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Ross Pearson: Grounded For Life
A chance meeting with UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar provided Sunderland scrapper Ross 'The Real Deal' Pearson with all the answers he was looking for. Over the course of seven days, Pearson quickly realized Edgar would be too strong for BJ Penn in their return match and also discovered just what it takes to reach and remain at the top of the lightweight pile.
“I recently visited Frankie's camp in New York and had the chance to train and wrestle with him and his Rutgers wrestling team,” says Pearson. “I learned so much from those guys in seven days. The stuff I've picked up has improved my game so much and also given me an insight into just how talented and hard-working the current UFC lightweight champ is.
“I wasn't working too much on taking guys down, but I was learning how to keep things on my feet and deal with a wrestler who wants to take me down. It was a tremendous experience, as Edgar is one of the best wrestlers in the UFC, and the kind of fighter I wouldn't be able to work with back home in Britain. Frankie and his wrestling team were teaching me simple little things which, I think, may make the world of difference in my next fight.”
Champion Edgar impressively defeated Penn to retain his lightweight belt two weeks ago in Boston. The New Jersey battler shut down Penn's attack and bettered the talented Hawaiian in every area of the fight. Pearson, of course, saw it all coming.
“I really believed in Edgar going into that fight,” explains Pearson. “Once you watch the guy train and see how well-rounded and disciplined is, it's hard not to back him in any fight. It's going to take a very special fighter to get the better of him right now. The more he wins and improves, the tougher it's going to be for the other lightweights out there.”
Though far too modest to admit it, Pearson is one of the 'other' lightweights he refers to and someone tipped to one day vault his way to the top of the 155-pound pile. A winner of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season nine, Pearson has since defeated Aaron Riley and Dennis Siver in back-to-back fights and, at 25 years of age, has plenty of room for growth in Edgar's weight class.
The heavy-handed Brit cut through veteran Riley in one of the more impressive UFC debuts of recent years, and also handed German Siver his only defeat in his last six fights. However, despite beating a man rarely budged inside the Octagon, Pearson was left wanting more that night in March.
“Hats off to Dennis Siver,” recalls Pearson. “He was a tricky and skillful opponent and was a world champion kickboxer. He knew what he was doing in there and he gave me a decent test over three rounds. He had been in there with some good guys before. I just think I was able to make Siver work at a range he didn't like to work at, and it paid off. That meant I was catching him when he didn't expect me to, and I was taking him out of his own range and game plan.
“I was happy with the way I executed the game plan, and pleased I got the win, but I was also disappointed I wasn't able to finish the fight. You always look to finish fights in the UFC, and it was a shame I couldn't have put the cherry on the cake.”
Currently 13-3 in his flourishing mixed martial arts career, Pearson counts the victory over Siver as his best result to date, yet believes he performed to his best last November against Riley. Mixing up kicks and punches with vicious knees in the clinch, Pearson unleashed his full repertoire on Riley last year, endearing him to both the fans in attendance and those watching at home. Pearson was relentless and enthralling from the get-go and Riley, a durable trier capable of extending and beating prospects, simply had no answer.
“I think the Siver win was the best of my career so far, in terms of the reputation of the opponent and the risk factor, but, as far as performances go, I don't feel it was my best performance,” admits Pearson. “I comfortably beat Siver, but I didn't feel like I fully dominated him how I wanted to. I think I performed better against Aaron Riley (in my UFC debut), to be honest, as I dominated him from start to finish and forced the end of the fight. That was me at my best – but there's still plenty more to come.
“Dana White always says that when a fighter feels like the Octagon is his home, it makes him a dangerous man. Well, I'm starting to feel like the Octagon is my home right now and I'm feeling more and more confident with each and every fight.
While Pearson can argue the merits of his opening two Octagon victories, he can take pride in boasting an unblemished UFC slate and a reputation as one of England's most promising mixed martial artists. Such was the ease at which he cut through Riley and Siver, Pearson has now been handed a substantial step up in class for UFC bout number three. Scheduled to appear at UFC Fight Night on September 15, Pearson lines up against Cole Miller, an angular and talented submission artist possessing long enough limbs to trouble Ross in all areas of the fight.
