Author: By Jordan Newmark

Dan Henderson. That’s all you need right there.

If one had to validate to a UFC fan how exemplary an elite background in Greco-Roman wrestling can be for a fighter, one would only need to mention “Hendo,” who, at 42 years old, will be facing UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 151 on September 1st. The born and bred Californian has competed in MMA for 15 years, fought and won in three weight classes, won multiple belts and tournaments in multiple organizations (UFC, Strikeforce, and PRIDE), and still to this day is one of the toughest and most dangerous fighters around, one especially known for his granite chin and outrageous knockout power. Before his incredible nearly 40 fight career in the cage began, Henderson was a two-time US Olympian (1992, 1996), winner of several medals in international competitions like the Pan American Games and World Cup, and, truly, a lifelong wrestler.

“You definitely have to be dedicated,” said Henderson of being an Olympian. “You have to be able to learn and to get into shape and be able to do all the cross-training that is involved. I think that’s why I’m so mentally tough, because I competed like that. Wrestlers in general are fairly mentally tough. The biggest thing is the dedication involved – the commitment. It was obviously one of my goals. It was something that I wouldn’t trade for anything. It definitely made me much more of a patriotic person. There are all the countries there, and to represent the United States was awesome. Barcelona was my first time and I was 21 years old. I was really excited about it, but it didn’t compare to wrestling for my country in my home country in Atlanta. I think I was the first American to compete, so the crowd was really waiting for an American to come out and it happened to be me.”

What Henderson has been able to accomplish in MMA should be reason enough to sway the uninformed of a Greco-Roman wrestling mat’s ability to forge hardened fighters. But “Hendo” is far from alone, as UFC veteran Matt Lindland won a silver medal at 76 kg at the 2000 Olympics, former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy Couture was a three-time Olympic alternate, “The People’s Champ” Chael P. Sonnen won high honors in several international tournaments and was an Olympic alternate, and the original depiction of Greco-Roman wrestling in the Octagon was multiple Olympic alternate and UFC Hall of Famer Dan “The Beast” Severn. The facts of the matter are clear, Greco-Roman wrestling can make a man out of you.

“I believe that Olympic caliber Greco-Roman wrestlers have an advantage in a lot of particular positions, but more importantly, at the highest levels everything is a fight,” affirms Lindland. “You fight for points that don’t come easy, you fight to make it on teams, you are fighting to medal at the tournaments. You absolutely have to fight for every inch and the word used is literally ‘pummel’. These are some of the most mentally tough men I know.”

For the uninitiated, Greco-Roman wrestling is part old school brutal, chest to chest battling for positioning and it’s part gut-wrenching suplex superiority. It’s a brand of punishing physical endurance one wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy mixed with near herniating highlight reel lifts and slams. The event is also home to one of the single greatest moments in US Olympic history when Rulon Gardner won gold in Sydney in a 1-0 victory over the seemingly undefeatable three-time Olympic gold medalist Aleksandr Karelin. If the US team’s head coach and 1984 Olympics gold medal winner Steve Fraser has anything to say about it, the 2012 London Games will play host to a similarly dizzying and headline-grabbing effort by his current roster of wrestlers.

“We have high expectations and we truly believe that every one of these six guys can medal for sure,” states Fraser. “There is nobody on our team that doesn’t have a chance. With that said, with two young guys who are totally unproven and a few veterans who have won, but haven’t won in a few years – you never know. It never gets easy in this sport. Our expectations are to do well and what that means is five medals with at least two gold. If we were to do that, we would be the heroes of the world and have shocked everybody. Nobody in Greco wins five medals usually. The countries that are winning a team title in the World Championships are winning three medals and that’s enough to win the team title. Our goal is for everyone to win a medal, which would be six, but, realistically, if we win three then we could win the unofficial Olympic team title.”

It comes down to six guys who will be worked to the bone by Fraser and his illustrious staff of assistant coaches to be ready to give it their all once the lights and cameras are on. Only three countries qualified all seven weight classes on their team and for the US that unattained spot is at 96 kg. The six for the US seem to be split down the middle of young blood or experienced. As mentioned, regardless of which category they fall in, Fraser’s job is to get them in the mindset that they’re going to end up on the medals podium.

“Steve Fraser is one of those individuals who is a great coach, a great motivator,” remembers Henderson. “He tries to make everybody mentally tough and if you’re not – he’s going to beat it into you. He’s on the mat and wrestles with us, grinds with us. At his age and being able to beat us at the same time? Being mentally tough was his biggest thing. Being mentally tough and confident. He always said, ‘Expect to win. Expect to win.’ I think he is definitely a great asset to USA wrestling.”

The younger trio of Team USA is comprised of three first time Olympians: Ellis Coleman at 60 kg, Ben Provisor at 74 kg, and Chas Betts 84 kg. The latter, Betts, is a well-conditioned grinder from the University of Northern Michigan who won gold at the Pan American Championships earlier this year. In May, Provisor’s profile and confidence shot through the roof as he defeated 2008 Olympic gold medal winner Manuchar Kvirkvelia of Georgia at the Curby Cup. The youngest member of the team is the most famous pop-culturally as Coleman took the internet by storm after successfully landing a “flying squirrel” technique at the Junior World Championships. As US assistant coach and 1976 Olympic gold medal winner Momir Petkovic explains, Coleman’s strengths aren’t his theatrics, but his tenacity.

“On this team, we have younger kids who are just coming up like Ellis Coleman,” says Petkovic. “He is 60 kg. He is a two-time Junior World Bronze medalist. Very focused, very hungry, very determined, loves it so much. This is his first Olympics. He is young, only 20-21 years old, and, hopefully, he will be able to pull out a surprise for us. We know how much he can do, but for the rest of the world this will be his first big, major international competition. I can definitely see Ellis Coleman in MMA. He’s got that killer instinct. He’s just a unique, unique, unique guy. I’ve been in this sport for like 50 years and not that many I see like him. I never see anyone have a major surgery, broken ankle, screws, ligaments, four hour surgery. And then the next morning he’s in the gym lifting, push-ups, sit-ups, like what the [expletive] is going on with this kid? Where is he coming from? Just a very unique, unique, unique person.”

