Source: New Jersey Herald
HACKETTSTOWN — Tim Troxell’s inch-long scar is still red and tender, the result of somebody’s elbow that collided with his forehead during a mixed martial arts fight last month.
Originally, the gash penetrated down to his skull, revealing the bone. Troxell was sidelined a month, unable to train or receive contact to his face.
But when given an opportunity to promote his sport in front of a camera last Thursday, the 25-year-old Jefferson resident showed why so many thrill-seeking fans have flocked to the fastest growing sport in America.
“Take it easy in there guys,” said the supervising instructor, Dave Ferreira, as Troxell and amateur Ryan Vernay sparred in his ring. “This is just for the photos.”
Troxell kept going, throwing jabs and performing jiu-jitsu takedowns during two-minute practice rounds. Vernay, a 21-year-old from Flanders, was also eager to trade takedowns with his older, more experienced opponent.
“They have the wrestler’s mentality,” Ferreira said. “They’re really intense.”
Troxell and Vernay are part of the MMA phenomenon, now threatening to overtake boxing as America’s most popular combat sport. Both are former high school wrestlers who were looking to take their skills, their passion, to another level.
Before the MMA boom, they had few avenues to pursue. There was no professional wrestling league (other than the staged performances of the WWE), no underground tournaments, no pick-up games at the park.
“It’s a dead-end sport. There was nowhere to go,” Troxell said of wrestling. “I just wanted to take what I was good at and make something of it.”
The growth of MMA is particularly pertinent in the Sussex County area, a breeding ground for top-level high school wrestlers since the 1930s. Sussex County Interscholastic League schools have produced more state champions than any other conference — six in the last three years. Many of these athletes used wrestling as a way to attend or fund college, then were forced to abandon a sport with no financial windfall.
“If you’re going to make any money with wrestling than you have to coach,” said Kittatinny coach John Gill.
Gill’s 29 years of coaching experience, seven state titles and over 300 wins, make him an authority of Sussex County wrestling. Although he is not a fan of MMA, he endorses it as a positive crossover for wrestlers. He noted that the body control learned through wrestling translates well to MMA and, in the few times he’s caught the sport on TV, Gill has recognized the same skills and techniques he teaches at Kittatinny.
“If a kid asked me if they should do it, I’d tell them go for it. Just get trained properly,” Gill said. “I could see it happening for a kid just out of college, not ready for a desk job.”
There is another side to MMA, one that has less to do with wrestling skill and more to do with sheer violence. By its most simplistic definition, MMA is street fighting — dubbed “human cockfighting” by Republican Senator John McCain during his crusade to outlaw the sport in 1997. There are rules against things like head butting and kicking a grounded opponent, but a good portion of the fights end in a bloody, brutal knockout.
It is a point of concern for Gill, who understands there is also a negative explanation for MMA’s growth.
“I hope it’s not because our society is so violent,” he said.
Still, the correlation to wrestling’s sweeter science is undeniable. The most famous and well-paid Ultimate Fighting Championship competitors — Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Randy “The Natural” Couture — are all former wrestlers. Cauliflower ears are as common as tattoos on MMA competitors.
Gill said he knows of one former Kittatinny wrestler who is experimenting in MMA. He also has noticed a growing number of UFC posters in the locker room.
“A couple of the kids are really into it,” he said.
Troxell, a wrestler for Jefferson Township High School who graduated in 2000, is the first SCIL athlete to go pro. About two years ago, a friend brought him to the Evolutionary Martial Arts gym in Hackettstown, a converted warehouse with a wrestling mat, heavy bags, a boxing ring and experienced MMA trainers.
There, Troxell embraced Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He learned how to strike while avoiding the counter punch. He was taught submission holds. The ground fighting and takedowns came naturally, but there were some old habits he needed to break.
The hardest adjustment was learning to fight on his back. As a wrestler, that was the worst position of all. As an MMA fighter, it’s an effective battle tactic.
Troxell also struggled with standup fighting — defined mostly as kicking and punching — a discipline he is “learning more and more everyday,” he said.
He had problems with the standup combat in his last bout, which was for the Battle Cage Xtreme featherweight championship at the Collins Arena in Lincroft. Troxell was dominating the fight, according to promoter David Mastrogiovanni, before getting tagged with a flying elbow — an illegal move in wrestling. A bloody and dazed Troxell submitted to a choke hold at 4:07 of the first round.
