Author: By Jordan Newmark

The old adage is one learns more from a loss than a win.

At UFC 132, Brad Tavares was a true student of the game as Aaron Simpson taught him a couple valuable lessons in his unanimous decision loss. The 24-year old fought three grueling rounds defending takedowns from the former two-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler from Arizona State University. It was about the ugliest fight Simpson and Tavares could have put on, but it proved without a shadow of a doubt that the young and heavy handed Hawaiian has serious takedown defense.

“In none of my other fights have I fought a wrestler as decorated as Aaron Simpson,” tells Tavares. “On top of that, he comes from a very good wrestling team with Ryan Bader and CB Dollaway, who are all good wrestlers. Even though I lost, it was a big plus for me that I can compete with the best wrestlers in the division. I think maybe only Chael Sonnen is a better MMA wrestler than Aaron Simpson. It boosted my confidence somewhat. In the gym when I train, I’ve always felt that I could compete with these wrestlers. I have always felt pretty confident in my takedown defense, but to go out there and compete against this good wrestler in an actual fight, in the UFC and in the Octagon, and to do as well as I did was a confidence boost. I’m young, I’m hungry, I’m learning and I’m growing as a fighter. I have striking and it’s not going to be a walk in the park to take me down and try and grind me out. From what people know now from that fight, people should expect big things from me.”

The Ultimate Fighter season 11 alum also experienced his first UFC loss in the bout with Simpson. Prior to July 2nd, Tavares won a unanimous decision of his own over Simpson’s teammate Seth Baczynski at the TUF 11 finale and, on New Year’s Day 2011, he scored a first round knockout of veteran Phil Baroni. The Simpson clash showed Tavares’ sprawling is legit and the losing itself showed Tavares a new level of motivation to get back into the Octagon.

“Right off the bat, my ego wanted to fight Simpson again,” admits Tavares. “I wanted to fight more rounds. I didn’t feel like I was done. I got exhausted a little bit and I definitely felt like I was pushing myself, but I didn’t feel like I was in a fight. We didn’t exchange much. It wasn’t a fun fight for the fans to watch and it wasn’t a fun fight to be in. I definitely wanted to get right back in there. I actually had a cut on the back of my head, I don’t know how I got it. They stitched it up. We fought that Saturday and I was back to sparring that Thursday. I was irritated at my performance. I wanted to get back in there and work on what I did wrong. Once they gave me an opponent and a date, it was time to kick it up again and I’ve been training really hard, so I’ll be ready for this fight.”

The lucky foe to tangle with Tavares’ wrath will be sturdy slugger Dongi “The Ox” Yang. On May 15th at UFC on FUEL TV 3, the 10-2 Yang makes his return to the Octagon for the first time since his unanimous decision loss to TUF 11 winner Court McGee last September. The Korean Top Team prospect is a highly regarded 3rd degree black belt in Judo who was undefeated when he signed with the UFC, but has only won once against two close decision losses, which oddly enough were both against TUF 11 castmates like Tavares. Despite the setbacks, Yang is a dangerous opponent, with all 10 of his wins coming via stoppage and the last nine via TKO.

“He’s a very tough opponent,” estimates Tavares. “A good record of 10-2 and I believe all of them come via stoppage. It goes a lot to show what type of fighter he is. Just on that you can tell we will both be going out there looking for a finish. We’re not just trying to fight not to lose, we’re fighting to win and in an exciting fashion. I know he possesses a good judo background. I have seen he has very good takedown defense,  he likes to trade punches, and I think it should be a fun fight. I’ll be ready. I’m always training and working on my gameplan. I want to dictate how the fight happens. In the last fight, I let my opponent dictate where the fight took place and look where that got me. It got me a loss. Now I get the chance to show what I’ve improved. If he wants to strike, then good, because I’m going to stand there and strike with him, but I will dictate the pace, how and where the fight goes.”

The tussle with Yang in Fairfax, Virginia will be Tavares’ first fight in the UFC not in his adopted hometown: Las Vegas. Originally, Tavares trained with the late and great Shawn Tompkins when Tavares made the move to the mainland. Being a middleweight, Tavares had trouble finding similarly sized sparring partners among his lighter weight Tompkins teammates. Before the Baroni fight, Tavares made the switch across Sin City to Xtreme Couture to battle regularly with some bigger fighters. Not bad for Tavares going from one set of legendary coaches to another.

“Training with all the guys like Mike Pyle, Martin Kampmann, Jay Hieron, Forrest Griffin and just all the guys – they’re great,” boasts Tavares. “All the coaches are great, but more extensively I’ve been working with Ray Sefo. As a kid growing up, I’ve always been a fan of his. Just to meet him out here was a big deal to me, but to train under him is freaking amazing. That’s who I have been working with as far as striking, and as my main coach he’s been guiding me as of late. I’ve also been working at Robert Drysdale’s school doing jiu-jitsu. I’ve been working with my same jiu-jitsu coach Sonny Nohara there. I’ve been working with who I think are simply some of the best guys out there.”

