Matt Serra vs Frank Trigg at UFC 109

It has been announced that Frank Trigg will square off against Matt Serra at UFC 109. Most people would consider this match to be somewhat lackluster as both fighters appear to be on the tail end of their careers. However, it is exactly their position in both the UFC and the world of MMA in general that makes this fight interesting.

The UFC typically does not do too many loser leaves town matches, but I feel that this pairing is exactly that. In fact, this match could very well be a loser leaves mixed martial arts match. Which, I suppose, is sad to see. Many people like Matt Serra for being a charismatic fighter and his stand out performance during season 4 of the Ultimate Fighter. Even though Serra has some legitimate BJJ skills and powerful hands, he’s better known for his coaching abilities than anything else at this point. Frank Trigg on the other hand is making one last shot at greatness despite rather subpar performances leading up to this match.

Matt Serra’s Ultimate Fighter 4 victory marked the pinnacle of his career. He narrowly defeated perennial journeyman fighter Chris Lytle via split decision to be the victor of the season. His reward was a title match against Georges St. Pierre. Serra came in as one of the biggest underdogs the sport has ever seen, easily one of the greatest of the UFC.  Despite this Serra came into his title fight to the Rocky theme and put GSP away for the biggest defeat of his career. Unfortunately for Serra, he has only been on a skid since then. GSP came back and pounded Serra out for a few rounds before kneeing the smaller man into oblivion. Following that, Serra fought Matt Hughes in a grudge match of two fighters who genuinely hated each other. Serra lost to Hughes soundly. This loss leaves Serra with a disappointing 9-6 record and the realization that he is severely outgunned at Welterweight. What to do next?

Frank Trigg has always been B level talent. He has managed to break his way into the UFC on a couple of occasions but never able to make a lasting impact. This has relegated him to lower level organizations to hammer out lesser talent. Trigg did assemble quite a few victories before his most recent acquisition by the UFC. He put together 4 straight wins prior to be introduced to Josh Koscheck’s fists during 103. Koscheck put Trigg away hard and early which brought on a bit of controversy about whether or not Trigg was to be cut from the UFC altogether once again – ending his bid at MMA greatness.  This bout against Serra clearly indicates Trigg’s last chance.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping

Silva is set to take on Bisping at UFC 110.  This match is interesting in how it fits into the UFC’s matchmaking schema. The UFC is well known for building fighters on an ascending arc system. They like to take a fighter and let them put together a few wins and gather momentum until they face a title shot. However, there are lots of fighters who are perpetually stuck in the middle due to their inability to break into the upper echelons of their respective division.

Bisping and Silva is essentially what happens when UFC mixed martial artists are stuck in their sport’s very own version of purgatory. However, the roads taken by these two athletes to get to this point are quite different.

Bisping won the third season of the ultimate fighter as a light heavyweight. He went ahead and peeled off a few wins against lower end UFC talent at 205 before losing an extremely close decision to fellow TUF winner Rashad Evans at UFC78. After the loss, Bisping dropped to 185 where the UFC once again hand-picked Bisping lukewarm talent to compete against. Despite this coddling, the UFC eventually had to place Bisping direclty in harm’s way against top tier talent Dan Henderson. Henderson toyed with Bisping before leveling him in the second round with a earth shattering right hand.

Bisping’s middling abilities require that he stay in the same tax bracket at the UFC, but the UFC is always protective of an extremely rare commodity in their only English star. So how is a match made at this point for Bisping? The UFC, while following this formula, is left with a crafty tactic that doesn’t always immediately become apparent. Place Bisping against name stars that are slowly going over the edge to the realm of less relevant in the quickly changing world of MMA. By having Bisping face people like Silva and Kang, it allows the UFC to continue solidifying hype for Bisping while placing him in a slightly lower risk zone.

Don’t get me wrong, Wanderlei Silva is anything but a low risk zone, but his ship has sailed and his pattern is evident. The UFC gives Bisping a fighting chance to at least come up with a solid game plan and some courtesy footage.

