Author: By Thomas Gerbasi

The way Stefan Struve saw it, things were going just according to plan in his UFC 130 match with Travis Browne in May. He saw everything that the Hawaiian was doing, he was avoiding serious trouble, and all he needed was to hear the bell to end round one. Then, Browne was all his.

“The gameplan was to tire him and then push the pace in the second round because his cardio didn’t seem to be the best in the fights we had seen of him,” said Struve. “And the gameplan was working, in my opinion. When we stood up after we went to the ground, he took a couple deep breaths, and I was basically just warming up. I was already thinking ‘I’m gonna kick your ass in the second round, and you’re mine.’”

What made what happened next even worse was that Struve assumed he had picked off Browne’s most serious weapon – an overhand right.

“He was coming in with that overhand right the entire fight and I was just stepping back, blocking it, and moving away, using footwork to avoid those punches, and it was going easy,” said Struve. “I was fighting at 60-70 percent of what I could normally do. Then he came in for another big punch and I had my hand up because I thought he was coming in with the overhand right, and he came down the middle and it was good night.”

Browne’s Superman punch was all it took to finish things at 4:11 of the first round. It was Struve’s first loss since March of 2010, and it broke a two fight winning streak for the Beverwijk native. Yet it’s Struve’s reaction to the defeat that has fans still expecting the 23-year old to one day challenge for world title honors.

“There are several things you can do (after you lose), and the thing you can do best, in my opinion, is man up, take it, take your lessons from it, use it as motivation, and start training for your next fight,” he said. “Then you come back harder, and that’s what I did in my fights after my losses.”

The loss to Browne was his third in eight UFC outings, with each coming by knockout (the others to Junior dos Santos and Roy Nelson). To some fighters, that could be the kiss of death, but for Struve, it only shows that he is still a raw talent and a work in progress. And frankly, Struve remains a heavyweight draw for the main reason that he is never in a boring fight. It’s feast or famine with the “Skyscraper,” sometimes even both, and if you’re surprised that he is in the UFC Live co-main event this Saturday night against Pat Barry, you must have not seen him fight before. Such lofty placement on the card hasn’t escaped Struve’s notice either.

“This is the third time I’ve been a co-main event for the UFC, and I’m really proud of that, and I’m really thankful that the UFC gave me that spot after my last fight,” he said. “That shows a lot of trust in my future.”

But knockdown, drag ‘em out brawls and come from behind miracle victories can catch up to you after a while, so Struve has been honing his skills steadily since his arrival in the UFC in 2009. And while he has supplemented his training with PRIDE vet Bob Schrijber with trips to the United States over the last year, for former kickboxer Barry, Struve has stayed in Europe this time around, working in Holland with noted kickboxers Mourad Bouzidi and Daniel Ghita, as well as Strikeforce star Gegard Mousasi, to hone his striking game.

“I’m fighting a kickboxer, and training in Holland for a fight against a kickboxer is one of the best places there is,” he said. But even though it’s important to have his striking on point to deal with Barry, Struve insists that his goal this weekend is to make “HD” fight his fight.

“You always look at tapes before every single fight, so if I’m fighting a really good wrestler, I’m gonna work on takedown defense and whatever I need to do to counter his wrestling,” he said. “But we always kinda have the same training pattern in training camp for every fight, so we’ve worked on everything, tried to get better at everything, and we want to try to fight him with my own game and make him fight the way I want to fight, and not the way he wants to fight. That’s the way I think you become champion. Look at Anderson Silva; he makes people fight his fight and not their fight.”

At a towering 6-foot-11, Struve has the size to dictate the fight, especially with Barry being a full foot shorter. That’s a huge height and reach advantage to have, and when asked if there are any disadvantages facing an opponent that much shorter, Struve can only think of one.

“If you want to take a guy like Pat down and he’s a foot taller, then it’s gonna be hard getting a single leg takedown,” he said. “It’s a long way down, you know. (Laughs) He’s really short and stocky and he’s got big legs, so it’s gonna be hard. But other than that, I can’t think of any other big disadvantages for me as long as you know how to work with your body like (Jon) Jones or (Anderson) Silva. Those are tall guys in their weight classes and they don’t have any disadvantages as far as I see.”