“When I first heard about Cole as an opponent, I was just excited and eager to get the training camp started, but then when we got the video tapes of Cole's fights, I realized just what an awkward and tricky opponent he is,” reveals Pearson. “A lot of hard work has gone into this fight, basically to keep the fight where I want the fight. If I can keep this fight where I want it to take place, then Cole is going to be in whole lot of trouble.
“I don't think he's fought anybody as technical or seasoned in the stand-up as me. I don't think he will have seen the kind of punches and kicks I'll be throwing his way before. The pressure, the explosiveness and the power that I'm bringing is going to be too much for him on the night. ”
So where should Pearson choose to take the fight? Armed with tight, accurate and powerful boxing skills, Pearson is ferocious at close range and in clinches, and possesses the kind of takedown defense that other British fighters have struggled to locate at times of need. Miller, on the other hand, has been stopped by punchers in previous defeats, yet remains incredibly dangerous in any impending ground battle.
“The type of strikers that have beaten Cole previously aren't really the type of strikers I am,” warns Ross. “I feel I'm a level above those guys and am more comfortable with my boxing than they are. If I can keep the fight where I want it, and keep it all in my range, then I really don't see Cole causing me too much of a problem. I'm not underestimating or bad mouthing him in any way, as I truly respect his skills, but I'm very confident of getting this win. I know fully well that Cole is very dangerous in the positions he wants to be in and, if I mess up at any stage, he is more than good enough to capitalize on my errors.”
Wins over Riley and Siver have jump started the Pearson hype train, and yet the fighter himself admits he's still to be tested in any ground confrontation. So far able to retain a standing stance and strike – with both Riley and Siver willing partners – the Sunderland native relishes the idea of testing a new dimension of his game against floor specialist Miller.
“He's definitely one of the best grapplers I've fought, but I also train with some amazing grapplers,” says Pearson. “I'm not saying they are as good as Cole, but they are really high-level grapplers and know what they're doing. Fighting and training are two very different things, of course, but we're working together on a daily basis and I'm now becoming familiar with certain positions and situations on the ground. It's all feeling very natural right now. My ground game is getting better all the time.
“Cole will test me as a mixed martial artist and will act as a good gauge of where I'm at right now in the sport. I'm not just going in there with another guy that wants to stand and bang. I'm facing a guy who wants to do the complete opposite to what I do, and that's both challenging and exciting. Cole is able to stand and punch, take you down, jump clinch, jump guard and lock in submissions. He's a very versatile fighter, and I'm going to have to be on my toes at all times. This fight is going to make me step up to that next level and show people just how good my MMA skills are. This will bring out the very best in me.”
Here's where Edgar enters the scene. Having watched New Jersey's finest rise to the precipice of the lightweight division through a combination of hard graft and top wrestling, Pearson has learned to relax and perfect the aspects of the game that come naturally to him.
“Believe it or not, I'm not too fussed about Brazilian jiu-jitsu, simply because I'm not a BJJ type of fighter,” explains Pearson. “If I can control a guy and defend submissions, then I'll eventually get the fight where I want it to go. I'm happier doing that than trying to force something that just doesn't come naturally to me.
“It's not as if I'm not training any jiu-jitsu, but I'm focusing more on my wrestling and my ability to control Cole and get the fight into my territory. Why should I try and beat Cole at jiu-jitsu, when that's his best asset? Cole has been training jiu-jitsu for years and it would be foolish to even try and compete at his own game. It would be silly of me to put myself in that situation. I'm doing everything I can to improve my jiu-jitsu, but it's never going to match up to the level that Cole is at right now. I'll probably never be as good as Cole Miller at jiu-jitsu in ten years. In a pure jiu-jitsu battle, he'd beat me hands down. That's just something you have to deal with and work around, and that's what I've done.”
Refreshingly honest and grounded in his approach, Pearson speaks and thinks like a fan. After all, that's precisely what he once was, years before the dream of winning The Ultimate Fighter came to fruition.
“I'm a massive fan of the sport, as well as a fighter, and I'm keen to see how my skills will match up against someone like Cole Miller,” beams Pearson. “If I wasn't fighting, I'd be at home watching, as intrigued as everyone else to see who comes out on top. This is a great match-up and a great blend of styles, and I'm excited by the challenge ahead.
