losses that were to Silva — both TKOs via knees
0
Losses by submission
28 Total number of fights in Japan prior to this week
6 Years between Silva’s fight this weekend and his previous fight in Japan
12 Years between Silva’s UFC 147 main event against Franklin in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and his previous fight in Brazil
750,000+ Combined views on Youtube of Silva and Mark Coleman’s unbelievable Japanese shaving cream commercial
2005 Year Silva made his acting debut, which was in PRIDE’s movie “Nagurimono: Love & Kill,” in which he played a character named Vandarei Shiuba
20 Age at which Wanderlei Silva began fighting professionally 36 Current age
1998 Year in which he made his UFC debut
48 Total number of career fights
2 Missing word from this quote
by UFC on FUEL TV 8 opponent Brian Stann about Wanderlei: “He’s done
more for this sport in any ___ years of his career than I’ll ever do.”34 Total number of career wins
26 Wins via KO, TKO or tapout due to strikes
26 Combined wins in PRIDE and UFC, the most of any fighter
1 Wins via submission to something other than strikes
6:32:33 Total combined UFC and PRIDE fight time, more than any other fighter
36 Time, in seconds, it took for Silva to knock out Keith Jardine at UFC 84
3 Number of fights he’s won in 30 seconds or less
1 Number of sons named Thor
25 Knockdowns in UFC/PRIDE competition, more than any other fighter 1,940 Number of days “The Axe Murderer” held the PRIDE middleweight title
4 Number of UFC Fight of the Night bonuses – Fight of the Night vs. Rich
Franklin at UFC 147 and UFC 99, Knockout of the Night vs. Jardine at UFC
94 and Fight of the Night vs. Liddell at UFC 79
1
Number of amazing tribal head tattoos
1002 Significant strikes landed in UFC/PRIDE fights, the third most of any fighter (behind Georges St-Pierre and Quinton Jackson)
4 Number of successful/consecutive PRIDE middleweight title defenses
It sounds almost too simple to say that there’s no comparison, but there’s simply no substitute for Dan Henderson. As a background, Henderson’s athletic expertise wasn’t just as a top high school or NCAA Division I wrestler, but as a two-time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling who for a decade won a slew of international medals, including ones of the gold, silver, and bronze variety at the Pan American Games.
As a fighter, Henderson has spent the past 15 years defeating a who’s who list en route to winning championship belts and tournaments in the UFC,Strikeforce, and PRIDE, while developing a near mythical aura around his most infamous weapon: his right hand. Although all UFC light heavyweights wield potential knockout power, there’s only one “H-bomb” and only one “Hendo”.
“It’s hard for anyone to compare any other fight he has had to my fight with him,” states Henderson. “I hit hard, I’m a good wrestler, and I’m a good Greco guy. He’s going to know he’s never fought anyone like me.”
At 42 years old, the Californian once known as “Hollywood” and “Dangerous Dan” is preparing to enter another big fight with title shot implications and it’s against another seemingly impossible-to-replicate opponent: Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida. While many will easily ascribe uniqueness to Machida’s elusiveness and heavily karate-influenced attack; Henderson’s mix of Olympic wrestling pedigree, heavy hands, granite chin, and unparalleled experience is just as rare. Plus, “Hendo” has mastered this skill set of power, durability, and an overall awareness of how to hurt his opponent wherever the situation.
“Typically, what I do is I like to control,” explains Henderson. “I like to mix it up in there with my wrestling and throwing hard strikes. It’s mostly about conditioning and positioning. It’s about getting into the right position to be able to strike and mount an offense. I feel like I have a well-rounded style and I feel like I’ve gotten better at it. Some matches I want to spend more time on my feet and some matches I want to spend more time on the ground. It all depends on who I’m fighting.”
In Henderson’s last fight, fans got to see more than anyone could have ever expected – including the fighters themselves – unless they literally expected it to be one of the single greatest fights in history. At UFC 139 in November 2011, in a non-title, five round main event, “Hendo” squared off with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in a once in a lifetime MMA war. Both former PRIDE superstars fought with unbridled determination in a back-and-forth slugfest like King Kong vs. Godzilla or Nada vs. Frank in “They Live.”
“I was there to fight,” asserts Henderson. “I had seen him fight over the years and thought he was tough and well-rounded. I knew it was going to be a tough fight, but I thought that I was going to be able to stop him. At one point in the fight, I would be able to break him. He obviously showed a lot of heart, kept going, and made it to be a great fight. It was quite a bit of action. Maybe a bit more action than I expected. I tried to finish him in the third. I used up quite a bit of energy there and got tired in the fourth and got stuck on bottom in the fifth. At that point, I figured I had the fight won. I was still trying to get up, but it wasn’t the way it was going. I don’t know if I expected that type of fight. I didn’t expect him to take as many shots as I put on him.”
As the scrap started, it didn’t appear to be destined for a decision when Henderson dropped the hammer on Rua early and often. 30 seconds into the bout, he clocked Shogun with a short right that dropped the Brazilian and started the crimson pumping. By the end of the first minute, Rua’s been dropped, pummeled against the cage, and forced to deal with a front choke. About 20 seconds later, Henderson clipped Rua with another straight right that made Rua land on his knees while looking for a desperate takedown. Some narrow-mindedly describe the “H-bomb” as Henderson’s overhand right, but it’s really just about any of his right’s that tags his opponent.
“It’s always nice to have that happen, especially early into a fight,” says Henderson. “It sets the tone. Maybe he doesn’t want to stand and trade with you because of that. Makes him a little more defensive. If he is more defensive then he’s not charging and throwing punches. It’s always better starting out punching the other guy pretty good. One of the first punches I threw knocked him a little silly and cut him open.”
In the second round, the “H-bomb” was an uppercut and some serious body shots too. But without a doubt, the archetypal “H-bomb” landed in the third round. It’s the familiar inside low kick with the left leg followed immediately with the flash and bang of the overhand right, which ended Michael Bisping’s night at UFC 100 and will forever grace UFC highlight reels until the end of time. But with all the punishment dealt by “Hendo” in those opening 15 minutes, “Shogun” continued on during this Fight of the Night bonus-winning battle until the closing moments, with Henderson taking the eventual unanimous decision.
While 2011 has long faded away, it was a remarkably successful year for Henderson and showed how dangerous and effective the 29-8 veteran still is. The Team Quest creator went 3-0, won the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt with a third round TKO over Rafael Cavalcante, KOed one of the universally praised greatest MMA fighters in Fedor Emelianenko, and finished the year by winning one of the best fights of all time against the former UFC light heavyweight champion Rua. As he is in the midst of his third stint inside the Octagon, he has won seven of his last eight fights including the wins in his last four fights in the UFC over Rua, Bisping, Rich Franklin, and Rousimar Palhares.
As for 2012, there was the heavily publicized injury that sidelined Henderson heading into his September showdown with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 151. “He’s really not on my mind one bit,” states Henderson, who has a new opponent and a new goal, and has little to nothing to say about the current champ at this point. “My main and only focus is beating Machida.”
Up next is the February 23rd co-main event at UFC 157 in Anaheim against “The Dragon”. The 34-year-old black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Shotokan karate is coming off a return to form, lightning strike-like counterpunch knockout of Ryan Bader at UFC on FOX in August. At 18-3, Machida is known for darting in and out like a fencer, avoiding his opponent’s attacks while delivering fight ending strikes of his own. Machida’s distinct timing, plus his unorthodox for MMA striking, have earned him three Knockout of the Night bonuses.
“He’s a little bit awkward, which makes the fight fun for me,” reveals Henderson. “I’m trying to figure out how to beat his style. He’s very dangerous and I’m taking him very seriously. He’s a tough guy, well-rounded, tough on the ground, and tough on his feet. I think it will be entertaining for the fans. I’m not going to change my whole style for an opponent though. I need to use what I do best and make it work. When you do that for each of your opponents you improve certain aspects of your game along the way and that’s the evolution of each fighter getting better. They train on certain specifics and now they are better. I’m feeling good and confident for this fight.”
In preparation for Machida, a lot of lefties are now walking around Henderson’s gym in Murrieta, California. For “Hendo”, there’s always the steadfast cavalcade of cagefighting talent like UFC heavyweight Dave Herman, former PRIDE/UFC light heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, and the final Strikeforce welterweight champion Tarec Saffiedine. Probably the biggest name to be added to the team’s rotation is the final Strikeforce middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold, who is a dynamic striker and a southpaw. Between preparing for fights that did not happen and coaching other fighters for their own bouts, Henderson hasn’t been too far removed from MMA in his unexpected sabbatical.
