Jun-7-2007

Jason Black - Filling The Void

By Thomas Gerbasi

Usually the best news comes when you least expect it. Jason Black, a seven year veteran of mixed martial arts, with 22 wins in 25 fights and a reputation among the hardcore followers of the sport as one of the most underrated fighters in the game, had given up waiting, had given up expecting that he was going to one day get that call to fight in the UFC.

“Every day that goes by, you wonder if it will ever come,” said Black, “but you’ve just got to be true to yourself. They’re running a business and if they don’t think I’m good enough to be in their show, you have to move on and take what’s there.”

Being good enough was never a question. For the first five years of his career, from 2000 to 2005, the only blemish on Black’s record was a draw with Antonio McKee in 2001. Wins over John Alessio, Ivan Menjivar, Gideon Ray, and Keith Wisniewski dotted his record, and when he finally did lose in 2006 to Shonie Carter, it was due to an elbow injury. So Black was good enough, but the phone never rang. Most observers assumed that with a host of his MFS Elite teammates filling up the UFC ranks throughout the years, and a limited amount of shows, that the timing was never right for him, but no one ever made that known to him.

“I never talked to anyone about it and I’ve never had anybody tell me they know why (I never got the call for the UFC),” he said. “It was out of my hands.”

Well, not for long, as Black found out what a difference 15 pounds can make, and after a drop to lightweight and wins in two out of three subsequent fights in 2006-2007 (including two in PRIDE), he finally got the long overdue call.

“It was a blessing,” said Black of his invite to take on Brazil’s Thiago Tavares at UFC Fight Night in Hollywood, Florida this Tuesday. “It’s the stage that every fighter wants to fight on, and to get that phone call means that I finally get my opportunity to showcase my talents in front of the biggest crowd in mixed martial arts.”

And for those who have never seen the Iowan in action, he gives the following introduction: “The fans should expect me to give my all, no matter what. Whether it’s a good performance or a bad performance, it will be everything I have on that day.”

That’s always been Black’s M.O. He’s not flashy with one punch knockouts and flying armbars, and he’s not one to talk trash for days to build up a fight. Like his colleagues in the Bettendorf gym, he likes to let his fighting do the talking, and he’s got the blue collar attitude fitting for a guy who puts in a full week of work as a railroad switchman.

And it’s not easy. Third shift on Wednesdays, second shifts on Thursdays and Fridays, and first shift on both weekend days, leaving him precious little time to train and see his wife and two kids. But he somehow manages to do it.

“On two of those days I only get eight hours off in between work so it’s real taxing on my body, but it allows me Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to train twice a day, and I get to train once a day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so Thursday is basically my day off from training, but it’s not really a day off as far as rest and relaxation because I only get eight hours off in between my shifts. So I’m always going.”

What keeps him going though? It’s a simple enough question, but the answers aren’t as easy to come by, especially for someone who has already gone through a one year sabbatical from the game just because he had run out of reasons to keep doing it on a professional basis. So why come back and do it?

“I wish I knew,” he said. “There are a lot of psychiatrists that wish they knew too. (Laughs) I grew up wrestling, and always had that schedule of having to work out. Even when I wasn’t fighting, I was still working out half or at least three quarters as much as I was when I was fighting. So I never really left the sport; I just wasn’t fighting. I was probably still training more than 80% of the people in the gym. It’s just a way of life for me, and then the opportunity came about to fight in King of The Cage, and Pride was right after that, and now the UFC.”

And like any athlete who knows what it’s like to compete at a high level, there’s always that sense of unfinished business, that desire to come back and do better than you’ve done in the past. Black fits that mold perfectly.

“I think everybody’s goal, when they get in this sport, is to be the toughest guy at their weight, and sitting around gave me the relaxation I needed to step back from the sport and take another look and decide if I wanted to take another run at it,” he explains.

Black’s first fight back after his layoff was a first round submission win over Kyle Jensen, which was then followed by the loss to Carter and a TKO win over Won Jin Eoh in PRIDE less than four months later. He would lose his next fight via submission to Shinya Aoki, also in PRIDE, and though his comeback then stood at 2-2, he had no excuses for the defeat.

“It was disappointing, but he was the better fighter on that day and he deserved to win,” said Black of the Aoki fight. “All I can ask out of myself is to train my best and try to perform at my best. I felt like I trained as hard as I could for that fight and then I went out there with every intention of winning, but I didn’t. You can’t really be disappointed with yourself if you put everything you’ve got into it.”

Everything means a lot of sacrifice – mainly of time with his family. He admits that he and his wife still haven’t had a honeymoon after two and a half years of marriage, and that he hasn’t had a vacation in almost six years because of his fight career. His employers try to work with him on his schedule, but he still has to use vacation time to travel for fights.

“People have no idea the hell I go through,” he admits, but it doesn’t stop him from continuing to fight and chase his dream. Ask him what it is though, and he’ll just chuckle.

“I don’t know. I hope I know it when I see it. And it won’t be money. If I got a crazy amount of money for this fight, that would help, but it won’t solve the hunger inside.”

That’s what keeps him going - even at the age of 34 and with years of training and fighting – the hunger.

“Right now I’m trying to feed the empty on the inside,” he admits. “Always wanting more, wanting to be better. You’re never really the best because there’s always someone coming up. Even if you were at the top, there’s always that stud coming up behind you. Look at Matt (Hughes) – even when he was on top, everybody was still talking about (Georges) St-Pierre. There’s never a good time to leave. You just have to find that inner peace and be able to walk away and say ‘I did what I’ve come here to do,’ and hope that you don’t stick around too long.”

And despite his street cred among hardcore fight fans, in the great scheme of things, Black is coming into Tuesday’s fight as the unknown vet taking on the 22-year old up and comer with the gaudy 15-0 record in Tavares. So if you think he’s just going to show up with a smile, simply happy to be in the Octagon, you’d be wrong. He’s still searching for something when that bell rings, and that’s the greatest motivation of all.

“If I thought I’d found what I was looking for, I would slack off,” said Black. “I try to train harder for every fight. I remember what I did the time before, so I’ve got to do at least that because if I don’t, I’ll know in the back of my mind that I didn’t train hard enough.”

As for Tavares?

“I hope he brings everything he’s got, because I’m going to, and we’ll just see what happens.”