Not too long ago, a pastor asked Joe Rogan about how to become the UFC’s Chaplain… this is an uncensored video of their exchange.
This video illustrates the reason we are so excited about what we have been able to accomplish over the last year with MMA chaplaincy through FIGHT CHURCH! Things are going great! However, this is also the reason we need your prayers and support to keep fighting the good fight!
I had the honor of working at the most recent Superior Cage Combat event here in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena. It was an amazing event featuring some of MMA’s top up and coming professional fighters. It was an amazing opportunity to rub shoulders with the fighters, talk with trainers/coaches, and continue to solidify FIGHT CHURCH’s place in the MMA community.
One exciting detail about the event was the victory of Bristol Marunde. He advanced his pro MMA record to 15-6 and won the SCC Championship title in the 185lbs weight class. Bristol is an incredible athlete and a man of Faith. He has been a friend to FIGHT CHURCH and we will be catching up with him for an interview very soon!
SCC is a great promotion that has a tremendous future! They plan to put an event on every other month. I have been invited back to work at the next event in January and am very much looking forward to it! Get your tickets as soon as you can!
FIGHT CHURCH stepped up and ran the backroom at the TUFF-N-UFF event on 11-11-11 at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino… it was a great night!
We had 5 people working the event! That’s the most help we have ever had. FIGHT CHURCH was able to work both the red & blue corner locker rooms, stage fighters and work ringside. A big “thank you” goes out to all our volunteers. You guys did a great job! Every event we work, every connection we make and every relationship built or deepend leads to an opportunity for lives to be changed.
More pics and details on the way!
Video blog take one! I hope to start posting a weekly video blog… stay tuned!
FIGHTER SNAPSHOT: Mike “300” Hayes is a professional heavyweight MMA fighter with a record of 15 wins, 4 loses and 1 draw. He is also a believer. He will be fighting UFC veteran Sean McCorkle in the CFA 2 main event in Miami, FL on July 23rd. I am going to try to interview him between now and then if his training and my schedule allows. In the meantime, I asked Mike how important he thought a ministry like FIGHT CHURCH could be for guys like him who are trying to live a life of Faith and be a professional MMA fighter. This is what he had to say…
“As a fighter, I struggle with the pull that the sport has away from my family, friends, and faith. It’s not easy to turn your head from the ring girls and female fans that surround you. Most normal church and ministry organizations don’t have a clear understanding of what a fighter goes through, so it’s hard to receive advice from them. This doesn’t even touch on Vegas. Obviously it’s the Mecca for the sport, and as athletes make it to the big fights there, they are also making more money. It’s called sin city for a reason….the temptations are enormous, and the added fame and money make it a very difficult, but necessary, place for a fighter to go.
MMA athletes have a very unique audience to which our influence can be dramatic. I haven’t even made it to the UFC yet, but I did a charity event at a junior high school near Seattle about a month ago. The kids there all knew who I was and treated me like a superstar. I was shocked! It really made me realize that I need to pick and choose my words in the media very carefully because everyone is listening. It would be great to have an MMA chaplain to help fighters like myself to say and do the right thing, whether in Vegas or back in our hometowns. With the incredible platform to reach out to people that we’ve been given, I feel like I have a larger responsibility to focus on my words and actions so that I represent Christ the best I can. Looking forward to meeting you at some point, and doing my part in reaching out to people.”
Just about a month ago, I met up with MMA fighter Ryan Couture at the Xtreme Couture Training Facility here in Las Vegas. Let me start off by saying that Ryan is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I’m not just saying that either. I had bumped into Ryan a few times before the interview and even a time or two since then and he is the real deal, a genuinely nice guy!
So, other than being a good guy, what can I share about Mr. Couture? Well, of course, I asked him how he got started fighting and I was rather surprised by his answer. I figured that he had grown up watching his dad fight and felt like if he did anything else he would somehow tarnish the legacy of the Couture name. Come to find out, that wasn’t even close!
He told me, “I grew up wresting through school, junior high and high school. Then went to college and took some time off from athletics to focus on school and socializing and then basically getting fat. Then you know I have always been a fan of the sport as long as dad has been doing it; that was obviously my connection to it. And as his career grew, I became a bigger and bigger fan and followed the sport more and more closely. I was always curious about competition but wasn’t in any kind of shape and didn’t really think I would ever get around to doing it. After college, when I had a little more free time, I started taking more of an interest in fitness and getting back in shape. I started grappling and dabbling in a little bit of kickboxing as well. I competed in some grappling competitions and had fun with that. Then when I got the opportunity to relocate to Vegas and work for the gym that kind of stepped up my interest even more. The training went to a whole other level and it just grew from there.”