“I’ve got a pretty good group of guys who beat me up every day in practice, so it makes me feel like I’ve fought more than I have last year,” says Henderson. “It’s not like I haven’t been preparing for a fight; they just haven’t gone through with it. It’s not like I haven’t been in training camp or done anything in over a year. It definitely doesn’t help not having a fight in 15 months. But I’m pretty familiar with fighting left handed guys and I’ve got two or three guys like that in my gym. I don’t know about anything new, but I just want to make sure that I fight to my potential. That means being able to implement my game plan. If I can stick to the game plan, the fans will be in for a really exciting fight.”
This weekend in Anaheim, an MMA legend will make his long awaited return to the Octagon against the elusive, enigma Machida. “When guys are backing out, long or short, they’re hard to hit, so you have to stay in their face and make sure you can hit them,” reveals Henderson, who will be looking to pin down Machida and drop the “H-bomb” on him. “I think most of my damage is done with my right hand, whether it is an overhand, a straight, or an uppercut. But I have a pretty mean left as well. Whether Machida’s chin is up or down, I’m still going to be hitting him.”
After the co-main event is through, both former champions will be able to say that they have now fought someone like their unique opponent. The only question, which one will get to say they’ve beaten someone like their unique opponent?
“He hasn’t fought anyone like me before.”
It sounds almost too simple to say that there’s no comparison, but there’s simply no substitute for Dan Henderson. As a background, Henderson’s athletic expertise wasn’t just as a top high school or NCAA Division I wrestler, but as a two-time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling who for a decade won a slew of international medals, including ones of the gold, silver, and bronze variety at the Pan American Games.
As a fighter, Henderson has spent the past 15 years defeating a who’s who list en route to winning championship belts and tournaments in the UFC,Strikeforce, and PRIDE, while developing a near mythical aura around his most infamous weapon: his right hand. Although all UFC light heavyweights wield potential knockout power, there’s only one “H-bomb” and only one “Hendo”.
“It’s hard for anyone to compare any other fight he has had to my fight with him,” states Henderson. “I hit hard, I’m a good wrestler, and I’m a good Greco guy. He’s going to know he’s never fought anyone like me.”
At 42 years old, the Californian once known as “Hollywood” and “Dangerous Dan” is preparing to enter another big fight with title shot implications and it’s against another seemingly impossible-to-replicate opponent: Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida. While many will easily ascribe uniqueness to Machida’s elusiveness and heavily karate-influenced attack; Henderson’s mix of Olympic wrestling pedigree, heavy hands, granite chin, and unparalleled experience is just as rare. Plus, “Hendo” has mastered this skill set of power, durability, and an overall awareness of how to hurt his opponent wherever the situation.
“Typically, what I do is I like to control,” explains Henderson. “I like to mix it up in there with my wrestling and throwing hard strikes. It’s mostly about conditioning and positioning. It’s about getting into the right position to be able to strike and mount an offense. I feel like I have a well-rounded style and I feel like I’ve gotten better at it. Some matches I want to spend more time on my feet and some matches I want to spend more time on the ground. It all depends on who I’m fighting.”
In Henderson’s last fight, fans got to see more than anyone could have ever expected – including the fighters themselves – unless they literally expected it to be one of the single greatest fights in history. At UFC 139 in November 2011, in a non-title, five round main event, “Hendo” squared off with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in a once in a lifetime MMA war. Both former PRIDE superstars fought with unbridled determination in a back-and-forth slugfest like King Kong vs. Godzilla or Nada vs. Frank in “They Live.”
“I was there to fight,” asserts Henderson. “I had seen him fight over the years and thought he was tough and well-rounded. I knew it was going to be a tough fight, but I thought that I was going to be able to stop him. At one point in the fight, I would be able to break him. He obviously showed a lot of heart, kept going, and made it to be a great fight. It was quite a bit of action. Maybe a bit more action than I expected. I tried to finish him in the third. I used up quite a bit of energy there and got tired in the fourth and got stuck on bottom in the fifth. At that point, I figured I had the fight won. I was still trying to get up, but it wasn’t the way it was going. I don’t know if I expected that type of fight. I didn’t expect him to take as many shots as I put on him.”
As the scrap started, it didn’t appear to be destined for a decision when Henderson dropped the hammer on Rua early and often. 30 seconds into the bout, he clocked Shogun with a short right that dropped the Brazilian and started the crimson pumping. By the end of the first minute, Rua’s been dropped, pummeled against the cage, and forced to deal with a front choke. About 20 seconds later, Henderson clipped Rua with another straight right that made Rua land on his knees while looking for a desperate takedown. Some narrow-mindedly describe the “H-bomb” as Henderson’s overhand right, but it’s really just about any of his right’s that tags his opponent.
“It’s always nice to have that happen, especially early into a fight,” says Henderson. “It sets the tone. Maybe he doesn’t want to stand and trade with you because of that. Makes him a little more defensive. If he is more defensive then he’s not charging and throwing punches. It’s always better starting out punching the other guy pretty good. One of the first punches I threw knocked him a little silly and cut him open.”
In the second round, the “H-bomb” was an uppercut and some serious body shots too. But without a doubt, the archetypal “H-bomb” landed in the third round. It’s the familiar inside low kick with the left leg followed immediately with the flash and bang of the overhand right, which ended Michael Bisping’s night at UFC 100 and will forever grace UFC highlight reels until the end of time. But with all the punishment dealt by “Hendo” in those opening 15 minutes, “Shogun” continued on during this Fight of the Night bonus-winning battle until the closing moments, with Henderson taking the eventual unanimous decision.
While 2011 has long faded away, it was a remarkably successful year for Henderson and showed how dangerous and effective the 29-8 veteran still is. The Team Quest creator went 3-0, won the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt with a third round TKO over Rafael Cavalcante, KOed one of the universally praised greatest MMA fighters in Fedor Emelianenko, and finished the year by winning one of the best fights of all time against the former UFC light heavyweight champion Rua. As he is in the midst of his third stint inside the Octagon, he has won seven of his last eight fights including the wins in his last four fights in the UFC over Rua, Bisping, Rich Franklin, and Rousimar Palhares.
As for 2012, there was the heavily publicized injury that sidelined Henderson heading into his September showdown with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 151. “He’s really not on my mind one bit,” states Henderson, who has a new opponent and a new goal, and has little to nothing to say about the current champ at this point. “My main and only focus is beating Machida.”
Up next is the February 23rd co-main event at UFC 157 in Anaheim against “The Dragon”. The 34-year-old black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Shotokan karate is coming off a return to form, lightning strike-like counterpunch knockout of Ryan Bader at UFC on FOX in August. At 18-3, Machida is known for darting in and out like a fencer, avoiding his opponent’s attacks while delivering fight ending strikes of his own. Machida’s distinct timing, plus his unorthodox for MMA striking, have earned him three Knockout of the Night bonuses.
“He’s a little bit awkward, which makes the fight fun for me,” reveals Henderson. “I’m trying to figure out how to beat his style. He’s very dangerous and I’m taking him very seriously. He’s a tough guy, well-rounded, tough on the ground, and tough on his feet. I think it will be entertaining for the fans. I’m not going to change my whole style for an opponent though. I need to use what I do best and make it work. When you do that for each of your opponents you improve certain aspects of your game along the way and that’s the evolution of each fighter getting better. They train on certain specifics and now they are better. I’m feeling good and confident for this fight.”
In preparation for Machida, a lot of lefties are now walking around Henderson’s gym in Murrieta, California. For “Hendo”, there’s always the steadfast cavalcade of cagefighting talent like UFC heavyweight Dave Herman, former PRIDE/UFC light heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, and the final Strikeforce welterweight champion Tarec Saffiedine. Probably the biggest name to be added to the team’s rotation is the final Strikeforce middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold, who is a dynamic striker and a southpaw. Between preparing for fights that did not happen and coaching other fighters for their own bouts, Henderson hasn’t been too far removed from MMA in his unexpected sabbatical.
“I’ve got a pretty good group of guys who beat me up every day in practice, so it makes me feel like I’ve fought more than I have last year,” says Henderson. “It’s not like I haven’t been preparing for a fight; they just haven’t gone through with it. It’s not like I haven’t been in training camp or done anything in over a year. It definitely doesn’t help not having a fight in 15 months. But I’m pretty familiar with fighting left handed guys and I’ve got two or three guys like that in my gym. I don’t know about anything new, but I just want to make sure that I fight to my potential. That means being able to implement my game plan. If I can stick to the game plan, the fans will be in for a really exciting fight.”