The leadership of the US team obviously comes from its experienced half of three top candidates for medals in their respective weight classes: Spenser Mango at 55 kg, Justin Lester at 66 kg, and, team stalwart Dremiel Byers at 120 kg. For Mango, a second appearance at the Olympics mixed with his copious amount of World Championships experience and still being only 26 years old should mean trouble for the rest of the competition. Don’t call him “Harry” anymore, as the 2x World bronze medalist, Lester, has proven he is one of the elite at his weight and is highly motivated to prove that in London after shockingly missing out on the team in Beijing. The final and heaviest member of the team is also one of the most decorated wrestlers in country history, as Byers owns a bronze, silver, and gold medal from the World Championships. These three will look to their vast experience to help themselves as well as to guide each other to the ultimate achievement of Olympic glory.

“The Olympics are so special,” asserts Petkovic. “The first time at the Olympics it is overwhelming. Suddenly, you’re in the middle of 10,000 athletes and you don’t know what you need to do. One thing we try to work with them on is them trying to keep cool and know that this is just another tournament. Get ready to raise your individual game to the level for you to be able to function at the best you can. Everyone at the Olympics has a dream of winning the gold medal. It doesn’t matter if they’ve did anything before or if they didn’t do anything before. It doesn’t matter where their ranking is before. That all falls apart when the competition starts and anything can happen against anyone at any moment. An 18 year old kid can go in there and kick some ass against a two-time World champion. It’s a totally different competition. The whole world is waiting for this and ready to declare, ‘this is my time’.”

In MMA, the buzz word for wrestlers is “control”. Fighters with frightening wrestling talent like past and present Olympians have the ability to dictate where a fight takes place or doesn’t take place. That is an added benefit during a fight, and for a career, as wrestlers can keep themselves out of harm by controlling the action, which can potentially lengthen their career. On top of that, wrestlers are molded over thousands of hours of acclimating themselves to the pain of training and competing. After years of grinning and bearing it in wrestling rooms and day long tournaments, fighting one fight in a cage in one night doesn’t seem so bad.

“It is a fact that the daily grueling training that wrestlers have to go through to become great wrestlers is such a benefit in the MMA world,” explains Fraser. “The conditioning factor alone, both physically and mentally. There is no other sport in the world that requires such grueling training as wrestlers. Wrestling is constant, non-stop attack. The conditioning factor from wrestlers is just huge. There are no better conditioned athletes, mentally and physically, than wrestlers.”

Beginning August 5th and ending August 7th, a sport will take center stage that is one of the most utterly excruciating and muscularly demanding you’ll ever see. As the former two-time member of the US Olympic team, Henderson, prepares to drop an “H-bomb” at his UFC 151 showdown on a champion who is 17 years his junior, fight fans should watch the wrestling event that made this old man “Hendo” so damn tough.

The United States Olympic freestyle wrestling team has been smacking heads, snapping necks, slamming bodies, and winning medals for 108 years. It all started at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, Missouri when the now famous wrestling event debuted and was contested in seven weight categories. Not to brag, but the United States of America won all 21 medals – gold, silver, and bronze (U-S-A! U-S-A!). To be honest, all 42 competitors involved in that original Olympic outing were from the United States.

After 28 Olympiads, wrestling has grown into an international free-for-all of incredible talent, which has produced some of the greatest crossover athletes the mixed martial arts world has ever seen. Athletes such as former two-time Olympian and recent winner of the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix, Daniel Cormier. The Oklahoma State University alum has taken MMA by storm with an undefeated record (10-0) in the cage following two decades of tearing up wrestling mats from high school state championships in Louisiana to winning a bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. As MMA continues to siphon off impressive figures like Cormier once their wrestling careers are done, the US freestyle wrestling team’s goal is the same as it ever was: produce greatness.

“It’s pretty simple, we only have one goal,” continues US men’s freestyle head coach Zeke Jones. “We want to be the best in the world.”

At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England, the 1992 silver medalist Jones will be leading a US team in continuing a century old tradition of cultivating top ranked wrestlers and returning home with some medals. “We are there to help each guy prepare to be an Olympic champion because that’s his lifelong dream,” says Jones, whose purpose isn’t to train one particular weight class for a possible spot on the podium, but all seven. The highest attention and expectations from fans and the media will be on the heavier half of the US team and, specifically, on one wrestler whose twitter handle “alliseeisgold” says it all: Jordan Burroughs.

“We have a returning World Champion in Jordan Burroughs at 74 kg,” tells Jones. “A returning World silver medalist Jake Herbert at 84 kg. A returning World bronze medalist at 96 kg, Jake Varner. A World bronze medalist from ’09 Tervel Dlagnev at 120 kg. Our four upperweights have performed very well at the World Championships and certainly have the ability to do that in London. We haven’t had a World Champion in quite a while and Jordan Burroughs won a World title for us. He’s made it pretty public that he wants to be the greatest of all time. He certainly is in a position to do that.”

The 24-year old New Jersey native was the first and only two-time NCAA Division I National wrestling champion from the University of Nebraska and he has not lost a single match of any sort since 2009. Last September, Burroughs amazed the world with an inspiring gold medal winning performance in Istanbul, Turkey at the World Championships. Shades of Willis Reed’s heroics in that fateful Game Seven, Burroughs suffered a laceration to his ear in the waning seconds of the semifinal match, moments later has his head bandaged, and goes on to defeat 2010 silver medalist Sadegh Goudarzi of Iran 3-2, 4-1. Burroughs has mentioned plans to transition to MMA once completing a second Olympic cycle, but, as Cormier points out, success in the cage for Burroughs is imminent because of his wrestling and Olympic experience.

