All the signs pointed away from this line of work for Jared Rollins; after all, it just wasn’t what he grew up with. Martial arts, pugilism, wrestling - these words held no meaning in the Rollins home and it would be even stranger for the prodigal son to seek this form of athleticism anyway. After all, as the son of a preacher father and a mother who is a teacher, with no siblings to bang and roll with, who would have thought the youngest Rollins would seek the cage as his stage.
“I grew up in Long Beach, California, I was an only child,” said Rollins. “I grew up like any other kid’s life, I had to deal with the violence and stuff like that; my parents tried to keep me away from stuff like that. My dad was a pastor, my mom was a teacher so my parents were real big on education.”
Football was Rollins’ first dream and it was the one shared by the rest of the family. Rollins was a natural with the pigskin, and after doing so well in high school, he went from junior college to Chapman University in Orange, California.
“I was playing football in college and they wanted me to play football and with that I took it as far as I could go and then once I graduated they expected me to get on with my life, taking jobs and stuff.”
It was during his junior year that Rollins abandoned football dreams and started flirting with the martial arts. Ironically, it signaled the end of a relationship between father and son where communication was the only currency. In its place was silence that has lasted all the way to his now 31 year old existence. The Preacher’s Kid was now starting the blind transition into mixed martial artist J-Roc.
“My junior year I actually quit football; I got tired of it and quit and just decided to go to school. I started training in some jiu-jitsu and then just branched off from there. I don’t talk to my dad anymore. I haven’t talked to my dad since my junior year in high school; but my mom doesn’t care for it at all. After college she wanted me to go ahead and get a job and start taking care of myself, making some money. Actually, my whole family (sighs), they kind of look down on it, don’t care much for it, they don’t see it as a legitimate sport, you know. Its tough trying to get them acclimated to this lifestyle, but I’m still just doing my thing.”
Indeed, as the former football player delved head first into competition, a new path was illuminated to satiate the athlete within. The decision from mere trainee to full fledged fighting professional was accidental at best, according to Rollins.
“I didn’t man, it just kind of happened,” responds Rollins when asked why he decided to go pro. “I was just competing jiu-jitsu and training a lot where I was at, and I don’t know. I decided to take a fight, in the fight things went well, and I just kept training jiu-jitsu some more. I didn’t really focus back to fighting, but then I fought one more time and decided that I really liked it, so I decided to start fighting. I didn’t choose fighting; fighting chose me.”
The new pro delivered two first round wins early in small organizations before three fights in the King of the Cage organization that yielded two wins and one loss. It wasn’t long before Rollins’ big chance came in the form of auditions for the sixth installment of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. Once chosen, Rollins joined Team Matt Hughes where he gained more knowledge from the past champion and his team of conditioners.
“The show was a stressful environment. It was a good means to an end, being that I got a chance to get in the UFC, but the environment is not a realistic environment for everyday fight preparation. Cutting weight, being focused in your own way, you can only do things the way it’s set up for you there on the show, and they set up these interviews all the time at your worst moments and stuff like that. But training with Team Hughes was cool. He does things a little differently from what I’m used to, but I was able to make the transition to train with them okay. Robbie Lawler and Coach Fiore, his assistants, were real cool cats; coach Matt Pena too.”
Although he lost to George Sotiropoulos by knockout in the first round during the show, Rollins’ performance was indicative of his undeniable fighter’s will to win. This inner will was punctuated at the finale when Jared churned out a Best of 2007 DVD style performance against Jon Koppenhaver. The result garnered him a three fight contract and permanently placed him in 2007 as one of the highlights of the year.
“I wasn’t happy with the outcome of the fight, but overall, I was happy with my performance. It’s probably my best performance I’ve had. I’ve looked worse, so I have to feel it, and I was happy with it. He went for it and I went for it.”
On August 9th Rollins gets his first taste of the big time pay-per-view atmosphere when he faces off against fellow TUF 6 alumnus, Ben “Killa B” Saunders, at UFC 87 in Minneapolis. Although Rollins acknowledges that Saunders’ “strengths would be his stand-up and he has some ground game too,” the future is bright for this new UFC entrant.
“I want to just establish myself as a household name first; I’m just trying to make my mark right now. I feel like my foot’s not even in the door. Even though that fight (against Koppenhaver) was a great fight, I feel like I need to put three or more out there, three or four more like that and then go from there. I definitely want to establish myself as a dominant force, one of the strongest fighters in the division, a contender, one of the greats. I want to be balanced, not just a heavy hitter, a submitter or a wrestler, but all three”
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