Struve isn’t approaching Silva or Jones levels yet, but he is building a solid resume and a good reputation in a heavyweight division that he should be making some noise in soon. How soon? Before the Browne fight, he said the goal was to get the belt in no more than six or seven years. He’s accelerated the plan since then.

“There’s still no rush for a title shot, but I think I can do it in a couple years,” he said. “I spoke with a lot of people and a lot of them say I’ve got the skills and everything to become a champion in the near future, and you just need to put it in your mind that you can do it right now and tell yourself that you can. Just think and train like you’re gonna be a champ in your next fight. That’s the way you gotta do it.”

And don’t expect him to make the same mistakes twice.

“There were several things that I could have done better (against Browne),” he said. “I should have fought more aggressive in the first round, but I was following the gameplan too much instead of just fighting. That’s what I do best and that’s what got me my UFC contract – just fighting, giving it all you got, and seeing where it goes.”

Pat Barry got the same question everywhere he went. “It’s never been something else, ever,” admits the UFC heavyweight prospect. So once he got through telling strangers what he did for a living, the response would be, “how many times have you been knocked out?”

But Barry, who seemingly has an entertaining answer for everything, couldn’t really respond with something people were looking for. He would just say “I haven’t…yet.”

If you buy in to all the machismo surrounding combat sports, you could say Barry was bordering on blasphemy, but when you’re a true tough guy, you don’t have to play the role in real life as well. And Barry is as blunt as anyone when it comes to the realities of the fight game. You stick around long enough, and your time will come.

“That’s the name of the game,” he said. “We’re gonna knock people out and we’re gonna get knocked out, there’s no avoiding that part of it. I was lucky enough to go a really long time without ever having to come across it, but if you can’t accept getting knocked out or losing or getting hit, then this is the wrong sport to be in.”

On June 26th, after eight pro MMA bouts, 25 kickboxing matches, and countless sparring sessions, Barry’s name got called by Cheick Kongo. After dropping Kongo twice and nearly finishing him, Barry was caught by the French contender, who fired off a right uppercut that rescued victory from the jaws of defeat and put the New Orleans native out cold.

“I thought I had won the fight when I was lying on my back in the center of the Octagon,” said Barry. “I said ‘What do you mean I’m out? He’s out, y’all are crazy.’ (Laughs) As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know I was lying on my back. When the doctor said, can you try to sit up for me, I remember saying how am I gonna sit up when I’m already standing? You’re the worst doctor ever. You should be fired. (Laughs) But once I realized what happened, it was almost a bit of a relief. My entire career has gone knowing that eventually I will be knocked out. And every time I step into the ring or the Octagon, there is that little bit of ‘oh s**t, is this gonna be the time?’ And that’s stressful. And every time I got out of a fight, I go ‘woo, I escaped it again.’ I had gone ten years escaping it, ten years of training and fighting and sparring at practice. And it finally happened, so it’s kinda like a big relief. Now I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

In over 15 years of covering combat sports, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a knockout loss put into perspective quite like that, but then again, few fighters are like Pat Barry. In fact, when talking about the reality that his loss to Kongo will be immortalized on year-end ‘Best of’ lists and on highlight reels way beyond 2011, he isn’t even bothered by it.

“If that was two other people and not me, that would have been one of my favorite comebacks ever,” he said. “That’s a cool fight, a cool comeback, and a cool highlight from the first knockdown to the end. It might be the coolest 20 seconds ever.”

He’s right. But what his reaction to a defeat that may have crushed his peers and left them gun-shy and unwilling to discuss the matter did was allow him to escape the usual emptying of the bandwagon that happens these days after a fighter loses. So even at .500 (3-3) in his UFC career thus far, you won’t find anyone that will say that Barry is a fighter they wouldn’t want to see or hear from again.

“I think it’s my honesty that’s really grabbing on to people and grasping their attention,” he said. “Sometimes, you’re just gonna get hit. That’s part of the game and part of what happens. In the Kongo fight, I lost the fight, but I was definitely winning beforehand. I was winning the fight; I think I might have even won the fight twice before he came along with his win. (Laughs) But that’s what happens. And I think what it comes down to in the end is that people know that, and they know I’m gonna put on exciting fights and that I’m here to perform all the time. They keep that in mind. I don’t find myself to be a very boring fighter or a slouch fighter. People know that whenever I get in the ring that something exciting is gonna happen.”

