Issue 180

July 2019

‘Mr Wonderful’ discusses what makes a great coach, learning new skills and working with ‘Boogeyman’

You came to MMA with such a prolific wrestling background. How do you humble yourself to start from square one and learn so many other disciplines involved in MMA?

It takes a lot of discipline. In order to get there you have to be willing to lose. You have to go into training saying I may not win today in training and that’s OK. My goal is to eventually win in the fight. That might mean that I lose some days in practice. A lot of guys cannot do that. They want to win all the time. If they win in training they feel like they will win more in the fight. You have to be able to let go of that thing.

Coming out of college you had a unique experience training in State College. There were a number of gyms in their infancy and developing at that time. It was a hotbed for a wrestler looking to make the transition into MMA. Can you speak to your growth as a fighter during your time in State College after your wrestling career was over?

Ryan Gruhn is one of the people I have to give credit to for giving me such a great start in the sport. He and a few other guys, TJ Turner and Jeff Rockwell, got me started in my boxing and jiu-jitsu respectively. It just helps when you have guys that have that experience and they can impart whatever knowledge they have on you. You don’t have to be a world champion – it certainly helps – but just to be able to give a guy a little of what worked for you, that’s everything. You need to be able to get a guy from point A to point B. If somebody else takes you the rest of the way, well, gosh darn it you are off to a good start. Winning as a whole is never as if one person did it all. It’s always a collective thing. So many coaches helped me win in wrestling and the same is true in Mixed Martial Arts.

We know your level of wrestling and grappling but how great was it to land that headkick from hell on Linton Vassell?

That headkick knockout was a long time coming. I feel like I owe it to my coaches to show off my moves that we spend so much time on in the gym. I’m just glad it came to fruition the way it did. I’m proud of that not so much because I kicked someone in the head but just because it means a lot to me to represent my coaching staff, my gym and my teammates that put so much time in with me. If you asked them they would tell you I do this to them all the time (laughs). Yeah but I haven’t done it in a fight! It means a lot to do that for them, too.

How has your standup game evolved even in this most recent camp as far as striking is concerned?

I got a slow start against Vadim Nemkov. I like slipping punches and making guys miss. That more than anything, will tire a guy out. You could shadowbox for hours. It’s effortless. You just do it and correct your form and keep going but when you expect to hit something and you are throwing with full power and you tense your core, expecting some strikes coming back, it just wears you out. I like to make sure I get a read on a guy and I know his distance and his speed. Once I have that dialed in I know I can just go to town. I got there with Nemkov but it was too late. I just really have to press that action sooner and that’s what I have been working on. I am accelerating and figuring out how do I get in range and establish a perimeter and really start to take it to the guy early on. I get my range down and then evaluate where he is and what he’s capable of doing. That’s something I have been working on – being vulnerable sooner and looking for those openings to score big points.

You have been spending a lot of time at 10th Planet San Diego.

How has that time improved our game? How has your game changed in the jits end of things?

I am just always looking to elevate it. I train with Boogeyman. That’s what everybody calls him. He is a phenomenal instructor and a phenomenal competitor. I enjoy picking his brain and troubleshooting my game against his. Then he has a couple of other great black belts under him that are just studs. Richie Martinez is the Boogeyman’s real name.