“There’s a mentality that you have as an Olympian,” explains Cormier. “Not only me and the rest of the guys that have come over from wrestling, but Rick Hawn and Ronda Rousey, who were from the judo team. It’s a mentality that the Olympians carry. They’re used to winning at a certain level that when they come into MMA they have success because they are used to success. They are determined. To be a high-level wrestler like that means they have the ability to train with dedication. The ability to put your body through things that most people can’t because you’ve hardened yourself over a lifetime of training wrestling, which is by far the most taxing sport of all time. I have noticed now, I can train longer in MMA than I used to in wrestling. I couldn’t go six days in the World Cup and needed a day off. In MMA, I can go from Monday to Saturday and still feel pretty decent. I am beat up and tired, but I still feel pretty decent. Two days or two and a half days of wrestling was pretty much all I could do without having a day off.”

Filling out the lighter end of the team is a trio of multiple-time Division I All-Americans composed of two Sooners and one Cowboy – all from the state of Oklahoma. “Our lightweights are where folks tend to think our weakness is, but I tend to think those are the guys that are going to sneak up on people if they don’t pay attention,” affirms Jones of his three first time Olympians: Sam Hazenwinkel, Coleman Scott, and Jared Frayer. The 2008 NCAA Division I National Champion from Oklahoma State, Scott, was the last to make the team following a May wrestle-off with Reece Humphrey and, possible future MMA star, Shawn Bunch of Edinboro University, who is currently training with Cormier at the American Kickboxing Academy.

“There are a couple guys I know for sure that could do well in mixed martial arts,” states Cormier. “I know one guy who actually made a commitment to mixed martial arts after this year and his name is Shawn Bunch. He’s a 132 pound guy. He’s such a talented individual and such a talented wrestler that in the next two years I think he’ll have some major success at the highest levels of the sport, just as I have. With his athletic ability, I think you can look to him to be the one guy that can take the same path as I did. He’s crosstrained MMA and wrestling just as I did. Not just the guys who are on the Olympic team, but there are a lot of college guys that will be making a lot of noise in MMA in the next few years.”

Freestyle wrestling isn’t only for the men, as the US qualified all four spots on the women’s team. The smallest, 4’11 and 48 kg, is also the most accomplished, as Clarissa Chun is a two-time Olympian and the gold medal winner of the 2008 World Championships. At 55kg is Kelsey Campbell, a two-time National Collegiate Women’s championship winner from Arizona State University, at 63 kg is Elena Pirozhkova, a 2010 World’s silver medalist, and at 72 kg is Ali Bernard a 2011 World’s bronze medalist. Transitioning from wrestling to MMA isn’t only for men either as 2004 silver medalist Sara McMann and 2008 bronze medalist Randi Miller have both successfully made the switch from mat wrestling to cagefighting.

While the US team is filled with first timers on the Olympic stage, Jones knows that wrestling experience will not be a factor in London. “You have to remember, these guys have been wrestling for 20 years, and wrestled in 500 wrestling tournaments, and probably 10,000 matches, and have trained probably 100,000 hours – I think they’re ready for it,” adds Jones. The coach’s unshaken confidence is not only in the American wrestling system, but the extensive training Jones puts his wrestlers through both at home and, especially, abroad that will make them ready at the Games.

“It’s pretty simple – work your butt off,” asserts Jones. “We’ll make sure we do everything humanly possible to have them ready. That doesn’t mean waking up at four in the morning and drinking 12 raw eggs, and carry a log on your back up a mountain in 30 below weather. We have a very smart approach for working very hard. What makes us successful is we’re in Baku, Azerbaijan for a reason. This is the heart of the former Soviet Union. And we realize that if we want to be the best we have to beat them for the World Cup. We are here training with them prior to the World Cup. Foreign training is important. Fine tuning. Like anything, these are the best of the best of the best and what we’re trying to do is shave a stroke off their golf game. These guys are all scratch golfers. We’re gameplanning that the best that we can. You have to have a match plan for every wrestler. We have to execute the techniques and tactics to beat the best wrestlers in the world.”

Lastly, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner is currently leading the Technical Committee for the newly formed International Mixed Martial Arts Federation in hope to one day make the sport an Olympic one. While that is an ongoing process, there is one vocal supporter for it: Coach Jones. It shouldn’t be a surprise in the least as Jones has wrestled with or coached many past, present, and, probable, future MMA superstars.

“MMA is an honorable and respectful sport and I think it would be a great Olympic sport,” declares Jones. “I think it’s absolutely super. I have a nephew, James, who is very good at it. My teammates Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, and Ben Askren wrestled for me, Mo Lawal, Daniel Cormier, and I know I’m missing a ton of them. They’re wrestlers and I love them. I love that they’re MMA fighters and I would love to see them have the opportunity to stand up, represent their country, wear the American flag, and win a gold medal. I don’t know where the [International Olympics Committee] is in their perception of the reality of MMA, but I think it would be a great Olympic sport and I would love to see it and I would watch it.”

Starting August 8th and ending August 12th, freestyle wrestling will be on full display in all of its grinding and grueling glory. For some, it could mean fulfilling a lifelong dream to stand on the medals podium. For all, it is a time to sharpen their athletic skills against the very best. And for fans, it’s a chance to watch freestyle wrestling at its finest and maybe to see a future UFC champion in the making.

“War is the business of barbarians.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

If UFC fights were only 10 minutes long instead of 15, there wouldn’t be this mythical tale about “The Barbarian” who invaded Japan and defeated their hometown hero in one of the most memorable comeback victories in company history. The Octagon’s first foray into “The Land of the Rising Sun” in over a decade, UFC 144 played host to a third round knockout that caught the attention of not only everyone in attendance, but the entirety of the middleweight division. After two rounds of one-sided action from the previously ranked number one contender Yushin “Thunder” Okami, it took less than 60 seconds of the third round for Tim Boetsch to finish his opponent with really his first successful flurry of the fight.