Odds are that it’s going to happen again this Saturday night in Washington D.C. when he faces fellow heavyweight action hero Stefan Struve, another fighter who is no stranger to the miracle comeback. Adding to the intrigue is the height discrepancy between the 6-11 Struve and the 5-11 Barry, and neither has shied away from poking fun at the physical matchup. But in the gym, it’s all business.

“I’ve fought really tall guys in kickboxing and I’ve come across guys like that before,” said Barry. “But I’ve never come across an almost seven foot tall, young, energetic, athletic Dutch kickboxer who is extremely dangerous. And if you know anything about the world of fighting, then you know that Dutch kickboxers are some of the most dangerous kickboxers on Earth.”

So how do you replicate that in the gym considering that there aren’t too many guys around who fit that description?

“I brought in a guy named Maurice “The Pirate” Greene from Chicago,” said Barry. “He’s a 6-foot-9 kickboxer who formerly wrestled. He’s got two inches under Stefan, but I figure if Stefan gets into his fight stance, he might be 6-9. Other than that, every once in a while I have Marty Morgan standing on a chair and I’ll run past him and see if I can kick him in the head.”

Barry’s also made a switch in camps to Minnesota’s Team DeathClutch, the training home of former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, mainly to get work with a steady stream of heavyweights who can help him sew up the holes in his ground game.

“I definitely need heavyweights to train with,” he said. “I need wrestling, and I need jiu-jitsu. And out here is a gym that’s completely comprised of heavyweights and superstar wrestlers who all know jits. And I need to be around bigger guys, stronger guys, wrestlers, and guys who grapple. Finally, for the first time, I’m the smallest guy in the room and the weakest guy in the room, so I’ve got no choice but to get stronger.”

It’s an aspect of the sport that people forget about or don’t think about at all, as getting a group of strong, athletic heavyweights together in one gym is a rarity. Barry has gotten some comments about leaving his longtime camp with Duke Roufus in Milwaukee, but when it came to adding what he needed to his arsenal, the 32-year old simply needed to make the move.

“Ever since I made the transition to DeathClutch from Roufusport, I’ve been getting all these messages – ‘oh, you’re a traitor,’ ‘how could you leave?’ But we need big people to train with,” he said. “If you’re a big guy, you need to train with big guys. If you’re a little guy, you should be training with little guys, someone who can replicate the guys you’re going to be competing with. This is what we do, and you gotta be able to simulate it as much as possible. The only thing better is if you could actually train with the guy you’re gonna fight, but we can’t do that.”

No, you can’t, but if someone could pull it off, be friends with a future opponent and still try to rip his head off on fight night, it would be Barry. Friends are friends, and fighting is fighting. As for getting knocked out, that chapter’s done with. It’s time to move on.

“As of right now, in my heart and in my head, the way that I feel is that now, I’ll be even more comfortable,” he said. “It’s like worrying the second time you get on that rollercoaster – you know what it’s like already.”

When Yves Edwards starts explaining the creation of Thug-Jitsu with the words “It’s one of those things like the Big Bang theory,” you just know this is going to be good.

And it is. But we’ll let the creator of this mysterious art continue.

“That (the Big Bang theory) was a phrase they came up with because scientists thought the universe started through a big explosion, and some guy came along and said ‘they want to throw this Big Bang theory out there’ and he tried to use it as a diss, and it just kinda stuck,” said Edwards. “Back in Houston back in the day, it was a real jiu-jitsu town, and it still is pretty jiu-jitsu oriented. People were like ‘if you want to learn some good jiu-jitsu, you go train with this guy or this guy. But if you want to learn that Thug-Jitsu garbage, you go train with Yves and those guys, because they like to punch people.’ (Laughs) I liked it and it just stuck. It kinda hit me – Thug-Jitsu, that’s the modern art of the beatdown.”

Years and years later, the 35-year old Edwards has not let up in his practice of the art, and this Saturday night in Washington, D.C., he’ll get to show it off again when he faces Rafaello Oliveira. This will be the 59th time the Bahamas-born Texan will walk up those four steps to compete in a pro mixed martial arts bout, and though he’s not the same person he was as a fresh-faced 21-year old making his debut in 1997, some things haven’t changed.