Wanderlei Silva has more than earned the hype behind his name in constant hard fought, fast-paced battles. He has been battle tested time and time again and until recently, Silva has passed those tests. However, in the past six outings Silva has lost five times. Other than defeating Keith Jardine last year, Silva has gone the way of the dinosaur. The UFC keeps him around cause he is a fan favorite with an exciting fighting style. Besides that, he is still a dangerous and a talented fighter – a match for anyone at the same weight. Silva’s major deficit is that he has several weaknesses that are well mapped out at this point, weaknesses that he is having a difficult time harnessing.

This match up is interesting because Bisping is very much the UFC’s boy in this fight, to protect their English interest. However, at the same time, if Silva beats  Bisping, then it was to be expected, after all Wanderlei is “The Axe Murderer.” Yet, if Bisping wins this fight he is to be hailed as a world beater within title contention.

I think Silva has everything to lose in this fight. If he does manage to get beaten by Bisping, who is considered to be middling in the talent department, it will show a definite decline in Silva’s skills. This will mean that Silva has stopped being beaten by top tier competition and is now simply being beaten.  We’ve seen it happen before with other high level UFC fighters. Dana isn’t stupid and he would be hard pressed to not see the writing on the wall regarding Silva’s career arc. Bisping is much younger, potentially marketable, and more importantly, UFC raised. He is the UFC’s swiss army knife and you can bet your bottom dollar that he will be given the most advantageous possible fights.

UFC 106 Medical Suspensions

• Forrest Griffin: Suspended until May 21 due to a right foot injury but can be cleared early by a doctor; regardless, minimum suspension until Dec. 22 with no contact during training until Dec. 13
• Anthony Johnson: Suspended until Dec. 22 with no contact until Dec. 13 for precautionary reasons
• Paulo Thiago: Suspended until Dec. 22 with no contact until Dec. 13 due to nasal-bridge cut
• Jacob Volkmann: Suspended until Dec. 6 due to scalp and nasal-brudge cuts
• Luiz Cane: Suspended until May 21 due to possible right orbital fracture but can be cleared early by an oral, maxilla and facial doctor; regardless, minimum suspension until Jan. 6 with no contact during training until Dec. 22
• Phil Baroni: Suspended until Jan. 6 with no contact until Dec. 22 due to left eyebrow and scalp lacerations
• Marcus Davis: Suspended until May 21 due to a broken nose but can be cleared early by a doctor; regardless, suspended until Jan. 6 with no conact until Dec. 22 due to multiple cuts
• Brock Larson: Suspended until May 21 due to a broken nose but can be cleared early by a doctor; regardless, suspended until Jan. 21 with no conact until Jan. 6 due to multiple cuts
• George Sotiropoulos: Suspended until Dec. 22 with no contact until Dec. 13 due to cut over left eyebrow
• Jason Dent: Suspended until May 21 due to a possible left knee injury but can be cleared early by an orthopedic doctor

Strikeforce Picks

Nov. 7th is Strikeforce’s opening event on CBS. Some good fights on this card and of course interesting drama regarding the turn out the event garners. I’m glad Strikeforce is doing the CBS contract, even above the UFC due to their attempt to take MMA a little more serious (somewhat less biased announcers, etc) in its presentation to the public. I decided to throw my hat in for this event and to name some picks. Let’s see how well I do against the likes of MMA Money Line or MMA Valor.

Main Bouts (on CBS):
-Fedor Emelianenko (30-1) vs. Brett Rogers (10-0)

Fedor controls this bout every way you look at it. The only potential edge that you can give to Rogers would be sheer strength of striking. Despite his ham-fisted approach to striking, Rogers has KOd all of his previous opponents. Even bearing this in mind, Fedor has been down this road before against more dangerous strikers without any severe detriment as a result. I expect Fedor to clinch, get an early takedown and a quick submission victory all within the first round.

