Matt Grice – MMA’s Bionic Man Makes His UFC Debut

UFC Deluxe Action Figure - Anderson Silva Related Products TapouT Viva Las Vegas T-shirt Silver Star GSP Premium Tee - Grey Silver Star GSP Premium Tee - White Silver Star GSP Premium T-shirt - Black 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 Undercard Bouts Included w/Purchase of UFC 106 by 10p PT Tonight Tito Ortiz’ New Beginning Forrest Griffin – The Quest to Get That Winning Feeling Back UFC 106: Fantasy Preview

By Thomas Gerbasi

Matt Grice wasn’t your typical high school wrestler. A four-time State champion in Oklahoma, three-time outstanding wrestler award winner, and a second place finisher in the 2000 Nationals, it was safe to say that the Midwest City native was going to have his pick when it came to Division I wrestling programs.

It was the payoff for years of hard work in a sport he began training in at the age of five, and when he was recruited and signed by the University of Oklahoma, everything was going according to plan for a gifted athlete who also turned down scholarship offers to play baseball in order to become a Sooner.

In fact, it was too much of a Hollywood story to keep going on that path, and in the summer before his freshman year, Grice would be involved in a horrible car accident that threw him from his vehicle through the windshield and changed everything.

“Before that, you hear stories about things happening to people, and I’m thinking ‘I’m from a small town in Oklahoma, that can’t happen to me. That only happens in big cities,’” remembered Grice. “But it definitely made me realize that life’s short and that anything can happen at any given time. Everything can be taken away from you in a heartbeat.”

Over the next three years, a kid who was seemingly invincible found out that he was human. All of a sudden, Grice dealt in numbers that didn’t reflect his weight class or his win-loss record. The numbers now were eight, for the number of surgeries he was forced to undergo; two, for the number of shoulder reconstructions he had; and one, for the elbow that needed to be redone.

To his credit, Grice kept trying to compete, winning a starting spot in his sophomore and junior years before being sidelined by the shoulder surgeries and a pulled quad muscle, but eventually, it got to be too much and he hung up his singlet after his junior year.

“I was pretty down on my luck when I was in college,” he admitted. “I was pretty mentally broke down and stressed out about the whole deal. Coming out of high school, being recruited like I was, and then I got in a car wreck and it just going from one thing to another. I ended up having like eight surgeries while I was in college. I knew I wanted to compete from the time I saw my first UFC when I was in seventh grade, and I knew I wanted to fight for them, but I didn’t know whether I was going to get the chance to compete in anything again.”

Grice put his competitive jones to the side, graduated with a degree in sociology in May of 2005 and began thinking about a career as a firefighter or police officer. By now a year and a half had passed, and a body that had been beaten down - from years or training and from his car accident – started to feel good again. So he went back to the gym with a new goal in mind – competing in mixed martial arts, where he needed to adjust his mindset a bit from his wrestling days.

“You use your aggression from wrestling as a positive, but (in MMA) sometimes you can be too aggressive on the ground and you can get caught in a guillotine or triangle choke,” he explains. “In wrestling, that’s what you’re always trying to do – keeping the intensity level in your opponent’s face all the time. And the hard part’s just learning how to sit back and relax a little bit, and feel out what’s going on. A good jiu-jitsu guy’s just waiting for a wrestler to come in explosively so he can catch him.”

And not only did Grice have to deal with learning a new sport, he had to deal with numerous questions about his decision to fight from his friends and family.

“Everybody was like, ‘are you crazy?’” he laughs. “They said, ‘You couldn’t even stay healthy in wrestling and now you want to fight?’ My college coach, Jack Spates, still laughs at me. Every time I see him, he says ‘what’s the difference? You couldn’t stay healthy in college, and now you’re fighting and you’re healthy.’”

Strangely enough, other than the usual bumps and bruises that come with the sport, Grice has been injury free since becoming a mixed martial artist, and he has the active resume to show it, as he has put together a 9-0 record since turning pro in October of 2005.

“I think sometimes you do need a break,” he said. “I had been wrestling for so long that finally, my body needed a break to recover. Ever since then, I’ve been great.”

And now, he’s a UFC fighter, making his debut this Saturday night in Manchester, England against Terry Etim.

“My training’s been going well, my body feels good, and mentally, I don’t think it’s gonna be that big a deal,” said the 25-year old of his first Octagon bout. “I’ve wrestled since I was around five years old, and I’m used to that one on one competition. The UFC’s definitely the biggest stage I’ve ever competed on, but I enjoy that – the bigger the crowd, the more it brings the best out of me.”

This crowd probably won’t be on his side, as Etim will undoubtedly be bringing his Liverpool faithful with him to the MEN Arena. But fighting in his opponent’s backyard is something Grice is used to.

“I did it all the time in wrestling,” said Grice. “In MMA, I’ve only fought in Oklahoma maybe three times, so most of the time I fought somewhere it was either in someone’s hometown or in some other state. But the main one I can think of is when I fought out in Oakland, California (A decision win over Daniel Marks in June of last year). The guy I fought was from San Francisco, so it was pretty much his hometown. I didn’t have anybody there for me, just me and my trainers, and everybody was there for him. But I like that. It gives you a little bit more reason to fight.”

And if that gives you any sort of edge, it’s a good thing, especially in the competitive lightweight division.

“It’s one of the most stacked divisions there is, and the reason I got the fight here is because I want to be the best,” he said. “I want to fight the best, and I feel that given the opportunity, I’ll fight anybody they want me to and with the right training time, I would be a hard fight for anybody.”

First things first though, and that’s getting past Etim on Saturday. As far as Grice is concerned, that means bringing the fight to his foe and letting the chips fall where they may.

“It’s going to be a high-energy fight,” said Grice. “I want to make it as exciting as I can for the fans, so expect some fireworks. He’s a tough opponent, and from everything I’ve seen and heard, it’s gonna be a war, but I plan on coming out with the W.”

Share |