Issue 181

August 2019

The Pennsylvanian bantamweight talks about his home state and the origins of that nickname

You live and train in western Pennsylvania. The Keystone State is well known for its high level amateur wrestling talent. What is the MMA training landscape like in PA right now?

Many of the best wrestlers are born and raised in Pennsylvania. They grow and spread around the country at different colleges. A lot of the guys at Penn State train in western Pennsylvania. Now western Pennsylvania has a lot of great guys. It has taken a while but it has all spiralled into the grappling scene and Jiu Jitsu. Whenever I got my black belt there were only three black belts in the area. Now, I think there are ten or twelve black belts in Pittsburgh. So, that’s pretty cool. 

You talked about the grappling scene blowing up in Pennsylvania. How have you fared fighting locally or regionally coming up in your MMA career?

The grappling scene has started to open up. As far as MMA, there are still local shows in the area and guys are really putting on a show. It’s starting to come along. On the regional scene, MMA was always popping. When I was coming up and moving up the ranks it was great. When I went to Bellator a few promoters retired and a few promoters went on a hiatus and it kind of died off a bit. There are a few promotions back around. The thing about Pittsburgh is that it is a family-like, blue collar town. Everybody knows everybody and everybody trains together. A lot of other gyms in other towns, it’s as if the gyms are pitted against each other. That seems to not be the case it Pittsburgh, which is great.

I still feel like with all the great MMA talent and gyms, Pennsylvania doesn’t really get the respect it deserves. Do you feel the same way? 

That’s the thing people don’t understand is a lot of the people that go to these gyms in other States are from Pennsylvania. Whenever I am training in Florida and fight on TV it says ‘fighting out of Fort Lauderdale.’ So they may not know that you are from Pennsylvania. I think because it (MMA) was illegal for a long time and there wasn’t a Jiu Jitsu scene that is has taken awhile for it to develop. It’s started to blow up in the past few years. We’ve had two guys in the UFC - Chris Dempsey and Adam Milstead. We’ve also had a few guys in Bellator including myself. It’s hard to get people to come to Pittsburgh. It’s cold here! Everybody trains in Florida and California. We do get a lot of guys coming in to tune up their wrestling. I think it really is starting to come around here in western PA. 

Many fighters look for inspiration in different forms. You always looked close to home, finding inspiration from many fighters in your own gym. Who has meant the most to you in that regard?

I always looked at inspiration from the guys I was raised by and the guys I trained with. I started doing Tae Kwon Do at a young age. Philip Ameris was my instructor, my sensei and now a grand master. He has always been a huge inspiration in my life. He was always the guy that was preaching to do the right thing, to treat people the right way, always show respect in and off the mat-he said a lot of stuff that always stuck with me in my head. He never drank, never did anything. He is such a good person. Isaac Greely, he is my head coach. These are the guys that really inspired me to want to push past just doing this as a hobby. They do it as a living and try to help people. No matter what you are doing if you aren’t helping people you aren’t helping the world. I hope that one day I can give back to people the same way people have given to me.  

I hear you got your nickname ‘The Honey Badger’ during a BJJ class. Can you tell us the story?

I showed a video to my Jiu Jitsu class one time. It was a honey badger video. I was saying how crazy the animal was and everyone started saying ‘That’s you! That’s you!’ My teammates, my coaches, everyone. It ended up sticking for me. I’ve had many nicknames on other aspects of my life but I’ll take ‘The Honey Badger’.