-Jake Shields (23-4-1) vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller (22-6)

Shields is an excellent grappler but has a striking game that parallels Frankenstein. Despite this deficit and the fact that he will almost definitely come in lighter than Miller, Shields is still the favorite. Miller is very experienced and no slouch on the ground. He will enjoy an edge standing, but his ground game is no match for Shields’. I just don’t see Miller managing to keep this fight standing for the entirety. If Robbie Lawler couldn’t do it, then I doubt Miller will either. Shields will likely employ a submission victory within the first two rounds.
-Gegard Mousasi (26-2-1) vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (7-4)

Mousasi would have to colossally regress in all of his skills to let this fight go. Sokoudjou’s only shot at winning the fight is his quickness and strength. Bearing this in mind, Mousasi is still not in any great danger. I expect an early submission victory from the vastly superior grappler within the first round.
-Fabricio Werdum (12-4-1) vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (13-1)

This fight is proving to be one of the more interesting bouts on the card. Not due to the excitement that it promises (excitement is not too likely here), but more as a credit to seeing just how good Silva actually is. Silva is a huge HW with an impressive record against sub par opponents. His biggest victory is arguably Ricco Rodriguez, who he only managed a split decision against. Werdum has had much greater competition and success on the big stage. Silva may be a solid fighter, but I’m doubting he’s at the level of Werdum just yet. Silva’s best chance at victory is a slow, meticulous fight, controlling the pace in the top position for a decision. Don’t expect fireworks, but Werdum definitely has the chops to submit or knock out Silva. I expect Werdum to outwork Silva for a decision victory.

UFC Title Picture – WTF

So I’ve got good news for everyone. As you all know, 1920s boxer Diego Sanchez will be fighting BJ Penn in an upcoming UFC event. This is great, cause it means that we get to see two of the most exciting lightweights square off against each other. Furthermore, this is great because it’s a title fight, which seems to be an endangered species these days. While it’s questionable as to if Diego deserves this title shot or not, he is certainly in the right place at the right time to meet up with Penn. There are some other fighters who arguably have rights to meet up with Penn but due to fight scheduling and the like, Sanchez gets the nod. This will be a good fight though, so even if the title contention is lopsided, the excitement factor is there. Everyone likes seeing TUF winners go for belts too.

Moving up a weight class we have the least injured of remaining champions. Georges St. Pierre is suffering from a groin injury received during his most recent title defense against Thiago Alves. Georges’ fight was back in July and he’s had a bit of time to recover already. In order to give him ample time to fully recover and prepare himself for his next title defense (against a yet unknown opponent), don’t look to see St. Pierre in the cage until Spring at the earliest.

Next up is Anderson Silva. He’s undergone surgery very recently to remove bone spurs from his elbow. While not a major surgery, it still requires a few months of recovery and then, of course, the requisite time to train up for the next bout. Silva will likely be facing either Dan Henderson or Nate Marquardt. Vitor Belfort was the UFC’s pick to face Silva, but Vitor declined the offer, stating he was not ready yet to face Silva. Despite this, things may change in the future as different cash figures and offers are spread around. All things considered, I would not be surprised to see Silva/Belfort as TUF coaches to face off for the title at the end of the season. Either way, Henderson and Marquardt are the next legitimate contenders. Silva holds a win over both fighters, but both of them have since rallied against tough competition to look very impressive and deserving of a new shot. Once again, don’t expect to see the champ until Spring.

At 205 we have hotly disputed champion Lyoto Machida. He is coming off a razor thin, controversial decision over challenger Mauricio Shogun Rua. Shogun has already been assured of an impending rematch as soon as Machida recovers from the beating that was delivered by Shogun’s kicks. Machida’s hand is in a serious state of disrepair and will require until Spring at the earliest for him to be fight ready. Once that happens, we will have to see whether or not he’s found an answer for Shogun, who surely won’t allow him a second gift decision.

