ZN: Tell us a little bit about yourself: how old you are, where/if you went to school, what sports you played as a kid, any unusual stories from your childhood, where you live, etc.

SM: I'm 30 years old, born and raised in Michigan. I grew up there, mostly in the Jackson area. There's nothing great about Jackson that stands out to me. Actually, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I played a lot of sports in my younger days. I played soccer and baseball as a kid, and then played football and ran track in high school. I took martial arts as a kid too. I got really into bodybuilding when I was 15. I was always a chubby kid, but I loved playing sports. I was good too, like a chunky agile kid, but I had nothing for confidence, so that held me back a lot. Bodybuilding helped me gain that confidence. I got the Arnold Schwarzenegger Bodybuilding Encyclopedia because I was mesmerized by Arnold as a kid. I wanted to look like him. I lost 80 pounds that year. It made me really feel like I could control my own destiny, that anything was attainable. After that, I was much more confident with sports and did much better. I went from being a chubby kid that people picked on to a teenager with a pretty good physique, and really surpassed everybody with training knowledge and work ethic. Even my coaches came to me for training advice and workout plans. Fitness just became a passion by the time I was 15.

I went to college at Central Michigan University for a couple of years. I didn't finish a degree there. I just never could think of one thing that I would want to do for the rest of my life, well not when I was 20 years old could I think of one thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I did meet my wife there though, so it worked out. We stuck around Michigan for a few years, then we moved to Portland, OR. We always wanted to go away for a while, so when the opportunity came, we jumped on it. It was a good move at the time for my wife's career and allowed me to really pursue MMA seriously. Oregon is a beautiful place. We had a great time out there, but we had two little ones and were missing our family, so we made the decision recently to move back to Michigan. We've been back for a year now.

ZN: How did you get into mixed martial arts?

SM: Well like I said, I did martial arts as a kid. That was the beginning. I was obsessed with Bruce Lee, Van Damme, Stephen Segal, and all of those guys. Chuck Norris was up there too. I didn't watch shows that most kids watched, I just studied these movies as a kid and wanted to be just like these guys. I wanted to be able to jump in the air and kick five guys in the face at once and knock them all out! I figured that Karate and Tae Kwon Do would teach me just that. I did really well with it, I won all my tournaments. Even though I was chunky, I did real well with the movements. I was in a real zone when I did it. The only problem was that I didn't win all my fights on the street! I lived in a neighborhood where we were always fighting. Somebody was always trying to be a bully or steal your bike, and you just had to fight a lot. I won some and lost some, but my martial arts training had failed to give me the mystical capabilities that I needed to win a street fight. It just goes so fast that there's no time for horseback stance! Ha! I did mess some people up with some round house kicks though.

Anyway, when Ultimate Fighting came out, it was just unreal! I wanted to be like those guys. We would build a huge pit in the living room with cushions and blankets and go for the tap out! As years went by, it evolved into its own sport, a mixture of fighting styles as a true form of combat. By the time it started getting big, I was in college. There wasn't anybody around actually doing MMA or even Jiu Jitsu. I messed around with some boxing, but I was mostly bodybuilding.

We moved to Detroit in '05 and I found an MMA gym and started training again. I started with just Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so that I could get the basics and have a good foundation. I was a 300-pound bodybuilder when I started. I lost 50 pounds in the first year and then had my first fight. It was a quick knock out, and I was hooked. I was in love with training and really wanted to dive in. That's when the opportunity to move to Portland, OR came up. It was great for my wife's career, and the gym and fight scene out there is awesome. It's kind of like the birthplace of MMA. It was like a wonderland of good training. I checked out a bunch of places and found a home at Impact Jiu Jitsu. I enjoyed Jiu Jitsu and it was a good fit. They did a lot of kickboxing there and have a great strength and conditioning program. There were about seven black belts there and just a lot of great grapplers. The coach/owner if Impact is Mike Chapman, and he is a great friend of mine. He and his family just really took myself and my family in and I quickly had a great bond with him. He taught me a lot, but just really primed me as a fighter and made me feel like I could do it. The team was great too, as time went on I really formed a bond with guys that I trained with day-in and day-out. I shared victories and defeats with these guys. I miss my team in Oregon, we remain great friends. I did some cross training out there too for fun. My fight career was a good one and put me on a good path as an MMA fighter.