“Cole has been in there against some good guys and has never been blown away of disgraced. He might not win every fight, but Cole is always in there fighting and looking to win. He never goes in there just to survive or get out as quickly as he can. I know I'm in for a war with him. These are the kind of guys that I want to fight. I want to fight guys that come at me and challenge me. Even though Cole wants the fight in his area, I've got no doubt he'll be looking to make a fight of it. I can see this fight being very fast-paced and exciting for as long as it lasts.”
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What Made Nate Great?
W2 Shonie Carter – September 24, 2000 – Pancrase 2000 Anniversary Show
Marquardt turned pro in April of 1999, three days before his 20th birthday, and by the end of that year, he was 6-1 and fighting in Japan. It was a whirlwind ride for the youngster, who made an international statement on September 24, 2000 by defeating Kiuma Kunioku and Shonie Carter on the same night to become the first middleweight King of Pancrase. As Marquardt told me back before his 2001 bout against Gil Castillo, “It was pretty unbelievable. Actually it was kind of shocking because it was something that I had only dreamed about when I was younger, watching older fighters like Funaki and Shamrock. It was pretty unbelievable, and it took a few months for it to actually set in that I had won such a big title.”
L5 Gil Castillo – July 18, 2001 – IFC Warriors Challenge 14
Following his win over Carter for the King of Pancrase title, Marquardt fought three more times in Japan before what he hoped to be a triumphant homecoming against unbeaten grappling ace Gil Castillo. It wasn’t meant to be, as Castillo earned a five round split decision win, but it was a memorable battle between two of the best in the world at the time, and reminded US fans that Marquardt was going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future. As for Castillo, the win propelled him into the UFC, where he fought for the middleweight (against Dave Menne) and welterweight (against Matt Hughes) titles. As for Marquardt, it was back to Japan.
W3 Dean Lister – January 25, 2007 – Ultimate Fight Night 8
After the loss to Castillo, Marquardt continued to ply his trade in the Land of the Rising Sun, returning to fight in the States only once over the next four years, a first round win over Steve Gomm in a 2003 IFC match. In Pancrase, he certified himself as a star, with wins over the likes of future PRIDE standout Kazuo Misaki (twice). But following his May 2005 victory over Izuru Takeuchi, Marquardt vacated the King of Pancrase crown and made his long-awaited signing with the UFC. He won his first three Octagon bouts over Ivan Salaverry, Joe Doerksen, and Crafton Wallace, but didn’t really set the world on fire. His win over Dean Lister did the trick though, as he scored a lopsided victory over the jiu-jitsu wizard that saw him hurt and drop his opponent numerous times throughout the three round scrap. And now with a perfect 4-0 Octagon record, his next fight would be for the title.
TKO by 1 Anderson Silva – July 7, 2007 – UFC 73
By the time Marquardt stepped into the Octagon to face Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title, “The Spider” had wrecked Chris Leben in 49 seconds, did a similar smash-up job on Rich Franklin, and submitted a Jiu-Jitsu black belt in Travis Lutter. Marquardt, who had been around the MMA block more than once, bought into what everyone was saying about the champion, and ten seconds before the end of the first round, he was stopped and sent back to the drawing board. “I started to believe what everyone was saying about how dangerous he was and what a good standup fighter he was,” he told me after the fight. “Looking back, I let everyone’s perception of the fight kinda change my view of the fight as well. I should have just gone out there and fought my fight. I started out that way, and through the fight it kinda changed. To be honest, I believe I’m a better standup fighter than he is and I believe I’m more dangerous than him, and I should have kept that frame of mind the whole fight. And all of a sudden he caught me with a shot right at the end of the round, and instead of attacking I went into defending mode.”
TKO3 Wilson Gouveia – February 21, 2009 – UFC 95
Slowly, but surely, Marquardt fought his way back into the middleweight title picture, submitting Jeremy Horn and stopping Martin Kampmann, with only a controversial decision loss to Thales Leites marring his run. But it was in his third round stoppage of Wilson Gouveia at UFC 95 that the MMA world started to think, ‘hey, I wouldn’t mind seeing Silva-Marquardt II.” And the reason for those sentiments came primarily from Marquardt’s finish of Gouveia, which encompassed a dizzying array of striking techniques that looked like they came straight out of a video game. It was a “new” Nate Marquardt, but as he explained, his in the Octagon mean streak was always there, it just needed a little prodding to make itself seen again. “I think I’ve always had that mean streak in me, and I kinda lost it there for a little while just because certain things changed in the way I was fighting,” he said. “Then the loss to Anderson (Silva) gave me it back.”