Tavares wouldn’t deny for a second he’s a striker, first and foremost. Adding to that, it’s almost unfair how heralded Tavares’ striking coaches have been since fighting under the wing of the UFC. On TUF, Tavares was on Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell’s team and was overseen by Liddell’s ninja master John Hackleman. Following the show, Tavares trains with the aforementioned Canadian kickboxing hero Tompkins. Now, Tavares is the protege of five-time Muay Thai world champion and K-1 icon Ray “Sugarfoot” Sefo. Tavares has been getting a first class education in fisticuffs.

“I find the most fun in the sport in striking,” explains Tavares. “When I watch a fight, I love to watch a good striking battle. I think from the time I started, and in the short period I’ve had working with awesome striking coaches and fighters, I think I’ve improved greatly. Growing up, I never did any type of martial art. I never had that boxing or kickboxing or tae kwon do background. It was always just playing around with my best friend Devin with boxing gloves from Champs Sports. We used to go home and beat the crap out of each other every day. We didn’t know anything. From that to having people actually know what they are doing, who have been around the sport for years and years, who have the experience, who have the championships and to have them around me to fix all my little flaws? Being around these guys definitely helps me and I think I have improved tremendously. I’ve always had someone telling me I’m doing something wrong, but now I have Ray telling me exactly why I’m doing something wrong. He can tell me why I should do or shouldn’t do something. It just goes deeper into the knowledge of it. Having them tightening me up and sharpening me up has been a big help. I can’t say I’m the best striker, but I’m still growing though. From the sport’s perspective, I’m still a little kid and I’m growing – I’m growing fast.”

This Tuesday at the Patriot Center, the student looks to become the teacher as Tavares wants to unload his fistfuls of knowledge on the granite chinned Yang. “I plan on staying standing and striking and planning for a finish, and I plan on dictating where this fight goes,” asserts Tavares, who is on a mission to educate “The Ox” on what losing by a submission or knockout feels like. “To know that he has a record like he does, it gives me that drive because I want to be the first one to finish him. If I don’t and I get that decision, I hope I put on a good show with the best of my abilities. But I want to deliver him the first stoppage of his career.”

If the unstoppable force can finish the immovable object, then a lesson will be learned by all UFC middleweights: Tavares is here to stay.

Alan Belcher feels unstoppable.

After a prolonged absence from the Octagon due to an eye injury, the heavy-handed, 16-5 middleweight from Jonesboro, Arkansas made a triumphant return on the UFC Fight Night card last September against Jason MacDonald. More than 16 months earlier, “The Talent” scored a Submission of the Night victory over former number one contender Patrick Cote.

Between those two events, Belcher was on a character defining road to recovery, which was certainly highlighted by his first round submission stoppage of BJJ black belt MacDonald. As he looks toward his future, all Belcher sees is gold, and no one at 185 pounds is going to get in his way.

“I feel like I’m right back in there,” he affirms. “I’ve been eating like a mad man staying on my nutrition and just changing the way I live my life. I’ve been working on a lot of different things. I think I do need to prove something in this fight, not to myself, but when I do fight and win it will do all the talking itself. I know what’s going to happen. Losing isn’t even an option right now. Everything is perfect right now. I’m going to win the fight, I’m going to get a shot at a top contender or go right to a shot at the title. My time is now, and I’m going to do really big things in the next couple years.”

The 28-year old representative of Duke Roufus’ Roufusport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Belcher’s own gym Remix MMA in Biloxi, Mississippi, is brimming with confidence heading into a May 5th showdown with arguably the most dangerous opponent in the weight class.

“I said I wanted to fight the toughest guy in the division, someone who would put me in line for a title shot, and that happened to be Rousimar Palhares,” said Belcher, whose only interest is to solidify his place among the elite, and a win over the Brazilian would do just that. “I think that most people who fight him don’t really know what they’re getting into. Most of the guys right now if they fought Palhares he would at some point be tapping them out or hurting them. I think I’m one of the only guys in the division with the size, the speed, the athleticism, and the jiu-jitsu skills to deal with him.”

At UFC on FOX 3 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the three fight winning streaks of both men will collide in a make or break matchup in the garden state. At 23-3, Palhares has accomplished in the UFC what many expected from the mini-Hulk with a BJJ black belt: a lot of powerful and frightening leg lock submissions. But “Toquinho” has faltered in his dust ups with top tier opponents like Dan Henderson and Nate Marquardt. Nevertheless, Palhares is a tough test for anyone in the division with his mix of incredible strength and a highly regarded ground attack.

“He’s very confident and aggressive with what he does,” says Belcher. “He attacks the arms and legs, mainly the legs. He took second place in Abu Dhabi, which is strictly submission grappling, and he hurt a lot of people in it and these are the best grapplers in the world. He’s a very dangerous opponent. He’s trying to take an arm or a leg home with him. He’s very confident and he’s on a nice little streak, a nice little tear, and a lot of people are scared of him.”