Upon moving back to Michigan, we decided to be up north. It's beautiful, but the fight scene is not what I was used to. There was no real MMA gym near me, so I opened up my own. It was just a small spot, but it has everything to get our grapple on, work the wall and all that. There are lots of bags, mitts and pad work. I do have a great boxing coach up there as well, a real diamond in the rough. It is just a little old town with the best boxing coach and stand up MMA that I've met. He made many good boxers out from that little town. He really changed my hands this last year. It works well with the rest of my style.

Now, we are moving back to Detroit, where we will stay for a while! I'm done moving for now. My wife has a good job there and I will have so much more available to me for my training. Work will also be better there for me. I'm looking forward to some boxing and MMA training in the motor city.There are a couple of gyms that I'll be training at and doing some coaching, too.

ZN: What's this I hear about bodybuilding? I don't know all the details, but were you prepping for a show? Did you ever compete?

SM: I was contemplating doing a show. I did some bodybuilding in the past and I actually competed twice. I competed in the Central States first, then Michigan the next year. I did OK and was starting to get the diet and stuff figured out to where I could start winning shows, but then I just lost interest. That's when I went back into martial arts. Recently, I had a back injury and a few other injuries.  I had to take time from fight training or else I was going to be in trouble. All that I could do was some semi-light weight training, but my body was really responding to that. MMA training leaned me out, so although I'm smaller now, I'm leaner and don't feel that I need much more mass to do well at a state level. I thought it would be fun and keep me occupied. I always have to have a goal or something to train for. It's a strange compulsion. I was weight training only for the last four or five months, and for the past month I had no motivation to go to the gym. "It's back and tricep day," got really boring to me. I felt lost. I felt like I was missing something else that I was supposed to be doing. One day last week, I was on my way to the gym for a workout and all I wanted to do was put on my hand wraps and throw some punches. So, that's what I did. I started training last week with some boxing work and cardio. I thought maybe I would take a break from fighting and do something different, but that's not going to happen. I'm pretty healed up now, I've just got yo get back in there! Especially now, moving back downstate. I do nutritional work, as well as personal training. I do enjoy bodybuilding, so I'll probably do it in the future after fighting. I just don't want to yet.

ZN: Ok, back to MMA. What are your measurables, what weight class do you fight in, what federations do you or have you fought in?

SM: I'm a heavyweight. Not a huge one, just 6-foot and I fight at about 245 pounds. Early fights in Michigan were unsanctioned events in bars. Shoot, most of them still are. In Oregon, I fought in a couple of different organizations, but mostly the Full Contact Fighting Federation, or FCFF. It's run by Chael Sonnen and Kevin Keaney and they do a really good job. It's a great organization, one of the best amateur MMA organizations in the country to fight in. A good handful of UFC fighters have come out of there. It's no bar room brawl. There are some really good fighters going through there. The top amateurs there are better than a lot of Pros that I see fighting. It was a real blast. I won the heavyweight title there twice. When I moved back to Michigan, I fought for Impact Fight League, owned by Joe Donofrio of Detroit. He is a boxing and MMA promoter and puts on a heck of a show. I fought for him at the Palace at Auburn Hills, main event for the Heavyweight title and won that back in December last year. I also boxed since I've been back, really just a month or two after we moved back, at the North American Boxing Championships in Michigan. Now I'm just looking for some good Pro organizations to fight in. I had some good offers, but had to hold them off when I hurt my back a second time. I'm good now, so I'll be looking to fight in August or September. There aren't a lot of Pro shows in Michigan, so I'll be traveling a lot for fights.

ZN: I noticed you competed in standard Jiu-Jitsu tournaments as well as no-gi grappling tournaments. What other martial arts are you proficient in? Did you ever box?

SM: I think that competing in the individual styles is important to get better and have a greater understanding of the individual style. I enjoy competing in any of it. I would like to do more boxing. I love Muay Thai training and I'd like to fight in that arena. It's just such a hardcore style in itself. Knees, elbows, kicks and punches? Brutal! I will be doing plenty of boxing, Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai on my own in Detroit, so we'll see where the path of life takes me.

ZN: What is your favorite martial art?