This weekend in Anaheim, an MMA legend will make his long awaited return to the Octagon against the elusive, enigma Machida. “When guys are backing out, long or short, they’re hard to hit, so you have to stay in their face and make sure you can hit them,” reveals Henderson, who will be looking to pin down Machida and drop the “H-bomb” on him. “I think most of my damage is done with my right hand, whether it is an overhand, a straight, or an uppercut. But I have a pretty mean left as well. Whether Machida’s chin is up or down, I’m still going to be hitting him.”
After the co-main event is through, both former champions will be able to say that they have now fought someone like their unique opponent. The only question, which one will get to say they’ve beaten someone like their unique opponent?
On February 23rd at UFC 157, the best arm-collector in the biz, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, will look to add another extremity to trophy case. The undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight champion has earned all of her wins by first-round armbar. In honor of the “Queen of Armbars” making her UFC debut, here is a list of the top limb-twisting armbars ever in the Octagon.
10. Nate Diaz on Takanori Gomi at UFC 135watch fight free In his return to the lightweight division, Nate Diaz severely outclassed former PRIDE lightweight champion Takanori Gomi in a flawless first-round, Submission of the Night victory. The younger “Stockton Slapper” went to work on the feet overwhelming the “Fireball Kid” until Gomi dropped, then pounced with a triangle attempt that turned smoothly into an armbar for a picture-perfect ending. It marked not only Diaz’s first armbar win in MMA, but Gomi’s first loss via the sub.
9. Joe Lauzon on Jeremy Stephens at UFC Fight Night 17watch fight* Naturally, the UFC’s resident King of Fight Night bonuses has earned two SOTN awards via armbar. Amidst a ferocious battle with his heavy-handed opponent, Stephens found himself a touch overconfident while ground and pounding. With “J-Lau” seeing blood (his own), Lauzon swept and armbarred Stephens, then readjusted to get “Lil’ Heathen” to tap twice.
8. Diego Brandao on Dennis Bermudez at The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finalewatch fight free The gentle art is plenty brutal when Diego Brandao is doing it. In an absolutely wild round one between Brandao and Bermudez, both exchanged white-knuckled, vein-popping, fight-ending haymakers and takedown slams. With only seconds remaining, Brandao exploded with an armbar attempt that flipped Bermudez from top position to on his back and tapping. That powerful armbar won Brandao a SOTN bonus, another for FOTN and the TUF 14 featherweight tournament.
7. Frank Mir on Tim Sylvia at UFC 48watch submission free Without a doubt, Frank Mir is the best submission threat the UFC’s heavyweight division has ever known. The former UFC heavyweight champion won his first three fights in the Octagon by submission, but it was his fourth that will forever be replayed in highlight reels: Only 50 seconds into the opening round of Mir’s title fight against Tim Sylvia, Mir positioned for an armbar attempt. Sylvia tried to pull his arm out, which resulted in Mir breaking Sylvia’s radius bone right below the elbow. The move scored Mir his first gold belt from the UFC and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from famed coach Ricardo Pires.
6. Stefan Struve on Pat Barry at UFC Livewatch submission free Yes, a 7’ tall MMA fighter has an insane height and reach advantage in the standup, but that frame extraordinaire is a big help on the ground as well. The Dutch “Skyscraper” Stefan Struve has certainly proved as much with four submission victories including a slick, SOTN armbar over knockout artist Pat Barry. Struve’s long legs snatched up the striker’s upper body like a Venus Flytrap and — though Barry tried in vain to slam his way out of danger — quickly maneuvered him for the sub win.
5. Matt Hughes on Georges St-Pierre at UFC 50 watch submission free If you want someone to pass you the torch in the UFC, sometimes you need to shake it out of their hand by attacking the arm; such was the case in the welterweight division between Matt Hughes and Georges St-Pierre. Hughes, the original dominant 170-pound king, showed GSP his place within the division’s ranks with a first-round armbar finish in their title fight in 2004. (Three years later, then-champ GSP returned the favor with an armbar win of his own over Hughes.)
4. Anderson Silva on Chael Sonnen at UFC 117watch submission free As if getting caught in a triangle choke wasn’t bad enough, some sadistic submission magicians simultaneously attack the prone appendage. Genki Sudo did it to Mike Brown, Paul Sass to Jacob Volkmann, but the best example of the move is Anderson Silva’s on Chael Sonnen. In the final minutes of the fifth frame of their UFC middleweight championship bout, which Sonnen was winning four rounds to none, Silva locked in the double-submission, retaining his belt. (Dustin Poirier did something similar in his win against Max Holloway, but went the extra mile by doing it from top position: After locking in triangle from the bottom,
Poirier rolled over to a mounted triangle, then tugged on Holloway’s
trapped limb to get the tap.)
3. Chris Lytle on Matt Brown at UFC 116watch fight* If you thought an armbar was bad, now add the word “reverse.” Self-proclaimed “just a boxer”, Chris Lytle was sneakily good on the ground, which was never more evident than in his sub win over Matt Brown. From side control, Lytle snuck his legs up his opponent’s side, then quickly stepped over Brown’s head with his near leg, then trapped Brown’s arm by locking up a reverse triangle with his other leg. With that in place, Lytle attacked Brown’s far arm. Like I said, sneaky good.
2. Dustin Hazelett on Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finalewatch fight* Armbars are like snowflakes, no two are the same — especially if it’s one by former UFC welterweight Dustin Hazelett. The Jorge Gurgel BJJ black belt scored the first of two back-to-back SOTN armbar finishes in 2008 over Josh Burkman. While holding onto Burkman’s arm during a scramble on the ground, Hazelett threw his leg over Burkman’s back into an unforgettable armbar.
1. Royce Gracie on Jason DeLucia at UFC 2watch fight* UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie won his first 11 UFC fights by submission, which crowned him the winner of 3 of the first 4 UFC tournaments. While Gracie steamrolled the competition at UFC 1 and initially blew everyone’s minds with the martial art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it was at UFC 2 that its endless versatility was truly on display. At UFC 1, Gracie took everyone’s back and finished, but, at UFC 2, Gracie showed that no area of the body or appendage was safe from being submitted.
As the UFC has hosted well over a hundred events featuring thousands of
fights, the very first armbar victory inside the Octagon is still as
breathtaking as it was then. The image of the bigger DeLucia trying to escape by standing, and Gracie hanging upside down, latched to his opponent’s arm and wrenching it backwards, is forever etched in all fans’ memories. Since no one back then was expecting the move, the announcers didn’t know what they were seeing and referee “Big” John McCarthy was way out of position. With the top of his head brushing the canvas and his feet up in the air, Gracie redefined the very idea of an offensive position. *Single fights on UFC.TV are available a la carte or unlimited with a subscription
Honorable mentions: Kazushi Sakuraba on Marcus Silveira , Dennis Hallman on Matt Hughes, Josh Barnett on Semmy Schilt , Lee Murray on Jorge Rivera, Ricardo Romero on Seth Petruzelli, Minotauro Nogueira on Dave Herman, Matt Wiman on Paul Sass
On February 23rd at UFC 157, the best arm-collector in the biz, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, will look to add another extremity to trophy case. The undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight champion has earned all of her wins by first-round armbar. In honor of the “Queen of Armbars” making her UFC debut, here is a list of the top limb-twisting armbars ever in the Octagon.
10. Nate Diaz on Takanori Gomi at UFC 135watch fight free In his return to the lightweight division, Nate Diaz severely outclassed former PRIDE lightweight champion Takanori Gomi in a flawless first-round, Submission of the Night victory. The younger “Stockton Slapper” went to work on the feet overwhelming the “Fireball Kid” until Gomi dropped, then pounced with a triangle attempt that turned smoothly into an armbar for a picture-perfect ending. It marked not only Diaz’s first armbar win in MMA, but Gomi’s first loss via the sub.
9. Joe Lauzon on Jeremy Stephens at UFC Fight Night 17watch fight* Naturally, the UFC’s resident King of Fight Night bonuses has earned two SOTN awards via armbar. Amidst a ferocious battle with his heavy-handed opponent, Stephens found himself a touch overconfident while ground and pounding. With “J-Lau” seeing blood (his own), Lauzon swept and armbarred Stephens, then readjusted to get “Lil’ Heathen” to tap twice.
8. Diego Brandao on Dennis Bermudez at The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finalewatch fight free The gentle art is plenty brutal when Diego Brandao is doing it. In an absolutely wild round one between Brandao and Bermudez, both exchanged white-knuckled, vein-popping, fight-ending haymakers and takedown slams. With only seconds remaining, Brandao exploded with an armbar attempt that flipped Bermudez from top position to on his back and tapping. That powerful armbar won Brandao a SOTN bonus, another for FOTN and the TUF 14 featherweight tournament.