The moral to this story, don’t let “The Barbarian” hit you – ever.

“I knew going into the third round if I wanted to win that fight, I had to finish him,” remembers Boetsch. “That’s exactly what Matt [Hume] said, ‘you have to finish him.’ He told me to be super aggressive. The whole training camp that was what we had worked on: moving forward, closing the distance, and hitting him with big shots. I threw a loopy right hand and he staggered back and I followed up and landed a right head kick at one point that kind of hit his glove. I knew the head kick didn’t land clean, but he staggered back, so I knew I had wobbled him. He had certainly been hurt in that exchange and I knew there was blood in the water. I closed the distance and started throwing to finish. Finally, in the third round the training came through and I did what we had been training for three months and it worked out just as we had planned.”

It was about the most serious case of “better late than never”. What transpired in the opening rounds was as much a surprise to the partisan Japanese fans as it was to Boetsch, as Okami displayed a level of speed and crispness with his hands unseen in his other Octagon outings. Okami took the first five minutes with a “shock & awe” striking showcase and took handle of the second five minutes following an ill-timed guillotine choke attempt by Boetsch. The second stanza ended with Boetsch mounted and Okami raining down punches, but the Pennsylvanian was defending and not that fazed by the punishment his near granite chin was receiving.

“I often tell the refs when we’re in the locker room before the fight and going over the rules that I have a head like a coconut and can take quite a pounding if need be (laughs),” tells Boetsch. “My mind was very clear the whole time and even when he had mounted me I was deflecting most of those punches. I think only one or two landed clean. I wasn’t so much concerned that he was going to finish me; I was more concerned that the ref was going to think I was in more trouble than I actually was. I was trying to make eye contact with the ref to let him know I was still aware, I was still defending, and I was doing what I needed to do to get through that round. That was my only concern that the ref was going to jump in and pull him off when it wasn’t really that bad.”

After Okami threw everything and the kitchen sink at him, Boetsch hopped to his feet ready for one more round while his opponent lurched heavily over to his own. Part physically fatigued and part severely discouraged, “Thunder” looked ready to be the beaten man as “The Barbarian” poured on a stand-up assault right out of the gate, which finished Okami only 54 seconds into the third round. Regardless of it not being the flawless victory a fighter hopes for, Boetsch scored a declarative stoppage win over an opponent one fight removed from fighting for the division’s title. It’s a career defining performance that proves he is always ready for a war inside the Octagon and that he’ll likely be the victor and the last one standing at the end of it.

“I think the biggest thing for me is that as long as I’m still in the fight I have the ability to win,” states Boetsch. “Going into the later rounds was a hard part for the beginning of my career where my conditioning wasn’t where it is today. I would get nervous when the fight would start to get into the deeper water. Now, I almost want it to go there because my conditioning is so good. Getting the win in the third period over a guy like Yushin is a huge confidence booster. Getting a win in a come from behind way proves to me that maybe I’m even mentally tougher than I thought I was. It’s just a huge boost of confidence.”

Three up and three down. The 31-year old Maine native made the decision a little over a year ago to drop from light heavyweight to middleweight and has scored back-to-back-to-back impressive Ws inside the Octagon. First was the bullying of Kendall Grove at UFC 130, second was the outclassing of Nick Ring at UFC 135 in the thin air of Denver, and, most recently in February, “The Barbarian” was only the second man to defeat Okami by TKO in the UFC – the other being some guy named Anderson Silva. As several 185 pounders are jockeying for position for the next title fight, Boetsch was scheduled to take on Michael Bisping while a promotional newcomer Hector Lombard was slated to face Brian Stann, but both Bisping and Stann got injured. Now, Boetsch is Lombard’s UFC welcome wagon.

“I think that’s exactly where I want to be,” affirms Boetsch. “I want my title shot. Obviously, to get to the title you have to beat the best guys in the weight class and that’s what I’m doing. Yushin was coming off his title shot, Hector was supposedly told he would get a title shot if he won the Stann fight, so I think that is putting me very close in line for getting my title shot. Especially, if I get an impressive win over Hector.”

From “Thunder” to “Lightning”, at UFC 149 in Calgary, Canada, Boetsch will enter the cage against one of the most highly regarded judo practitioners and knockout artists in the sport. At 34 years old with a professional record of 31-2-1 with 1 NC, Lombard is riding an insane 25 fight unbeaten streak marked by a pandemic litany of devastating knockouts and several slick submissions. A much sought after American Top Team product, Lombard has fought for just about every MMA company under the sun since 2004 and will be finally making his Octagon debut in a fireworks guaranteed matchup.

“I think he’s a very dangerous fighter,” says Boetsch. “He’s super aggressive, he’s very powerful, and he’s got quick explosive hands. He’s a guy who is going to come out and try to kill you and that’s a very different fight than the one I was going to have with Bisping, but it’s a fight I welcome. I think this fight puts me very close to being next in line for the title, so I welcome this fight with Hector.”

The bout will be a series of firsts for both fighters, as this is the first fight under the Zuffa banner for the well-traveled veteran Lombard, so “jitters” might not be a factor, but height could be. Neither is a particularly tall middleweight, but this will be a first for the 5’11” Boetsch as a middleweight, as he will physically be looking down at the 5’9” Lombard. But the most important first for him is to hand the Cuban his first loss in nearly six years, since Gergard Mousasi beat him in PRIDE. For the former NCAA Division I wrestler from Lock Haven University, Lombard’s win streak is an interesting factoid, but won’t make a world of difference once the cage door is closed.