Even a cursory fight fan can firmly estimate that Palhares wants to take this fight to the floor, and it is in that area that Belcher is the most overlooked. Don’t let his usual Muay Thai shorts fool you, as he is the proud owner of a BJJ black belt under 4th dan black belt Helio Soneca, who is one of the renowned founders of the Gracie Barra schools. Belcher has gone to great lengths to extensively train his ground game with top grapplers like Daniel Moraes (current head BJJ instructor at Belcher’s gym), Royce and Rickson Gracie, Robert Drysdale, Eric “Red” Schafer, Eddie Bravo, and tons of other black belts in the US and in Brazil. Simply put, Palhares isn’t the only one in this fight who feels comfortable on the mat.

“I’ve felt some of the best grapplers in the world,” asserts Belcher. “I think my grappling skills get better every single week. Striking takes athleticism and it’s something where I need to keep my speed up and keep my timing. Grappling you do level up. In the standup, you can only get so far and you can always be beat – it’s like being in a gun fight. In jiu-jitsu, it’s really about your skills and I’ve come a long way. As far as just grappling, I think I am if not the top guy in the division, I’m close to it.”

At the time of the interview, Belcher was surrounded by a staggering amount of sports psychology books in the home of one of Roufusport’s most promising stars: Ben Askren.

“He’s really one of the best MMA fighters right now, and, obviously, the best wrestler in the game, in my opinion,” says Belcher, noting that Askren is a walking encyclopedia for both wrestling and winning, and he liberally cites from his training partner’s collection. “Training with Ben Askren is amazing. I’ve learned a lot of stuff from him physically and mentally about how to make it to those elite levels, which he has done in wrestling and he’s trying to do in MMA. I’m actually at his house right now, sitting in his office and surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of books that Ben has read, and mostly they are sports psychology and he’s already referenced 10 books in our conversations today.”

Regardless of how even Belcher believes a potential black belt vs. black belt matchup is with Palhares, “The Talent” has a clear advantage keeping the fight standing.

“I don’t mean to brag or boast, but I think I’m on a different level in kickboxing and Muay Thai than most guys in the UFC,” expresses Belcher, who likes to trade fists and feet first, then reverse his opponent’s takedown attempts and ending up on top second. “‘Striker vs. grappler’ is a really raw generalization of the fight, but, really, stylistically that’s how it will work out. I don’t intend on getting in a grappling match with Palhares and being stupid. The thing is, I’m a lot better striker than he is and I’m a lot longer than he is and I’m a lot better at that game than he is.”

This Saturday, Belcher will battle Palhares in a bout he believes will launch himself into title contention. “Last time there was a lot of pressure on me, a lot of questions, a lot of what ifs, and this time I feel like I’m back and getting better every day,” declares Belcher, who is single-minded in thinking this fight is happening at the right time in his career for only one outcome: a win. “I feel totally different and my mindset is different. I feel unstoppable right now. That’s your headline.”

And it was.

It is said a man can be known by the company he keeps.

This timeless proverb could not be more applicable for both UFC lightweight John Cholish and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt John Danaher. In the former’s Octagon debut last December, fight fans instantly knew almost all they would ever need to when the latter was introduced as Cholish’s head coach. This immediate recognition or near a priori understanding of Cholish because of Danaher’s presence can similarly be likened to Danaher’s indelible integrity from his work with and subsequent praise from Renzo Gracie, Roger Gracie, Matt Serra, Chris Weidman, Greg Jackson, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, and many others.

As Danaher has never been an animal of competition, his legend as a teacher will forever be linked to the overwhelming success of his students, including the 8-1 Cholish.

“John was one of the first guys I met at Renzo Gracie’s Academy in 2006,” tells Cholish. “Georges St-Pierre is such a highly respected fighter and to have a guy like that speak so highly of John speaks for itself. He’s a black belt and I think he is one of the best teachers of the overall game of jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts. One of the things that I think makes him so great is he is still a student of the game. Whether he is working with a white belt on a technique, teaching a class, or drilling with Georges St-Pierre, he’s constantly learning and developing and trying to find something new. He’s just so open minded and looking for new possibilities and new techniques and new strategies. Not just with jiu-jitsu. He could be studying a new gymnastic move in which he thinks the hip movement will correlate to jiu-jitsu or a judo technique. It’s really interesting how he brings the academic side of the sport over to the practical side of the sport. His dedication of how many hours he spends in the gym is above and beyond anyone else I know.”