“It’s a little different,” he said. “Before, as a kid, I used to be like ‘man, I’m fighting this week, I’m all excited.’ Now, I don’t think about it too much, but when I do think about it, that’s when I get really excited. I came home for a few days (before leaving for D.C.), and I walk around the house and I’m going ‘yeah, this is good.’ Then my wife starts cooking something and I’m like ‘I can’t eat that.’”

Edwards laughs, knowing that in this game, you have to be able to take the good with the bad. Yet surprisingly, he says burnout has never entered the conversation.

“Not a single day yet.”

Is that the secret to his longevity?

“I think that’s a part of it,” said Edwards, 40-17-1. “It’s been pretty good to me physically, and I’m trying to make it good for me financially also. I just love it. When I think about fighting itself, the most miserable time is when someone’s on top of me and I just can’t get them off me (Laughs), and even then, I’m having a good time.”

Yet for all the good vibes around his career, everything came to a screeching halt at UFC 131 in June, when he was knocked out cold by Canadian banger Sam Stout. Edwards had been on the wrong end of knockouts before (against Jorge Masvidal and KJ Noons), but nothing like this. He accepts it as part of the game, but having to explain it to his wife and two kids is another dilemma in itself.

“My wife is really understanding, so that part is easy,” said Edwards. “The kids, that’s when it gets kinda scary, because you see something like that – I’ve seen it for years – and it looks so devastating. When it happens, it sucks, but it’s not as physically bad as it looks. I think I’ve been able to explain that to everybody. They see I’m still the same guy. I guess it’s a good thing that they love me regardless.”

Thankfully, Edwards bounced back quickly from the defeat, accepting a fight with a familiar face in Brazil’s Oliveira.

“I trained with him for a week about two years ago,” said Edwards. “The guy’s tough, and I see some improvements in his game since the time we trained together. It’s like the evolution of the classic striker vs. grappler match where he’s a little more comfortable striking than the typical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt five, ten years ago, and I’m a lot more comfortable on the ground than the typical striker was five, ten years ago. When I look at him, I just see a tough guy that’s just begging me to punch him in the face.”

Winner of three of his last four and six of his last eight, Edwards has been going through a career resurgence that he hopes has only taken a minor detour with the loss to Stout, yet with this recent success, he’s found out that to many newer fans of the UFC, he’s just another “new guy.” That’s something incredulous to diehard fight fans who remember Edwards as one of the top 155-pounders on the planet in the early years of the new millennium. But when his crowning Octagon moment took place at UFC 49 in August of 2004, as he scored a highlight reel knockout of Josh Thomson, it was the last lightweight bout in the UFC for nearly two years. Now he’s trying to make up for lost time in a sport that is hitting the mainstream like never before.

“The game has changed so much, it’s so huge right now, and if the game was the same six, seven years ago, it would be a different thing,” he said. “My name would probably be in league with a guy like Chuck (Liddell) or close to it. But that’s not when I hit my hot streak. So I’m trying to hit it now. I’m okay with it though. I do this for two reasons – the first reason I do it is because there’s nothing in the world I’d rather be doing with my own time and with my own choices because it’s the most fun thing in the world to me. And the second reason I do it is because it helps me put food on the table and be comfortable. The fame and everything else that comes with it, I don’t care. Back when PRIDE was around, I used to love going to Japan and fighting, and my reason was because I could be popular in Japan, and then I could come home and just be some guy at the mall. I don’t mind that (the popularity), and I understand that comes with success, and I do want to be successful, but it’s not something I aim for.”

What Edwards does expect to hit every night are the kinds of fights that leave fans talking as they leave the arena as well as at the water cooler on Monday. And if he can keep doing that, he’ll keep spreading the Thug-Jitsu gospel to the masses. What could be better than that?

“One thing I like about the current UFC is that job security comes from being entertaining and going out there and laying it on the line,” he said. “Yes, you do have to win, but there’s a benefit to being entertaining and really fighting your style. And to me, that’s my style; I cannot win a boring fight. If a fight’s boring, it’s probably because I’m losing.”

