Fighters you respect: Anyone with good sportsmanship and clean drug tests
Belts / awards / acomplishments: Current Combat in the Cage Lightweight Champion
Favorite leagues / organizations: EliteXC
What do you fight for: I love the competitiveness of the sport.
What would you say to an aspiring fighter: Train hard and eat healthy. Skill is acquired with time, but you can offset underdeveloped skills and beat a more technical fighter if you can keep a high pace and wear him down.
Teach the techniques you recently learned to newcomers, as this will help you perfect the techniques yourself.
Lastly, repetition is key. Spend your time becoming exceptionally great at basic techniques, rather than learning a great amount of exceptional techniques. The jab, the takedown, the low kick, armbars, triangles, and other core techniques, when executed skillfully, will win fights.
Never take an opponent lightly.
Give 100% of your efforts in every training session and every fight. Losing hurts the most when you regret not preparing or competing at the highest level you can. Make sure you leave it all out and have no regrets when you leave the ring.
How / why did you get started in MMA: I was looking for an activity to supplement my wrestling after high school. I was directed to an MMA and BJJ instructor by the name of Jeff Walcott, who was a police officer from Schuylkill Haven, PA. We had a small school. For several months over a 2 year time period, he and I were the only two there. I fell in love with the sport immediately. Our team grew and one day Jeff asked me and my teammate Jonathan Murphy if we were interested on competing in an MMA event in Ohio. The event he was referring to was ICE 7, and it was one week away. We had hardly practiced any striking at this time, but we were all interested in measuring our abilities. We went as a team and made a successful debut.
Who are my heroes: Randy Couture for his ability, work ethic, class and sportsmanship.
One should be proud to follow in his footsteps.