At 28 years old, the New Jersey native looked completely unaffected by any “jitters” inside the Octagon at UFC 140, which Cholish easily equates to his enigmatic mentor. “John’s coached Georges St-Pierre in numerous title fights, so I had pretty much a full mental breakdown of what the week would entail from the Tuesday getting there all the way up until fight time,” says Cholish, who scored a systematic second round TKO over Mitch Clarke. “He did a great job just reassuring me about everything I was going to walk through, so I wasn’t at all surprised or nervous or anything. As far as it being the first fight of the night, the best part is you’re the only one who is on time because you know exactly when you’re going to start. It was just like another day training, except this time it was in the Octagon.”

The finish of Clarke improves Cholish to an eight fight win streak with the past seven by stoppage. The sole loss on the former division I wrestler from Cornell University’s record was in his first MMA fight, which Cholish took on a lark after training a year of BJJ at Renzo Gracie’s Academy in Manhattan. Although that 2007 defeat on a baseball diamond in Fort Myers, Florida is technically a blemish on his professional record, it was the watershed moment for Cholish, as he fell in love with the sport while grinning through every punch he ate. Afterward, Cholish dedicated himself to learning each aspect of this new combat passion and has gone undefeated ever since, but Cholish is far from content at his current level of expertise.

“John and my father tend to harp on me about me being my toughest critic,” reveals Cholish. “Before I even get back into the locker room, I’m talking to John like I did this wrong and this and that. I always try to pick myself apart and I sometimes get in trouble over-analyzing myself. At the end of the day, you have to say, ‘did you get the result that you wanted?’ And I did. I set a decent pace, I was able to kind of dictate where the fight went, and in the second round I picked it up. I felt like I was landing consistently on the feet and starting to get my rhythm. When we had that little flurry, I was able to secure a good transition and get to the back and finish the fight. You always have to get better from fight to fight because your opponents are going to be doing the same thing. Overall from my first fight in the UFC, I was definitely satisfied with the performance, but I’m definitely looking to improve upon it.”

At UFC on FOX 3 in his home state, Cholish will get that desired step-up in competition with Danny “Last Call” Castillo. “He’s got a real reputable name and fights out of a great camp,” admits Cholish of his 13-4 opponent, who is a member of Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. “I am excited about it. He has a great record fighting in the WEC and the UFC, so he’s a great challenge for me. I’m definitely looking forward to the opportunity of testing my skills and abilities against him.”

Besides the given that Castillo is a tough well-rounded fighter, which is noted by his wins over Dustin Poirier, Joe Stevenson, and, recently, Anthony Njokuani, Cholish likes to unconcern himself with his adversary and leave the tape watching to his coaches. “My main belief, I really enjoy training and I train so much, and when I’m just training for the love of it and having fun I improve a lot better as opposed to training with subtleties in the back of my mind of what my opponent does, because I’ll focus on those areas a little more,” explains Cholish, who benefited greatly from this practice in his Strikeforce win over Marc Stevens as Stevens, a righty, started their bout as a southpaw. “When you rely on what you see, you go in practicing that and studying for your whole fight camp, and you are going to be in a little bit of a deficit if you go out there and all of a sudden your opponent does something different. I try to be as good as I can in all the areas of the game, so no matter where the fight goes, I hopefully can dictate the pace or dictate where it goes.”

In preparation for his second UFC outing, Cholish is busy criss-crossing New York City’s first borough to train all the As in MMA. Outside of his work with the academic armbarrer from New Zealand in Danaher, Cholish’s other two cornermen are his standup coach Joseph Samperi and BJJ black belt Erik Owings, the owner and operator of Mushin MMA in Union Square. Cholish can also be found at Church Street Boxing, doing gymnastics at Chelsea Piers, and learning the “Jantzen Ride” from friend and former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion from Harvard University Jesse Jantzen. As Cholish sharpens his weapons all over the Big Apple, they are all used accordingly by Danaher’s guidance.

“When working with him, I put 100% all the trust in him, his abilities, his words, and what he does,” affirms Cholish. “I have the confidence that when he tells me to do something, whether it sounds like it makes sense to me or not, I can 100% fully put my confidence into what he says. I can believe if I do what he says I will get a positive result. He’s not out there with a huge camp, so I do feel very honored he takes the time to spend time with me and work with me. I definitely owe a lot of my successes to him.”

If being a rising prospect in the shark infested waters of the UFC’s lightweight division wasn’t enough to spend his days on, Cholish maintains a full-time job as a Commodities Broker for an OTC Energy Brokerage Firm where he primarily focuses on brokering Natural Gas and Crude Oil options, futures, and swaps. Essentially what that means is that when Danaher references Pareto’s Principle of economics in a grappling seminar, Cholish gets it. It also means that a couple of the suites at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey will be rocking with Cholish’s white collar co-workers.

“They’re nothing but supportive at work,” states Cholish. “Of course, I need to not let my work slack, and my work comes first and I need to make sure everything goes well in the office. As far as the fighting goes, they love the sport and they’re big fans of the UFC. Having that support and having that camaraderie in the office is definitely nice to have on my side. In all honesty, it’s nice fighting in New Jersey because I won’t have to take off as much time for work. When I have a fight, that’s actually my vacation time. Most people wouldn’t call that a vacation. It’s nice that it’s close by and I’ll definitely have a lot of family and friends there to support me, which is definitely a plus. Being able to sleep in my own bed and train at my own facilities is obviously going to be a big benefit.”