I asked what other skills Ryan had added to his arsenal over the past couple of years leading up to him becoming a professional fighter and where he felt he was strongest. He says he has to go with his submissions and more specifically his “offensive and dangerous guard”. Ryan was a Blue Belt in BJJ through his gym back in Washington and has since earned a Purple Belt under Neil Melanson here at Xtreme Couture. Even though Ryan has only been fighting MMA since 2009, he racked up an amateur record of 5-1-1 with all of his victories coming via submission! Then, on August 13th 2010, in his professional debut, he was able to triangle choke Lucas Stark for the win in just 75 seconds.
One of the hot topics out there in the MMA world right now is the “lay and pray” fighting style, where a guy goes for takedowns, but ultimately uses them to score points with the judges and control his opponent with little to no effort being put forth to finish the fight. I asked Ryan what he thought of the situation and he said that he can’t fault a guy for wanting to get his hand raised with no injury. I followed that question up with the flipside of that coin. I asked about the pressure on fighters to “perform” because of the entertainment aspect of sports. He said that it is always in the back of your mind and that is why some guys come out and take risks.
When I asked if there were any fighters that he looked up to he couldn’t narrow it down right away. He mentioned a ton of guys at Xtreme Couture. When he did start naming names, it was still quite a list… “Gray, Tyson, Martin, Mike, Jay, Rodrigo, Alessio…”
I was curious if there was anyone out there that Ryan wanted to fight, maybe to avenge his one loss or someone who might be gunning for him because of his name. Turns out there are and somewhere down the line he would like a chance to finish his last amateur fight that ended in a draw. He said that it was a real back and forth crowd pleaser. Let’s hope that comes together for him.
Unfortunately, Ryan was scheduled for a fight this past November 19th, but was forced to withdraw because of a serious infection. He is wrapping up some treatment and said as soon as he is released he will get to fight again. This will probably be some time in March. With 5 fights left on his STRIKEFORCE contract, we will get to see plenty more action from this young up-and-comer! It is going to be exciting to see his career unfold.
Ryan’s main sponsors are www.inflictsports.com and www.itaintchemo.com.
He is a great guy and it was a lot of fun to sit down with him. Look for him on FACEBOOK and TWITTER!
A couple of months ago, I was able to sit down with Martin Kampmann at the Xtreme Couture MMA training center here in Las Vegas. Martin is a great guy and we had a very nice talk.
This interview took place right before he fought Jake Shields. I have spoken to him since that fight and plan to interview him again once he knows what fight is coming up next…
You have had an amazing career!
20 pro fights with only 3 losses, most recently to 2 outstanding fighters, Nate Marquardt and Paul Daley. Let’s talk victories… 7 KO’s and 6 submissions… very well rounded!
Huge fight coming up here pretty quick. Are you training w/ the same guys as usual?
“I’m training with a core group of guys here at Xtreme Couture. I also had Drysdale come in. Had some other guys come in like Pat Healy. He was down here to help me out a bit. I’ve been trying to work with some wrestlers to help with my takedown defense.”
How important is the other guy’s game plan?
“I definitely look at his strong points and his weak points and I try to put together a game plan from that. Of course, I try to think about what his plan is coming in, but if you expect and only prepare for one thing you could be surprised. You got to be ready for anything. I think it is good to study your opponents. This fight for instance, I know the guy, in his last 20 fights he has been trying to take people down and submit ‘em. Most likely he’s gonna try to take me down and submit me as well. So, of course, I have been working a lot of defense on that.”
The fight before that, the guy I was fighting, also a good submission guy, but he had a lot of knock out power, swingin hard for the fences. So, then I was training for that. I will change it up a little bit. My primary schedule before the fight will be the same, but I’ll adapt a few things, tweek it up a little bit depending on who I am fighting.“
It is going to be an amazing fight. I cannot wait!
“I am looking forward to it. I mean, I think he is kind of boring a little bit.”
That has been in a lot of articles lately… how guys who are strong wrestlers can take people down, but then just lay on top of them.
More general… is there anyone in the MMA that you look up to?
“The first one to come to mind, of course, is Randy Couture. He is the main guy here at the gym and he is a great inspiration to be around and a great inspiration to train with. He is a great guy.”