7. Frank Mir on Tim Sylvia at UFC 48watch submission free Without a doubt, Frank Mir is the best submission threat the UFC’s heavyweight division has ever known. The former UFC heavyweight champion won his first three fights in the Octagon by submission, but it was his fourth that will forever be replayed in highlight reels: Only 50 seconds into the opening round of Mir’s title fight against Tim Sylvia, Mir positioned for an armbar attempt. Sylvia tried to pull his arm out, which resulted in Mir breaking Sylvia’s radius bone right below the elbow. The move scored Mir his first gold belt from the UFC and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from famed coach Ricardo Pires.
6. Stefan Struve on Pat Barry at UFC Livewatch submission free Yes, a 7’ tall MMA fighter has an insane height and reach advantage in the standup, but that frame extraordinaire is a big help on the ground as well. The Dutch “Skyscraper” Stefan Struve has certainly proved as much with four submission victories including a slick, SOTN armbar over knockout artist Pat Barry. Struve’s long legs snatched up the striker’s upper body like a Venus Flytrap and — though Barry tried in vain to slam his way out of danger — quickly maneuvered him for the sub win.
5. Matt Hughes on Georges St-Pierre at UFC 50 watch submission free If you want someone to pass you the torch in the UFC, sometimes you need to shake it out of their hand by attacking the arm; such was the case in the welterweight division between Matt Hughes and Georges St-Pierre. Hughes, the original dominant 170-pound king, showed GSP his place within the division’s ranks with a first-round armbar finish in their title fight in 2004. (Three years later, then-champ GSP returned the favor with an armbar win of his own over Hughes.)
4. Anderson Silva on Chael Sonnen at UFC 117watch submission free As if getting caught in a triangle choke wasn’t bad enough, some sadistic submission magicians simultaneously attack the prone appendage. Genki Sudo did it to Mike Brown, Paul Sass to Jacob Volkmann, but the best example of the move is Anderson Silva’s on Chael Sonnen. In the final minutes of the fifth frame of their UFC middleweight championship bout, which Sonnen was winning four rounds to none, Silva locked in the double-submission, retaining his belt. (Dustin Poirier did something similar in his win against Max Holloway, but went the extra mile by doing it from top position: After locking in triangle from the bottom,
Poirier rolled over to a mounted triangle, then tugged on Holloway’s
trapped limb to get the tap.)
3. Chris Lytle on Matt Brown at UFC 116watch fight* If you thought an armbar was bad, now add the word “reverse.” Self-proclaimed “just a boxer”, Chris Lytle was sneakily good on the ground, which was never more evident than in his sub win over Matt Brown. From side control, Lytle snuck his legs up his opponent’s side, then quickly stepped over Brown’s head with his near leg, then trapped Brown’s arm by locking up a reverse triangle with his other leg. With that in place, Lytle attacked Brown’s far arm. Like I said, sneaky good.
2. Dustin Hazelett on Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finalewatch fight* Armbars are like snowflakes, no two are the same — especially if it’s one by former UFC welterweight Dustin Hazelett. The Jorge Gurgel BJJ black belt scored the first of two back-to-back SOTN armbar finishes in 2008 over Josh Burkman. While holding onto Burkman’s arm during a scramble on the ground, Hazelett threw his leg over Burkman’s back into an unforgettable armbar.
1. Royce Gracie on Jason DeLucia at UFC 2watch fight* UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie won his first 11 UFC fights by submission, which crowned him the winner of 3 of the first 4 UFC tournaments. While Gracie steamrolled the competition at UFC 1 and initially blew everyone’s minds with the martial art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it was at UFC 2 that its endless versatility was truly on display. At UFC 1, Gracie took everyone’s back and finished, but, at UFC 2, Gracie showed that no area of the body or appendage was safe from being submitted.
As the UFC has hosted well over a hundred events featuring thousands of
fights, the very first armbar victory inside the Octagon is still as
breathtaking as it was then. The image of the bigger DeLucia trying to escape by standing, and Gracie hanging upside down, latched to his opponent’s arm and wrenching it backwards, is forever etched in all fans’ memories. Since no one back then was expecting the move, the announcers didn’t know what they were seeing and referee “Big” John McCarthy was way out of position. With the top of his head brushing the canvas and his feet up in the air, Gracie redefined the very idea of an offensive position. *Single fights on UFC.TV are available a la carte or unlimited with a subscription
Honorable mentions: Kazushi Sakuraba on Marcus Silveira , Dennis Hallman on Matt Hughes, Josh Barnett on Semmy Schilt , Lee Murray on Jorge Rivera, Ricardo Romero on Seth Petruzelli, Minotauro Nogueira on Dave Herman, Matt Wiman on Paul Sass
“Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.” – Benjamin Franklin
Toughness isn’t measured in tattoo ink, hair dye, or vulgar language. It can’t even be gauged by muscle mass or mean scowls. Every fighter that steps into the UFC’s cage is physically tough, but the depths of their mental toughness can only be empirically equated when a fighter overcomes adversity inside the Octagon. The truly tough fighter is the one who continues to come forward and fight no matter how little time is left or how exhausted they are or how battered their body has become.
In that definition, not many will ever be able to hold a candle to Urijah Faber.
At UFC 149, “The California Kid” battled for 25 minutes with Renan Barao in a losing effort for the interim UFC bantamweight championship. It was a conscious striker’s duel, where Barao was able to stay just out of Faber’s reach and keep the fight out of the scrambles where the Californian thrives. The near decade younger Barao managed to shave a few miles per hour off the usually fleet-footed Faber with a knee to the body that broke a rib, which Faber didn’t reveal until the post-fight interview. While fight fans have become accustomed to seeing Faber in title bouts, strangely enough, they’ve become just as accustomed to seeing Faber wear his toughness on his sleeve by fighting tooth and nail despite broken hands, feet, ribs or a severely battered leg.
“It’s what we’ve signed up for doing the toughest sport in the world: mixed martial arts,” reveals Faber. “It wasn’t an accident that Barao caught me with a knee in the ribs. We bounced off the cage and he caught me with a short knee in my back ribs and it broke it. I thought I did a really good job. I watched the fight again. I don’t think anyone can tell that I broke my rib. I didn’t tell my corner, I didn’t tell anyone that I knew something was up. You go into a fight with the mindset that you’re not going to let anything stop you, and that was the mindset I was in. I’ve had worse injuries, so I just did my best. I don’t attribute that to the loss at all. I still fought offensively, but Barao was very tough. It didn’t help, especially on extending myself for takedowns. Having a broken rib doesn’t help at all (laughs).”
At 33 years old with an overall record of 26-6, Faber is 2-2 inside the Octagon with both losses coming in five round decisions for the bantamweight crown. Unless someone blows the dust off a Youtube video shot on a handicam of Faber fighting Tyson Griffin, then MMA fans have only see Faber on the losing end of a bout with a championship belt on the line in either the WEC or UFC. Minus the first round loss to Mike Brown back in 2008, no one has been able to literally stop Faber, whether it was Jose Aldo with his devastating leg kicks or in the rematch with Brown where Faber broke both hands and a foot and still continued to throw elbows until the final bell. To best “The California Kid,” one will need to flawlessly keep him at bay for 25 minutes because there’s simply no quit switch in him.
“I think it’s a mental game,” states Faber. “It’s a head space you get in. Everybody that is a champion knows that there are a lot of things that go into it, but one of the most important things is the mental game, being a confident guy and preparing for worst case scenarios. I don’t go into a fight thinking I hope everything goes my way and if it doesn’t I’m going to turn down and cower. In practice you experience injuries and it’s just a part of our life. I think about it as if I was on the street and someone was trying to beat me up and try to take my life or something that is important to me, would a broken rib stop me? Would a broken hand stop me? And there’s no way it would.”
With or without a belt around his waist, the most prolific champion in WEC history, with five successful and consecutive title defenses, carries himself as the champ in and out of the cage. Incredibly, Faber has fought 16 times under the Zuffa banner of the UFC and the WEC, with 11 of those bouts with a title up for grabs. In the five scraps that weren’t for a belt, he has earned a Submission of the Night bonus in four of them, and won the other by unanimous decision. Faber’s unshakeable spot at the top of the food chain is solidified in his ability to take a loss, come back stronger, clobber his competition, and stand with his chin held high, ready to challenge the current champion again.
“My ability to separate wins and losses from who I am is the key component,” renders Faber. “I know who I am. I have a lot of positive attributes, I know where I come from, I know who my friends are, I’m secure. That allows me to put my best effort out every time to try to win. I love to win. I really don’t like losing much obviously, but it doesn’t change who I am. Life is good. Whenever I get caught up wanting to complain about monetary things or a fight not going my way or something else going on, I just remember why I started this sport. The fact that I get to live a life of passion where I’m doing only things that I love in this world and help people along the way. Life’s good. I always remind myself of that.”