On May 5th, Cholish’s mix of brains and brawn will collide with the California contender, Castillo. “I want to put on a strong performance and use everything I’ve learned in training and get a strong finish that’s in a technically sound way and is hopefully aesthetically pleasing too,” asserts Cholish, which in laymen’s terms translates to another choke or knockout finish for a biased and bellowing Jersey crowd. “Obviously, fighting is a risky and dangerous sport, and getting into a cage with another guy takes a lot of guts, but at the end of the day, these people are here to watch a fight. That’s what I plan on doing. I’m bringing a lot of fast paced action, using skill and technique to show how beautiful mixed martial arts can be.”

Describing a stoppage win over Castillo as a pursuit of beauty, Cholish sounds exactly like the company Danaher would keep.

Life is a mystery, but sports are not. Whether it’s a team or a single person, the side that finishes first or with the most points is usually the winner.

In the UFC, both of those outcomes are true. The first fighter to finish the other by KO/TKO or submission wins, or if it goes to the judges’ score cards the one with the higher round totals wins. Between all the training camps, gameplans, different martial art styles, diets, nutritionists, strength & conditioning regimens, studying video tape, contract negotiations, sponsorships, press conferences, questionable judging, and, now, Twitter, sometimes the original idea to win in combat sports gets lost in the shuffle: hit your opponent more times and harder than they hit you.

For welterweight Matt “The Immortal” Brown, this abridged attacking attitude is what fueled his latest UFC victory and will continue to push him literally forward against his next opponent, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, at UFC 145.

“A fight is not that complicated of a thing,” states Brown. “I think there are times when I’ve overcomplicated it. I think I’ve learned from my mistakes. Now, it is simple. I have to find a way to punch you, kick you, and knee you. That’s what it comes down to. It’s not a whole lot more to it.”

The 31-year old father of twin boys with a professional record of 15-11 believes he has come to an understanding with his in-cage identity. After four years in the UFC, including 11 Octagon appearances and time as a cast member of The Ultimate Fighter season 7, Brown has broken down his game into two easy categories: what works and what doesn’t. To be able to reach this point of clarity, he has had his ups and downs in the crucible of competition, and Brown has learned from them all to be the better fighter that he is today.

“I just kind of simplified everything and went back to the basics of who I am as a fighter,” tells Brown. “I learn so much all the time in the gym training and I’m always trying to add tons of new things for every fight. For this fight, I felt it necessary to be who I am and not really try to add anything new and special. Going forward, I’m going to do what I’m good at and not try to be something I’m not. I think I have made that mistake in some fights. There’s a point where you need to learn new things to evolve, but you have to be very good at the new thing you learn before you use it in competition. I think I was trying some things that I hadn’t necessarily proved I was good at; I hadn’t practiced it enough or implemented it in the gym enough. I was trying it in the middle of the fight and that can be a problem.”

It’s not about just taking the center of the Octagon, Brown’s “bread and butter” is getting right into his opponent’s face and hitting them with all eight points of contact until the ref stops it. “My style is I’m aggressive,” says Brown, who is a versatile fighter and fight finisher with all of his wins except one coming by submission or KO/TKO. “That’s my style to push a high pace and grind out the fight and make it a dirty fight. I have the technical abilities to have a technical fight, but I think it’s best to stick with what you are. I perform at my best when I’m pushing the action and I’m creating a tough, dirty fight.”

Fight fans witnessed the latest exciting stoppage by Brown at UFC 143 with a TKO over TUF 13 alum Chris Cope. “He was a good standup fighter, so that played into my game,” remembers Brown, who quickly dispatched Cope in the second round with a right hook that dazed his foe and a left hook that ended it. “I knew he would try to be in and out a lot and try to stand with me. I knew it was a matter of the opening coming at the right time. I was kind of trying to set him up with some different things in the first and one of the setups opened up in the second.”

Next up for is undefeated kickboxing ace Thompson, who bested Brown for “Knockout of the Night” honors at the February event. At UFC 145 in Atlanta, Georgia, the plan is for a welterweight showdown inside the Octagon between Thompson’s Kempo Karate and Brown’s Muay Thai. A native of Simpsonville, South Carolina, Thompson has maintained an unfettered winning streak through amateur and professional kickboxing as well as MMA, with the majority of his wins coming by knockout. Thompson made his organizational debut at UFC 143 with the first round head kick finish of fellow debutant Dan Stittgen.

“He brings a lot of techniques that are not seen every day and he does them very well,” admits Brown. “It’s like I’ve said from the beginning, I don’t think he’s faced the best guys in his kickboxing career or in MMA. He hasn’t faced nobody really tough. I think his kickboxing is overrated – all the hype – and he’s overrated altogether. This I think will be the first time he’s facing a true fighter and a true professional. I’m coming in and looking to put it on him and looking to break him and see if he can handle a real fight.”