KO1 Demian Maia – August 29, 2009 – UFC 102
If the stoppages of Kampmann and Gouveia made people sit up and take notice when it came to Marquardt’s worthiness for a return bout with Anderson Silva, his 21 second blitz of Demian Maia got people stomping their feet for “Nate the Great” to get a rematch. And again, it wasn’t just Marquardt’s physical gifts earning him spectacular victories, it was his renewed mental approach to the game. “It is a sport, but it’s also a fight,” he said. “It’s not a game. You’re out there and you can really get hurt. You could be winning the fight, but at any moment, if you make the wrong move, you can get knocked out or choked out, and vice versa. It doesn’t matter how you’re doing, you’re in there to fight and to finish the guy. For a while, I was looking at it as more of a sport.”
Not anymore though. And even with his subsequent decision loss to Chael Sonnen at UFC 109, his punishing performance and near-finish of Sonnen late made it clear that he is still one of the top middleweights on the planet. All he needs now is a win over Palhares this month, and he’ll be knocking on that door for a title shot once again.
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Steve Lopez, Take Two
Steve Lopez’s left arm felt like a piece of saltwater taffy. Sitting backstage at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the UFC’s newest lightweight silently suffered while doctors worked to find the best angle for repairing his dislocated shoulder. The first try didn’t take, so they gave it another shot, stretching and pulling the limb in every direction. A few more twists and it finally clicked back into place.
But then, pop! It freed itself from the socket all over again.
“They had to do it a few times before it finally stuck,” says Lopez, who can still recount the incident as if it happened yesterday.
Anyone who witnessed the accident – the result of a seemingly standard left jab – might not have realized the extent of the damage. Lopez immediately conceded in the opening of the second round, but it couldn’t have been that bad. He’d been down this path before; the shoulder was a recurring problem. He even eschewed immediate medical attention to watch opponent Jim Miller have his hand raised in victory.
In truth, the pain was agonizing. “It took everything I had to suck it up and tell myself to deal with things later in the back room,” he says. “I had to keep my game face on – what am I going to do, cry in front of the cameras?”
Tough as nails, he survived the physical pain. More distressing was the mental anguish of dropping his first big fight. An Indiana native who quickly built a 12-1 record in local shows, the 26-year-old had higher hopes for his Octagon debut. He would have even settled for a loss if it had come in any other form.
“Taking the fight on short notice, all I wanted to do was put on a great show,” says Lopez. “I look at it as the Chris Lytle approach – if I could treat it like a brawl and walk away with a Fight of the Night bonus, a win doesn’t necessarily matter. But when a fight ends because of a fluke, it’s another kind of disappointment. I don’t even know what I can take away from it because it’s not like someone grabbed my arm and caused the damage – it happened because I threw a punch. It was my own unintentional undoing.”
Before you assume that his shoulder is now the Achilles’ heel in his game, Lopez warns that surgery and a one-year hiatus have pretty much rendered it a non-issue.
“If I learned one thing about training, it’s to take your injuries seriously,” says Lopez. “The reason things went the way they did in my last fight is probably because I didn’t do the proper rehab on it the first time around. This time I worked with some of the best surgeons and now everything is great.”
With that, Lopez is looking redeem himself on September 25 when he faces Waylon Lowe at UFC 119.
Lowe (also 0-1 in the UFC) will also look to bounce back from a loss – his to The Ultimate Fighter 2 veteran Melvin Guillard at UFC 114. Despite being knocked out with a knee in the first round, the Philly-based fighter still brings eight previous wins in his overall career. The most recent was a first-round KO only five months old.
Lopez isn’t impressed. “He’s a really tough wrestler but I think he’s a little one-dimensional,” he says. “One of the big reasons this is a good match is because we’re both just starting out and coming off of a loss. Otherwise I think I know what type of fighter he is. And even if I’m wrong, I’m ready for anything.”
That level of confidence is largely due to his new training camp, Xtreme Couture. Lopez made the move to Las Vegas in June and says that the opportunity to train with such high-caliber lightweights (the list includes UFC stalwarts Gray Maynard and Tyson Griffin, as well as newcomer Evan Dunham) has helped his game tremendously.