Mr. Lesnar has mono. He was pushed back to UFC 108 to face Shane Carwin due to being sick. However, just recently he has been pulled from UFC 108 upon discovering that he does in fact have mono. Mononucleosis is a sickness that can affect people for months to over a year. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this. I can’t see the UFC allowing a champ to be sidelined for an entire year, so we may see another dreaded interim belt appear in the mean time. Likely contenders for an interim belt would be Big Nog, Cain Valesquez and Junior Dos Santos. We have to play it by ear on this one and see where Lesnar and the UFC want to take it.

Quantity over Quality

The UFC and WEC conglomeration have quite a few upcoming events. This is always a good thing for fans of MMA. However, despite my happiness in being able to watch fights nearly every weekend, I’m pretty disappointed by the card quality. Here is the coming line up:

UFC 105 – November 14
WEC 44 – November 18
UFC 106 – November 21
TUF 10 Finale – December 5
UFC 107 – December 12
WEC 45 – December 19

UFC 105

Main Bouts:
-Randy Couture (16-10) vs. Brandon Vera (14-3)
-Mike Swick (14-2) vs. Dan Hardy (22-6)
-Michael Bisping (17-2) vs. Denis Kang (32-11-1)
-James Wilks (6-2) vs. Matt Brown (9-7)
-Ross Pearson (9-3) vs. Aaron Riley (28-11-1)

Preliminary Bouts:
-Terry Etim (13-2) vs. Shannon Gugerty (12-3)
-Paul Taylor (10-4-1) vs. John Hathaway (11-0)
-Matt Riddle (3-0) vs. Nick Osipczak (4-0)
-Paul Kelly (9-1) vs. Dennis Siver (14-6)
-Alexander Gustafsson (8-0) vs. Jared Hamman (10-1)
-Andre Winner (9-3-1) vs. Roli Delgado (6-4-1)

What do we have here? The main event is questionable at best. Couture is always a draw (which the UFC needs badly for this card) up against Vera, who is very hot and cold. I have not spoken to anyone in the MMA community who has expressed any interest in this fight. The UFC appears to purely be cashing in on Couture’s name by putting him against a vanilla opponent to bolster an otherwise terrible card. Swick and Hardy has the potential to be interesting, but chances are it won’t be a barn burner. Kang and Bisping is the UFC’s way to place a “name” star in Kang against their home town hero of Bisping while offering Bisping the best possibility for success. Kang is a talented fighter, but he has a greater chance of defeating himself in any match than Bisping has of taking home a decision here. The UFC brass are allowing Bisping the greatest possibility of a victory, while taking into account that he really is not that great of a fighter.

The rest of the card features a bunch of tailored made matches showcasing a local homeboy up against a random opponent of questionable quality.

WEC 44

Main Bouts (on Versus):
-Mike Brown (22-4) vs. Jose Aldo (15-1)
-Leonard Garcia (13-4) vs. Manny Gamburyan (9-4)
-Rob McCullough (17-5) vs. Karen Darabedyan (8-1)
-Danny Castillo (8-1) vs. Shane Roller (6-2)

Preliminary Bouts:
-Alex Karalexis (10-4) vs Kamal Shalorus (4-0-1)
-L.C. Davis (14-2) vs. Diego Nunes (13-0)
-John Franchi (5-1) vs. Cub Swanson (13-3)
-Antonio Banuelos (16-5) vs Kenji Osawa (15-8-2)
-Ricardo Lamas (6-1) vs. James Krause (10-1)
-Frank Gomez (7-1) vs. Seth Dikun (7-3)

We all look to the WEC to save us in times of UFC inconsistency. While this card is nothing spectacular, it certainly offers some interesting fighters and match ups. There are not too many huge names in the WEC altogether so it’s nice to see a fighter’s determination make up their fan appreciation rather than hype.

Despite all this, Mike Brown versus Jose Aldo has the potential to be one of the most exciting match ups we’ve ever seen at 145. Brown is a solid tactician with KO power and overwhelming experience. Aldo on the other hand is the fighter of the hour with outstandingly impressive stand up performances in his past few fights. If Brown chooses to stand up and brawl it out with Aldo, we’re in for a night of fireworks.

