Issue 052

July 2009

Every fighter expects to pick up a few cuts, bruises and bumps, but the injuries WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner sustained during his most recent title defense read like a shopping list of pain. On the road to recovery, Varner is focused on one thing: vengeance.  

Pyrrhic victory: a victory with devastating cost to the winner. 

A mere six months after Jamie ‘C-4’ Varner entered the WEC, the explosive youngster sent shockwaves through the lightweight division as he out-worked and out-hustled resident champion Rob McCullough, pounding the kickboxing specialist to claim an impressive win. After a quick defense of his newly claimed championship, Varner faced the toughest challenge of his career when he fought Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. An incredibly spirited war left the brave Arizonan nursing several potentially career-threatening injuries, including a broken hand, a broken foot, and what was thought to be a detached retina.  

Being forced out of the game can push an athlete to his limits, but Varner insists that his desire for vengeance is fuelling his determination to get back in the cage. The fight with Cerrone ended in a technical split decision in Varner’s favor – Cerrone landed a fight-finishing blow that was illegal, albeit accidental. Varner can’t wait to finish things properly.  

A burning desire to compete at the highest level is nothing new to Varner, who set out his stall as a hard-working full-time athlete in college, where he would consistently attend back-to-back training sessions. “I was lucky enough that the college I went to had a boxing team, so I was able to wrestle and box all the way through college.

“I was always in really good shape, my wrestling practice would be from 3.30 to 5.30 and the boxing practice would be from 5.30 to 7.30. I could go from one and just run to the other building and go do the other. Every time I went to a wrestling meet or a fight, I would always be in better shape than everybody else because I was used to getting twice as many workouts in.”  

Varner openly admits that his grades in high school were never anything to write home about, but aced every examination at college to earn a degree in Accounting and Spanish. “I was an academic all-American!” he laughed. “I had a 3.6 GTA all the way through my junior year. I had good grades in college!” As a student, Varner became frustrated by the illegality of MMA in his home state and began lobbying in favor of the sport. “I had to give a statement in front of about ten legislators. The Arizona State Boxing officials opposed the bill, so the legislators gave them about ten minutes to speak their piece. They gave me two minutes to lobby and I was able to out-do what the boxing commission had said – in a fraction of the time!”  

“It was awesome, man! Because I started here in Arizona, I’m homegrown, born and bred. I was 18 years old, still a senior in high school, 12th grade when I had my very first fight. It was just nice that I had my start here and now, because of me, the big show will be able to come here. It was really gratifying, the most gratifying victory I have had in a long time. It showed me that maybe I have another career after fighting, maybe as a politician or some sort of government lobbyist.”  

Despite the lure of potentially lucrative roles in the halls of power, Varner knew from a young age that he wanted to be a professional fighter. When he watched Jens Pulver dispatch John Lewis with a jaw-rattling left hand, the 15-year-old Varner knew that fighting would become his calling in life. “He was a wrestler-boxer, and he was knocking people out,” Varner says of Pulver. “He was the UFC lightweight champion and I knew from then on that’s what I wanted to do; I wanted to be like Jens Pulver.”

Varner earned a spot in the UFC, but lost his debut by submission after a back-and-forth tussle with Hermes Franca. Failing to live up to his own high standards, the 20-fight veteran threw himself into his training in the hope of turning his fortunes around. “Ever since then, that fight changed me; one of the best things that ever happened to me was losing that fight, it got me so motivated and made me train harder than I ever trained for anything in my life. That loss was great for me.”  

Few fighters are called back by the UFC after losing their first fight, so Varner knew the pressure was on as he faced Jason Gilliam. Yet, as he secured the win with a rear naked choke, a path in another direction appeared. “They hit me with this opportunity to make more money in the WEC and be one of the pioneers to help the organization grow. I’ve been a long time in this sport; it was a good decision for me. They offered me a bigger contract and it allowed me time to grow as a fighter and as a man. It helped me mature.”  