It took nearly 31 years (a lot quicker than most), but Mac Danzig finally got it. Of course it took some shots, literally and figuratively, to get to the point where he was able to let things go and focus on the present and not the past, but you could say this revelation was perfect timing, considering it took place between a devastating loss and a stirring victory.

“You always know that what happened in the past is the past, and there’s nothing you can do,” said Danzig. “But when I was younger I would always dwell on things and try to overthink everything to the point where I’m hoping I could fix something that happened in the past, and you just get older in life experience and realize that things suck and bad things happen sometimes and you just gotta move on.”

Danzig, victim of one of the worst calls in recent history when his 2010 bout with Matt Wiman was called off by referee Yves Lavigne via submission even though the Ohio native was still conscious and hadn’t tapped, could have fallen into a deep funk over the defeat that would carry into his UFC 124 bout with Joe Stevenson. But he didn’t let it happen. Positive encouragement from the UFC over the questionable nature of the end of the Wiman helped, and as he approached his battle with “Joe Daddy,” Danzig was thinking of making statements, not about his job security.

“When I fought Stevenson, I was like ‘all right, this is it. I gotta go. This guy’s an awesome fighter, he’s got more experience than me, which is rare, and he’s good and he’s got a good name. I’ve got nothing to lose. I just gotta go in there and believe in myself and do it.’ And I did.”

Did he ever. The steel-chinned Stevenson had not been knocked out in over 11 years, but Danzig turned the trick with a single left hook that earned him a Knockout of the Night bonus and a new lease on his career in the Octagon. Nearly a year later you can still hear the excitement in his voice as he explains the finishing sequence.

“The whole thing about the knockout is when you try to force it and try to make it happen by will, it often doesn’t come, and that was always my problem,” said Danzig. “I was always trying to force a knockout to happen and it wasn’t happening. You have to let everything fall into place, and there’s a time and a place where everything is exactly right. You see your opening and you don’t tense up and muscle the shot – you just let it fly with speed and you snap it. I hit him with that left hook three times before that, just little pop shots, in the first minute of the fight. I hit him in the forehead a couple times, but it just wasn’t the right one. I knew I could land it, so when he opened up big like that, I saw it and I got him right on the chin, where I was supposed to. It’s a great feeling and it’s such a relief to get the fight done and over with like that and not have to grind with such a tough wrestler.”

If Danzig knows one thing from his almost four years of competition in the UFC, it’s the tough grind. Going three rounds with Mark Bocek, Clay Guida, Jim Miller, and Justin Buchholz, and nearly two in a 2009 war with Josh Neer, the Ultimate Fighter season six winner has gotten no cupcakes in his time here, and certainly no easy fights once the bell rang. It made the ending to the Wiman bout even more bizarre, because fight fans around the world expected a 15 minute scrap from the two 155-pounders, not an abbreviated and controversial ending. Luckily, he’ll get to do it again with Wiman this weekend in Washington, D.C., and whatever the outcome, he just wants to make sure he gets the opportunity to perform.

“Obviously I’m not satisfied with anything but a win, and I don’t think any fighter should be, but that being said, I’m happy to have a chance to do it right, the way it’s supposed to be done,” said Danzig. “If he’s like some amazing submission fighter and he’s good enough to beat me, then so be it, but let it be in a fair fight where I get a chance to do what I trained all these weeks to do. I’m looking forward to getting an opportunity to fight this guy the way it was supposed to be the first time. I feel like I’ve improved since then, and I feel like he’s improved since then as well. I feel like he’s a very confident fighter right now, but I think that’s going to play into my hands.”

About the only negative for Danzig heading into the rematch is the fact that this is his first fight of 2011, a product of a crowded 155-pound schedule and an injury that forced him from a June bout with Donald Cerrone. He’s not a fan of the waiting game.

“It’s been pretty bad,” he admits. “I wanted to go as soon as February, or even late January, and I was ready to go, but with the influx of all the WEC fighters that came in at 155, it made it really hard for the matchmakers to get everything together because that weight class is really saturated. So I had to wait for a while, and once I got a fight lined up for June, I was happy about it, and then three and a half, four weeks out from the fight, I got hurt. It’s been 10 months now, and it’s been pretty frustrating, but I’m ready to go.”