SM: That's a tough question because I love it all. I do love striking though, and boxing is king for punches and Muay Thai is king for kicks and knees. I know that technically boxing is not a martial art, but as far as fighting styles, those are my two favorites. With my stand up, I try to combine the two. The training is so high octane and fast. I love the effects as a form of exercise, and it's empowering to train like that. Each one delves deeply into the craft and its fun to learn.

ZN: Describe yourself as a fighter. Do you keep the fight standing? Do you clinch up and bang away with elbows and knees? Do you take it to the ground?

SM: I feel good everywhere. I've won boxing matches, grappling matches, and MA fights. In MMA, I do prefer to stand and bang. However, if I feel that I need take the fight to the ground, I will, but usually end up ground and pounding rather than looking for submissions unless it won't sacrifice dominant positioning. I just think that you should be prepared to do it all in an MMA fight. You have to have the instinct to just beat ass! If you punch in, clinch up, throw a knee and then have a chance to take your guy down and keep on smashing him and break his will into bits, you should do it. It seems like a lot of guys like to push off, jab, throw singles and dance around and the instinct of winning the fight when the opportunity presents itself is not there. A guys that does it all is hard to prepare for. I like watching fighters who do that well and study their transitions.

ZN: Obviously, most fighters do some form of strength training, but it seems like most don't really lift seriously, the way that a strength athlete would. I realize the goals are different, but I'm curious as to how you train in the gym. Do you have any PRs that you're proud of?

SM: When I was big into weight training, I had some decent PRs. I did deep squats with 585 for 6 or 8 reps, I could barbell row with 405 for reps with good form. I had a day where I wanted to beat the NFL combine numbers for bench press, so I did 405 for 8, then 315 for 18, and 225 for 47 reps. I was better with reps for some reason. Needless to say, I don't train like that anymore and I'm not nearly that strong or big. I do still use weights, though. I think that you should keep your body strong, especially if you've been bigger. My workouts vary a lot. I might do circuits, sometimes just two to three exercises for strength, or complexes. I love doing complexes, where I pair a heavy exercise with something explosive for the same movement. This way, I can relate the strength to the fight. Some examples are barbell squats and box jumps, or dumbbell presses with plyo push-ups. Sometimes I'll put up to five exercises together. I do a lot of man makers to blow the gasket real good, so I shoot for PRs with stuff like that now. I'm interested in strength, but it's only good in a fight if you are in cardiovascular shape. I often put my weight training in with sprint work or the hand bike. This is how I can really test your lactic acid threshold, and my intestinal fortitude. I don't need to be bigger or stronger, but I maintain what I have and work to build more and more explosiveness and cardio, and I use weights for a lot of this. I'm not doing bicep curls. I make up a lot of my own training, but it works really well. I just can't get muscularly sore from a high volume workout. I have to be flexible and be able to put most of my effort physically in my fight training.

ZN: Overall, what does your training schedule look like?

SM: Right now, I'm just starting because of my time off, so it's mostly cardio and drills. Typically I do two workouts a day, one is usually conditioning, which I keep short and the other is technique and sparring. This is the schedule that I will be working back into...

  • Monday - AM conditioning, PM Boxing
  • Tuesday - AM Muay Thai, PM Jits and mma ground work
  • Wednesday - AM conditioning, PM Boxing
  • Thursday - AM Muay Thai, PM Jits and MMA ground work
  • Friday - PM Grappling rounds
  • Saturday - Sparring and conditioning
  • Sunday - Off

The conditioning might be weights/metabolics/sprints/hills, or a combination of more than one. I warm-up, then go crazy without stopping for about 40 minutes and make sure to meet my goals for the workout. Last, I cool down and stretch. Evening work is conditioning as well, and will be a mixture of technique work, sparring, etc.

ZN: Do you follow a strict diet to maintain weight? What is your favorite binge food?

SM: When I started fighting I was softer and now I'm a lot leaner. I eat really clean when I'm training, but I have to eat a lot of food. My last fight was against a 6'8", 280 pound giant, who was cutting to make 265 and would surely be back to 280 by the fight. My weight was just dropping from training, so I have to eat massive amounts of pasta and calorie dense foods at night to avoid being too light. I want to keep coming down, but there's no need for me to fight a 280 guy when I weigh 230 pounds...well, not unless there's good money on the line! I just eat to feel optimum, full of energy, but lean and quick. I think I'll diet a little bit and get down to 235 pounds or so and see how I feel. Whatever I do, my performance can not suffer. However, I will admit, I do like to look after my girlish figure.

