For Chris Honeycutt, Bellator wasn’t the other place. It was the only place.
When the welterweight prospect and two-time Division I wrestling All-American signed with Bellator in 2014, he might have been ahead of the curve. Bellator has since shown a proclivity to sign not only prospects in general, but wrestling prospects specifically. Now, with some believing the UFC’s sponsorship deal with Reebok might scare away fighters, Bellator could become an even hotter destination.
Time will tell who, if anyone, departs the UFC for a different pasture as a result of that deal. But in the meantime, Bellator was the right choice for Honeycutt, and to hear him tell it, the Reebok deal is just the latest piece of proof that his instincts were correct.
“It just confirmed that I made that right step,” Honeycutt said in an interview with Bleacher Report. “Every fighter should want the ability to market themselves. It’s crucial to use the work you put into the sport.”
Maybe his business instincts are comparable to his combat instincts, which he has been honing since age four.
“I was introduced to wrestling by my older brother. We lived in a suburb of Cleveland,” Honeycutt recalled. “He pinned everyone. He wrestled heavyweights sometimes. He wasn’t a heavyweight, but they needed to fill that spot and he did it. I tried it really young because I wanted to follow him, and I just excelled at it.”
Long considered a top prospect, the 26-year-old Honeycutt (6-0) will have a chance to show the extent of his progress on July 17, when he faces the toughest test of his young career in UFC veteran Paul Bradley at Bellator 140.
“Each fight is the biggest fight of my career, but yeah, this is a huge step up,” Honeycutt said. “It’s not just Joe Schmoes anymore. Paul is not someone who’s going to give up because you’re pounding him.”
Honeycutt doesn’t mince words about his skill set. He’s a wrestler. Everything else is a work in progress.
“I’m mainly ground-and-pound for now,” Honeycutt said. “But my boxing is getting better by the week. I’m getting more confidence as far as going into the pocket and striking.”
But in his mind, coming up in amateur wrestling from such a young age gave him an advantage outside of fighting.
“At the end of the day, a fight’s a fight,” Honeycutt said. “More people showing up to watch. I wrestled since I was four years old. I’m used to the crowd. More people is better. I tend to show up on game day.”
Honeycutt played several sports through high school but as college loomed, he shed football and the others to focus on wrestling. The decision paid off with a scholarship to Pennsylvania’s Edinboro University, the wrestling wellspring that produced longtime UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck, with whom Honeycutt is very close.
Two All-America nods and a second-place finish in the 2012 national championships later, and Honeycutt was looking for a career. He had been an MMA fan for a while, going back to his time in high school and the halcyon days of a certain Ice Man.
“I had that itch to fight since 2007, when Chuck Liddell was killing it. When he was fighting Tito,” Honeycutt said. “I didn’t have any boxing, but I still thought, ‘I could do that.’ For wrestlers, you either go to the Olympics or go fight. You can only train to be at this level for so many years of your life, so I decided to get in the ring.”
After plowing through four opponents in a year (three finished in the first round), Honeycutt struck a deal with Bellator. He’s confident enough to speak with candor about his decision to sign there. Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock? Bring it on, Honeycutt says. If it brings more eyeballs, it can only be good.
“I think it’s awesome,” Honeycutt said. “UFC gets a lot of hype, but Bellator is right there. [Bellator president] Scott Coker is a genius.”
Honeycutt makes his training home at Dethrone Base Camp, a relatively small gym in Fresno, California, that also houses the recently retired Koscheck. He’s a full-time fighter, training, teaching wrestling and fighting as a career.
“There are a lot of fresh bodies rotating in on me. They’re really making me fight,” Honeycutt said of his Bellator 140 prep. “Anything’s better than a 9-5 job.”
The Beaten Path is Bleacher Report’s series on top MMA prospects. For the previous interview in the series, click here. Scott Harris writes about MMA and other things for Bleacher Report and other places. For more on MMA prospects and plenty of other stuff, follow Scott on Twitter.
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