This message, and this mentality that has benefitted Faber as a professional fighter, as a gym owner, as an entrepreneur, and as a person isn’t a secret he just keeps to himself. The former NCAA Division I wrestler and graduate of University of California at Davis with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Development tries his damnedest to impart this positivity to all those that walk through the doors of his Ultimate Fitness gym in Sacramento, especially the members of his Team Alpha Male. With the help of Jim, a high school vice principal who specializes in behavior modification, and Renata Peterson, who has a masters in psychology, Faber diligently works on providing that mental edge that he has to his teammates.
“At our gym, at Team Alpha Male, we’re always trying to work on the most important part of the game, which is the mental game,” says Faber. “There are a lot of people out there who want to have success, but there is an actual recipe for success. Jim and Renata Peterson are actually my neighbors, and we’ve developed together a system of life skills but related to sports. We have group sessions with our team that are about an hour and a half, where we talk about the subconscious, programming your future, visualizing, and things like that. We’ve been doing that for about five or six years with Jim and Renata.”
Team Alpha Male’s goal isn’t just to train kicking and punching, but it wants to shape minds for success in life once they hang up their sparring mitts. Faber has officially entered Mike Krzyzewski territory. For Duke University’s famed men’s basketball coach, it’s not about being a coach as much as a teacher and a leader; where he’s more concerned with making men more than athletes. If someone is going to be called the “Coach K of MMA” then Faber is ready to fill those shoes.
“It’s not just about fighting in a cage – it’s about life skills,” explains Faber. “I put forth the effort to do this for my team when I was coaching The Ultimate Fighter as well. Building them up. I think it’s the worst thing when I see fighters who have gone through a career and have nothing to show for it. They’re broken down and don’t know what to do next. It’s a sad thing. I want my fighters to know that this is all a building process for the next stages of your life. It’s something you can be proud of and you can take it as far and have as much success as you want and that everything you do is commendable. I call it ‘feather in the cap’ mentality. Being a part of this team is something you can put down on your resume, winning a fight is something you can put down on your resume, being in a fight is something you can put down on your resume. It takes guts, it takes tenacity, it takes character. Our guys are learning about how to be successful fighters, but more importantly they are learning how to have success in life and teach their kids to have success.”
Besides this wealth of coaching for mental toughness, Team Alpha Male has their acclaimed roster of lighter weight fighters covered with great ground and standup specific coaches. For grappling, “The California Kid” has BJJ black belt Fabio Prado as well as Dustin Akbari. For striking, Faber’s ace-in-the-hole is every MMA fan’s favorite mitt holder Master Thong. But, recently, Team Alpha Male has felt they needed someone to run and create practices, to watch fight videos, to keep people accountable, and, in short, be the team’s “head honcho”. The vetting process for special position took more or less one phone call to UFC, Strikeforce, and K-1 veteran Duane “Bang” Ludwig.
“Duane is a guy who I’ve always respected,” affirms Faber. “Anytime I’ve met him I’ve always thought he had a good attitude. I think he is one of the best strikers in MMA, period. After that first conversation, he started doing breakdowns for the team. He was calling me and saying this is what I see with this guy and just started being a coach from a distance. He stepped into the role without any commitment or compensation. I was like, this is what we need. He came down to check out the area and the gym and we had a big barbecue and he met all the guys. It wasn’t long after that that he made the move and moved all his stuff and his family out here. And he’s been doing awesome. He’s taken a lot of time to develop and watch video. He’s got 40 something clips of my fights of things that he likes that I’m doing and things of Ivan Menjivar that he thinks we can exploit. Not only is he running team practices, but he’s been going above and beyond working on individual things.”
The 34-year-old, well-traveled, and, basically self-taught kickboxer turned MMA fighter was entering a transitional period in his fight career and looking for a coaching opportunity when Faber fatefully called. While some have wrongly reported that Ludwig is replacing Master Thong, “Bang” is being brought in as a head coach and not as a new striking coach. Fight fans got a glimpse of this new union as Ludwig was a very vocal corner for Danny Castillo in his decision win over submission specialist Paul Sass at UFC on FUEL TV last Saturday. And not to worry, the enigmatic Thai kickboxing instructor with an ultra unique fashion sense will continue to hold mitts for Faber like he has for the past six years, ever since the two initially met several months prior to the first fight with Jens Pulver.
“Master Thong was really good at teaching body mechanics, which I was kind of missing,” remembers Faber. “I was learning all these different striking techniques, but I was missing the footwork, the body mechanics of striking, and defense. He implemented a lot more defensive tactics to help me be comfortable in getting hit. I had wrestled for years and years and years and been fighting for years, but I still wasn’t comfortable as a straight up boxer. I think he helped quite a bit with my defense and footwork, which are the basics and really important.”
Up next for Faber is a Saturday rematch dating back to 2006 with “The Pride of El Salvador,” Ivan Menjivar. At UFC 157, the product of Tristar Gym in Montreal will look to continue his recent success, as Menjivar has gone 4-1 inside the Octagon since coming over through the WEC merger in 2010. The Salvadoran-Canadian brown belt in BJJ with 12 years of professional fighting experience is riding high off a first round SOTN armbar over Azamat Gashimov at UFC 154, which was Menjivar’s second SOTN bonus in 2012.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Menjivar,” states Faber. “He’s a real pioneer. People say I’m a pioneer in this sport and he is more so than I am. He was a guy who was extremely well-rounded back in 2002 when he fought Georges St-Pierre. He was taking Georges St-Pierre down. I thought it was an even fight and a really weird stoppage. He fought Matt Serra. He’s fought at 155 pounds, he’s fought at 170 pounds. He’s always had a real high skill set. I know he’s a force to be reckoned with.”
One can easily assume that both fighters have no doubt improved greatly since their featherweight fracas seven years ago. While Menjivar has gone 8-4 in the meantime and remained dangerous in all areas of the game, Faber has gone 15-5, including winning the WEC featherweight championship, defending it five times, establishing himself as the face of the WEC, and marking himself as an elite level fighter regardless of the weight class. When the two first tangled, Faber was the raw putty of potential, and now is the molded metal of a championship caliber competitor.
“I feel like he’s a great style matchup for me because he is the type of guy who likes to fight everywhere and that’s how I like to fight,” tells Faber. “He likes fighting on the ground, mixing it up, and he likes getting wild. My toughest fights have been against guys who are really athletic and are kind of avoiding a wild fight. Barao, he really slowed the pace down and kept distance. Jose Aldo, he picked me apart by kicking my leg and he’s an incredible technician when it comes to that specifically. I’ve been developing and filling in those gaps and Ivan likes to fight everywhere. He’s dangerous on the ground, but I’m very dangerous on the ground. I’ve got a lot of finishes against a lot of opponents who have never been submitted. I feel like this fight for me is a great fight because Ivan is not afraid and likes to go everywhere and I think I’m going to have a slight advantage in every aspect.”
This Saturday, two MMA veterans who only mature with age will rekindle the flame from a former fight for bantamweight fireworks. “You can tell this guy is a real mixed martial artist, he does this because he loves it, he goes out there to have fun and to perform, and I’m going out there with the same mentality,” says Faber, whose confidence and insatiable hunger to be at the top of this sport has never waned, even for an instant, thanks to his mental toughness. “I want to win, I want to have a lot of fun, I want to mix it up, and have this be a real mixed martial arts fight where you see a little bit of everything and I think that’s going to happen. I’m going to come out on top, I’m going to get the finish, I’m going to get the W, and I’m going to move forward.”
“Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.” – Benjamin Franklin
Toughness isn’t measured in tattoo ink, hair dye, or vulgar language. It can’t even be gauged by muscle mass or mean scowls. Every fighter that steps into the UFC’s cage is physically tough, but the depths of their mental toughness can only be empirically equated when a fighter overcomes adversity inside the Octagon. The truly tough fighter is the one who continues to come forward and fight no matter how little time is left or how exhausted they are or how battered their body has become.
In that definition, not many will ever be able to hold a candle to Urijah Faber.
At UFC 149, “The California Kid” battled for 25 minutes with Renan Barao in a losing effort for the interim UFC bantamweight championship. It was a conscious striker’s duel, where Barao was able to stay just out of Faber’s reach and keep the fight out of the scrambles where the Californian thrives. The near decade younger Barao managed to shave a few miles per hour off the usually fleet-footed Faber with a knee to the body that broke a rib, which Faber didn’t reveal until the post-fight interview. While fight fans have become accustomed to seeing Faber in title bouts, strangely enough, they’ve become just as accustomed to seeing Faber wear his toughness on his sleeve by fighting tooth and nail despite broken hands, feet, ribs or a severely battered leg.