That being said, I love food. I like the basics for cheating: pizza and ice cream, a good burger and some wings! Yum...  It's important to treat yourself now and then.

ZN: What are your best and worst moments as a fighter? Be brutally honest.

SM: Let's start with the best, of course. I've had a couple of fights that were great, but one stands out. I had a training partner who was the current champion in Oregon, Derreck Russle. He taught me so much the first year that I was fighting and just made me tough through constant ass beatings. Finally, I was on par with the guy, maybe. It took a long time, but he was my gauge for improvements. He was a super heavyweight, and was dieting for a fight at heavyweight. He had lost about 50 pounds, and was looking great. He was fighting a guy who he disliked. The guy was a real trash talker and was on the internet running his mouth and stuff like that. However, this guy was tough, had a lot of fights. I was going to Michigan for a three week trip and would be back a week before his fight. The week before I left, I kicked Derreck in the the gut during sparring. He fell right to the ground and couldn't get back up. He was in a lot of pain, which was weird because he could take anything. You literally couldn't hurt the guy. I remember that he was really run down that week, like he was over-dieting or something, but he got really lethargic all of a sudden. We thought maybe the kick had damaged his liver, so he went to the doctor and they did some blood work. A day or two later, I took off for Michigan. After I got there, he called me up and told me the results of his blood test, he had been diagnosed with cancer and had a really slim chance of living. It was fast and aggressive. He was going into chemo immediately for the next three weeks.

My training partner was facing life or death, and all he asked me was to take his title fight. It would only be my fourth fight, and his record was 22-6. I knew I couldn't tell him no, so I agreed to do so. The only problem was that I was visiting family in Michigan and Canada and I wasn't near a place to train. I got cardio in for a couple of weeks, then the last week we were in Detroit, so I got some training, but it was with guys that I really didn't know and it was not ideal. As soon as I got home to Oregon, I had six days until the fight. I got to it then, but my cardio was not anywhere where I would have wanted it to be, had I been planning to fight. So anyway, the fight goes down, and I beat the heck out of the guy for three rounds. I won a decision, the only decision that I've ever had. I don't like decisions, but it was an emotional fight because I had to win and had to go the distance without the cardio. It was all heart, and my first title that Derreck had kind of handed off to me. He got to leave the hospital to corner me with a mask on and gloves and all that. It meant a lot to our gym. He fought cancer for a year after that and made it! His strength amazes me still. He's done fighting now, but he won the fight of his life.

My worst moment is my loss. There was a great big guy from Team Quest that was man handling guys. Nobody wanted to fight him, but I did. He was huge. He was a Washington State tight end and had done something with the NFL, the Chiefs I think, before getting into MMA. He was 6'8", barely made 265 and was very athletic. I had to be prepared, but I knew that I could beat him. Three weeks out, I injured my back the first time. It's the same injury that I'm recovering from now, I just never let it rest. I felt a pinch one day training takedowns, and when I got home, I couldn't get out of my car. I crawled and could barely even breathe. I laid on the couch with ice for two weeks, until I could be up right or walk. My low back had swelled up so much, it was like I had an ass on my back that was bigger than my actual ass. The amount of swelling on my back was scary! By a week out, I could do walk-throughs and really light training. In hind sight, I should've dropped out, but I was the current champ. I had not lost, so I figured that I would knock him out like everybody else. I didn't give him the respect that he deserved. My ego made me fight anyways. When I got to the fight, I realized that I had never stood in front of a dude this size. My game plan was going to be to take him down, because he wasn't great at grappling and had good boxing and with his size. However, even that strategy was a huge reach. When I got in there, I was throwing combos like crazy. It took five punches to land just one. He could hit me from so far away! I tried to clinch up and take him down, but I wasn't able to and the injury weakened my takedowns. I totally gassed and felt like I was screwed. My lungs had not been pushed in like three weeks! I wasn't in any condition for this fight. I made a stupid mistake and walked into his power and went to sleep. I woke up 40 seconds later and thought I was still in the fight. It was heart breaking. I couldn't answer my phone or talk to friends or family for two weeks. I was devastated! I picked up a fight as soon as my medical suspension was over. I had to redeem myself so that I could get rid of the feeling  I learned a lot after that loss. I learned about composure and I learned to not ever think that you can't be beat. I was never afraid to fight, now I always am. Not scared that it will hurt, or scared of a guy, but scared to lose. It was an awful feeling and I will do everything in my power to make sure that it never happens again. I would love a rematch though!