UFC 106

Main Bouts:
-Forrest Griffin (16-6) vs. Tito Ortiz (15-6-1)
-Josh Koscheck (13-4) vs. Anthony Johnson (8-2)
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (17-3) vs. Luis Cane (10-1)
-Karo Parisyan (18-5) vs. Dustin Hazelett (12-4)

Preliminary Bouts:
-Amir Sadollah (1-1) vs. Phil Baroni (13-11)
-Ben Saunders (7-1-2) vs. Marcus Davis (16-5)
-Kendall Grove (10-6) vs. Jake Rosholt (6-1)
-George Sotiropoulos (12-2) vs. Jason Dent (28-9)
-Brock Larson (29-3) vs. Brian Foster (12-4)
-Paulo Thiago (11-1) vs. Jacob Volkmann (9-0)

This UFC is by far the most exciting of the upcoming UFC cards, but by the standards we have grown used to, it is still lacking in that extra bit of polish. The undercard has a few fighters that are going to be fun to watch, opponent notwithstanding. It will be interesting to see if Kendall Grove finally gets ejected from the UFC should he lose this fight, which is probable. Baroni returns, in what could be one of the most hilarious and/or sad match ups of the year.

Griffin and Ortiz is not particularly exciting, but it does mark Ortiz’s return, which is met by mixed reactions across the board. Koscheck and Johnson is probably the most interesting match up technically and will answer a lot of questions about just how good Johnson is, which is quite handy, considering the hype he is garnering these days. Little Nog’s debut against Cane will probably be the fight of the night.  Cane has a bit of hype too, but Nog is tried and true and definitely a welcome addition to LHW in the UFC. This fight makes the card worthwhile in my opinion.

Further down the road I’ll take a look at the additional cards coming our way. However, Zuffa is making an auspicious start with the upcoming hotbed winter season in MMA. With nearly all champions riddled with injuries or other pestering issues, it will be interesting to see if the UFC can put together interesting, meaningful and exciting fights in lieu of their more recent tactics of basing events purely on name value alone.

Are the TUF dying off?

Season 9 off TUF had around 700 try outs. Now, as the UFC is hosting try outs for the upcoming season 11 of TUF, they are seeing numbers  between 200 and 300. Despite Dana White’s perplexity over the issue, perhaps TUF is finally starting to go the way of the buffalo.

Season 10 has seen dramatic ratings spikes from other recent seasons. This can almost entirely be attributed to the fact that Kimbo Slice is a current cast member. Despite this recent flare up, TUF is still a tired design that show cases less than spectacular talent in a format that is essentially MTV’s Real World with fighters gassing out and showing terrible performances against each other at the end of each episode.

I admit I still keep up with the show, but purely from the stand point of sick fascination. If the fighters themselves are becoming disinterested in showing for TUF it can only mean a few things:

– There are plenty of opportunities elsewhere. Major organizations like Strikeforce, DREAM, Sengoku, Bellator, MFC and DEEP are offering the UFC negligible challenges when it comes to viewership ratings, however, their main opposition comes in the form of stealing away potential fighters.

– The fighters themselves are wary of being portrayed in the way that TUF is known for portraying people. TUF is particularly negative in its portrayal of fighters and coaches alike. Unless you have something to give the UFC in terms of personality or amazing fighting skills, it’s likely you will be shown for your faults rather than your positive attributes. Unless it a pre-fight hype interview with Dana White, in which case every fighter is suddenly the best thing to come down the street since Anderson Silva.

– MMA as a sport may be reaching saturation point. With audiences world wide, the sport continues to grow, but there may be a finite cap at which people are willing to become fighters. MMA is very different from Football or Baseball or nearly any other sport in the sense that it requires a certain mental and physical type for people to consider being a fighter. While there will always be a new generation of martial arts purists, psychos, tough guys and aspiring fighters, there may be a point where an area has been expunged of its talent to show on TUF.

