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Posts Tagged ‘Matt Mitrione’
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When Matt Mitrione entered The Ultimate Fighter’s 10th season, he was an ex-NFL player with no professional MMA wins.
Now, after a successful UFC debut, Mitrione is becoming a true mixed martial artist.
Mitrione’s next opponent is, Kimbo Slice. The TUF 10 castmates will meet at UFC 113 in Montreal on Saturday’s pay-per-view portion of the card.
“I’m extremely comfortable, extremely confident for this fight,” Mitrione told The Free Roll show on the MMA DieHards Radio Network. “I’m glad that Kimbo wants to eat a ‘Meathead’ sandwich because he’s sure going to get all of it he wants. We’re going to get in there, we’re going to bang. I firmly believe that I’m going to put my hands on him and put him to sleep. He thinks the same thing, and that’s what the fun part of the fight is.”
Mitrione also responded to a statement made by TUF 10 champion Roy Nelson, who said that Kimbo’s ground game was better than Mitrione’s.
“Roy Nelson saying that my ground game’s worse than Kimbo’s is one of the dumbest comments you can make,” Mitrione said on the show. “And if you’re going to base your opinion on my ground game off of the show then I can base my opinion of Roy’s ground game on the show and say Roy’s ground game sucks too, because Roy did as little as possible, he sandbagged everything. So it’s just kind of silly. It kind of gets me when people speculate on dumb shit like that. I respect Roy, but I think he’s out of place by throwing that out there.”
Speaking of the ground game, Mitrione says that his is constantly evolving and improving, and that fans will be surprised when they see how much so.
“I’m trying crazy shit (in practice) that I’ve never tried before, and I’m pulling it off probably 40 percent of the time,” Mitrione said. “I’m trying to make my own submissions up. I’m going to name something the ‘Meat-o-tine.’”
Mitrione talked about working with usual Free Roll co-host Duke Roufus and fellow UFC heavyweight Pat Barry, his striking technique, and new sponsorship with Dell Computers’ Alienware brand. Plus, guest co-host Hector Castro volunteered host Cameron Gidari for a dance-off against Mitrione and Barry. No word on whether or not Barry would bring his best Techno Viking imitation to the contest.
To hear full episodes of The Free Roll, listen live every Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast by searching “MMA Radio” on iTunes.
Matt “Meat” Mitrione, formerly of The Ultimate Fighter’s 10th season, took on The Free Roll.
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Cameron Gidari and Hector Castro (subbing for Duke Roufus) chatted up Matt about his upcoming fight with Kimbo Slice, his TUF 10 castmate.
Matt has been training under Duke for a significant part of his camp for this fight, and talks about how it’s made a huge difference in his game. He also especially noted Duke’s ability to help with cardio for big men.
Matt has been working with Eric “Red” Shafer, and talked about how his ground game has improved. “I’m making up submissions,” he said. “I think I’m going to come up with something and call it the ‘Meat-o-tine.’ ”
Fighters will be supporting Alienware's new M11x system which is an 11.5 inch, fully portable laptop gaming computer.
With mainstream companies like Nike, Gatorade, Under Armour and Everlast slowly entering the booming MMA industry wanting their piece of the growth, Suckerpunch Entertainment’s Brian Butler-Au announced Thursday the signing of another giant investing into MMA, Alienware Computers, which is a division of Dell.
The deal, which Butler-Au was putting together for over a year, entrusts Suckerpunch Entertainment to handle Alienware’s MMA business. Jens Pulver, a passionate online gamer, will be the main face of the MMA brand of Alienware.
Pulver’s extensive online gaming background is highlighted by his appearance as an NPC in Vogster Entertainment’s CrimeCraft. The former UFC lightweight champion will be providing color commentary, fight predictions, and give gaming analyis for Alienware, which was developed by Dell to target the younger demographic of online gamers — the same group on which MMA has thrived.
Pulver isn’t the only Suckerpunch fighter involved as Alienware has also signed UFC fighters Matt Mitrione, Amir Sadollah and Pat Barry.
Mitrione is set to take on Kimbo Slice at UFC 113 in Montreal on May 8. The NFL veteran made a name for himself in MMA as a cast member on Season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter and also runs Eden, a successful supplement company.
The first-ever TUF winner to enter the show with no professional fights, Sadollah’s quirky sense of humor and dedicated work ethic aided his rapid rise to stardom in Season 7. Sadollah also hosts “The Aftermath” weekly TUF review show on Spike.com.
Barry, coached by famed trainer and Free Roll radio co-host Duke Roufus, is a former K-1 kickboxer and the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest striker.” Nicknamed “Get Hype,” or “HD”, the athletic quote machine takes on legendary Pride champion Mirko ”Cro Cop” Filipovic at UFC 115 in Vancouver on June 12.
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Duke Roufus (right) & company have helped several fighters like Pat Barry(middle) get to the big show.
Written by Cameron Gidari
Duke Roufus is one of the most respected striking coaches in the country today.
The Milwaukee-based trainer works with heavy hitters like Ben Rothwell, Matt Mitrione, Patrick Barry, and Alan Belcher, and has also trained Jens Pulver and Stephan Bonnar.
Part of what makes Roufus so effective is his willingness to take what he has learned from years of kickboxing and adapt it to MMA.
As he explained to ‘The Free Roll’ hosts Cameron Gidari and Hector Castro, that process involves stepping into the ring and sparring his fighters, and learning what works in an MMA fight.
“When I spar Muay Thai, kickboxing, whatever you want to call it, I do great,” Roufus said. “But when I spar MMA… I love 75 percent of my normal arsenal that I would do if I was only standup fighting.”
Based on what he learns, Roufus builds techniques into his fighter’s arsenals that work for MMA, not for a boxing or kickboxing match. A common misconception is that a devastating K-1 striker would be as devastating in an MMA bout.
“I think striking is hard to transfer over if you’re doing it wrong,” Roufus said. “Just like telling a wrestler he’s awesome at wrestling. It’s a lot easier to someone down after you punch them in the face a couple of times. Most people can defend takedowns when no one is punching at them.”
The octagon itself also forces fighters to change how they strike.
“The octagon is 32 feet, a big ring in kickboxing is 22 feet,” Roufus said. “Usually in MMA, if you watch a lot of the exchanges, guys don’t sit there and trade like a lot of the K-1 fighters or boxers. When striking occurs, it gets really close, or everyone gets really far. Guys aren’t sitting at that mid range throwing bombs.”
As such, the fighters that you see Roufus train will adopt a different stance. For one thing, they’re a lot lower.
“A guy like Patrick Berry, he’s riding in a very low stance,” Roufus said. “They’re getting ready to fight someone who’s going to take them down, it’s definitely a hybrid stance.”
That hybrid stance dictates how MMA fighters are throwing combinations.
“When I only do standup, I can get in a higher stance,” Roufus said. “I can throw long combos, I can sit down on punches. MMA you’re lucky to see guys throw two or three strikes in a combo.”
As trainers like Roufus continue to evolve MMA, we can only image what the strikers of tomorrow will look like.
To hear full episodes of ‘The Free Roll’, listen live every Saturday at 4pm EST. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast by searching “MMADieHards.com Radio” on iTunes.