Looking at him now, it’s hard to believe Mike Rhodes once weighed 270 pounds. Nowadays, he’s a lean, mean fighting machine. But for a time in high school, it was a slightly different story.
“I broke my leg my junior year of high school and gained a bunch of weight,” Rhodes said. “I got pretty huge for a while.”
But it all had a silver lining. If not for the busted leg, he wouldn’t have one of the coolest nicknames in MMA.
“The guy who got me to start training started calling me ‘Biggie,’ and it stuck,” Rhodes said. “People think it’s because of the rapper, but that’s the real story. And everywhere I go, it’s ‘Biggie, Biggie, Biggie.’”
The 6’0” welterweight, who turns 24 in December, is also one of the biggest young prospects in the Resurrection Fighting Alliance promotion. And he has a chance to put some gold around his waist on Friday night, when he faces fellow striker Alan Jouban at RFA 10 for the promotion’s inaugural welterweight title.
You might say Biggie has a puncher’s chance on Friday night. Rhodes (5-1) is a boxer at heart, with the quickness, sharp footwork and pinpoint counterstriking to frustrate just about any opponent. And he’ll come prepared, thanks to his membership in the prestigious Roufusport camp, which trains a slew of standout fighters including UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis.
Also like Pettis, Rhodes sees head coach Duke Roufus as something of a father figure, given that he was raised by a single mother, growing up in the rough-hewn town of Waterloo, Iowa.
“Growing up, I was the man of the house,” he said. “Everything I know about being a man I learned from her. I was the man of the house. Later Duke and Anthony took me under their wing and showed me how to take care of my own business as a man.”
The camp also showed him how to be more than a slugger. As an Iowa kid, Rhodes is no stranger to wrestling, but he was something of a one-punch pony earlier in his fight career.
“I was lacking as a complete martial artist,” he said. “I thought I was a striker, but I wasn’t. I’d throw something just to throw it, but I didn’t know the whys. Now I know the whys, and that helps with my confidence and gives me that killer instinct.”
Biggie had to regain that killer instinct in March after sustaining the first defeat of his pro career. He suffered a first-round submission loss to Brandon Thatch, who signed with the UFC two months after defeating Rhodes.
“Standing there after that, my initial reaction was to think about all my training. It all just ran through my head,” Rhodes recalled. “All that time I spent. My diet and all those sacrifices I made. It was a moment of reflection, and it hurt.”
Biggie bounced back, though, winning his return match in June with a TKO of Benjamin Smith at RFA 8. Rhodes credits the defeat with improving him as a fighter.
“After those feelings went away, I wanted to never feel that way again,” he said. “It gave me a different kind of swagger.”
As for Friday night, he just wants to keep it rolling. He irritated opponent Jouban by calling him out previously, but to Rhodes, who is dedicating his fight to women fighting breast cancer, it’s all business.
“I’m not the kind of guy who watches a lot of tape,” he said. “I know he’s training and changing, so I don’t want to look at footage of an outdated fighter. I’m going to go out there and fight my fight.”
The Beaten Path is an article series profiling top MMA prospects. Read the previous interview here. Scott Harris is a writer for Bleacher Report. Find him on Twitter @ScottHarrisMMA. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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