He’s also excited about the prospect of throwing hands with the occupants of a stacked weight class that has gotten even more talent-rich since the last time he competed.

“I just look at the entire UFC roster from top to bottom in all the weight classes and I say it’s a good time to be in the UFC. There are so many good matchups to be made, especially with the lightweights. There are so many good guys and exciting fights.”

And in spite of just a .500 record in the Octagon (4-4), Danzig may very well be hitting his peak physically. Add in a mental game that has caught up to his talents, and it could make things very interesting for the California resident in the coming year. Again, he credits the wisdom that comes with getting older.

“I’ve gotten older, and I’m confident in myself and my abilities,” he said. “I wasn’t so sure before. I know I’m tough and I know I’ve been doing it for a long time, but I struggled with self-doubt for a long time. Now, it’s like ‘all right Mac, you don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re good enough; you know you’re good enough, you just have to show it.’ That’s the whole thing. Instead of being like ‘man, I know I’m good, I think I can beat these guys,’ I know I can, it’s whether or not you perform in the fight. A lot of people only perform in the gym. I’ve not necessarily been a guy like that. I’ve been someone who’s performed well in the gym and well in the fights, but there hasn’t been a huge discrepancy. And now, I’m just starting to realize that I’m good at this, so have some confidence. And I do, and I know I’m good enough to have a really good run in this division and good enough to completely turn everything around and get an awesome winning streak going. It’s just believing in yourself. When you have to skills to back up the belief, then the sky’s the limit.”

Cardio – check.

Technique – check.

Gameplan – check.

Everything else – finally, check.

Mac Danzig’s ready to make a statement.

“I’m gonna go in there with everything I’ve got,” he said. “It’s not even about him (Wiman) or what he’s gonna do anymore. It’s more about me being at the top of my game on fight night and having all the elements and all the training I’ve put together for the past nine weeks or so come together and have a peak performance. That’s what it’s about and I feel like if I fight my very best, I’ll be able to beat anybody, regardless of if it’s Matt Wiman or Frankie Edgar or a guy who’s 0-3. Whoever it is, I should be able to put on a great performance against them because I will have reached the peak of my potential on fight night. And that’s what it’s about for me, more than anything.”

When it comes to sleight of hand and psychological warfare, Anthony Johnson’s defeat of Dan Hardy in March was a masterstroke. With all five of his previous UFC wins coming byknockout – and not just plain ol’ knockouts, but the ‘fall down in funny ways’ knockouts – Johnson’s claim that he was going to go toe-to-toe with “The Outlaw” wasn’t just greeted with cheers from fight fans, but from Hardy as well.

Then came the first takedown.  And the second. And the third. And you get the picture. For three rounds, Johnson baffled Hardy with the wrestlingskills that had earned “Rumble” an accolade many forgot he had – a junior college national championship for Lassen Community College. The shutout three round decision in Johnson’s favor when it was all over? A mere formality.

“I pretty much knew what I was gonna do,” said Johnson. “I just wanted to mess with him a little bit because I knew he was really wanting somebody to stand and bang with him. But why would I take a 50-50 chance? Even though I know I’m a better striker than him – nothing against his striking or anything – why take a chance of getting caught when I know I’m better than him on the ground?”

Sure, the win (Johnson’s ninth against three losses) isn’t going to earn him any nominations for Fight of the Year, but in terms of putting together a brilliant gameplan and sticking to it against a tough opponent, you can’t help but give him his respect. And when it comes down to it, he won the fight with his brain and not just his brawn.

“The mental game is the most important part of fighting in my opinion,” said Johnson. “If you have that mental edge and mental toughness, you’ll be able to be successful in fighting, no matter what skill level you’re at. It plays a big part, and fighting against Dan Hardy, it definitely worked to my advantage.”

As for the critics who were expecting thunder from “Rumble,” he takes such talk with a grain of salt.

“The true fans and true MMA analysts that understand fighting and know MMA, it shocked them, but they also respected what I did,” he said. “People who don’t know fighting and that just want to see people go in there and try to knock each other’s head off, they didn’t like it at all. They just want to see a bloodsport, and that’s not what MMA is all about. To me, this is my career, it’s my body, it’s my fight, and I’m gonna do what I’ve got to do to win. And if I have to play that psychological game with somebody, I’ll do that.”