Where do you see MMA is heading in the next few years?
“hopefully keep evolving and get a bigger fan base. Become the biggest sport there is and have the paydays grow with it! (laughing)
Dana White said that the UFC’s number one goal right now is to go “global”. Over the last couple of years there has been a clear effort made to capture the European market. In the next couple of months there will be events in England and Germany. Do you feel like this has had an effect on the sport?
It was announced last week that the UFC is expanding to Asia. Any thoughts on how that could change things?
“going global is a great thing. Most sports are global. Of course some sport like America football is the biggest hit in the US, but soccer is played almost everywhere in the world. I would love to see it go global. I am European. I’m from Denmark and I would love to see the sport grow in Denmark. It is still growing as a sport and getting bigger and more exposure in the mass media, but it’s still a lot of years behind where it is here. So, whenever I am home I try to do my part.”
On a lighter note… what do you like to do for fun here in Vegas!
“I like to hang out with my friends and my wife. This Sunday I went hiking up at Mt. Charleston with the dog and my wife. Go to lake, I like to be outside when it’s not too hot. I like to play poker, as well. Just chill. Relax a lot, you train hard and all you have the energy for is the couch.”
Thank you so much for your time and good luck with the fight!
Before I headed down to the Palms to meet up with Dave Farra, I had a pretty good idea of who he was and what he did. However, I am trying to be as professional as possible and become a better interviewer. So, I jumped on his website www.davefarra.com to learn a little more about him. This is what his site has to say in the “about” section…
“Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dave got into media at a young age. On air with his own radio show at just 19, Dave was destined to make an impact early on. He worked at the South Carolina radio cluster that gave him his break for five years before promotion after promotion moved him out West in 2005 to a prominent radio station in Las Vegas, NV.”
This is where I first heard of Dave Farra, on his morning show on X107.5 Las Vegas. I quickly became a fan of the show and a fan of Dave’s. The show is great! As if having an amazing morning show in a major market weren’t enough, his website goes on to tell of awards and recognitions earned for the show, additional projects and accomplishments. Here is what it has to say,
“While continuing to host his award winning radio show for KXTE-FM (winner of ‘Best Radio Personality’ twice, and a nomination for ‘Best Alternative Radio Show In The Country’), Dave began doing work as a TV host for Raw Vegas TV on red carpets around Las Vegas. This valuable experience led to high profile jobs doing commentary and hosting for Red Bull, Ring Of Fire MMA, The International Poker League, and more. Throughout his career Dave’s work has been seen by millions on Versus, Direct TV, ESPN, Sun Sports Network, Sport South, The Dish Network, Vegas TV, FSN and CNBC.
Somehow Dave manages to find time to also executive produce television programming. In 2009 Dave developed the fast paced half hour mixed martial arts program MMA:30 that had a home on DirecTV and FSN South before the first episode even completed filming. January of 2010 marked another big moment in Dave’s career as another show he executive produced, The 2009 World MMA Awards, aired on the Versus Network to critical acclaim.”
Wow, this is a guy who is making things happen and that is exactly why I wanted to talk with him. I was super happy when he agreed to meet with me.
As I sat down to come up with a list of questions to ask, my excitement turned to worry. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I was about to interview a professional interviewer. What in the world was i going to do? Question number one: “Any tips on interviewing?” And that’s no joke!
After Dave offered me some great advice and we talked about a few other things, I did my best with the rest of the interview. At the risk of asking the obvious questions, I couldn’t help myself. I asked, “What is your dream match-up?” With barely a hesitation, Dave answered, “GSP vs. Anderson Silva!” To my surprise, he threw in a “Roy Nelson vs. Brock Lesnar”. That’s awesome!
Then I asked about his predictions for UFC 121 coming up this Saturday. Here are his picks… Sanchez over Thiago, Ortiz over Hamill, Lesnar over Velasquez. The only one he wasn’t sure of was Shields and Kampmann. He said that he couldn’t believe the odds on this fight (3 to 1 for Shields) and he thought Kampmann was going to “give Shields some trouble”. I agree and hope Kampmann pulls it out!
My last question was whether or not he was excited about any other upcoming fights. He mentioned two. The Maynard vs. Edgar fight, to which a Maynard victory predictionwas added and the Roy Nelson vs. Shane Carwin fight.
It may not have been the greatest interview, but I thought it was a pretty good talk. Dave Farra is a super nice guy and I am thankful for the time he set aside for this.