“Never mind how my car looks.”
Those words—and numerous other combat sports-related items—were thrown about the trunk space as veteran lightweight Isaac Vallie-Flagg scrambled through the rubble. He eventually found the dry shirt he was looking for and did a quick swap in the gym parking lot to rid himself of the sweat-soaked garb Israel “Izzy” Martinez’s wrestling practice had destroyed.
“Couldn’t do that in Michigan in April,” he laughed in a short clip and tossed the gym bag into his car before popping the passenger side door to allow my entry. It would take a moment for him to slide behind the wheel, as he paused to catch his wind with a few more breaths of the thin Albuquerque air before throwing the 2005 Toyota Camry into gear and hitting the highway.
“Never mind how my car looks. I’m serious.”
Yet, despite his prior warning, I couldn’t help but notice the interior of the car was comfortable and the outside presentation was battle tested, to say the least. From a quick scan it was clear the miles on the odometer were earned and few of those clicks came at a cruising speed. In a strange parallel, the same could be said for its owner who has built a reputation for engaging in hard-knock squabbles and donnybrooks inside the Octagon.
Anyone who has seen him fight knows he always shows up to scrap, but what happens when the cage door closes is never the complete story. Whether the competitors are on display for five minutes or 15, the fight that the fans see is made up of digitally enhanced tidbits of a chaotic storm and, if all goes well, a glimpse at the fabric from which the fighters are cut. The reality of a fighter’s life exists far beyond the cage walls and the sea of faces that fill an arena on fight night in a place the bright lights can’t reach.
Vallie-Flagg is no stranger to hard knocks, but as he zipped through Albuquerque’s midday traffic to meet his striking coach Mike Winkeljohn—his second of three training sessions that day—there was no way he could have known just how tough his 2014 campaign would get.
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John Dodson laughs with his entire body.
While the former challenger to the 125-pound crown is small in stature, the power he carries in his fists and his presence in living flesh extends far beyond his fighting weight. “The Magician” animates with a natural ease, and it immediately draws the attention of anyone within earshot of the flyweight knockout artist. His comedic chops are on point, and at that very moment his focus was on the screensaver picture Vallie-Flagg had chosen for his phone.
It was a photo of Takanori Gomi—the man who Vallie-Flagg would step in to throw down within three weeks time.
“This guy is all I think about,” Vallie-Flagg confirmed while turning a shoulder to ignore his teammate’s ribbing. “He’s a legend of the sport and was, at one time, considered the best lightweight on the planet. He loves to throw ’em and isn’t afraid to scrap. I’ve always wanted to fight him and I’m going to get the chance.”
While Dodson was only messing around with Vallie-Flagg, it became clear that launching shots at one another is commonplace for the core team at Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA. With Vallie-Flagg’s self-deprecating brand of humor, he makes a joke fly easy, but his inner pit bull tends to shine through in his responses. The banter would continue all throughout dinner. With his next fight coming in less than a month, Vallie-Flagg did his best to curb the early stages of irritation that tend to come from the pre-weight cutting diet.
In those moments, a glimpse of who Vallie-Flagg is beyond fighting came to the surface. There, at a table top filled with food he couldn’t dare touch, he ignored his discomfort to make sure those around him felt free to indulge. The 36-year-old veteran was going to suffer through his plight regardless, but was keen on making sure those around him weren’t affected. It would be outside of his character to burden anyone, yet, he would go the extra mile to offer his help to anyone who needed it. Anything to help a friend out of a storm, all the while never complaining or making excuses for stumbles along his own path.
That’s Ike Vallie-Flagg, and while he would go on to lose a three-round slug fest with “The Fireball Kid” in one the year’s best fights at UFC 172, the chaos beyond the cage was just about to hit another level.
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Competing in the professional realm of combat sports is a complex situation. A fighter signs a contract to compete on a certain date, and it becomes his personal responsibility to ensure he lives up to the terms of that deed. Successfully navigating a training camp and making the agreed upon weight limit are of the utmost necessity, while keeping his personal life in check en route to fight night is a crucial balancing act.
With more than a decade worth of experience, Vallie-Flagg knows how to do the dance. But 2014 brought difficult obstacles that carried weight beyond measure. Late last year, his father Tom Flagg was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which is a form of cancer that exists in bone marrow. Vallie-Flagg understandably struggled with the news of his father’s illness. Yet the clock on his career was ticking loudly in his mid-30’s, and the New Mexico-based fighter had to press on.
The loss to Gomi would only serve to amplify things, as a second consecutive loss would put his back against the proverbial wall. Yet while the shadows in Vallie-Flagg’s world loomed more ominously than ever before in the aftermath of UFC 172, the darkness was about to break as some much needed light shone into the veteran fighter’s life.