 

 

Eric Center’s Amateur Debut

For those of you who wanted to see Eric’s first fight, here is the youtube video of it. What a great fight:

A Long Row to Hoe – Jaime Jara

“Man, you can put me in there with Anderson Silva and I’ll fight it out with him. Just make sure I get paid. I’ll fight any guy out there, if you want me to fight someone without a name, I’ll do that or if you want me to fight the best pound for pound fighter there is, I’ll do that too.”

Jaime Jara doesn’t mince words about his career in mixed martial arts. There was no long tale about how he demands respect or how he is trying to achieve a long evolved goal – he just loves to fight.

Jara has been in the fight game for eight years. For a sport barely out of its infancy, eight years is an eternity. Jara recalls when he first started fighting, “Things are a lot different now. When I first got into this, we would fight 2 or 3 times a night. You had to be a tough dude to make it then. The sport is a lot different now. The rules have changed a lot since I started. The fighters are different, the required training is different. You have to want this bad to make it now.”

“If I had the choice to do it all over again, I would be right here fighting just the same. It might be different opponents and the details may be different, but I would still be fighting. I love mixed martial arts. All I want to do every day is train and fight. I’ll take any fight if it pays well enough, I want a nice house and to not have to worry about anything but training and fighting. Things were rough in the beginning. If I had a chance to start over, I would have taken up training Jiu-Jitsu a lot earlier and not just trained in a garage with my friends. Just screwing around with your friends and calling it training is a long ways from being coached. Especially with Jiu-Jitsu. In the beginning, I just said “Fuck this Jiu-Jitsu shit, I’m going to beat this guy’s face in”. As we all know, that strategy doesn’t hold up so well now. Coaches in the beginning would have helped, but even still, I have learned so much. I’m on the right track. If you get your ass beat a few times, you pick up the lesson quickly.”

Jara is rough around the edges and certainly looks the part for a cage fighter. He doesn’t care about censoring his thoughts or words and why would he? Jara has a workman attitude that he carries well. Despite the tough exterior, he has a humble air about him and a lot of pragmatic wisdom. He sincerely didn’t seem to be interested in the antics of other fighters. Every fighter I interview seems to carry the same sentiment about mixed martial arts – it’s personal. The outside influences of what other fighters are up to and who is getting paid what and for what reason aren’t an issue. All this does not seem to factor into Jara’s  motivation for stepping through the cage to fight it out.

“Why would I give a shit about what Kimbo or Lesnar are doing? Those guys had a shortcut to success, a shortcut that was never presented to me.  I can’t blame them for that. Those guys need to take care of themselves and get paid. If I was given the same shortcut, I would have taken it. I’ve just had some bad timing in my career. It really gives me hope, to see these guys getting paid like this, because it means the sport is growing and that my chance will have to come around. I couldn’t fight with PRIDE or DREAM due to having existing contracts or due to PRIDE falling apart before I could get my existing fights out of the way to do it. As long as I keep winning though, people will have to take notice, you can’t ignore success.”

The UFC would be the first to argue that it’s nearly impossible to be successful in MMA without being contracted to them. However, lots of fighters are proving that to not be the case. Affliction, PRIDE and EliteXC have paved the way for failure in MMA as an organization, but other rising orgs like Strikeforce and HDNet are displaying a new kind of fortitude that will give the UFC long term troubles. Jara is one of many fighters who agrees with this sentiment.

“The UFC doesn’t matter. I’m not going to lie and say that I wouldn’t take a fight with them if the money is right, but you don’t need to have the UFC to make it in this sport. When I was contracted to EliteXC, they were right there with the UFC at the time. Obviously they didn’t make it, but they also aren’t the only promotion out there. There are tons of possibilities. Shit, I’m not looking to fight anyone, but I’ll fight anyone. There’s no one I’m singling out, I just want to pay my bills and keep doing what I’m doing.”