“I’m a pretty easy going guy and I don’t let numbers and stats bother me,” confirms Boetsch. “People online are talking about how he is unstoppable and this and that. I know what I’m capable of doing and I’m not looking to add my name to that win streak of his. I’m very much looking forward to ending his win streak. I’ve done it to a couple other guys like Todd Brown had quite a win streak when I fought him and Nick Ring was undefeated when I fought him with 12 wins in a row. Certainly, 20 wins in a row is a lot, but I’m not intimidated by that number. That’s all it is to me – just a number. He hasn’t fought me yet and I’m very much looking forward to ending that streak for him.”

In preparation for Lombard, Boetsch begins all his training camps at home in Sunbury, Pennsylvania at his own Barbarian Combat Sports. As the bout gets closer, the 15-4 fighter travels to Kirkland, Washington to fine tune himself and the gameplan at AMC Kickboxing & Pankration with “The Wizard” Matt Hume and Brad Kertson. Obviously, Boetsch appears to have made the correct decision in moving to middleweight because he’s closer than ever in his prizefighting career at realizing his dream: being a UFC champion. What stands in Boetsch’s way is a fist missile throwing former Cuban Olympian, and he simply can’t wait to tangle with him.

“Well, I expect him to come out and try to kill me for at least the first minute (laughs),” estimates Boetsch. “I think that’s what he does in every single fight he’s ever been in. It’s going to be an explosive start. I just need to be careful I don’t get caught with one of those hard punches early because that could certainly swing the tide his way. I just have to be mindful of those power shots he throws. He’s going to come forward hard and it’s going to be interesting to see if I can get the guys in the room to get me used to having someone come at me that hard and try to kill me like he’s going to. I’m trying to get myself ready for that and I think I will be come fight night. I’m going to be ready to surprise a lot of people and be ready to end this win streak he’s got going for him.”

On Saturday in “The Stampede City”, it’s a middleweight melee with malicious intent for the masses as Boetsch and Lombard collide. “I just want people to realize that I really can compete with the best fighters in the world and I can in fact take them out,” emphasizes Boetsch, who is eager to stop Lombard’s win streak before he hopefully gets the opportunity to stop the champion Silva’s. “I want the fans to know that even though I’m fighting the top guys in the world, that those guys need to be worried I’m going to take them out. That’s what I want to do in this fight. I don’t want to just fight him or go to a decision with him, I want to finish him.”

If “The Barbarian” can silence “Thunder”, maybe he can catch “Lightning” too. That’s the stuff legends are made of.

He only had 10 seconds left, so he finished the fight in 9.

In the same amount of time it takes Usain Bolt to run 100 meters, Roland Delorme secured a fight ending rear naked choke on fellow Canadian countryman Nick Denis at UFC on FOX 3. It was only the first round, but it was a wild opening five minutes where both bantamweights rocked each other with clean punches to the face and a finish for either man appeared imminent. But the ever opportunistic stoppage machine Delorme only needed the briefest of openings to seize the submission and force the tap with one tick of the clock remaining, which increased his record to 2-0 inside the Octagon.

“Once I grabbed his neck, I heard the ten seconds bell go and I just knew that if I’m going to finish the fight it had to happen now,” remembers Delorme. “Once I had him hurt with a minute left in the round, I knew that I had to get on this guy now because if he gets a minute break between rounds he could come back as a completely different fighter. I thought I had to do this now. Once I sunk that choke, I just squeezed. I usually don’t squeeze chokes and I tell people don’t squeeze chokes because you’ll burn your arms out trying to finish something that’s not there. But I felt it go under his chin and I knew I was across his throat and I knew that there was only 10 seconds left, so I was like I’m going to squeeze as hard as I can until the bell goes. You can go out or the round is going to end.”

The 28-year old from Winnipeg needed just shy of a full round to beat the previously top-ranked 135-pounder of “The Great White North” who he had been trying to fight for the better part of two years. Heading into the May bout, he gladly accepted the role as the underdog, knowing Denis had knockout-friendly hands and more experience, and plus, Delorme was taking the fight on short notice by filling in for an injured Johnny Bedford. But Delorme’s confidence in his submission game is paramount, earning him six of his eight victories as a professional with the other two wins by KO/TKO. Plus, he isn’t nervous about eating a knuckle sandwich or two in search of feasting on another tasty sub.

“Nick’s a solid dude,” tells Delorme. “He’s been around the world. He’s fought a lot of really great guys and he’s beaten a lot of really great guys. I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy fight, but I knew it was winnable. I knew that the first round was going to be tough. I was probably going to take a bunch of punches in the first round and I knew that if I was still standing I could win that fight. That’s kind of the way it went down and I couldn’t be happier. The whole fight in general I liked. I don’t mind getting punched in the face, I like it. I enjoy it. It doesn’t bother me. When I’m taking a beating, it’s not a big deal. The one thing about submissions is I knew that all it would take is if I got one opening, one mistake, and I got his neck and it’s over.”

The Ultimate Fighter season 14 alum is gearing up for his third Octagon outing, this time in his native Canada on July 21st at UFC 149 in Calgary against brawler Francisco Rivera. To follow-up winning back-to-back UFC contests via rear naked choke, Delorme was briefly connected to meet Bibiano Fernandes in what would have been the Brazilian’s UFC debut after tearing up the Japanese MMA scene. After a small amount of melodrama, Delorme is now fixed to fight the bantamweight bombardier Rivera, who has five of his eight wins by KO/TKO. Although Rivera’s name doesn’t carry as much proverbial weight as Fernandes’ does, Delorme knows their fists do and that they can carry with them the same type of knockout power he needs to stay away from inside the cage.

“I didn’t know who Bibiano Fernandes was,” admits Delorme. “I didn’t watch DREAM. They gave me a name and I said yes. I didn’t care who that guy was. He’s a good BJJ guy, throws really, really hard – great, fantastic. He didn’t get hurt. He just decided he didn’t want to fight anymore – that’s how that fight ended. He didn’t want to fight me; I wanted to fight him, whatever. Now, I have Francisco Rivera and he’s happy to fight me and that’s fantastic. I want to fight guys who want to fight me. Francisco is just as dangerous. He could knock me out just as much as Bibiano could. Everyone’s got a button on the chin. You hit me hard enough on the chin and I go out. I know that. It’s not that one guy is more dangerous than the other; they’re all dangerous in different ways. I’m not going to overlook Francisco because he’s not Bibiano or he doesn’t have the same record or hasn’t fought the same guys. Everybody gets to the UFC by beating people and being good. There’s no easy fight in the UFC.”