ZN: Have you dealt with any injuries?

SM: I have, fighters are always training around something. That being said, I've had a couple bigger ones. I tore my shoulder up 10 years ago, dislocated it and tore my rotator cuff and labrum. I rehabbed it and avoided surgery, but it's something that I always have to pay attention to. The worst was a neck injury, I ruptured a disc in my neck and it damaged a nerve root. The nerve pain was excruciating and I lost all of my muscle and strength in the left side of my upper body. I had it repaired surgically and began the journey to regain my strength and function. It took six months to lift a 25 pound dumbbell with my left arm. It sucked royally! Then of course, the back thing. It sounds worse than it all is, I'm not completely a banged up old man. The thing is that it makes you work smarter and be more aware. As long as I'm still improving and making gains in my performance, I'm still on top of it.

ZN: Who inspires you, either as a fighter or just generally?

SM: A lot of fighters inspire me  It takes a ton of hard work to be successful in this sport, and all fighters who step foot in the cage face a lot of uncertainty to get in there and battle. Everyone has obstacles to get through. I know as a fighter, how you have to alienate yourself at times and stay focused on training and the fighter lifestyle. I enjoy great performances in the cage, but it's performances in life that inspire me. People who defy odds, take care of their family and just show love and compassion for others are all inspiring. My wife and kids inspire me, because they believe in me and see me as a champion. They make me want to keep on climbing the ladder. I tell my kids to never give up and that nothing is out of reach, so I live what I preach by following my dreams. I get inspiration from nature, so profound and beautiful, it makes me feel so small. I realize that what I have going on is not so important in the scheme of things. I am a Christian, so I am inspired by Jesus. I have a long way to go, as we all do, but it would be great to some day feel somewhat fulfilled through my faith. I think that's really the only way to find peace and fulfillment. I used to think that being a champion would do that, or having an awesome car, or a great house...now I'm just inspired by faith and my family. Having kids and feeling that love and bond can change your outlook on things. Your thoughts on mortality change.

As far as my favorite fighter, that would have to be Fedor. No matter how he has performed lately, he really destroyed people for a long time. I look at the guy and it's amazing what he has done. His mind is way bigger than his body and he's a decent human being. He fights for love and that is inspiring. I like his outlook on things. The guy is a warrior. He puts it all on the line when he fights. It's tense to watch, as he gives 100 percent all the time, no hesitations. I think that he's still very dangerous. I would love to meet him.

ZN: If you could give one piece of advice to the readers of EliteFTS, what would it be?

SM: I would say that everybody should push fear aside and be brave enough to put yourself out there and reach for your dreams. Destiny awaits. You may not be the best in the world, but you can work to be the best that you can be, whatever your goals are. Stay positive, visualize and see your success. Tell yourself positive things everyday. Barriers and setbacks are bothersome at first, but when you conquer them, they can be the best thing for you. Don't make any excuses, just go for it.

ZN: What will you bring to EliteFTS, and why should our readers be interested in you?

SM: There are a lot of things that I want to bring to EliteFTS. I want to motivate people and help in any way that I can. I'll be giving information on training, nutrition, techniques, and more, but I also want to give a real honest look inside of this sport. I look forward to bringing a little bit of entertainment to my articles and postings. I would love for the things that I share on EliteFTS to really motivate people and help them improve. I have a lot of good information and knowledge about MMA, bodybuilding, and nutrition. I am comfortable helping people with any of that. If I don't know something, I will sure try to get the answer. MMA is such a big sport right now, even non-fighters can benefit from some of the training and nutritional information that I will be giving out. I like to think outside the box and I'm coming up with new training methods all the time, so I will be looking forward to sharing all of it.