Mar-7-2010

Rodney Wallace - The Return of Sho’Nuff

By Rhett Butler

In 1985, the film The Last Dragon debuted to the rare mix of horrible critiques by the movie critics and impressive box office sales. As one of the rare oxymoronic pieces of cinema, it became a cult classic with the timeless tale of naive good versus conscious evil. Lead character Leroy Green, referred to colloquially as Bruce Leroy, sought the ultimate level of martial arts enlightenment embodied by “the glow”, which was held by his nemesis Sho’nuff, who possessed the glow and fear of all challengers.

Although defeated by ‘Bruce Leroy’ at the conclusion of the movie, the spirit and unforgettable name of Sho’nuff has returned in UFC newcomer Rodney Wallace. Heading into his second fight within the 8-sided battlefield, there is no mistake that this former Passaic, New Jersey turned South Carolina transplant enjoys his relative ambiguity to UFC fans, and merely wants to be seen as the bad guy by the guy standing across from him in competition.

“Everybody watches the fight movies when they grow up and that’s mainly why anybody wants to fight anyway,” he said. “They want to be that dude, and I knew it was catchy and I knew it would resonate with everybody, so I’ll just rock with that. I’m definitely the bad guy in the fight game because of how much trash I talk and I love to talk trash. That’s the game of it and I got a lot of respect ultimately for everybody, but this is what we do, man; we’re entertainers, so I’m going to play that role.”

Since his first professional mixed martial arts fight in 2008, Wallace certainly has been the bad guy for his first nine opponents, as he rode an undefeated wave into the UFC. With a careful mix of jiu-jitsu ability, boxing skill and wrestling expertise, the wins came by submission, an eight second first round knockout and by decision, all of which were unanimous. The glow was upon Wallace, and sans the flowing lion’s mane from the character in The Last Dragon, he was living up to his assumed namesake.

“I have a good wrestling pedigree,” he said. “I won the state championship three times, and then in boxing, when I went into that I went against a couple of guys that had been boxing for years and years and things like that. Then I trained in jiu-jitsu and I knew I probably wouldn’t be a real exciting fighter, but I know how to win, I know how to control somebody. The success came from just knowing what I can do, knowing myself and just knowing what I can do instead of really trying to go out there and show somebody that I’m everything. I just go out there and win the fight and get better progressively.”

Enter Brian Stann and the inevitable plot twist of the glow stolen from the antagonist. It was during the finale for The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights that yet another unanimous decision victory would be handed down during a Wallace fight. This time his hand would not be raised and another would claim victory.

“I gave myself the first round, I gave him the second round and I felt like the judges are going to give the judgment to whomever they want to for the third round. So the decision could have went either way. I felt like I won and I know he would have felt like he won if he’d lost so with that said, it was an exciting fight and however they judge it they judge it and the people are going to judge it however they want.”

With his next fight on the super-sized UFC 111 card, amid weight class gear-shifting bouts like Mir vs. Carwin and St-Pierre vs. Hardy, Wallace has much to prove to himself. His next opponent, Jared Hamman, is also going into his second UFC bout after losing his first by a 41 second knockout in the first round by Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 105. The fight could be a popular opinion-turning point for either fighter.

“It’s always disappointing to lose to somebody you’re supposed to beat. I feel like I was supposed to beat Brian (Stann) and I feel like I’m supposed to beat (Hamman) and to go out there and do less than that will be disappointing. It will be disappointing to me and it will be disappointing to my camp because we know what we are supposed to do, but anything is possible in a fight. You could have a different game plan of really trying to excel and the other guy can have a game plan of surviving and they can shine through by just surviving rather than you shining through by trying to really be exciting. So anything can happen and I’m definitely going to try to be exciting, and I’m definitely going to try and put the fight away.”

As the curtain rises for the next performance of Rodney Wallace as Sho’Nuff, the only question is will the glow return in the form of a ‘W.’ To Wallace, however, unlike his mythologized counterpart, winning isn’t everything, and the true glow lies in a strong showing, not only a notch in the win column.

“People are going to see different things, and every time I go out they are going to see somebody different. I’m going to be more and more confident every time I go out and I’m going to be more of that type of character in the ring. I’m not in there just to win; I really want to perform while I’m in there, so I really want to feel what the people want to see. I feel like I can do a lot of things, so I really want to show people that I can do this or I can do that at that (highest) level every time I go in there, and do something different because I don’t want to show you the same me every time I go out.”