It was his first loss in three professional fights.
“I love the ground game, but I’m going to need my hands regardless,” Troxell said.
Vernay says he is more comfortable on his feet, the result of being a “natural fighter.” He was enticed into Evolutionary Martial Arts gym by watching the UFC on SpikeTV, by far the most popular MMA program. The live fights and reality TV show “The Ultimate Fighter” have introduced a young and enthusiastic demographic to the sport, and the series has drawn as many as 4.2 million viewers per show, according to the UFC.
Vernay is the target audience.
After winning a wrestling district title for Mount Olive in 2004, Vernay’s college experience lasted a couple of months. He worked for his family’s moving company, itching to get back on the mat.
He said wrestling helped his balance more than anything, while training in kickboxing and jiu-jitsu transformed him into a budding professional with a 2-1 record before a fight Saturday in Asbury Park.
“I wrestled my whole life but I like to fight on my feet,” said Vernay, his front tooth missing because of a bar fight on St. Patrick’s Day. “I consider myself a wrestler and a boxer.”
Ferreira, the owner and chief instructor of Evolutionary Martial Arts, has his share of war stories. During a long competitive career in martial arts and full contact stick fighting, he has broken all his toes, all his fingers, an ankle, a leg, a collarbone, a wrist, a nose and has sustained an estimated 16 concussions.
A trainer for 15 years, Ferriera opened up Evolutionary Martial Arts in 2003, moved it to its current location last year and watched business boom.
“Thank you SpikeTV,” he said.
Most of Ferreira’s MMA clients are former wrestlers in their 20s, seeking a way back into that realm of one-on-one competition. Although he agrees that wrestlers have an advantage when approaching the sport, he warned that not every grappler is cut out for MMA.
“Everybody wants to be an MMA fighter, or at least they say they want to be an MMA fighter until they see how much work goes into it,” Ferreira said. “The chokes and the strikes take a while to get used to.”
For now, Ferriera has a monopoly on MMA training in the area, attracting members from all over Northwest New Jersey. But Mastrogiovanni is also trying to capitalize on the MMA boom, already promoting fights under his company, Team Boxing Inc, while searching for a trainer to lead his gym in Vernon.
Mastrogiovanni opened up his gym a year ago with the hopes of building a big boxing promotion company, but soon discovered MMA to be a more profitable business. He promoted his first MMA event on May 12, when Troxell suffered his forehead gash on the same card.
Mastrogiovanni also said he would promote local MMA amateur shows, perhaps at his Vernon gym, so that Sussex County wrestlers can try a sport fitting their expertise.
“The boxing is slowing down a bit. It’s hard to make money. From a business standpoint, it looked like a good time to get into MMA,” he said. “It’s a whole new breed, a different era. These guys are out there giving 110 percent and people want to see that.
“I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”
But there are people who are more skeptical of MMA’s success, believing it is an immoral fad that will eventually die out. Local boxing promoter Andre Kut said he has had offers to jump into the MMA business, but can’t put his heart into a sport that is so recklessly violent.
“It’s something new right now and people want to see other people getting their heads knocked off,” Kut said. “I won’t call it exciting, more brutal. People say boxing causes dementia. What do you think MMA will do to these guys in the long run?
“MMA just doesn’t do it for me. It’s not a sport. It reminds me of when I was a kid in a street fight.”
Still, Kut admits he could make easy money by promoting MMA events. Part of the reason is the fighters get paid close to nothing, often relying on a percentage of ticket sales. Troxell, for instance, made $500 at his last fight for showing up. He missed out on another $500 when he lost.
With only three fights in the last year, it is hardly a living. So he retains his day job with UPS, a company known for providing good health care.
“When you do what I do, you need good benefits,” he said.
Troxell wants to make a career out of MMA and eventually fight for big money in the UFC. Vernay isn’t so ambitious, taking his training one day at a time while reaping the muscular and cardiovascular benefits.
Vernay admits he is also in it for the thrill, the kind of adrenaline rush he got after knocking out his first opponent in 1 minute, 9 seconds.
“It was an insane feeling,” he said. “Like no other feeling I ever had.”
Better, even, than pinning somebody’s shoulders to a wrestling mat.