To put it mildly, Brown believes there are mitigating factors that favored “Wonderboy,” like Thompson’s wealth of experience coupled with Stittgen taking the fight on short notice. “Even if he had a full training camp, your first UFC is scary s**t and Thompson is not the kind of guy you prepare for in a week or two,” explains Brown, who is an Octagon veteran that has never been knocked out and won’t be fazed by fancy records or famous training partners. “The guy came in on short notice, it was his first UFC fight, he probably had never seen Stephen Thompson fight before, he probably had Googled his name and seen 60-0 kickboxing, trained with GSP, blah blah blah, and all the hype. He was probably scared out of his mind. Believe me, the UFC is an intense experience.”

In preparation for Thompson, Brown has stuck to training all over his home state of Ohio once again. He criss-crosses the city of Columbus, from Westside Barbell to Scott Sheeley’s Iron Tiger, even to the Ohio State University campus for wrestling. Also, there are the occasional trips to Jorge Gurgel’s gym in Cincinnati and up to Akron to Ryan Madigan’s Evolve MMA. For Brown, it’s all in an effort to hone his ‘come forward and often’ attack for fight night. “We’re in there to find out who is better, so why not punch each other to find out who is better.”

This Saturday, nothing will be left to the imagination, as fists and feet will fly between Brown and Thompson. “I’m looking forward to the future and there’s one thing on my mind and that’s beating this guy,” affirms Brown, believing that his aggressive attack will be the first on the record books to overwhelm and defeat the technically sound Thompson. “I want to show the world that his kickboxing ain’t what everybody makes it out to be. I think my Muay Thai is better than his kickboxing. I’ve said it before, I think Muay Thai beats Karate nine out of 10 times and I’m set out to prove that when we get into the cage.”

If Brown and Thompson have the striker’s duel that everyone is praying for, the only mystery will be how much their “Fight of the Night” bonus is.

When a professional athlete rebounds from a slump or a setback, the easiest conclusion to jump to is that they added something “new”. A change in routine, mindset, workout, technique or anything that has been recently tweaked by the world’s latest and greatest ideas.

For many, this is the case, but for others, like UFC lightweight Efrain Escudero, rediscovering what they did in the past is how they progressed in the future. For “Hecho en Mexico”, the journey back to the Octagon was accomplished by fighting for the reason that originally drew Escudero to the sport: because it was fun.

“When I fought outside of the UFC, in every interview I did it would say, ‘this is the new and improved Efrain’, but the only thing ‘new and improved’ meant was winning the next fight,” explains Escudero. “What really was winning was me being the ‘old Efrain’. The guy who went into The Ultimate Fighter, the guy who didn’t care, the guy who just fought and enjoyed every moment of it. I’m back to being the same old Efrain. I’m the kind of guy who goes out there and has fun with it. In the Charles Oliveira fight, I put a lot of pressure on myself not making weight, and doing the things I had to do before. That kind of hurt me and it was stressing me out. I’m fighting in the second round, but I’m still thinking I didn’t make weight. My coaches are telling me to ‘wake up’ or ‘do something’. I didn’t enjoy that fight because I didn’t make weight and because I did put a lot of pressure on myself. I have to go back to being the Efrain who went onto The Ultimate Fighter – that’s who I am.”

At 26 years old, the Mexico native and graduate of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix is ready to make even more of an impact in his second stint in the UFC than he did in his first. Fight fans specifically remember him for winning the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter by submitting three lightweights in the house and scoring a unanimous decision over Phillipe Nover in the finals. After the show, he went 2-2 inside the Octagon and was subsequently cut following his loss to Oliveira, before which Escudero missed weight. A little over a year later, he got the call to come back to the UFC after going 5-1 in smaller shows and rekindling that initial cagefighting fire.

“I went back and saw my old tapes, my old highlight videos, and what I did in them – I had fun,” states Escudero. “Every time I went to the cage I was having fun. I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t nervous, I was ready to have fun. Getting called back up to the UFC, I had fun having to bust my butt again to get back where I belong.”

Part of Escudero’s return visit to his old self was oddly enough through transforming himself into one of his division’s best: former UFC champion Frankie Edgar. For the past three years, Escudero’s home gym has been the MMA Lab in Glendale, Arizona under head coach John Crouch. Easily, the most famous member of their fight team is current UFC title holder Benson Henderson. To help prepare “Smooth” for his belt winning showdown with Edgar at UFC 144, Escudero was put to the task of mimicking the then-reigning champion when battling his top-ranked teammate, and he is looking forward to doing it again before Henderson and Edgar’s rematch for the belt.

