Ohio State wrestling championships and WEC 47

I hope everything is going great. I’m doing fine myself, thanks for asking. I’m just glad to be eating, breathing, and doing what I do.

My dad always told me, “You can’t adjust the wind, but you can adjust your sails.” That advice has come in handy in the past couple weeks. I haven’t been able to train like I usually do because of some injuries. I’ve been taking any opportunity to get out and meet all the fans I can of the UFC, MMA, myself, and people who aren’t fans of the sport.

I come from the sport of wrestling, which is a close-knit group of people and athletes. I spent 99.9 percent of my time in the wrestling room and gym focusing on training and winning. Being a part of MMA is a huge transition, because of the exposure and support from around the world. It really has been interesting to get out there and interact with so many people.

When we left off I had to do a photo shoot the next day for an MMA magazine. Should turn out good. I don’t know how good they can make a beat-up face like this one look, but I’ll take what I can get. Along with that I had some interviews throughout the last couple weeks and a couple appearances in town.

I’ve still been able to do my strength workouts and technique for my MMA training. So all in all, I’ve kept to a pretty good workout schedule considering my limitations. I also had PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) Injections done on my shoulder and knee. It’s mainly to stimulate recovery in non-healing injuries. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s working for me.

This past weekend the UFC gave me the opportunity to travel to Columbus, OH for some appearances at The Arnold Sport Festival and watch the WEC live. This was a big deal for me, because as you all may know I finished my last two years of high school at St. Edward’s in Lakewood, OH.

I also lived there briefly as a child, because my dad’s side of the family grew up in Cleveland and most of them still reside there. So my Ohio roots run deep. What worked out so great was the Ohio State Wrestling Championships were being held that same weekend in Columbus, OH!!

I arrived in Columbus at midnight Friday night. The wrestling tournament already had been going on for 2 days and Saturday was the last day of competition. I immediately called one of my coaches from St. Ed’s to see how the team was doing.

We have won 25 team state championships since 1978 and 11 national championships since 1982. So usually it’s no question what place we are at this point in the tournament. But this year is a different story. They were in second place, 5 points behind Wadsworth High School.

Not to get off the subject but the man that built St. Edward High School into such a wrestling powerhouse is Howard E. Ferguson who died in 1989. I mention him because if you ever come across his book “The Edge: The Guide to Fulfilling Dreams, Maximizing Success and Enjoying a Lifetime of Achievement”, please pick it up.

I was given the book upon my arrival to St. Edward my junior year and it really inspired me and gave great insight to achieving my goals. Actually, that just reminded me about it, I’m going to read it again!! Ok, so the team was in second place, I had to get up the next morning and take a cab ride over to the Schottenstein Center to catch some of the matches to determine the individual placing from third through eighth place.

After that round of wrestling the St. Ed’s heavyweight placed fourth and the 112-pounder placed sixth. Wadsworth also had two state placers. This put St. Ed’s in the lead because the heavyweight got a pin in one of his matches. That night for the championship finals both teams had six individuals going for first place, with two of them head-to-head match-ups between the two teams!!

But in the meantime I had a St. Ed’s parent hurry me over to “The Arnold” expo to sign autographs at the UFC booth for two hours while there was a break in the tournament before the finals started. Signing that day was Urijah Faber, Chris Lytle, Mark Coleman, Mike Brown, and myself. We signed autographs the entire time!! It was great to see so many people that support the UFC and all of us!!

After the autograph session we all caught a ride back to the hotel. Urijah and I went to get a bite to eat before I had to hurry back to the tournament. He’s a great guy, I’m really excited to watch him fight Jose Aldo at WEC 48 on April 24th. I think that’s going to be one of the best fights of the year. You definitely don’t want to miss that one!!

After eating I ran up to my hotel room for a minute then back down to catch a cab to the tournament for the finals. I got there right in time to watch a St. Ed’s freshmen 103-pounder win a state championship. The next two up for my school was 125-pounder and 130-pounder who also won their matches to win the state championship in their weight classes.

It looked like we were on a roll!! The first of two head-to-head match ups was at 135 pounds, which was a very close and exciting, but he lost in the last five seconds going for a match winning-takedown and got caught on his back and pinned. The place went crazy, though!! Next head-to-head was at 145 pounds, and again we lost a very close match. The team score is about tied at this point. So everyone in the arena is going nuts, because the team race hasn’t been this close in a long, long time.

It was unbelievable to be there and watch it live. We had one wrestler left and they still had three left to wrestle. Next up was the St. Ed’s 160-pounder. Right out of the gate he gets the takedown puts his opponent on his back and pins him!!!!

The arena erupted with cheers and disbelief!! St. Ed’s was up in team points now! But, I had to take off to go watch the WEC. If the two of the three wrestlers lost for Wadsworth, St. Ed’s would win the team state championship. So I left the Schottenstein Center and jumped in the cab to go to the Nationwide Arena, biting my nails the whole time trying to get updates the all the way there.

I was cornering my buddy LC Davis for his fight. Wouldn’t you know it, right when I walked into the back to go to the locker rooms, my phone gets no service!! So much for the updates on the state championships.

But, we needed to get LC warmed up, focused, and ready to fight. That’s exactly what he did!! He beat a tough guy in a very smart and technical fight. Of course we all were very happy about the fight on the way back to the locker room. After calming down afterwards I remember the state championships. I grabbed my phone and ran out the back door to check my text messages.

Wadsworth won two of the three matches. Wow, that brought me back down to earth a little.

But, the upside was I still had front-row seats to watch some great fights!! I was able to get out there for the Torres vs Benavidez fight. Damn!! I couldn’t believe how bad Torres got cut. I haven’t seen one like that since Belfort vs Eastman at UFC 43.

I was also able to catch the Pulver speech at the end of his fight. It really was an emotional speech. I don’t know if he’s going to retire or not, but he truly is one of the pioneers of the sport and my hat’s off to him!! The main event was stopped early because of Bowles broken hand. It’s a shame it had to end like that, but it’s the fight game and that’s how it plays out sometimes!!

The next day I had another autograph session with Chris Lytle and Mike Swick. This one lasted about three hours, and again we were signing non-stop the whole time!!

It’s amazing to see this sport growing the way it is!! I got done with enough time to get something to eat with Swick then take off to the airport to catch my flight.

After getting home and settling in for a couple days, I had to sign autographs at the Nightclub & Bar Convention for Bud Light here in town. This is a convention that serves free alcohol!! So most of the people were pretty happy by the time I got there, if you know what I mean. I had some really interesting conversations while I was there and found out I was a lot of people’s best friend!!

Good talking with you and take care!