The matchup with the 8-2 Rivera is remarkably similar on paper to the one with Denis, as they’re both home run punchers and Delorme’s chin is made of skin and bones like everyone else’s. “If he hammers me with his right hand, I’ll probably go unconscious and that’s fine because if it’s not dangerous it’s not fun,” states Delorme, who enters the Octagon not looking for a grapplethon, but a fist fight, because this is MMA and not simply BJJ. “It comes down to keeping my chin tucked and my hands up and going out there and having fun. If we’re exchanging punches and I see that I can take him down then I will and if I don’t see it then I won’t. When I fight, it’s all action and reaction to me.”

Delorme isn’t looking to give Rivera an inch standing if he can help it, but, make no mistake, if the fight hits the floor, that’s the Canadian’s world. The product of the Winnipeg Academy of Mixed Martial Arts has been training there since he was 21, but he began his journey into one-on-one combat competition at the age of eight in Judo. Delorme’s dogged determination with his grappling in the cage is what earned him a 6-1 record in Canada, a spot in the TUF house, and his first two wins in the UFC. It’s a success story that he has worked most of his life towards, but simply didn’t expect; now that it’s here, he is prepared to squeeze it for all its worth.

“When I was younger and saw my first UFC, I knew exactly that I wanted to fight,” affirms Delorme. “Everybody always aspires to be the best at what they’re at. I aspired too, but never thought I would make it. I thought it would be nice, but never thought it would happen. I thought I would have 10 pro fights, go 50/50, and call it a career. Now that I’m here, it’s a dream come true and it’s crazy. Fighting in Calgary, I just love the opportunity of fighting in front of a huge crowd in my home country. I’m just so happy and grateful and really looking forward to the opportunity. At least I’ll be able to check that off my bucket list. Next it would be cool to fight in Winnipeg! I’ll take Calgary, that’s fine, and I’ll be happy with that. It’s nice to go out there and showcase my skills in front of the Canadian fans that have watched me fight before I was even in the UFC. There are a few more Canadian cards this year and if I’m lucky enough and I don’t get hurt and I have a good fight, hopefully I can get on one of those cards too. I’m living my dream, fighting people for money, getting paid well, getting flown around, fighting in front of huge crowds, and I’m going to ride this for as long as I can and see what happens.”

This Saturday in the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Delorme and Rivera will collide with all the trappings of a bantamweight war. “Fans should make sure to specifically watch me and Rivera because  any fight I’m in, I make it a [expletive]-ing fight,” asserts Delorme, whose fearless, finishing, fighting style will be on full display for the partisan Canadian crowd. “Every time I win, I do it in insane fashion. I dedicated my life to martial arts at a young age and I would like people to see that when I fight. From now until whenever my career ends, I want people to say, ‘that guy is tough and that guy can scrap.’”

It might sound cliche, but fight fans shouldn’t blink during this fight because when Delorme is in the cage he’s proving he makes every second count.

Tim Kennedy wants to fight Luke Rockhold. No more, no less.

In the time honored tradition of hyping up a hotly anticipated championship bout, it’s quite unique for the challenger to believe the exchanging of fists and feet with the current title holder is the reward and not the typically coveted gold belt that hangs in the balance. At the same time, not every professional cagefighter is comfortable donning a black wig and wrapping their pectoral muscles in ace bandages in their free time in a hysterical effort to spoof a pop music video. Nor are many Bronze Star awarded Staff Sergeants of the United States Army. These wildly different character attributes are among a host that set Kennedy apart from the Strikeforce pack outside of the cage almost as much as his abilities to dispatch opponents inside of it.

A top ranked middleweight, a Special Forces soldier, a promising Youtube sensation, but, most of all, Kennedy is a skilled fighter looking for a five round scrap with his division’s best: Rockhold.

“I am honored and excited to fight an athlete like Luke,” affirms Kennedy. “I don’t care about the title. I just want to fight the best guys and Luke is the best guy in Strikeforce. It’s an honor to step in the cage against the best guy in my division and the best guy in my promotion. The belt is just a symbol that you have fought the best. I care more about who I’m fighting and not what I’m fighting for. I’m excited because I’m fighting Luke.”

At 32 years old with an overall record of 14-3, Kennedy has reached the Strikeforce mountaintop yet again to tangle with the number one fighter of his weight class. In August of 2010, Kennedy battled for the full 25 minutes with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to a regrettable decision loss. Two years later, Kennedy has scored back-to-back wins over Melvin Manhoef and Robbie Lawler, which earned Kennedy a second shot at a belt, but, more importantly, a sanctioned mixed martial arts struggle with the toughest guy the company can put in front of him. For Kennedy, the test of beating a game opponent is the drive for all of his outings, including his most recent decision victory over UFC and Strikeforce veteran Lawler in July 2011.

“He’s a one punch knockout artist,” affirms Kennedy. “If you give him time and the opportunity, he’ll blast you. I tried to stay out of that the entire fight, tried to stay out of his ‘brawler range’. I tried to close the distance quickly to a range I felt comfortable with – that was the gameplan. Get through his punching power area and get in and hurt him. I think I was successful in almost every one of my efforts. He caught me one time coming in with an uppercut on my nose in the middle of the second round and it cut me and it bled. Quite a bit of blood on us, the cage, and the judges and anything else within 20 feet. It was a tough fight, but I’m happy with it.”

