Music pulsed, blood spilled, and nearly 2,000 mixed martial arts fans rocked Tom Mott Gymnasium on the campus of Cal Poly in SLO on May 22 to show their appreciation for a rare event: a professional MMA show in their own backyard.
Fight for Wrestling, the first event of its kind to be held on a college campus, was billed as a charity for the school’s beleaguered wrestling program, a sport in danger of being cut for financial reasons.
The night’s pace was frenzied, and in the event’s eighth bout, pro lightweight jiu-jitsu practitioner Art Ramirez and his opponent Johnny Carson were locked in a technical grappling match. Ramirez looked to be in control for the first two rounds, scoring a takedown and keeping Carson neutralized on his back.
In the final minutes of the bout, a visibly fatigued Ramirez gave up his back to Carson, who eventually submitted Ramirez with a rear-naked choke. The loss came much to the chagrin of his cornermen, Santa Maria’s Corby Poulis and Ultimate Fighting Championship star Joe “Daddy” Stevenson, who had spent the previous days with Ramirez at Poulis’ Hitman Training Center in Orcutt, making final preparations for the fight.
“I thought he gave a world of effort,” Poulis said of his teammate. “He left it all in the cage. Sometimes you just come up a little short. But as far as heart goes, he gave it 110 percent.”
The 42-year-old Poulis was scheduled to fight on one of the card’s main events, but at the last minute, his opponent backed out due to an injury. Despite not being able to get into the cage himself, the day before the event, Poulis was busy helping Ramirez through the rigors of cutting more than 10 pounds in order to make the 135-pound lightweight limit at the evening’s official weigh-in.
“People think that you just do stuff for yourself, but even though I’m not fighting, he’s my teammate, so I’m going to cut weight with him,” he said. “That’s just what we do.”
For several hours at the Santa Maria Valley YMCA, Poulis shuffled Ramirez, clad in a specially designed plastic sweat suit, from the sauna to the treadmill and back again, matching him stride for stride. After a break, they followed up with a salt bath and some time hitting the mitts.
“Cutting weight sucks,” Poulis said of the process. “You’re cranky and you’re pissed off when you do it. You want to drink water and eat some food, but you can’t. You have to be mentally strong.”
A boxer and wrestler in his youth, Ramirez boasts six years in MMA, four of them spent with Stevenson. The fight against Carson was his sixth professional bout.
“I go around training at different gyms just so I can get better,” Ramirez said of his experience at Hitman. “This is an awesome place, and it’s a good way to get away and just focus on training. I don’t really know too many people out here, so I don’t have to worry about people bothering me.”
Besides Ramirez, Poulis had several other local fighters he’s trained with on the Fight for Wrestling card, including amateur heavyweight Johnny Hackleman Jr., pro lightweight Cruz Gomez, and welterweight Preston Scharf of Oceano.
Hailing from Arroyo Grande and fighting out of SLO Kickboxing, Hackleman defeated his opponent, Aaron Hamilton, in a hard-fought battle in front of the hometown crowd.
“It was fun and exciting,” Hackleman said of the show. “It felt good to have everyone come out. It was also a little nerve-wracking.
“There’s a lot of Poly students and people from the area hungry for fights,” he added. “It’s a great thing that they got to see them in person.”
The night’s event was the brainchild of Scott Adams, co-founder and president of the World Extreme Cagefighting and a Cal Poly alumnus. Adams called in his favors and brought a virtual who’s who in the MMA world to sit ringside, including former UFC light heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell, UFC fighter Josh Koscheck, and former UFC heavyweight champ Kevin Randleman.
Poulis, a former classmate of Liddell’s at Cal Poly, built his own fighting career at The Pit, a popular Arroyo Grande MMA gym responsible for producing many top UFC stars, including Liddell.
A world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for his age group, Poulis is now teaching a new generation the finer points of the art, submission grappling, American kickboxing, and Muay Thai through Hitman. He said he hoped the benefit show would help draw more local athletes into the sport.
“For this event to be on a college campus it really opens people’s eyes to what’s out there,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for these people to go to these places and train and be able to get the training they need to fight and compete.”
For his part, UFC’s Stevenson said he was excited for the opportunity to help save Cal Poly’s wrestling program.
“It’s not about the money at all,” he said. “So many wrestling programs are being dropped. UC Davis, Bakersfield, Fresno, the list goes on and on. For them to let this sport help the wrestling program, it’s amazing.”
In addition to being in town to corner and train Ramirez for the event, Stevenson is a regular visitor to Hitman. There, he occasionally teaches children the basics of MMA as he was on the day prior to the show.
“Look at the kids’ class. This is the big impact,” Stevenson said, surveying his pupils. “They’re learning the right discipline and respect. That’s priceless.”
And what does a successful UFC fighter think of the local talent base?
[image-4] “The Central Coast has some great fighters,” Stevenson said. “There’s so much to offer in California if you really want to give up everything and just train for fighting. That’s dedication in itself.”
As a longtime MMA practitioner who’s used to traveling to Las Vegas or Japan for fights, Poulis wholeheartedly agreed.
“There’s a lot of talent here,” he said. “These kids are starting in high school now. I get kids who are 10 to 15 years old and they’ve already got five or six years of wrestling and they’re learning jiu-jitsu.”
Poulis plans to fight in Japan later this year and encouraged anyone interested in becoming involved in MMA to take a chance on it.
“Come and try a free class and see if you’re in love with the idea of being a fighter or if you’re in love with fighting, because they’re two very different things,” he said. “We love to fight, and we love competing.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas spills blood when he types. Contact him at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 3, 2010.