Filed under: Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive
These days, Lorenz Larkin goes by the nickname “The Monsoon,” a tribute to his chaotic fight style as much as it is an homage to his brother, whose given first name actually is Monsoon. That wasn’t always the case. When Larkin was in the first days of his MMA career, he had a different nickname, one that was decidedly less intimidating. It was “the Chihuahua.” Amazingly, he gave the first moniker to himself, but for a purpose.
“I was thinking about what would be the funniest thing to throw somebody off guard,” he told MMA Fighting. “I could imagine the promoter telling my opponent, ‘We got this guy who’s called ‘The Chihuahua,’ and then they see me.”
The name was short-lived. Around his third amateur fight, Larkin had the foresight to realize “that name probably wouldn’t go too good if I went anywhere.”
He’s somewhere now, a still unbeaten, rising light-heavyweight talent who will be featured in the main event of Friday night’s Strikeforce Challengers 19 card against Nick Rossborough.
Larkin recently turned 25 years old and is now considered one of Strikeforce’s best prospects, but his background would have hardly suggested such a path. He grew up in Riverside, California as the youngest of nine children.
As a kid, he wanted to participate in contact sports, but was not allowed to by his father, who was worried Lorenz could get hurt. Larkin characterizes those early days as “sheltered” as a result.
When he was 12 years old, he took up boxing. Still, that came with a caveat. He was to work technique only, never spar and certainly not compete. Because of that, he says he became a gym rat.
“I wasn’t allowed to fight so all I could do is go to the gym and train,” he said. “When it came time for fight time, I couldn’t fight. That made me a gym rat because i wanted to learn and I wanted to fight even though I couldn’t.”
As adolescents do, Larkin had to test his boundaries. He began sparring, but it still could go no further as he had no prayer of his father signing off an an amateur card which would have allowed him to compete.
Still, Larkin’s love affair with the sport was a rocky affair at first, sometimes quitting and returning after some struggles.
“At the time, I was going against Golden Gloves champs and good guys, and I was getting worked,” he says now with a laugh. “So I’d be training and then on sparring day, I’d get my butt whooped and I’d say, ‘that’s enough of that.'”
He kept finding himself drawn back for more. Part of it was that he just liked fighting. Another part was that despite his difficulty with the best guys in the gym, when he’d face someone with a similar experience level to his own, he would routinely pound them.
In 2008, Larkin participated in his first boxing tournament, The Desert Showdown in Indio, California, and won all four of his bouts to win his weight class. At the time, the 5-foot-11 Larkin weighed about 225 pounds. Thinking about his future, he realized going pro would put him in the heavyweight class, leaving him at a severe size disadvantage at times. His mind started racing.
“I already watched MMA, but that’s when I started venturing off to try it,” he said. “My buddy trained, so I figured I’d go with him to a couple classes to try it, and I finally made the switch over.”
Soon after making that decision, Larkin moved to Kentucky to begin his amateur career. He racked up fights and wins in a hurry, going 10-0 before returning home to California to turn pro.
SInce then, he’s gone 11-0, but he’s only recently made a dent in the major MMA landscape with impressive Strikeforce wins over Scott Lighty and Gian Villante.
It also changed things at home.
“My dad didn’t fully understand it until I made my debut in Strikeforce,” he said. “That’s when he started coming around and saying, ‘OK, this might go somewhere.’ He’s so into it now and so proud. He’s 100 percent behind me now.”
Larkin’s style fits perfectly with his “Monsoon” nickname. He is a whirlwind of activity, you never quite know where’s coming from, and he leaves damage in his wake. He says that his flashy style was influenced by many fighters, including boxers Jorge Paez, David Tua and Mike Tyson, and mixed martial artists Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Andrei Arlvoski, among others.
It’s also part of his experimental training, in which he enjoys trying “new and awkward things,” and tries to adapt them to MMA.
Despite his quick success and a headlining spot, Larkin concedes he’s still finding his comfort level in the cage. It’s been a fast rise, and as the wins pile up, the stakes get bigger. Though he’s never lost, he says the unbeaten stretch means little and that he’s not scared to blemish his record. He’s still green and he’s still learning, so much so that he concedes he wouldn’t take a title shot if it was offered to him.
From “the Chihuahua” to “the Monsoon,” Larkin has already matured his MMA game, and even if there is still a long way to travel, he’s in no rush.
“i just look at it like I’m a freshman in high school,” he said. “I’m still trying to get a hang of things and find out how things work. I’m still getting settled in. I want to be a well-tuned fighter. I just want to get through this year and then I’ll start making moves.”