It’s been nearly a year since Kennedy last took to the cage and defeated Lawler, which punched his title shot ticket, but that span of time has been marked by improvement and not inactivity. For the past 11 months, he has trained tirelessly for this eventual showdown with Rockhold in his adopted hometown of Austin, Texas with Muay Thai striking coach Jason Webster, and in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a member of the Jackson’s fight team under the supervision of Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn. A specific focus of Kennedy’s was to better the accuracy and timing of his takedowns, as he only scored about a third of his 16 takedown attempts on the underrated wrestler Lawler. Beyond that, the bigger picture for his improvement has been to increase the range of where he can inflict damage on his adversary to make him an attacking menace everywhere.

“I’ve had 11 months to make myself dangerous in all other areas,” states Kennedy. “The areas I wasn’t as good at I tried to improve on and the areas I was already good at I tried to make myself absolutely amazing at. Once guys are scared of my takedowns I’m able to hurt them standing like I did to Robbie. Going to the body, overhands, even with kicks and knees. Once he was so apprehensive with the takedowns, I was able to do a lot more. I tried to crispen up where and when I can hurt people. I’ve improved my defense, my head movement, my footwork. I got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people I respect in jiu-jitsu to try and sharpen up my submission game. I was a bit of a positional fighter where if you give me side control, then you’re never going to get me out of side control and I’m going to hurt you as much as I can with as much time is left in that round. Now, I’m been exposed to more offensive threats in more offensive positions.”

Up next for Kennedy is a July 14th main event in Portland, Oregon against the Strikeforce middleweight champion Rockhold. The 9-1 product of the heralded American Kickboxing Academy is a Dave Camarillo jiu-jitsu brown belt with several submission grappling tournament gold medals on his mantle as well as the Strikeforce belt, which he won off “Jacare” via unanimous decision last September. In short, Rockhold is a 6’3”, 185 pound terror who is undefeated in the Strikeforce cage and is proving to be as much as a potential finisher on the feet as he is on the ground. As mentioned earlier, Kennedy isn’t interested in the belt as much as he is to clash with Rockhold because of how highly he thinks of the current champ, so there’s no trash-talk to be found on Kennedy’s end.

“I have a lot of respect for Luke,” tells Kennedy. “I think he’s a talented, gifted athlete. I think he’s a developing mixed martial artist. He’s definitely risen quickly and blossomed fast. He’s dangerous in many different ways. His jiu-jitsu in underrated, his grappling/wrestling is good, and his striking is good. He’s good at dictating the range that he likes. He’s a problem in every single area. I’m really excited to fight the best fighter in Strikeforce. I have a lot of respect for him as a fighter and athlete.”

Although Kennedy and Rockhold have zero experience fighting each other, both have spent nearly a half hour rumbling with the former Strikeforce king “Jacare” Souza. On the surface, both bouts were extremely contentious, with opposite endings for Kennedy and Rockhold, and they truly demonstrated why these two middleweights need to meet in a cage for five rounds. But if one – Kennedy – looks deeper into the fights, one will see not only the mistakes one needs to rectify to win in the past, but the possible vulnerabilities in the other to win in the future. For Kennedy, the lesson is to worry less about having a metaphorical stranglehold on his expectations and worry more about having a literal stranglehold on his foe.

“It definitely wasn’t the best version of myself in the cage that night,” admits Kennedy. “He surprised me in the sense that he didn’t try to grapple with me. He only tried to take me down twice. And both times, I stuffed him. With me being surprised about him not wanting to shoot or take me down, I wasn’t prepared for the type of fight it ended up being, but I still thought I won the fight in every way it ended being. I landed more punches, I landed more kicks, I dropped him in the first round, I slammed him. I have looked back at that fight and I’m frustrated of course. The first, I had nothing to fear from him and should have pushed the pace and been much more aggressive. The second, regardless of how a guy fights, I should have understood that if he didn’t want to take me down then I should have destroyed him on his feet, but I never got there. It’s another thing I tried to improve on.”

On the flip-side, the lesson about Rockhold is to be better where Souza wasn’t and to be best where “Jacare” had his most success. The Achilles heel for the Brazilian was his lack of cardio against a challenger who appeared to get better, faster, stronger as the fight wore on. Early on, Souza’s stereotypical pedal-to-the-metal style was effective, but soon enough he was running on fumes and couldn’t continue at the speed he had set. Meanwhile, Rockhold drove strong for all five rounds, consistently pressing the action until the belt was his.

“I thought Luke fought a brilliant fight against ‘Jacare’,” tells Kennedy. “‘Jacare’ looked great and then he slowed down and gassed. He spent so much energy on that first takedown. ‘Jacare’ fights with a lot of muscle and is not relaxed and fluid. I think that was a problem because he was never able to recover as Luke kept picking up the pace and ‘Jacare’ couldn’t keep up. It was a very close fight. I think ‘Jacare’ was throwing a one or two punch combination and one punch would land like a big overhand, but he wouldn’t follow up. In the first round, he would land something and then follow-up with a takedown, which he scored and did damage. I really think that first round was a recipe of how to beat Luke, but you need to have the gas tank to do it for five rounds.”

On Saturday, from “The City of Roses”, the two best middleweights Strikeforce proudly has to offer will collide in the cage for the division’s championship belt. “I think Luke is young, tough, confident, durable, long, rangy, and hard to hit, but I plan to be in his face for 25 minutes,” asserts Kennedy, who has no magic trick to beat Rockhold except for five rounds of hardnosed, punishing effort, which will be a more satisfying prize than any glittery belt. “That’s what I’ve prepared for. I plan on being in his face 25 minutes. If I can go out there and demonstrate that I always fight hard, I always train hard, and I always put on a show, then I’m happy.”

Whether he walks out of Portland with the title or not, both Kennedy and Strikeforce fans will have gotten what they have eagerly wanted: a fist fight with Rockhold.