He may have been fighting in a smaller organization but Varner still felt that he had his work cut out for him – his WEC debut was against the veteran Shannon Legget. “He’s a guy who’s pretty tough and who I actually looked up to coming into the sport. Charlie Kholar was a very tough opponent, and he just beat him up in two rounds, so I thought the fight was going to be much tougher than it was. Once again, I trained very hard, just went out there and fought my heart out and ended up getting the TKO early in the first round.”  

Before long rumors began to spread that this impressive victory had earned him a shot at the WEC lightweight title, held at the time by the seemingly invincible champ Rob McCullough. “As soon as I caught wind that I may be in line for a title shot I started training and my whole life became that one fight. I lived, ate and breathed that fight.”  

All too aware that he was stepping in to face a concussive striker, Varner had some difficult moments in store for him as the countdown to the fight began. “There was a lot of fear. I knew that he was a big, heavy-handed puncher. I knew that it could only take one shot from him to put me down, so I trained hard and tried to stay as positive as I possibly could, fought my heart out like I always do, and ended up walking away the champion. It was the greatest feeling of my life; it was the best feeling that I’ve ever experienced.”  

After battering the champ in the third round, Varner went on to crush his next opponent, jiu-jitsu black belt and former pro boxer Marcus Hicks, to further solidify his place as the top lightweight in the WEC. With his success multiplying, he knew that it was a matter of time before he would once again receive an invitation back into the UFC Octagon, but the painful and injurious bout with Cerrone has put Varner’s dreams on hold for the time being. “I broke my hand; that ended up being the most serious injury. Even winning that fight, I ended up leaving in an ambulance,” the sidelined fighter snarled in frustration.  

Though Varner did fracture both his right hand and his foot, thankfully the potentially career-threatening eye injury proved not to be as bad as first thought. “It was a broken blood vessel in my eye, so my eye wasn’t as bad as it could have been – but the most serious injury has definitely been my hand. I had to have two hand surgeries. I have a doctor telling me if I have to have one more surgery on this hand, I’ll be out for eight months to a year, and I can’t afford to do that.”  

Varner sees Cerrone, being the man who put him out of action, as the root of his problems. “I want to fight him again. I thought he got really lucky with me breaking my hand in that fight. I’d definitely like to fight him again, but I’d like to fight the best in the world, to be honest. The ‘Cowboy’ is not one of the best in the world but me and him have unfinished business, now this fight has kinda turned personal. I’d like to shut everybody up, shut him up, and be able to move forward.”  

Reeling off a list of potential opponents that he can’t wait to face, Varner is all too serious about his aspirations to compete on the world’s toughest stage. “I want to fight the best in the world: BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian, Gray Maynard, Tyson Griffin. Those are the guys that I want to fight. Being in the UFC, every fight is like competing for the world cup. Right now, I’m in the big show, but I’m not in the finals, you know? That’s where I want to be, I want to be recognized as the best fighter in the world.”  

For now Varner will have to focus on recuperating from his injuries, but with the very mention of a second encounter with Donald Cerrone the headstrong WEC champion sounds ready to throw down. “I’m hungry. I’ve been hurt, I’ve been out and I want to get back in there, so you’ll see me fight with more heart than you’ve ever seen me fight with. I’m going to lay it on the line and I’m going to try and finish every single fight as quickly as possible. If it goes the distance, that person is going to be taking a beating for the whole time, and that I can guarantee.”  

The Best Post-Fight Celebration Ever?  

When Varner beat Jason Gilliam back on UFC 68 in March 2007, he performed possibly the most bizarre (yet entertaining) post-fight celebration the Octagon has ever seen. As soon as the referee released Varner’s arms from around Gilliam’s neck, Varner jumped up and began dancing. Showing some old-school moves that had obviously been honed on the dance floors of Arizona, Varner started off with a ‘funky chicken’-style groove before miming falling asleep, going stiff as a board and dropping to the canvas. The finisher? The legendary ‘worm’. Bizarre? Yes. Brilliant? You bet!