“It’s what we’ve signed up for doing the toughest sport in the world: mixed martial arts,” reveals Faber. “It wasn’t an accident that Barao caught me with a knee in the ribs. We bounced off the cage and he caught me with a short knee in my back ribs and it broke it. I thought I did a really good job. I watched the fight again. I don’t think anyone can tell that I broke my rib. I didn’t tell my corner, I didn’t tell anyone that I knew something was up. You go into a fight with the mindset that you’re not going to let anything stop you, and that was the mindset I was in. I’ve had worse injuries, so I just did my best. I don’t attribute that to the loss at all. I still fought offensively, but Barao was very tough. It didn’t help, especially on extending myself for takedowns. Having a broken rib doesn’t help at all (laughs).”
At 33 years old with an overall record of 26-6, Faber is 2-2 inside the Octagon with both losses coming in five round decisions for the bantamweight crown. Unless someone blows the dust off a Youtube video shot on a handicam of Faber fighting Tyson Griffin, then MMA fans have only see Faber on the losing end of a bout with a championship belt on the line in either the WEC or UFC. Minus the first round loss to Mike Brown back in 2008, no one has been able to literally stop Faber, whether it was Jose Aldo with his devastating leg kicks or in the rematch with Brown where Faber broke both hands and a foot and still continued to throw elbows until the final bell. To best “The California Kid,” one will need to flawlessly keep him at bay for 25 minutes because there’s simply no quit switch in him.
“I think it’s a mental game,” states Faber. “It’s a head space you get in. Everybody that is a champion knows that there are a lot of things that go into it, but one of the most important things is the mental game, being a confident guy and preparing for worst case scenarios. I don’t go into a fight thinking I hope everything goes my way and if it doesn’t I’m going to turn down and cower. In practice you experience injuries and it’s just a part of our life. I think about it as if I was on the street and someone was trying to beat me up and try to take my life or something that is important to me, would a broken rib stop me? Would a broken hand stop me? And there’s no way it would.”
With or without a belt around his waist, the most prolific champion in WEC history, with five successful and consecutive title defenses, carries himself as the champ in and out of the cage. Incredibly, Faber has fought 16 times under the Zuffa banner of the UFC and the WEC, with 11 of those bouts with a title up for grabs. In the five scraps that weren’t for a belt, he has earned a Submission of the Night bonus in four of them, and won the other by unanimous decision. Faber’s unshakeable spot at the top of the food chain is solidified in his ability to take a loss, come back stronger, clobber his competition, and stand with his chin held high, ready to challenge the current champion again.
“My ability to separate wins and losses from who I am is the key component,” renders Faber. “I know who I am. I have a lot of positive attributes, I know where I come from, I know who my friends are, I’m secure. That allows me to put my best effort out every time to try to win. I love to win. I really don’t like losing much obviously, but it doesn’t change who I am. Life is good. Whenever I get caught up wanting to complain about monetary things or a fight not going my way or something else going on, I just remember why I started this sport. The fact that I get to live a life of passion where I’m doing only things that I love in this world and help people along the way. Life’s good. I always remind myself of that.”
This message, and this mentality that has benefitted Faber as a professional fighter, as a gym owner, as an entrepreneur, and as a person isn’t a secret he just keeps to himself. The former NCAA Division I wrestler and graduate of University of California at Davis with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Development tries his damnedest to impart this positivity to all those that walk through the doors of his Ultimate Fitness gym in Sacramento, especially the members of his Team Alpha Male. With the help of Jim, a high school vice principal who specializes in behavior modification, and Renata Peterson, who has a masters in psychology, Faber diligently works on providing that mental edge that he has to his teammates.
“At our gym, at Team Alpha Male, we’re always trying to work on the most important part of the game, which is the mental game,” says Faber. “There are a lot of people out there who want to have success, but there is an actual recipe for success. Jim and Renata Peterson are actually my neighbors, and we’ve developed together a system of life skills but related to sports. We have group sessions with our team that are about an hour and a half, where we talk about the subconscious, programming your future, visualizing, and things like that. We’ve been doing that for about five or six years with Jim and Renata.”
Team Alpha Male’s goal isn’t just to train kicking and punching, but it wants to shape minds for success in life once they hang up their sparring mitts. Faber has officially entered Mike Krzyzewski territory. For Duke University’s famed men’s basketball coach, it’s not about being a coach as much as a teacher and a leader; where he’s more concerned with making men more than athletes. If someone is going to be called the “Coach K of MMA” then Faber is ready to fill those shoes.
“It’s not just about fighting in a cage – it’s about life skills,” explains Faber. “I put forth the effort to do this for my team when I was coaching The Ultimate Fighter as well. Building them up. I think it’s the worst thing when I see fighters who have gone through a career and have nothing to show for it. They’re broken down and don’t know what to do next. It’s a sad thing. I want my fighters to know that this is all a building process for the next stages of your life. It’s something you can be proud of and you can take it as far and have as much success as you want and that everything you do is commendable. I call it ‘feather in the cap’ mentality. Being a part of this team is something you can put down on your resume, winning a fight is something you can put down on your resume, being in a fight is something you can put down on your resume. It takes guts, it takes tenacity, it takes character. Our guys are learning about how to be successful fighters, but more importantly they are learning how to have success in life and teach their kids to have success.”
Besides this wealth of coaching for mental toughness, Team Alpha Male has their acclaimed roster of lighter weight fighters covered with great ground and standup specific coaches. For grappling, “The California Kid” has BJJ black belt Fabio Prado as well as Dustin Akbari. For striking, Faber’s ace-in-the-hole is every MMA fan’s favorite mitt holder Master Thong. But, recently, Team Alpha Male has felt they needed someone to run and create practices, to watch fight videos, to keep people accountable, and, in short, be the team’s “head honcho”. The vetting process for special position took more or less one phone call to UFC, Strikeforce, and K-1 veteran Duane “Bang” Ludwig.
“Duane is a guy who I’ve always respected,” affirms Faber. “Anytime I’ve met him I’ve always thought he had a good attitude. I think he is one of the best strikers in MMA, period. After that first conversation, he started doing breakdowns for the team. He was calling me and saying this is what I see with this guy and just started being a coach from a distance. He stepped into the role without any commitment or compensation. I was like, this is what we need. He came down to check out the area and the gym and we had a big barbecue and he met all the guys. It wasn’t long after that that he made the move and moved all his stuff and his family out here. And he’s been doing awesome. He’s taken a lot of time to develop and watch video. He’s got 40 something clips of my fights of things that he likes that I’m doing and things of Ivan Menjivar that he thinks we can exploit. Not only is he running team practices, but he’s been going above and beyond working on individual things.”
The 34-year-old, well-traveled, and, basically self-taught kickboxer turned MMA fighter was entering a transitional period in his fight career and looking for a coaching opportunity when Faber fatefully called. While some have wrongly reported that Ludwig is replacing Master Thong, “Bang” is being brought in as a head coach and not as a new striking coach. Fight fans got a glimpse of this new union as Ludwig was a very vocal corner for Danny Castillo in his decision win over submission specialist Paul Sass at UFC on FUEL TV last Saturday. And not to worry, the enigmatic Thai kickboxing instructor with an ultra unique fashion sense will continue to hold mitts for Faber like he has for the past six years, ever since the two initially met several months prior to the first fight with Jens Pulver.
“Master Thong was really good at teaching body mechanics, which I was kind of missing,” remembers Faber. “I was learning all these different striking techniques, but I was missing the footwork, the body mechanics of striking, and defense. He implemented a lot more defensive tactics to help me be comfortable in getting hit. I had wrestled for years and years and years and been fighting for years, but I still wasn’t comfortable as a straight up boxer. I think he helped quite a bit with my defense and footwork, which are the basics and really important.”
Up next for Faber is a Saturday rematch dating back to 2006 with “The Pride of El Salvador,” Ivan Menjivar. At UFC 157, the product of Tristar Gym in Montreal will look to continue his recent success, as Menjivar has gone 4-1 inside the Octagon since coming over through the WEC merger in 2010. The Salvadoran-Canadian brown belt in BJJ with 12 years of professional fighting experience is riding high off a first round SOTN armbar over Azamat Gashimov at UFC 154, which was Menjivar’s second SOTN bonus in 2012.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Menjivar,” states Faber. “He’s a real pioneer. People say I’m a pioneer in this sport and he is more so than I am. He was a guy who was extremely well-rounded back in 2002 when he fought Georges St-Pierre. He was taking Georges St-Pierre down. I thought it was an even fight and a really weird stoppage. He fought Matt Serra. He’s fought at 155 pounds, he’s fought at 170 pounds. He’s always had a real high skill set. I know he’s a force to be reckoned with.”