Jara is 40 years old. It’s arguable that when fighters reach that age that you might not have what it takes to stay relevant in the sport. Fighters like Couture and Coleman are proving this to not be a rule and that all bets are off if you have the intestinal fortitude and strength of body to hack it. Jara is no exception, “I’ve been fighting since I was 32 and I feel like I’m in my prime right now. The sport is a lot less dangerous now than when I was fighting in the underground too. I don’t have to fight 2 fights in a night and then finish out the tournament by facing Rashad Evans. One fight a night isn’t so bad.”

Jara is currently on the shelf until December due to a bicep tendon being cut. “This already happened to my other arm, it sucks. I hyper extended my arm in training. They have to drill a hole in the bone and reattach the tendon through it. It’s not fun. I’m already in there training though, I don’t give a damn, I just don’t use that arm while I do it.” Jara may look like UFC 1’s Art Jimmerson while he trains for now, but his attitude and desire ensures that we will see him again shortly. Jara says, “I want to be in there fighting by December or January. I don’t want to wait longer than that. This injury really screwed me up because I was going to be fighting Niko Vitale for the SHINE belt, but now I have to wait out this injury before I can do anything.”

I’m excited for Jara’s return. I can’t help but root for the guys who haven’t had the easiest road through this sport. There is so much more value in fighters who have fought through a hard career. Fan appreciation is rarely behind fighters who have had silver spoons in their mouths from the start. Jara is proving that having a long row to hoe in this sport is a sure ticket for respect and toughness. When you have to make things happen for yourself, the hunger and tenacity is going to be burning bright while other fighters might give it up when times get tough. Jara might not be the youngest fighter on the street but betting against him would rarely be a wise move.

“I wouldn’t be able to do this without my sponsors, my BJJ coach and my manager. Cassio Werneck and Mike Rumsey have all my thanks for what they do for me. Look me up in December. You’ll see me fighting.”

You can find Jaime Jara on Twitter through the screen name @ELCUCUI

Special thanks to Mark Matthews (@MMAInked) for his help in the creation of this article.

There is no sacrifice

I spoke with Eric Center on the phone from a rest stop in South Dakota. When my phone rang, I was hungry and certainly felt like it was the tail end of a long day that needed to end. I didn’t really feel like talking. As the lines crossed and I heard Eric speak, I heard an impassioned voice that was full of energy and life. It was Sunday, so it’s very possible it was Eric’s day off, but I had a feeling he would sound this way at the ass end of a 6 hour training session. I offered some weak introductory information as I tried to push myself into the mood of doing an interview. Eric’s liveliness, articulation and dutiful view of the sport he participated in made me forget all my petty issues shortly after. I was talking to a true fighter.

“I come from the school of thought that men should be men.” Eric began his recounting of what existed in his physical make up that pushed him towards fighting. “Men today are emasculated. I want to pay homage to the real warriors out there, those that exist now and those that existed in the past. I want to find my place in history. With today’s society, it is likely I can’t participate as a warrior, but I want to at least know that I’m capable of being alongside them.”

Eric’s take is an interesting one. Every person I speak to about this sport has a different motivation for getting involved. With the stereotypes that exist for MMA currently, Eric should by no means want to be a cage fighter. He is college educated, has a stable career, a daughter and the rest of his life ahead of him. So why fight? “It’s not about being pro, I don’t want to rush this, I do it for me. I just want to do the best for myself. I want to progress my body and mind, I want to be the best I can be – for myself, regardless of the outcome.”

“Fighting is no sacrifice to me. I feel invigorated and full of passion towards it. I have a forty hour work week and I take classes regularly, when I go home, I don’t feel like it’s a sacrifice to do what I want with my free time.” Eric is an oddity in the sense that he is unlike most aspiring up and comers. The majority have to walk a tight rope act of managing their pay check and their hopes to become the next UFC great. Eric has plenty of commitments in his life but he never puts off the impression that he is flustered by it or it is anything different than taking your boat out to the lake after you get off work. It’s simply a pleasurable pass time, coupled with a way to improve all aspects of his being.