To many observers, the Hardy fight showed the evolution of the 27-year old’s fight game. We already saw the fight ending power, speed, and explosiveness. In March we witnessed him taking a bout to the mat and controlling it there from start to finish. That’s something every welterweight in the UFC has to think about from now on, but the way Johnson looks at the whole situation, he’s not even close to where he needs to be. 

“No, not yet,” said Johnson, who faces Charlie Brenneman this Saturday night in Washington, D.C. “I think this fight right here will show a lot with my takedown defense, takedowns, and striking. Each fight is a step forward and I think I get better and better in every fight. I think my performance against Dan Hardy was one of my worst ones, but after being out for a year, I came in and did what I had to do. But Charlie Brenneman’s really gonna bring out the fighter in me.”

That should be something to see, as Brenneman – fresh off his upset win over Rick Story in June – is on a similar mission to get by his opponent on Saturday night and start making some noise among the 170-pound elite. Johnson likes the matchup and his fellow wrestler’s style.

“He just goes after it,” said Johnson of former Lock Haven University wrestler Brenneman.  “I like his style of fighting and he’s real smooth. He keeps coming forward, his wrestling is so good, and he puts it together really well. I saw his fight against Rick Story and he had a gameplan that is almost the same one for everyone he fights. He might take a couple punches, but he’ll grab a leg and hold on to it for dear life just to get that takedown. And he’s pretty accurate with his takedowns. He’s one of those guys that if you don’t stay on your toes and move and get the job done, then he’ll beat you with his takedowns.”

And though Johnson isn’t predicting that a wrestling match will break out in the Nation’s capital, he does admit that when one wrestler faces another, there’s always a little something extra to prove. 

“We have to be like that,” said Johnson. “Charlie Brenneman feels his wrestling is better than mine, and I feel mine is better than his, and that’s just where we’re at. We’re two competitive guys who come from the toughest sport in the world besides MMA, and that’s just how we think. But do we take our opponent’s talent for granted? No, not at all, because we know that one takedown could be a win or loss for a round. It’s gonna be fun and I’ve got a lot of respect for Charlie and his camp.”

A win on Saturday would be his fifth in his last six bouts, with the only loss coming to Josh Koscheck in 2009. Of course injuries have slowed the Georgia native’s progress, but with the Hardy win and this week’s bout against Brenneman, he will be firmly back in the spotlight. There was also the business of a movie role earlier this year, as Johnson had a nice part in the film ‘Warrior.’

“It was cool,” said Johnson of being on the silver screen. “Being on set for the movie was great. (Director) Gavin O’Connor and (Producer) Greg O’Connor were great, and it was fun having the TapouT guys there, even though Mask wasn’t there, and he was the whole reason I was in the movie. Those guys did such a great job, and they let the actors do the acting and the fighters do the fighting. They didn’t try and make a fighter be an actor, but when it came down to the fighting scenes, they actually took our advice whenever it came down to how it would look or how it would be in a certain situation or which move would actually look like a real MMA move. And that was cool because they were willing to listen to us and get our two cents. I think that’s what made it such a good movie. The writers did a really good job, the actors did such a good job, and it was unbelievable.”

So are we about to lose Johnson to Hollywood? He laughs.

“Acting is not my thing, but if it came down to it and somebody offered me another role, I would do it,” he said. “It’s actually pretty fun when you’re on set and you know people and everybody’s cool like they were on the set of ‘Warrior.’ But that (acting) is a lot of work.”

It’s safe to say that he prefers his day job to long hours on the set, and he’s more than ready to hear the referee call “action” this Saturday night. And whatever the future brings, he’ll deal with it then.

“I don’t really think about where this fight puts me, I just try and fight and keep it moving until my time comes,” said Johnson. “For the longest, I’ve been looking to see my name up there in the Top Ten, and I can’t complain that I’m not in it because I still haven’t paid my dues and I haven’t done what I need to do to be noticed as a Top Ten fighter. So we’ll see what’s next for me after this fight, but my goal is to win and keep going forward.”

