Tim Credeur – Good Things Come to Those Who Keep Fighting

TapouT TUF 10 Team Rashad Football Jersey - Black/Gold Related Products TapouT TUF 10 Team Rampage T-shirt - Black/Silver TapouT TUF 10 Team Rampage Compression Top - Black/Silver TapouT TUF 10 Team Rampage Football Jersey - Black/Silver TapouT TUF 10 Team Rashad T-shirt - Black/Gold Related News Official UFC 106 Weigh-In Results Tito Ortiz’ New Beginning Forrest Griffin – The Quest to Get That Winning Feeling Back Parisyan is out of UFC 106; Bout with Hazelett Off ‘Kos’ and Effect Headlines Official UFC 106 Weigh-In Results Tito Ortiz’ New Beginning Forrest Griffin – The Quest to Get That Winning Feeling Back UFC 106: Fantasy Preview Parisyan is out of UFC 106; Bout with Hazelett Off

By Thomas Gerbasi

Like Forrest Griffin and Joe Stevenson before him, Tim Credeur had reached the breaking point. Years of blood, sweat, and tears with little reward or a light at the end of the tunnel had pushed him to this point in 2006 where he was going to walk away from the sport of mixed martial arts.

A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Credeur received his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt from Rodrigo Medeiros, the first Louisiana native to earn that prestigious honor, and among those in the know in the fight game, he was a solid fighter just in need of a big break. But it wasn’t coming, and after a loss to UFC and WEC vet Chael Sonnen (only his second defeat in nine pro fights), Credeur had made up his mind. He had his business degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in hand, had been accepted to an MBA program, and was on his way to bigger and better things.

“I had been fighting ten years or so, on and off, and I really wasn’t seeing any financial gains in my future,” said Credeur. “I wasn’t seeing it as being a way for me to be able to support my family, or more than that for me, to achieve what I wanted to achieve in the sport. I was getting frustrated and thinking about possibly calling it quits.”

His wife, Mamie, wouldn’t let him.

“Let’s give it another year,” she said. “You’ve been doing it so long, let’s give it another shot.”

Credeur agreed. Three first round wins – all by submission – would follow in 2006-2007, and then a little show called The Ultimate Fighter called. Today, all mixed martial arts fans know who Tim Credeur is, and on Saturday he will step into the UFC’s Octagon to face Cale Yarbrough in a fight that signifies a new chapter in a career that was almost over. And he’s got his wife to thank for it.

“Me being a professional fighter doesn’t allow her to have the dreams she wants to have to be a mom and for us to raise kids, and that’s a tough position for us to be in,” said Credeur of his bride. “But I married a great girl and her concern was more for me than it was for her, and you can’t buy that type of love or that type of relationship. Especially here in America, where we see a 60 percent divorce rate, and to be married to someone who’s willing to sacrifice of themselves for me, it’s an awe-inspiring relationship for me to be in. I definitely came from a more difficult background, and the fact that I accidentally found someone right for me, I can thank my lucky stars. But at the same time, I think maybe my wife saw some things in me that I might have missed. I definitely have to thank her more than anyone.”

It’s those moments that tell an inspiring tale, just like those of Griffin and Stevenson, fighters about to walk away from the game before getting a call to be on The Ultimate Fighter which changed their lives forever. Griffin will be challenging for the UFC light heavyweight title next month, and Stevenson is a top lightweight contender who recently fought for the 155-pound crown. Now it’s Credeur’s turn to make his mark, but no matter what you do, if he makes it big, don’t call him an overnight sensation.

“I think perseverance is one of the biggest factors you need if you’re gonna try to be a professional fighter because things are never gonna go the way you want them to and there are so many difficulties and obstacles along the way,” he said.

Credeur probably thought it was going to be easy when he turned pro in 2001 with a submission win over Kevin Denz. Zuffa had just come in and taken over the UFC, the sport was about to be back on pay-per-view and in Las Vegas for the first time, and it seemed like life as a pro fighter was going to be a successful and lucrative one.

It was for some, but not if you came out of Louisiana, and as the years went by and Credeur saw fighter after fighter from major camps get signed, he barely stayed active from 2002-2006 and wondered what he needed to do to get to the big show.

“To be honest, I did think about that, multiple times,” he said. “And I really have to attribute a lot of that to the fact that I was living in Louisiana. It’s really tough out there. There’s not a lot of coverage with the media, not a lot of internet sites covering fighting in the south, and it’s kinda like a lost corner. It’s pretty difficult to get out of there unless you get on a show like Melvin Guillard did, like Rich (Clementi) did. And Rich had a lot of the same problems – he fought once in the UFC, lost to Yves Edwards (in 2003), and the guy had like 30-something fights and he was still fighting anywhere anybody would give him a paycheck. And they weren’t big paychecks, but that’s kinda how it is for fighters in the south, and I hope to change that because it’s difficult. If you’re from Renzo Gracie’s team and you’ve got three or four wins, you get a big fight. Down south we’ve got guys with 15-20 fights and they’re trying to get in shows for 500 bucks. Hopefully I can change that and bring some recognition down for some of those guys.”

Despite it all, Credeur didn’t think of leaving though.

“All of us are grinders and we never quit,” said Credeur of Louisiana fighters. “Yeah, I might take an ass beatin’ for a while, but I’m not gonna quit unless you almost kill me. That’s the way we fight because that’s how we’ve had to fight. We’ve had to scratch and claw for everything we’ve gotten in our careers. Nothing was given to us, none of us were spoon fed, and we had to fight monsters every fight. And I think that builds a lot of internal fortitude.”

This year, Credeur finally got his shot thanks to The Ultimate Fighter, and though he fell short in two chances at making the final, his three previous wins on the show displayed a stellar submission game, and with an improved striking game that he hopes to show against Yarbrough on Saturday night, he’ll be a tough out for anyone.

“I’m at a place now in my career where my standup is better than you’ve seen on the show, my wrestling’s gotten better, and my jiu-jitsu’s gotten better, so I think I’m where I’m at right now because this is where I’m supposed to be at this time,” said the 30-year old, who has been training at the Warrior Training Center and Xtreme Couture Gym in Las Vegas to prepare for this weekend’s bout.

“It’s a lesson in survival every day, but as a fighter, if you can walk into these gyms and keep on walking in and keep on coming every day, you’re gonna see a lot of growth,” he said. “But to keep on coming every day for it is a lot more difficult than people realize. In the last eight weeks here, I can’t tell you how many people I see cycle in and out. It’s a meat grinder, but it definitely produces a high quality fighter if you can deal with it.”

Tim Credeur can deal with it. In fact, now that he’s made it here, he can’t possibly remember how he thought of doing anything else.

There were a couple things that Forrest said – he had a quote (from Virgil) one time, ‘Fortune favors the brave,’ and another time he quoted Shakespeare ‘To thine own self be true.’ Those are the kind of things I probably took away from The Ultimate Fighter the most, that there are other people out there fighting for their dreams. It’s okay to sacrifice some of your life fighting for these dreams, and it gave me the inspiration to go for it. It’s always been a struggle, but it happened this way for a reason and it’s worth it, because at the end of your life you just want to know you gave it your best shot.”

Share |