It has been almost 300 days since fight fans last saw Jason High dishing out some ground and pound punishment to an unfortunate foe in a Strikeforce cage. During his nearly 10 month absence, High has maintained a busy schedule of training, opening his own gym, winning a prestigious grappling tournament, and maintaining an active twitter account filled with his dry wit commentary on an assortment of topics like his family reunions, raising his daughter, and the occasional rap mixtape review, just to name a few.

But as “The Kansas City Bandit” prepares to make his first Strikeforce appearance this year to do battle on July 14th, there is only one thing he wants to do inside the cage and it’s absolutely the sweetest music to fight fans’ ears: carnage.

“I really just like having violent fights,” bluntly states High. “Like where you do something terrible to somebody. That’s what I would really like to do.”

After a near year of career dormancy, the former NCAA Division I wrestler from the University of Nebraska is ready to add another victory with extreme prejudice to his current six fight win streak, which extends across three countries and two continents. High’s previous performance was a simple outclassing and dominant unanimous decision over Todd “Maniac” Moore. The bout itself was a 15 minute top-game clinic from High, as he scored takedowns and peppered his foe with elbows and punches while on the ground, throwing in a few submission attempts for good measure in his second clear cut W inside Strikeforce.

“I knew Todd was a tough guy, but I figured I was better than him everywhere,” tells High. “I wanted to finish him, but I obviously didn’t get that. I still thought I fought well. I was happy with the fight, but not completely satisfied. As the sport evolves, it’s getting harder and harder to finish guys. You can’t finish everybody.”

At 30 years old with a professional record of 16-3, High is a welterweight train of takedowns with a more dangerous looking striking and submission arsenal each time he steps into the cage. It’s been over two years since his only career slide of dropping back-to-back bouts to Marius Zaromskis and Charlie Brenneman, and ever since, High has shown a wrestling for MMA takedown proficiency that is staggering and baffling to his opponents. Although the half dozen winning streak is impressive and speaks to his growth as a game rising challenger, High’s focus is the same as it ever was: get better everywhere.

“I don’t really think about the win streak honestly at all,” tells High. “The only time I think about it is when somebody asks me about it. It doesn’t really matter coming into a fight how many fights you’ve won in the past. It doesn’t matter at all. That’s why I train to get better at everything. I like to think that I’m getting better with every outing. I feel like I’m way better. I’m in better shape, I’m better technically. I feel like I’m a totally different fighter than the one who fought those two fights that I lost. I think my standup has gotten better, I think my grappling has gotten much better and I think my strongest area continues to be my strongest area. I’m stepping that up too. I’m in great shape. I’m just trying to get better everywhere.”

One specific aspect of High’s game that has noticeably gotten better is his Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and we know this because he has a medal to prove it. In search of some much needed competition in his life, he put on his gi and began training and later participated in the World Championships, also known as the Mundials. High took first in the medium-heavy weight category for adult male blue belts and finished all of his opponents, including a guillotine choke victory in the finals. Besides the gold medal, High was also awarded his purple belt, a serious case of cauliflower ear, and a much deserved sense of accomplishment.

“Really, I just wanted some competition,” explains High. “I lived in California for a few years and for some reason I didn’t do it while I was out there. I decided that I was going to do it and I did it. I was training some in the gi anyways, so I picked it up a little bit and decided to go out to Worlds. It was fun. It was really tough. I had seven matches. There was something like 86 guys in my weight class. Some of the guys from Brazil were really tough. Tough tournament. Seven matches in four or five hours, it was a grind. It was a challenge to stay up for all those matches. It’s a different game in the gi, but I definitely feel like my grappling has improved so much from being in the gi because you’re focusing on it so much and breaking it down. It’s really helpful. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t really helpful for fighting. I’m a fighter first.”

On top of the success at the Mundials, High is also a business owner now near his hometown, as he and WEC veteran LC Davis opened a gym together – HD (High-Davis) MMA. “We’ve got a nice little team and a lot of casual members,” says High, whose new gym is right on the state line of Kansas and Missouri on the Kansas side in Leawood. “When you start coaching people, you learn a lot also – it’s counter-intuitive. When you’re coaching you have to break stuff down a little better, and to teach people you have to really know the techniques. I’ve been fighting for seven years, so I feel like I have a lot of knowledge to give younger guys.”

Up next for High is a long awaited Strikeforce date for caged fisticuffs against the 8-2 Nate Moore. The product of the American Kickboxing Academy is 2-1 inside Strikeforce, with his most recent win being an early second round knockout of Nathan Coy in January 2011. Moore’s shown a predilection for stoppages, as his last seven victories have come before the final bell. And even though he seems content to trade punches, Moore is a former NCAA Division I wrestler from Purdue University.

“He’s tough,” admits High. “He’s got heavy hands. He’s got good wrestling. He comes from a good camp, so I’m preparing for a tough fight. I’ve been training this whole time, so I’m not worried about being rusty. There were two times when I was thinking I was going to fight, so I stay in pretty good shape at all times. I’m not really worried about it. I’m expecting a tough fight.”

In preparation for the scrap with Moore, High has been training at his own gym, as well as making the MMA pilgrimage to American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. “They have great coaches, great training partners, a great facility, and that’s all you need right there,” says High, who come fight night will be cornered by ATT co-owner and head instructor Ricardo Liborio and wrestling coach Kami Barzini. Liborio is as highly regarded as one can possibly be with his 7th degree BJJ red and black belt. Meanwhile, the Iranian born Barzini has wrestled at the top international levels and worked with other fighters like Daniel Cormier and Dan Henderson.

This Saturday, there’s going to be a welterweight showdown between a “Cornhusker” and a “Boilermaker” in the Strikeforce cage. For “The Kansas City Bandit,” another W would keep his undefeated streak inside Strikeforce alive, but a win isn’t the only thing High is searching for. He wants a taste of a real fight and when asked whether he thinks he’s going to get it, High responds matter-of-factly, “I do think that.” Sweet music to our ears.