DENVER, September 24 – Tim Boetsch got off to a slow start in his middleweight bout against The Ultimate Fighter vet Nick Ring Saturday at Pepsi Center, but he picked up the pace as the fight went on, handing his opponent his first pro loss via unanimous decision in UFC 135 prelim action. See post-fight interview

“I’m loving middleweight so far,” said Boetsch, who is now 2-0 in the division.

Scores were 29-28 twice and 30-27.

Ring frustrated Boetsch with his rapid backpedaling around the Octagon for much of the first round, and when he was able to get “The Barbarian” to the mat, his control there was enough to earn the opening frame.

Boetsch finally landed with a right hand of significance in the first minute of round two, but he wasn’t able to follow-up on the head-snapping blow. Midway through the round, Boetsch was able to pin Ring against the fence, and after sinking in a guillotine choke, he pulled guard. After a few moments, Ring escaped and eventually got back to his feet. Boetsch was gaining momentum though, and Ring’s backpedaling now looked to be the strategy of a hurt and tired fighter, one who got slammed to the mat just before the bell.

In complete control in round three, Boetsch got a roar out of the crowd with a high-flying throw of Ring that rocked the Octagon. And while he didn’t finish Ring, he certainly finished the fight with an emphatic bang that made the judges’ call that much easier.

With the win, Boetsch improves to 14-4; Ring falls to 12-1.

FERGUSON vs. RILEY

It was déjà vu all over again for veteran lightweight Aaron Riley, as a jaw injury similar to the one he suffered in his 2006 loss to Spencer Fisher caused the stoppage of his bout with The Ultimate Fighter season 13 winner Tony Ferguson after the first round. See post-fight interview

After a busy opening with solid work from both men, Ferguson rocked Riley with a left uppercut midway through the round, apparently breaking the veteran’s jaw. After shaking off the shot, Riley got right back to work, but it was the stalking Ferguson who looked to be in control, and by the end of the round, it was clear that Riley was in no condition to continue, and the fight was waved off due to the injury, giving Ferguson the victory.

With the win, Ferguson improves to 13-2; Riley falls to 29-13-1.

ASSUNCAO vs. YAGIN

Returning featherweight Junior Assuncao didn’t win over any fans with his methodical attack against newcomer Eddie Yagin, but he got the victory in his first UFC bout in four years. See post-fight interview

The unanimous decision for Assuncao read 30-26 twice and 30-27.

The crowd didn’t waste much time letting Assuncao (14-4) and Yagin know how they felt about the lack of action in the opening round, booing consistently between the two takedowns by Assuncao that accounted for much of the significant scoring in the first five minutes.

If anything, things got worse in round two, with a brief guillotine choke attempt from Yagin (15-5-1) on an Assuncao takedown providing the only drama of the stanza.

Yagin almost sunk in the guillotine the second time around in round three, but Assuncao pulled free and proceeded to score with ground strikes on his trapped opponent for the rest of the fight to secure his first Octagon win since beating David Lee at UFC 70.

MIZUGAKI vs. ESCOVEDO

Japanese bantamweight Takeya Mizugaki scored the most impressive victory of his three fight UFC stint, stopping Cole Escovedo via strikes in the second round. See post-fight interview

A slow starting battle of Octagon control turned into a slugfest in the final 90 seconds, with Escovedo using thudding knees and long-range punches while Mizugaki countered with punches to the head that had the crowd roaring.

In the second though, Mizugaki (15-6-2) turned up the heat behind a vicious body attack that opened up Escovedo (17-8) for the head shots to follow. Three knockdowns later, referee Adam Martinez had seen enough, awarding the bout to Mizugaki via second round TKO at the 4:30 mark.

TE HUNA vs. ROMERO

Australia’s James Te Huna got things off to a rousing start in the light heavyweight opener, knocking out Ricardo Romero in the first round. See post-fight interview

Te Huna’s right hand was his weapon of choice from the outset, not surprising, considering that he admitted to breaking a finger in his left hand in the lead-up to the fight. After Te Huna rocked and dropped the New Jersey native with an uppercut in the first exchange of the fight, Romero survived the ensuing follow-up, but missed badly on a couple of takedown attempts. On the last failed attempt, Te Huna crushed Romero with a right hand, and after a couple more shots, referee Tim Mills called a stop to the fight at the 47 second mark.

With the win, Te Huna ups his record to 15-5; Romero falls to 11-3.