“It wasn’t easy,” affirms Escudero. “I emulated Frankie Edgar a lot. I looked at a bunch of his videos and movements. I’m not going to lie, Ben beat me up so bad in practice because I’m not used to moving like Frankie. I gave him the look and Ben did exactly what we wanted him to do – win the belt and bring it home. I got it down to a science. When it came to me emulating Frankie Edgar, I knew which punches he threw, which kicks after which punches, how he moved, how he came in. I figured him out pretty good. At some points, I was hurting because that’s not my style, but I was able to learn a lot from it and I’m excited to do it again. Ben’s work ethic inspires us and it has kind of rubbed off on me. And when he needs me to emulate one of the best like Frankie Edgar and I can give Henderson a good run – it does build me as a fighter. It makes me know more stuff. Not anybody can move like Frankie. I sure tried and I got it down.”

While Henderson’s bout for the belt was a success and “Hecho en Mexico” did get a second shot in the UFC, Escudero’s first fight back inside the Octagon didn’t go as he had hoped. At UFC 141, Escudero took on three-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler from the University of Minnesota Jacob Volkmann. It was far from pretty, but Volkmann won his fifth straight in the UFC at 155 pounds by holding Escudero down in the opening two rounds and outlasting Escudero’s tight power guillotine choke in the third. The loss is only Escudero’s fourth against his 19 wins, and will be used as motivation for his future opponents.

“We have to win every round, every scramble, and every position possible,” asserts Escudero. “We always have to work for the finish. In the third round, I was a couple seconds from winning that fight. We can never stop fighting, never stop moving, never stop trying to win. We have to know that people will try to take you down and we’ll find ways to win. Now, I need to go out there with the next gameplan and execute it.”

Up next for Escudero is a clash with a fellow TUF winner in Mac Danzig at UFC 145. Danzig is coming off back-to-back bonus earning bouts: a “Knockout of the Night” win over Joe Stevenson and a “Fight of the Night” decision loss to Matt Wiman. Both fighters are known to be well-rounded scrappers with a penchant for submissions, as each own at least half their wins by sub (Danzig 11, Escudero 13). They’re two skilled fighters who are coming off losses, eager to prove themselves in a bout that has all the makings of the proverbial three round war.

“He is a great fighter,” tells Escudero. “You’re not like, ‘oh Mac Danzig, you have to watch out just for his jiu-jistu.’ No, he’s a guy who goes out there and throws his hands, throws his kicks, and takes you down. He’s not afraid of being on the ground and he’s not afraid of standing up. I’m excited. I’m back to my competition mode. Mac Danzig is an Ultimate Fighter winner and I’m an Ultimate Fighter winner, so that puts a little more into it competition-wise, and that makes me go back to my days of wrestling when a state champion wrestler was wrestling another state champion. It’s fun. It doesn’t bring pressure, but excitement for me to be ready. I know Mac Danzig is going to be ready. But I hate losing at ping pong, I hate losing at thumb wars, I hate losing at anything.”

On April 21st, these two former TUF winners are on a collision course. “I want people to be like, ‘did you see that fight?!’” says Escudero, who is ready to take a trip down memory lane and start winning inside the Octagon like the “old Efrain”. “It was a well-rounded fight with takedowns, punches, submission attempts, and that’s what I want. I want to go out there and just have fun. At the end of the day, it’s me and Mac Danzig and we’re going to be in the Octagon and we’re going to have fun.”

Trading punches and kicks inside a cage may not be the typical definition of a good time, but watching Danzig and Escudero do it will be fun for all fight fans.

The old adage “the best defense is a good offense” has been adapted to everything from military combat to board games, and has shown to be both entertaining and effective in mixed martial arts.

The famous saying can specifically be applied to the UFC’s new Strikeforce acquisition Chad “The Grave Digger” Griggs and his patented “sprint and swing” fighting style. If you haven’t seen these mutton chops in action, a transcript for almost all of Griggs’ 12 fights goes as follows: he charges at his unfortunate opponent and throws heavy, head-hunting, haymakers until the fight’s finished. It’s a strategy that was instilled in Griggs from the very beginning, earning him an impressive 11-1 pro MMA record, a UFC contract, and a date in the Octagon with rising heavyweight Travis Browne at UFC 145.

“It’s where my success comes from, but it has always been my style and it has always been my survival technique too,” reveals Griggs. “My main coach and first sparring partner was Don Frye. He’s coming in from the opening bell and trying to knock your head off. If you stand back and let him do it then he’s going to. From the opening bell, we’re swinging for the fences to take each other out. I guess it all started from survival because the guy across the ring was coming at me and trying to hurt me and I’m coming at him before he can hurt me. So far, it’s worked.”

At 33 years old, the native of Tucson, Arizona is understating the waves he’s already created in the heavyweight division a little. Besides not having lost since his only defeat in 2007, he went 3-0 in Strikeforce, with his best performances coming in his last two fights against Gian Villante and Valentijn Overeem. Both of these 2011 bouts ended in a remarkably similar fashion: Griggs dropping thunderous fists until the ref pulled him off only minutes into the first round. The Overeem win is one of two oddities on Griggs’ record where the victory is recorded as a submission, but the slick BJJ sub of note was “punches”.