One can easily assume that both fighters have no doubt improved greatly since their featherweight fracas seven years ago. While Menjivar has gone 8-4 in the meantime and remained dangerous in all areas of the game, Faber has gone 15-5, including winning the WEC featherweight championship, defending it five times, establishing himself as the face of the WEC, and marking himself as an elite level fighter regardless of the weight class. When the two first tangled, Faber was the raw putty of potential, and now is the molded metal of a championship caliber competitor.
“I feel like he’s a great style matchup for me because he is the type of guy who likes to fight everywhere and that’s how I like to fight,” tells Faber. “He likes fighting on the ground, mixing it up, and he likes getting wild. My toughest fights have been against guys who are really athletic and are kind of avoiding a wild fight. Barao, he really slowed the pace down and kept distance. Jose Aldo, he picked me apart by kicking my leg and he’s an incredible technician when it comes to that specifically. I’ve been developing and filling in those gaps and Ivan likes to fight everywhere. He’s dangerous on the ground, but I’m very dangerous on the ground. I’ve got a lot of finishes against a lot of opponents who have never been submitted. I feel like this fight for me is a great fight because Ivan is not afraid and likes to go everywhere and I think I’m going to have a slight advantage in every aspect.”
This Saturday, two MMA veterans who only mature with age will rekindle the flame from a former fight for bantamweight fireworks. “You can tell this guy is a real mixed martial artist, he does this because he loves it, he goes out there to have fun and to perform, and I’m going out there with the same mentality,” says Faber, whose confidence and insatiable hunger to be at the top of this sport has never waned, even for an instant, thanks to his mental toughness. “I want to win, I want to have a lot of fun, I want to mix it up, and have this be a real mixed martial arts fight where you see a little bit of everything and I think that’s going to happen. I’m going to come out on top, I’m going to get the finish, I’m going to get the W, and I’m going to move forward.”
Fight fans may remember Oklahoma City area native Matt Grice’s first UFC stint from 2007 to 2009, where “The Real One” went 1-3 as a lightweight with its highlight being the Fight of the Night win against Jason Black at UFC 77. After going 4-0 in regional shows, Grice returned to the Octagon in June 2011 a few pounds lighter as a featherweight in a loss to top contender Ricardo Lamas. But a year later at UFC on FX 3, he got back on the winning track and ran the tables on Leonard Garcia in an impressive unanimous decision win.
The difference between the former lightweight Grice and the current featherweight Grice is as much physical as it is mental, and it’s as much about the changes inside the cage as the ones outside of it. Obviously, the drop in weight class means he has turned from a smaller lightweight to a bigger featherweight, but more importantly it has changed Grice’s diet for the better and put added emphasis on his physical development.
“I feel incredible,” states Grice. “It’s the best I’ve ever felt. ’55 wasn’t hard for me to make. I was a small ’55 pounder. But at ’45, I have a nutritionist. It’s kind of changed my outlook on everything. I’m healthier than I’ve ever been, I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been. It’s definitely been the best thing for my career for sure. It’s all advantages for me. I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything, no strength. I don’t cut all my weight at the end. I diet down, and the diet I’m on gradually allows my weight to go down, but it also allows me to pack weight back on for the fight the next day. For the last fight, I felt incredible, and I’m already in better shape than I was for the last fight. I’m ready to go. I can’t wait.”
Besides adding a nutritionist to the payroll, the 31-year-old with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology and NCAA Division I wrestling experience from the University of Oklahoma became a small business owner in January 2012 by opening his own gym, R-1 MMA Training Center, in OKC. It’s given Grice a home base to train with an influx of local talent, which means a never ending stream of sparring partners. Between moving to his proper division and having a state-of-the-art gym to call his own, he is taking the correct steps to making himself a more professional fighter before he steps into the Octagon, and a more dangerous opponent when he enters it.
“Pretty much all the top fighters from around Oklahoma City train here,” tells Grice. “It’s pretty a much a little Mecca for all the small guys from 170 to 135. We’ve got 20 or so guys that are tough as nails. It makes a world of difference having them. There are a lot of different aspects and different looks. Before in Oklahoma City, some fighters would train over here and some fighters would train over there and it was spread out. Now that we’ve opened our gym, it’s like all the toughest guys have all migrated together. If you want to be somebody then you’ve got to learn from everybody and I think we do a good job of that.”
Another big difference between the 15-4, married father of two’s first time in the UFC and now is Grice’s ability to balance work and “play”. For him, work is as an Oklahoma City police officer and “play” is trading fists and feet inside the Octagon. In 2007, Grice took a leave of absence for two years to go through the police academy, and he fully admits he wasn’t training properly during that time to immediately jump back into the UFC’s deep waters like he did. But now he has the financial security that his family needs as well as the competitive outlet a four-time Oklahoma State wrestling champion needs.
“I think it definitely makes me more focused,” explains Grice. “Before when I was just fighting, I had too much time on my hands. Even on my 10 hour days, I’ll get in two workouts. I like to stay busy. I think it helps me stay grounded and stay focused. It also helps take pressure off of me. No matter what, I’m always in shape, but fighting isn’t the end all for me. I have two little girls, I have a wife, and, no matter what, I have a job where I can provide for my family. The fighting is a bonus. I do it because I love to do it; I don’t do it because I have to do it. I could quit fighting tomorrow and I would be financially okay. But I do it because I enjoy it and I love it. I love to compete, I love to test myself, and that’s why I fight. To me, I think that’s an advantage because I don’t have to be there, I want to be there.”
As far as the results, Grice earned 30-27 scorecards across the board against Garcia in June. It was a display of wrestling dominance from “The Real One,” with four of seven successful takedown attempts and eight guard passes. For the most part, Grice took away Garcia’s ability to generate any offense for 15 minutes as the “Bad Boy” landed only two significant strikes in three rounds. Also, the win showed off Grice’s solid gas tank with his unrelenting pressure, which had him in Garcia’s face from opening to closing bell.
“I just knew that if I wanted to win, I would have to put it into my world and just control every aspect of the fight,” asserts Grice. “I knew that in pre-fight he was saying if I was going to take him down then he was going to submit me and this and that. I was like, ‘We’ll see about that.’ I knew that his best chance to win the fight was obviously on the feet and I wanted to take his best chance away and put it into my world. For me to control the pace of the fight and dominate the fight, I knew I could do that on top of him.”
While the W was a decision, 10 of Grice’s wins are stoppages, with by far the majority of those via powerful punches. “All my coaches and all my sparring partners have said I have heavy hands,” says Grice ,who fits in nicely with the rest of the UFC’s high level wrestlers who like to throw haymakers and hammerfists as much as shoot for singles and doubles. “Most wrestlers are powerful guys, and once they learned the technique to punch they usually punch pretty hard. It’s kind of a natural progression to go from wrestling to control and once you’ve controlled somebody then you start laying on heavy ground and pound. On the feet, you always have to cut angles to take someone down and that’s the same way for striking – you have to cut angles to hit somebody.”
Up next is an explosive collision at UFC 157 in Anaheim, California with The Ultimate Fighter 14 finalist Dennis Bermudez. With an overall record of 10-3, Bermudez has scored back-to-back victories in the UFC in different but equally dominating fashions. The former NCAA Division I wrestler from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania is known for a fast and furious fighting style that has helped to earn “The Menace” two Submission of the Night (one on TUF 14) and one Fight of the Night bonus within his first year with the UFC. On paper, fight fans should expect to see two rams butting heads inside the Octagon.
“Dennis is a very tough opponent,” admits Grice. “Pretty well-rounded. He’s an ex-wrestler, very powerful, explosive. I don’t think he’s fought another wrestler like me. Most of the guys he’s fought have been good in jiu-jitsu or striking, but not really another wrestler. I’m kind of anxious to see how that is going to play out. He’s super tough, he’s got good cardio, and he seems very strong. I just can’t wait. I think it’s going to make for a great exciting fight. Neither one of us likes to back down and I think that will make for some fireworks.”
As mentioned, “The Real One” is busy training for the Bermudez bout at his own gym, R-1 MMA. One of Grice’s main training partners is UFC welterweight James Head, who is getting himself prepared for his April scrap against Nick Catone. Helping couple submission grappling to Grice’s stellar wrestling is Travis Serna, who is a BJJ black belt under Rafael Lovato Jr. More than anything, this refocused Grice just wants to fight, he’s hungry for a fight, and believes he’s ready to take on the best the UFC has to offer.
