Mar-4-2009
Kendall Grove – Proud to be a Fighter
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Silver Star Urijah Faber Cali Crown T-shirt
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By Thomas Gerbasi
Kendall Grove thought it would be easy, thought a little time away from his now seven month old daughter Khloe would allow him to get some rest from the ‘new daddy’ grind and completely focus on his return to the UFC Octagon this Saturday against Jason Day.
Uh-uh.
“It’s harder than you think,” laughs Grove. “When you’re training for your fight you’ve got to get your eight hours and your rest. But when they left, a week went by and I’m crying in the bed looking at her picture. So I’m getting a lot of different emotions, but it did make me stronger as a person and as a fighter.”
“It” is the force that can alter any man’s life – fatherhood. It’s something that should make him re-evaluate his place in the world and correct the shortcomings of the past in order to provide for a positive future for his new mouth to feed. The 26-year old Grove, who welcomed Khloe into the world last July with fiancée Kalehua, is definitely on board with that line of thinking.
“I think it made me stronger because I want to do better,” he said. “When my daughter gets older, I want her to be proud of who her father is. I know she will be regardless of what happens, but my goal is to do the best that I can so she can go to school proud to say that her dad accomplished his dreams, he fought his heart out and he didn’t give up. That makes me train harder and fight smarter. And being away from her this long definitely motivates me to kick some ass.”
Grove’s day job as a professional mixed martial artist took a hiatus in the second half of 2008, as he followed up the biggest win of his career – a decision victory over the late Evan Tanner in June of last year – with six months of being a father and opening up a new school with buddy Troy Mandaloniz in Maui. It’s not the move most fighters would make, but it’s one Grove doesn’t regret for a minute, especially since it allowed him to recharge his batteries and establish a new base of operations back home in Hawaii.
“Not taking anything away from the camps that I had before, but I’m more comfortable here because everyone here has been through what I’ve been through and they grew up the same way I did,” said Grove, who set up camp for the Day fight in Hilo with Rudy Valentino, JD and Reagan Penn, Shane Nelson, and the rest of the Penn MMA crew. “For some reason, the vibe clicks. I always wanted to live in Hawaii and fight, but the opportunity wasn’t always here for me. It was in Vegas and California – that’s where all the talent and the opportunities were and it paid off for me. But I’m at home now. I’ve got all the tools and the skills, and I can live in Maui, run my school, and then when I’ve got a fight, I’ll come to Hilo.”
Grove, a Maui native, has always made Hawaii not only a home, but part of his identity. So given recent losses by BJ Penn and Mandaloniz, “Da Spyder” enters Saturday’s bout at the Nationwide Arena not only to win for himself, but for Hawaii.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little pressure, and I know everybody says it, but as long as I go out there and fight I’ll be okay,” he said. “You saw Troy’s fight (a hard-fought decision loss to Paul Kelly at UFC 95). He didn’t give up. He gassed, but he didn’t give up and sometimes it’s just not your night. I trained my ass off for this fight; my conditioning is tip-top, and I’m not worried about my conditioning or getting punched in the face, but we’re all human. I feel 100 percent that I’m gonna go in there and do my thing, but I know that on any given night, #$%$ can happen, and if I don’t come correct, it’s gonna be a short night for Kendall Grove. So there’s a little pressure in there because one of my heroes and my best friend just had tough fights and I’m hungry to bring one back for Hawaii, me, and Shane Nelson, who’s been in the same training camp as me. We’re definitely going to Ohio with bad intentions in what we want to accomplish.”
That’s not what you’ll usually hear from an athlete before a fight. Usually it’s a lot of bluster, a lot of talk about what he’s going to do to his opponent and where he’s going after another victory. Grove has always shattered that stereotype, and while he credits his parents with some of that honesty – the rest of it comes from an unlikely source.
“My honesty came from Joe Riggs, from Hector Ramirez, from Savant Young, Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera,” said Grove, referring to the five fighters who have put the “5” on his 11-5 record. “Those guys beat humbleness into me. Plus my parents always tell me to be humble, pray to God, and that even the best fall down. The true champions stand up and roll with the punches.”
Whether Grove reaches that championship level will be a tale told in the next two to three years. But if he does fall short, it won’t be from lack of trying, as evidenced by a flashback to his high school wrestling career, which started in his sophomore year and didn’t exactly set the world on fire.
“I didn’t win too many matches,” he recalls. “I won maybe two or three and I think they were by luck. (Laughs) But I had that competitiveness, and I know I’m not the best in the world, but I hope to become the best.”
He’s training to become the best as well, putting in the hours to not only work on what he does best, but to sew up the holes in his game. Again, he refers to UFC vets like Cote, Rivera, Riggs, and Ramirez.
“I lost to them and on paper it’s a loss, but to me, I didn’t lose because they taught me a hole in my game that I can improve on,” he said. “Yeah, it sucks when you lose, and it hurts and it’s kind of humiliating, but after a week, it’s time to get back on it, and I just drill what I got caught with.”
With each camp, another loss-inducing flaw gets erased, and after more than ten months away from the game, Grove is more than eager to get back into the Octagon and perform once again. And while it’s not the only meaningful part of his life anymore, as he tells it, it’s still a pretty good way to make a living.
“I miss getting punched,” he laughs. “I miss that feeling walking out there and knowing that after eight weeks of training I can finally go a hundred percent, and the feeling of standing across from your opponent and saying let’s go, let’s get it on. That’s my heaven, my getaway, my stress relief. I’ve never been good at nothing but this. I tried playing football, I tried working construction, I tried to go to school but I hated it, and I finally got a taste of fighting and it’s the best. I’m proud to say that I’m a fighter.”
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