“I won’t lie, I have found what works for me,” tells Griggs. “A lot of guys I have fought are better fighters, they’ve got better techniques, their submissions are better or their standup is better. But I think if you put enough pressure on someone their gameplan changes. A jiu-jitsu guy who has tons of submissions, if you start punching him in the head real hard he starts changing his gameplan. Same with standup; if you take them down and start pounding on them then their gameplan changes. I put pressure on them and make them play my game. When they are in control, I stay out of trouble, make them work, get them tired, and try and outlast them. If they’re beating me at something then I make them work, try and outlast them, and wait for them to get tired then thump them. I obviously have weaknesses and I’m sure they’re trying to find them and capitalize on them, but I’m trying to keep them from doing that by keeping the pressure on them and fighting them when I want to fight, which is right now.”

The first UFC heavyweight set to tangle with Griggs is the undefeated Browne. At 29 years old and sporting a 12-0-1 pro record, Browne took the UFC by storm in June of 2010 by stamping out a first round TKO over Ultimate Fighter season 10 alum James McSweeney in his Octagon debut. In three fights since, Browne has gone 2-0-1 with the overwhelming highlight being his Superman punch knockout of Stefan Struve at UFC 130. The short story on Browne is he’s big, athletic, explosive, and he loves to strike with 9 of his 12 wins coming by KO/TKO.

“I had seen his fight against Struve, but I didn’t really know a whole lot about him,” admits Griggs. “I’ve got lots of tape on him now and I think we’ve come up with a pretty decent gameplan. It’s a chess match. More than likely they know I’m coming at him and they’re going to try and come up with a defense for that. He’s extremely long and tall, he’s got that reach. He likes to dance around, he likes to pick when he likes to fight, he likes to engage when he’s ready, so we’re going to try and change that. When he wants to dance around we’re going to try and make him fight. We’ll see how that works out.”

As a welcome party to the Octagon, Browne is a tough and interesting test for Griggs. He is 6’7” with an 80 inch reach and a swimmer’s build to Griggs’ 6’1”, 73 inch reach, and a muscular frame like he hammers in railroad spikes. Although no one has defeated the Hawaiian so far, Browne’s fights show a split-personality between either an exciting first round drubbing or a long, clinch-athon, drawn out decision where “Hapa” is visibly frustrated and fatigued. It’s obvious that Griggs will come forward looking to hurt his foe and make him uncomfortable, but the real question is how Browne will react.

“I do think that I’m going to have more strength, more core strength than him,” states Griggs. “I’m going to be shorter. I think that’s going to benefit me inside the pocket. I think when it comes time for me to muscle him around, I think I will be able to. As long as I stay inside the pocket, keep him from getting that clinch – which I have a strong feeling he’s going to try and get that Muay Thai clinch when I’m coming in – work my angles, and use my power to take him down if I want to, then I think I’ll be good. I’m giving all my secrets away, but hey, it’s a fight. He can know whatever he wants.”

As far as preparation for the bout with Browne, Griggs has been nomadic with his training by traveling between Tucson and Las Vegas, Nevada. In his hometown, Griggs splits his time battling guys like Shane Johnson and Lyle Steffens while maintaining a full-time job as a firefighter/paramedic for the Tucson Fire Department. In Las Vegas, Griggs has been working with none other than former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. The gambler’s bet is probably this fight being determined on the feet, but if the fight hits the floor, Griggs will be ready. Either way, he guarantees entertainment.

“I would like to think with each fight I’ve grown a little bit and picked up new techniques,” says Griggs. “There’s a lot of stuff in my toolbox that I haven’t used yet. I think he’s going to want to stand up and bang, that seems to be his thing, but if he wants to go to the ground, that’s okay, we’ve been working a lot of the ground. I’ve been working with Frank up in Vegas and I have some good guys down here and if it comes to that, then so be it. Our feeling is he is going to try and use his reach – long arms, long legs. If he can keep me out and peck away at me then I’ll be in trouble. I’m going to have to get inside that pocket and try to hurt him there and stay in there. I think it’s a good matchup. I think the fans are going to get a good show. I don’t think there’s going to be anything lackluster in this fight. I think the biggest thing the fans are going to get out of this is that I’m there to fight. I do put some risk on the line to make it a show, make it exciting, and to make my opponent fight.”

At UFC 145, two titanic heavyweights will clash inside the Octagon, with Griggs debuting his ‘hit first and ask questions later’ offensive style much to the delight of the UFC faithful. “I will predict that someone is going to be hurt – there will be blood,” he said. “I highly doubt it will last more than two rounds and I’ll be surprised if it does. I’m looking forward to it and the fans should be too. If they’re not then they’re going to see this one and look forward to the next ‘Grave Digger’ fight.”