In late August, his father’s cancer would go into remission. Vallie-Flagg would land his next fight less than a month later. This time around, he was scheduled to mix it up with longtime lightweight staple Matt Wiman at Fight Night 57 in Austin, Texas on Nov. 22. Where Vallie-Flagg had to battle through heavy personal issues during his two previous camps, preparation for the Ultimate Fighter season five alum would come free of those attachments.
For the first time in his 2014 campaign, Vallie-Flagg was free to focus on being the best fighter he could be—and those circumstances have him feeling like an animal reborn.
“I actually felt better going into this camp than the last two because my dad is in remission now,” Vallie-Flagg said. “During my last camp, I found myself trying to psyche myself up using my dad’s illness as a motivator, but I have a different personality and it only made me more depressive. I tried to find motivation to fight in what my dad was going through, but I just sank lower with the thought of him possibly dying in my head.”
“There would be days when I would walk into the gym to train and tell Coach Wink, ‘What’s the point? We are all going to f****** die anyway. F*** it.’ That was my attitude then and it has completely changed for this camp. I feel completely different. My coaches see it. All of my training partners see it, and I feel stronger than I have in a long time.”
“I got pretty depressed because I was thinking about my dad dying, to be quite honest,” he added, “even though his cancer wasn’t life-threatening right away. And luckily he went into remission, but I was still forced to think about things I’d never had to think about before. I had to face my parent’s mortality as well as my own. All kinds of weird and crazy things went through my head. This camp has been incredibly positive because I’ve been able to focus on the fight I have coming up.”
While his father’s cancer going into remission brought levity to his personal life, being down two fights in the loss column brought a sense of urgency into his world as a fighter. Yet, those elements proved to create the perfect storm, thanks to Vallie-Flagg’s renewed positive outlook in all aspects of his life. Although he struggled to turn adversity into motivation for his previous affairs, the Albuquerque transplant used the burst of positive emotion to fuel his drive to get back into the win column.
In his eyes, there was nothing to feel sorry for because all the strife and tribulation provided a unique education.
“Everything has been hitting on a different level because of my ability to focus,” Vallie-Flagg said. “I’ve eaten cleaner in this camp and have been working to become a better athlete in this camp. I’ve put a lot of work into my wrestling, and if anyone knows anything about me, wrestling is something I hate. But getting out of my comfort zone was huge part of making the changes I needed to make and I’ve been doing a ton of wrestling in this camp. To be quite honest, the biggest thing about this camp is that I’ve been able to stay positive, and that’s because I can focus on fighting.
“After the first loss against [Elias] Silverio, I tried to be more positive going into my next fight against Gomi. But then you take your second loss and your job becomes threatened,” Vallie-Flagg said. “You get scared about it and that compounds the things you are dealing with. But at the same time, it also forces you to take a hard look at things you need to change. I knew there were things I needed to improve upon to win fights, and talking to my wrestling coach Israel Martinez helped me realize that. It forced me out of my comfort zone, and nobody likes that. No one likes to do uncomfortable things, but that is what I needed to do.
“I know my job is on the line in this fight, but it’s cool because I don’t feel desperate,” he added. “Going into this camp I knew what I needed to do to get the win and I’ve done it. Being down two in a row, there is desperation, but I’m not desperate—if that makes sense. I’m prepared, focused and feeling better than I have in a very long time.”
While the upcoming tilt with Wiman is still some weeks away, the time in his training camp where he turns the corner into a stern competitor has officially arrived. The hard work in the gym is nearing completion, and the time to ultimately test the skills he’s honed these past six weeks will soon officially arrive. That is the moment every fighter yearns for, but Nov. 22 will carry a little something extra for Vallie-Flagg.
On that night in Austin, he’ll not only finally have the opportunity to shut the door on a year that was rife with struggle, he’ll also be able to slam that door with authority. He knows there will be a gritty, game opponent standing in the way of accomplishing this task, but Vallie-Flagg is charging forward with a fierce determination to get it done, regardless of obstruction.
He’s painfully aware of what 2014 has brought to his doorstep, but he’s optimistic about how it could potentially end. There’s nothing more Vallie-Flagg wants in the world than to put the stresses and rocky roads behind him, and defeating Wiman at Fight Night 57 is the key to making this possible.
“Getting this win would be the perfect ending to what has been a tough year,” Vallie-Flagg said. “It would allow me to go into next year on a positive note with a win under my belt.
“Wiman has been out for two years, but being the fighter that he is, I don’t think that is going to make any difference. I don’t think there will be any ring rust for him in there. He’s a well-rounded fighter and he’s a very tough competitor. He wants to win fights and he brings it every time out. We are two guys who are going to run into each other in the middle of the cage, stand in the pocket and beat on one another for awhile. Man, I can’t wait.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
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