He’s quick to add that he parted ways with his old gym, Midwest Martial Arts, on amicable terms. “We had tough guys at 135 and 185, but that left no one for me to work out with,” he says. “It was all about finding the toughest guys in my weight class, and Couture’s got ‘em.”
Even if his new crew has helped bring him up a level, Lopez knows that he’ll have a hard time proving this to fans. His biggest regret at UFC 103 was not making more of an effort to showcase what was in his arsenal.
“Because of what happened, I didn’t have a chance to go for takedowns or show off any formal technique,” he says. “And I’m not sure if I even wanted to because I wanted to brawl. I don’t really talk about my plan of attack in advance, but I will say that this time you can expect to see some real skill and strategy being executed.”
With the fight being hosted at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, Lopez will also have the home advantage on his side. He’ll have come a long way from time he first tuned into UFC 1 in his living room in South Bend, and he says, “It will mean a lot to have my friends and family see me at a live event there.”
Healthy, happy, and fighting in front of a home crowd, the stage is set for Lopez to do things right this time. An impressive win can potentially excuse his last loss – a chance that many fighters aren’t afforded. But even if it doesn’t, he hopes that you share the same positive take that he does.
If anyone shapes his or her opinion of Lopez based on the Miller fight, he says, “the impression shouldn’t be that I lost, but that I have a high pain tolerance and am always game for any opponent.”
Kind of like his shoulder, just give him another chance to stick.
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From The Mouth of Mir
On his motorcycle accident
“Because it was a clean break, I was told that I could come back and still play ‘full contact sports’ – as the doctor said it. I don’t think he realized the extent of it. (Laughs) But he got the point that I needed to be able to take a really hard shot from really crazy and stupid angles. That was what I asked him. ‘It’s not really normal angles that I’m gonna be getting hit at – it’s really crazy, tweaky angles, something really weird.’ He said, ‘well, as long as it wouldn’t have broken under normal conditions, it should be fine now.’ Basically, what the muscle side saved me from is that my leg would have shattered, broke in several pieces, and then they would have to piece it back together. There would be no chance in hell that I’d ever be able to take a shot there again. The fact that it was a clean break and they were able to put a rod right in between the bone saved it.”
On his motorcycle accident II
“It made me an old man. It gave me a taste of what it’s like to be older. You go back and forth, and some days are better than others. I think anybody who’s had a major accident or major injury realizes that one day you’re full of hope and the next day you’re like ‘this sucks, this is too long of a road, I’m depressed.’ But you have to sit there and go, ‘people have got it a lot worse than you do and they don’t snivel half as bad. Chill out.’ Everybody does that - they feel sorry for themselves at one moment or another and then you just have to catch yourself. I was watching the Science Channel and they were talking about a guy who got his arm blown off. He’s got a mechanical arm now and he’s just happy that he can lift up his baby and hold her. I’m sitting there looking at this guy and going ‘wow, and I’m depressed that I’ve got a metal rod in my leg? What the hell is my problem? I’d be embarrassed if this guy ever heard me talking.’”
Skill is everything
“When I got hit by the car and I realized how frail my body really is – and I’m a strong human being – it just reaffirmed the fact that skill is everything. I’m not always going to be able to jump this high or run this fast – how am I going to be able to beat people if I don’t have this? If I’m weaker, if I’m tinier? Let’s say I go into a fight and I only have one hand – now what am I gonna do? So all it did was show me a glimpse of the future – you’re 25 now, but you’re not always gonna be, so what are you gonna do when we take this away from you? And it was taken away from me. ”
The power of the mind
“I see guys push their strength and push the physical side of their bodies and I look at them and say, ‘that’s not why we’re on top of the food chain.’ They’re like ‘what do you mean?’ An orangutan can rip your head off. You can get (noted strongman) Bill Kazmaier, and a 150-pound orangutan is gonna throw him around the gym. So all that strength and all that training, what good did it do? So why not accentuate what makes humans so dangerous? Your mind. I actually just pushed my mind a step further where it kinda shot my skill level through the ceiling. I was like, ‘you know what? It’s all about skill.’ I don’t care what anybody wants to tell me about being bigger, stronger, faster. You could have cardio that can last three days – if I choke you out in 30 seconds it doesn’t matter how long your cardio lasts.”
