Joe Schilling is a badass.
Let’s just get that fact out of the way. As if knocking out Melvin Manhoef at Bellator 131 in his first MMA bout in over six years wasn’t impressive enough, Schilling did it after losing his father and a close cousin just weeks before the bout.
He nearly didn’t make it to the cage that night. Thoughts of pulling out and abandoning the matchup ran wild, and it took some tough love from his mind coach to set him straight.
“He said, ‘Are you going to give up fighting now because these people died? Your life stops? Your kids don’t need to get fed anymore? Your bills don’t need to get paid? Your coaches shouldn’t be able to see you succeed because this happened?'” Schilling told Bleacher Report. “He put it really bluntly to me, and everything he said was right. I just focused on the fight and dealt with it after the fight.”
Schilling said his mind coach likened dealing with the grief during training camp to an app running in the background of your phone. Even though you’re not actively using the app, it’s draining your phone’s battery.
Even though his loved ones had passed, and he needed to move forward with his life, the grief stuck and sucked away his energy and will.
Understanding this fact, though, gave Schilling the motivation and the confidence to compete, and he kept his coach’s words in mind as he battled through difficulties leading up to his Bellator 136 matchup Friday against Rafael Carvalho.
“I was sick—I might as well put it out there—I had bronchitis and a throat infection [leading into this fight],” Schilling said. “Normally, that would really upset me and make me nervous. But after what I went through before and it worked out so well, I think it’s more of a stable mindset at this point. It was a great result from a difficult experience, and it gives me a lot of confidence going into this fight.”
Another source of confidence for Schilling comes from his success at the highest level in muay thai and kickboxing. He is a World Boxing Council Muaythai champion three times over, and he won the 2013 Glory Middleweight World Championship Tournament.
This experience, he said, puts him at a major advantage inside the cage. He’s accustomed to seeing high-level kicks and punches, and he has already adapted to a speed in the striking game that most MMA competitors do not approach. He’s utilizing a polished and smooth six-speed transmission, while most of his opponents can only tap into a third or fourth gear at best.
While he admits anything can happen in MMA—”It’s like when Kevin Randleman knocked out Mirko Cro Cop,” he’s quick to note—as long as his fights are standing, he feels he has the advantage against anyone in the sport.
“I don’t think there’s anybody who is as high a level of striker as me in MMA, including [former UFC middleweight champion] Anderson Silva,” Schilling said. “A lot of people got knocked out by Anderson Silva or caught by a punch from Anderson Silva because they’re not used to seeing that level of striking or that speed with which he throws his combinations. So, I feel like I see better, and I’m used to seeing higher level striking than these guys are going to give me, so to speak.”
MMA, however, is not kickboxing. There’s the element of grappling, that pesky component that keeps many of the sport’s best strikers from reaching the top.
Schilling was part of this group when he made his first run in MMA in 2008, going just 1-3 with all three losses coming via submission.
Now, as he recommits himself to the sport under the Bellator banner, he’s more mature and more focused.
He has helped some of the best MMA fighters in the world train for fights—guys like UFC staples Nick and Nate Diaz, Dan Henderson and Mark Munoz just to name a few—and those crazy submissions suddenly don’t seem so scary anymore.
“I’m a much more serious athlete than I was back then, and I’m much more prepared for the ground and the wrestling,” Schilling said. “Before, when I was doing MMA, it was like, ‘Oh, I better knock him out before he takes me down.’ Now, it isn’t such a big issue. I know how to get back to my feet. I know how to submit people on the ground.”
This moment of clarity, the realization that, “Hey, the ground isn’t hot lava, and I don’t need to fear it, after all” came against Manhoef in Schilling’s Bellator debut.
Manhoef rocked Schilling with a big right hand midway through the first round and followed his foe to the canvas in pursuit of the finish. This was Schilling’s worst-case scenario. This is precisely where he didn’t want to be.
“I had built him up in my head to be so strong that the last thing I wanted to do was be knocked down and have Melvin Manhoef pounding on me on the ground,” Schilling said. “But when it went down there, I had this moment of clarity, where I was like, ‘He’s not nearly as strong as I thought!’
“I was able to get back to my guard and get out of that horrible position and start working on my elbows. I really feel like if they hadn’t split us up, I would’ve submitted Melvin that night.”
After he showcases his latest evolution for fans in Irvine, California, and across the globe against Carvalho at Bellator 136, Schilling said he will continue to split time between MMA and kickboxing. He may even sprinkle a little boxing into the mix.
“There’s been talk recently with Spike TV about me doing some PBC boxing, which would be fantastic. It’s something I’m really into,” Schilling said. “This is the first time in my career where I have fights scheduled right after another. Right after I finish one fight, there’s already another one being promoted, which is great. I’m really excited to see how well I can do staying that busy.”
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