“I’m the best fighter I’ve ever been and I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been,” declares Grice. “I always thought I was well-rounded before, but I’m even more well-rounded now. I’m someone who for 15 minutes, no matter where the fight goes, I’ll be fighting. My goal is to win. Whether that is us standing toe-to-toe for 15 minutes or 15 seconds or me having to take him down – I don’t care what happens during those 15 minutes as long as my hand gets raised. That’s what matters to me. I’m ready to make a run and have some success at 145 pounds.
This Saturday, Grice is ready for his second shot at making a great impression on UFC fans by taking out Bermudez. “I think with the guys I train with and the skill sets I’m developing, I think I have all the abilities to be one of the top guys of this division and on February 23rd I’m going to prove that,” affirms Grice, who believes he’s made the necessary changes in and out of the cage to start stacking Ws at featherweight. “Dennis has a little hype under him from winning his last two fights and being in the finale of the Ultimate Fighter, and he’s exciting to watch, but I think I’m better in every aspect and I can’t wait to prove that on the 23rd.”
It’s a lot more than just 10 pounds.
Fight fans may remember Oklahoma City area native Matt Grice’s first UFC stint from 2007 to 2009, where “The Real One” went 1-3 as a lightweight with its highlight being the Fight of the Night win against Jason Black at UFC 77. After going 4-0 in regional shows, Grice returned to the Octagon in June 2011 a few pounds lighter as a featherweight in a loss to top contender Ricardo Lamas. But a year later at UFC on FX 3, he got back on the winning track and ran the tables on Leonard Garcia in an impressive unanimous decision win.
The difference between the former lightweight Grice and the current featherweight Grice is as much physical as it is mental, and it’s as much about the changes inside the cage as the ones outside of it. Obviously, the drop in weight class means he has turned from a smaller lightweight to a bigger featherweight, but more importantly it has changed Grice’s diet for the better and put added emphasis on his physical development.
“I feel incredible,” states Grice. “It’s the best I’ve ever felt. ’55 wasn’t hard for me to make. I was a small ’55 pounder. But at ’45, I have a nutritionist. It’s kind of changed my outlook on everything. I’m healthier than I’ve ever been, I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been. It’s definitely been the best thing for my career for sure. It’s all advantages for me. I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything, no strength. I don’t cut all my weight at the end. I diet down, and the diet I’m on gradually allows my weight to go down, but it also allows me to pack weight back on for the fight the next day. For the last fight, I felt incredible, and I’m already in better shape than I was for the last fight. I’m ready to go. I can’t wait.”
Besides adding a nutritionist to the payroll, the 31-year-old with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology and NCAA Division I wrestling experience from the University of Oklahoma became a small business owner in January 2012 by opening his own gym, R-1 MMA Training Center, in OKC. It’s given Grice a home base to train with an influx of local talent, which means a never ending stream of sparring partners. Between moving to his proper division and having a state-of-the-art gym to call his own, he is taking the correct steps to making himself a more professional fighter before he steps into the Octagon, and a more dangerous opponent when he enters it.
“Pretty much all the top fighters from around Oklahoma City train here,” tells Grice. “It’s pretty a much a little Mecca for all the small guys from 170 to 135. We’ve got 20 or so guys that are tough as nails. It makes a world of difference having them. There are a lot of different aspects and different looks. Before in Oklahoma City, some fighters would train over here and some fighters would train over there and it was spread out. Now that we’ve opened our gym, it’s like all the toughest guys have all migrated together. If you want to be somebody then you’ve got to learn from everybody and I think we do a good job of that.”
Another big difference between the 15-4, married father of two’s first time in the UFC and now is Grice’s ability to balance work and “play”. For him, work is as an Oklahoma City police officer and “play” is trading fists and feet inside the Octagon. In 2007, Grice took a leave of absence for two years to go through the police academy, and he fully admits he wasn’t training properly during that time to immediately jump back into the UFC’s deep waters like he did. But now he has the financial security that his family needs as well as the competitive outlet a four-time Oklahoma State wrestling champion needs.
“I think it definitely makes me more focused,” explains Grice. “Before when I was just fighting, I had too much time on my hands. Even on my 10 hour days, I’ll get in two workouts. I like to stay busy. I think it helps me stay grounded and stay focused. It also helps take pressure off of me. No matter what, I’m always in shape, but fighting isn’t the end all for me. I have two little girls, I have a wife, and, no matter what, I have a job where I can provide for my family. The fighting is a bonus. I do it because I love to do it; I don’t do it because I have to do it. I could quit fighting tomorrow and I would be financially okay. But I do it because I enjoy it and I love it. I love to compete, I love to test myself, and that’s why I fight. To me, I think that’s an advantage because I don’t have to be there, I want to be there.”
As far as the results, Grice earned 30-27 scorecards across the board against Garcia in June. It was a display of wrestling dominance from “The Real One,” with four of seven successful takedown attempts and eight guard passes. For the most part, Grice took away Garcia’s ability to generate any offense for 15 minutes as the “Bad Boy” landed only two significant strikes in three rounds. Also, the win showed off Grice’s solid gas tank with his unrelenting pressure, which had him in Garcia’s face from opening to closing bell.
“I just knew that if I wanted to win, I would have to put it into my world and just control every aspect of the fight,” asserts Grice. “I knew that in pre-fight he was saying if I was going to take him down then he was going to submit me and this and that. I was like, ‘We’ll see about that.’ I knew that his best chance to win the fight was obviously on the feet and I wanted to take his best chance away and put it into my world. For me to control the pace of the fight and dominate the fight, I knew I could do that on top of him.”
While the W was a decision, 10 of Grice’s wins are stoppages, with by far the majority of those via powerful punches. “All my coaches and all my sparring partners have said I have heavy hands,” says Grice ,who fits in nicely with the rest of the UFC’s high level wrestlers who like to throw haymakers and hammerfists as much as shoot for singles and doubles. “Most wrestlers are powerful guys, and once they learned the technique to punch they usually punch pretty hard. It’s kind of a natural progression to go from wrestling to control and once you’ve controlled somebody then you start laying on heavy ground and pound. On the feet, you always have to cut angles to take someone down and that’s the same way for striking – you have to cut angles to hit somebody.”
Up next is an explosive collision at UFC 157 in Anaheim, California with The Ultimate Fighter 14 finalist Dennis Bermudez. With an overall record of 10-3, Bermudez has scored back-to-back victories in the UFC in different but equally dominating fashions. The former NCAA Division I wrestler from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania is known for a fast and furious fighting style that has helped to earn “The Menace” two Submission of the Night (one on TUF 14) and one Fight of the Night bonus within his first year with the UFC. On paper, fight fans should expect to see two rams butting heads inside the Octagon.
“Dennis is a very tough opponent,” admits Grice. “Pretty well-rounded. He’s an ex-wrestler, very powerful, explosive. I don’t think he’s fought another wrestler like me. Most of the guys he’s fought have been good in jiu-jitsu or striking, but not really another wrestler. I’m kind of anxious to see how that is going to play out. He’s super tough, he’s got good cardio, and he seems very strong. I just can’t wait. I think it’s going to make for a great exciting fight. Neither one of us likes to back down and I think that will make for some fireworks.”
As mentioned, “The Real One” is busy training for the Bermudez bout at his own gym, R-1 MMA. One of Grice’s main training partners is UFC welterweight James Head, who is getting himself prepared for his April scrap against Nick Catone. Helping couple submission grappling to Grice’s stellar wrestling is Travis Serna, who is a BJJ black belt under Rafael Lovato Jr. More than anything, this refocused Grice just wants to fight, he’s hungry for a fight, and believes he’s ready to take on the best the UFC has to offer.
“I’m the best fighter I’ve ever been and I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been,” declares Grice. “I always thought I was well-rounded before, but I’m even more well-rounded now. I’m someone who for 15 minutes, no matter where the fight goes, I’ll be fighting. My goal is to win. Whether that is us standing toe-to-toe for 15 minutes or 15 seconds or me having to take him down – I don’t care what happens during those 15 minutes as long as my hand gets raised. That’s what matters to me. I’m ready to make a run and have some success at 145 pounds.
This Saturday, Grice is ready for his second shot at making a great impression on UFC fans by taking out Bermudez. “I think with the guys I train with and the skill sets I’m developing, I think I have all the abilities to be one of the top guys of this division and on February 23rd I’m going to prove that,” affirms Grice, who believes he’s made the necessary changes in and out of the cage to start stacking Ws at featherweight. “Dennis has a little hype under him from winning his last two fights and being in the finale of the Ultimate Fighter, and he’s exciting to watch, but I think I’m better in every aspect and I can’t wait to prove that on the 23rd.”
Cutting weight is never easy. Dieting down 15 pounds while training full-time as a professional fighter with one’s home gym next door to the Original Pancake House is probably Hell. 