The Return
“Everybody asks, ‘can you make it back?’” After a while, I realized that as long as I can pass what the doctors consider physically enough to compete, that’s all I need my body to be to perform and to beat people, because the thing that they’re all missing is that they’re just trying to be bigger, stronger, faster. And that’s not a good thing to have in your confidence because when you walk in the ring and you’re about to fight a human being - I’ve done it, so I know what they’re thinking and what I’m thinking - you have to have something you have pure confidence in. I don’t think size, strength, and power can do that. What if you’re fighting a guy who’s bigger than you, stronger than you? What if you don’t feel that strong that day? What’s your confidence gonna derive from now? I know that my mind gives me the ability to go ‘well, I’ll figure it out.’ So when I walk into the ring, I don’t care what you put in front of me because I know that I’m gonna figure it out.”
On Winning Fights
“I don’t care how I win the fight. I think sometimes a lot of young fighters get stuck in that thing where they say ‘I want to be considered a stand-up guy, so I’ll knock you out,’ or ‘I want to be considered a submission artist so I have to get the armbar or the choke,’ or ‘I have to get the ground and pound and show that I’m a superior takedown artist.’ I don’t care. I’ve heard fighters go, ‘well, I got knocked out, but I stood here and I took it.’ I would look over at my wife, look at the ring and I’m like ‘did that guy just say that he lost, but he lost like a man?’ What the hell does that mean? I don’t understand that because it’s all warfare, and I just want to win. I’m not gonna go outside the rules; I’m still gonna be an honorable human being and say ‘these are the ground rules we settled upon. Anything within those ground rules, I’m gonna use.’ I’m not gonna go ahead and prove a point in the face of defeat, because all people remember a week later is, ‘man, did you get knocked out heroically.’ I remember when I knocked out Wes Sims, everybody was like ‘well, you couldn’t submit him.’ I really didn’t care. I was more like, ‘damn, I can’t submit this guy.’ I went after him with whatever I thought was best; I was in the middle of the ring, I looked up at the clock and said, ‘I’d better adapt. I can’t beat this guy this way.’”
Getting Subs like Tyson got Knockouts
“Guys line up, they want to feel each other out. They get their range, they get their distance. I don’t really understand that. It’s still fighting. How are we gonna feel each other out? You’d better be doing that when you’re looking me in the eyes and we’re walking towards each other. As the battle engages you have to think and move on your feet. As an example, in boxing, guys go out there and they start throwing the jab and move around, and in the first two minutes, nothing’s really happening. I think that’s ridiculous. And the minute I engage and we’re within hand distance, I’m thinking about finishing you because the only way I can secure my own safety is if you’re unconscious on the ground. That’s just my mentality about it. The reason I think that I end up thrashing a lot of guys so soon is that most guys, when they start a fight off, they’re still getting over their fear. They want to almost feel you to feel that it’s okay that they’re in the fight. Once they get past that, now they can fight and they get rid of their jitters. I don’t have those jitters when I first start out. I go in there and boom, I’m trying to rip your head off. It’s not an anger thing, I’m just more of a surgeon. I’m not going to sit here and tap at the cancer, look around at it and feel it, talk to the nurse and get a cup of coffee. I’m here to do something, so let’s get it done. They haven’t conquered their fear. They’re physical fighters and not mental fighters, so they have to get in there and you have to put them in a fight before they react. You have to almost fight them to get them into a fight zone. But if you let me get the first move off on you, action beats reaction. If you let me start on you, and you’re waiting to get into that zone, that killer freak mode, the fight’s over with and they’ve raised my hand before you’ve realized it.”
Comparing his fight against Tank Abbott to the first bout against Brock Lesnar
“Yeah, I see a lot of parallels. It’s a new guy coming in who’s hyped up and who is expected to do well for the UFC, and I’m put in front of him as a test. But it doesn’t seem to work out that well for the newcomer.”
Getting back to championship level
“I guess like anything else, there are highs and lows. But your family and friends get you through the low points, and you just ride it out. You keep pushing forward no matter how discouraging it can be.”
On being the underdog
“I think it’s easier to be an underdog because whenever you’re already expected to win even before you go in there, that puts undue pressure on yourself, whereas when no one is expecting anything of you, you can kinda just relax and perform.”