“I’m blessed with a good group of people in my life. I have my wonderful daughter, who makes me want to be a great example, I have my incredibly supportive co-workers who don’t mind when I come to work bruised and battered, I have my training partners at Xtreme Couture who constantly remind me that you don’t have to sacrifice kindness and humility to be a bad ass in the cage.”

Xtreme Couture is an elite training ground where some of the world’s best fighters continually hone their skills against and with each other. I was curious how Eric wound up at highly rated gym prior to even having an amateur or professional fight. “I used to think the UFC was crazy. The violence was hard for me to watch. I wasn’t terribly interested in the sport. But I was caught in a perfect storm of three things that hooked me into the sport, at the end I found myself washed up Xtreme Couture’s shore.”

“The first part of it was simply watching the UFC with my friends. They explained the moves and the tactics and I slowly evolved my knowledge from watching a brawl to really appreciating the chess match that unfolds during each fight. Through my own appreciation and studying of history and wars specifically, I really wanted to find a way to justify my station as a man in this world. This really came to a head around the time I got into watching the UFC. The third piece for me was when I used to work at Blockbuster video. A guy came in to rent some movies and a co-worker pointed him out and asked me if I knew who he was? It turned out to be Jay Hieron. I struck up a conversation with him and we started talking about fighting more and more as he came in.”

“Jay inspired me. He came by Blockbuster just to show me a belt that he had won in an organization in Hawaii. He completely shattered the stereotype of a fighter for me. I was inspired by him to start training and so I went to Xtreme Couture.”

Eric’s introduction into the sport speaks of a couple of elements at play in MMA that are completely glazed over by the presentation of the sport to the public. The desire to fight is an internal one guided by a stable existence and a realization that you don’t have to become a fighter who curses like a sailor, talks trash and is fueled by a need to take their rage out on whoever is unlucky enough to stand in the cage with them.

“Xtreme Couture is a community. Many great fighters like Gray Maynard and Martin Kampmann go out of their way to say hi to you and to make you feel welcomed. Once people realized I was there to take the sport seriously, I was brought in to the fold. Everyone shows each other a huge amount of support. I don’t know about the other guys, but there is nothing I love more than watching the progression of skill and seeing the fruits of determination and hard work. That’s whether it is in myself or other fighters training alongside me.”

Eric and I eventually did get off of our boasting the sport to one another. Once we did, we started speaking about the brass tax of where he is at in his career. Eric recently had his first amateur fight with the Tuff-N-Uff organization. Tuff-N-Uff is an amateur organization that features perks, paydays and fighter treatment better than most small scale professional organizations. “I was excited. All my nerves faded into excitement. I was so happy to be a part of an organization that has such great fighter quality. My personal scale was busted and so I wound up coming in about 10 lbs under while my opponent was cutting a bit of weight. The fight was a great learning experience for these reasons. It taught me to definitely take fights at 145 in the future.” Eric began detailing his fight with great enthusiasm, “We had a battle. I almost KO’d the guy in the first round and he turned around and almost KO’d me with a slam. The fight had everything – there was great stand up,  muay thai and we threw some ground work in too. I feel blessed to have fought such a tough guy. It was great! I can’t wait for my next fight, which I’m trying to do in November.”

Through my conversation with Eric I quickly came to the conclusion that, if based on his attitude alone, he will be going places in this sport. He has a humble perspective that I find to be very appropriate to the sport. Eric solidified the image of “a fighter”. The picture I have painted in my head is one of pragmatism, intelligence and driven by a goal of self-actualization. Beyond that, it’s hard to think of Eric as being motivated by violence. To exemplify this, towards the end of our conversation I asked Eric about his favorite book and he responded with a laugh. “Harry Potter. I’m the only MMA fighter out there who caught the last movie on premier night at midnight, by himself. ”

You can catch up with Eric on Twitter by searching for @VegasMMAWarrior