Changing his game
“I think the difference is now that I’ve accomplished enough to know that I have other tools. If you survive that first submission attempt that’s not all there is. I think in the past, once that was stopped, it was like ‘well, that was my Sunday punch; I’m still here, you’re still here – now what do we do?’ (Laughs) Now I work on having a lot more tools, so I can say ‘Plan A didn’t work, Plan B is working, Plan C may work, let’s go back to Plan A if he’s loosened up enough to try that maneuver again,’ and I’m looking for the finish the whole time.”
On the first Lesnar bout
“Constant motion was key to not having the fight stopped. I was not winning that fight in the first minute and 20 seconds. I thought he was gonna stand up with me,” said Mir. “I figured as big and strong as he was, he wasn’t gonna take me down and that he gonna try to land bombs. When he took me down, his shots were strong from inside the guard, but after he hit me with a couple of shots, I didn’t want to tie him up and wear myself out too much because he was so strong. So something just clicked in my head – let him swing and I’m gonna move my head around and let him miss shots. A couple of shots landed – he has some strong ground and pound.”
On finishing Lesnar
“The kneebar wasn’t the greatest and he started to slip out of it, but if you’re a black belt in jiu-jitsu and a good athlete, you could make up for things. It wasn’t a textbook finish, I wish it was, but I ended up doing things 80 percent right, and it was me just saying ‘I don’t want to get elbowed again.’”
His return to the title picture
“I feel like I’ve earned it more. In the fights in the past I didn’t train well for them, so even in victory, sometimes you’d see me and I wasn’t elated. I didn’t deserve to win. I caught somebody like Tim Sylvia, and you could see in my face after the fight that I knew I hadn’t earned it. And it’s not because of what I did in the ring, but it’s what I did outside the ring. Now after this fight, whether I win or lose, you’ll see me smile because I know that I earned the right to be there because of all the time and effort I put into it. That’s what I’m proud about. Anybody can go and win a fight. One lucky punch and it’s your night - that doesn’t mean you deserved it. That doesn’t mean you put in the hard work and earned it. Win or lose, you earn it outside the ring.”
Coaching on The Ultimate Fighter
“I learned more from them than they probably learned from me. They have so many different approaches to the game that I learned about the human mind. I can only dissect myself so many different times. I have eight different points of view now, so how could it not multiply immensely?”
On bulking up post-Lesnar II
“We all have our opinions and pre-conceived notions of how something should work based on past success or through learning from other individuals. And then when you walk into it, if you fail, you have to be intelligent enough to sit there and say ‘why did I fail?’ I think that any time you sit there and stick to your guns, going ‘well, on that night, this is what happened and it had nothing to do with something else,” that’s silly. I had to acknowledge that Brock’s size gave him an advantage that really nullified a lot of my technique. He didn’t have to have my level of technique, just a moderate amount, and then having good basics, along with his size, led him to be successful. So I have to learn from that and improve. There’s nothing shameful about it, it’s just one of those things where that’s part of being a scientist – you have a hypothesis, a theory, and you go out there and try it out. You stop being a scientist when you just start doing the same things over and over again and just try to find different ways of justifying why it’s not working. You can’t just keep being in denial.”
On his fighting philosophy
“I’m more of a ‘get you out fast’ fighter. I like a quick sprint and I don’t like to stretch things out stylistically. I’ve always been bored with the take you down, ground and pound and wrestle you to death and win a decision on points type of matchup. And secondly, I think if I was to go in there, hesitate, and try to purposely see if the fight went longer, I think that only leaves him opportunities to catch me making a mistake. I have the mindset to go out there and the first mistake he makes I will try to take him out of there. But in the back of my mind, I’m not gonna be as worried with the fight going the distance as I would be with other fighters who have been there quite a few more times.”
On his career
“I think my career’s been a pretty interesting one as far as some really good highs and some really good lows, and it really hasn’t been a consistent increase in any one direction. I’ve been at it long enough that on a long enough time curve, anything in life will have its ups and downs. But as long as you keep bouncing back and going forward, you’ll have those high moments in contrast to the low ones. The reason why my life is different than someone’s in the same situation is that I never stopped trying to move forward. It’s not that I’ve got anything different going for me than anybody else. I think we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and I’m not inhuman. I obviously have my shortcomings like anybody else; I just don’t give up. I just keep looking for a way to succeed, regardless of whether I do or not. That’s not a guarantee for success, but the only way you guarantee failure is by giving up.”
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Rich Attonito - The Bull Rages On
We’ve heard the tale time and again. A fresh face joins the UFC ranks touting serious wrestling credentials – All-American! D1 champion! Team captain! – and buzz immediately ensues. Be it Cain and Kos, or Jon Fitch and Jon Jones, one’s performance on the mats almost always clues us into his potential in the cage.
Rich Attonito is the anomaly.
Despite being a former Division I wrestler at Hofstra University, the 33-year-old New Jersey native is something of a late bloomer in the world of competitive sports.
“I have to admit that during my athletic career in high school and college, I never had a chance to achieve the goals I’d set for myself,” he says. “I would always be one win short of a tournament, or one more match away from state quarterfinals. There was always a sense of never quite making it.”
It’s not as if Attonito takes pride in these non-accomplishments, but he also doesn’t shy away from them. He’s a silver lining type of guy. Disappointments in his youth – and learning to cope with them – have only served him well as an adult. He says they were especially helpful in maintaining mental clarity during his time on The Ultimate Fighter.
“I was the oldest one in the house, and while I’m not by any means the most mature person, I think my age was one of the reasons I was able to stay focused rather than get caught up in how much some stuff sucked,” he says. “Having a little more life experience in general allowed me to keep my wits about me in a situation where there are so many unknown factors.”
The worst unknown factor was a broken hand that halted his run to the quarterfinals. Even in victory (opponent Kyacey Uscola was DQed for illegal knees), the Team Liddell member had once again come up short and was sidelined for the remainder of the show. It was a twist that could have tested anyone’s sanity.
“At one point during college I was injured and needed elbow surgery,” he recalls. “It put an end to wrestling during my senior year and my entire athletic career was basically over. It felt like the end of the world. But because I survived it, this time I was able to say to myself, ‘Okay, this is just a bump in the road. You’ve been down it before. Now you have to just pull over to the side and get it fixed.’ A younger or less experienced version of me might have harder time managing those emotions.”
Staying positive paid off. After the show wrapped and the hand healed, Attonito was given a chance to face the much-maligned Jamie Yager at June’s Ultimate Finale. His official UFC debut may not have ended with the coveted prize (that honor that went to Court McGee), but a second-round TKO was reward enough.
“I was a little surprised at how difficult it was to get his timing and take him down,” he says. “I thought I’d put him on the ground, grind him out, and either TKO him there or submit him, but I ended up using my boxing. I think it goes to show why I’m not the type to have any predetermined expectations for a fight – except for winning.”
With the victory, Attonito will never again have to long for the missed opportunities of his past.
“Being depressed or bothered by that feeling of always being one step away… this changes all of that. Ever since I started training, my long-term ultimate goal was to fight five times in smaller shows – you know, give myself a chance to compete – and then win a single fight in the UFC. Now I’ve experienced the feeling of accomplishing something. It’s incredible to reach a point where I get to re-evaluate everything and come up with a whole new set of short and long-term goals.”
With those new objectives in mind, Attonito, 8-3 (1-0 in the UFC), will push toward the next yard line on September 15 when he faces Rafael Natal at UFC Fight Night in Austin, Texas.
Natal, who’ll be making his Octagon debut, will bring a 12-2 record that his opponent has studied well.
“This is going to be a classic wrestler versus BJJ practitioner matchup,” says Attonito. “And yet it can still go anywhere. Sometimes you get two guys who can cancel each other out in grappling, and that leaves no choice but to see who’s better at the other things. Natal’s got a lot to offer – he’s got the jiu-jitsu skills, he likes to strike, he’s got a judo base – and I’m one hundred percent confident in my boxing, so it’s going to be exciting because we can go at it in every aspect.”
Although it’s been less than three months since his last appearance, Attonito – who trains out of Florida’s American Top Team – says fans should expect to see a marked improvement in his game.
“I’ve brought myself up a couple of levels in terms of certain skills,” he says. “When you take your next fight right away it’s great because everyone is here to help fine tune little details you may not have been paying attention to during the last one. For instance, I feel like in six weeks I’ve made more improvements to my jiu-jitsu game than I have in six months.”
With the middleweight prospect finally hitting his stride, he expects that the future will bring true justice to his nickname, the Raging Bull.
“I’m 33 and not 23,” says Attonito. “Even though I’m in my prime, I don’t want to wait too long. It’s time to roll with this – I’ve got a path to blaze.”
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