You could say UFC light heavyweight Stephan Bonnar (11-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC) has woken up and smelled the coffee.
In his most recent fight, the original "Ultimate Fighter" alumnus was paired with Mark Coleman at UFC 100 after "The Hammer's" disastrous debut at UFC 93. Many thought it would be a walk in the park for Bonnar.
Prior to the July 11 fight, Bonnar had a dream that he was going to knock the former UFC heavyweight champion out with a spinning back kick.
Bonnar, who next faces Krzystzof Soszynski at UFC 110 on Feb. 21, became consumed by the need to land that kick. He would make it happen. He would find the opportunity and bam — glory.
Despite carrying the nickname "The American Psycho," Bonnar is no more a crackpot than most MMA fighters. But until then, he rarely would dream about fighting, much less his opponent.
"That's why I took it so seriously," Bonnar told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) on Wednesday. "It's lik, 'Ah! God sent me a message! I'm going to take Coleman out with a spinning back kick.'"
Instead, Coleman did what he does best and smothered Bonnar's superior striking with patented ground-and-pound. Bonnar threw the kick in the second round but missed, and suddenly, he was on the canvas, where he spent most of the fight's remainder.
The old dog showed the young buck a thing or two.
"If [the kick] would have landed, everyone would have said how great I was, but it didn't, and I get a bunch of [expletive] for it," Bonnar said. "That's how it is."
Now, he lets his coaches dream about the fight and follows their lead.
"I'm putting it more in their hands," Bonnar said. "Whereas in the past it's been more in my hands."
Bonnar, a Las Vegas transplant, continues to work with jiu-jitsu coach Sergio Pena and has linked up with Muay Thai sanctuary One Kick's Gym. He joins Frank Mir, Gray Maynard, Jay Hieron and Phil Baroni at Phillipe Sports Institute (or PSI, run by former World's Strongest Man competitor Mark Phillipe) for grueling weight-training sessions.
He insists he hasn't joined Mir in packing on 30 pounds worth of muscle, as recent reports have described. But he's getting stronger, and the trio of gyms is a good fit.After Mark Coleman loss, UFC 110's Stephan Bonnar no longer a dream interpreter
For an aspiring UFC fighter, there are two typical routes to make it into the promotion. The first is to battle your way through the local, independent shows, and the second is to try out for Spike TV's reality show, The Ultimate Fighter.
Maynard chose the latter, and even though he began his UFC career with a blistering 7-0 record, Maynard does not believe he took the best possible path.
"The TV show was there so I tried out," Maynard said. "Was I prepared to go into it? I don't think so, but it was a chance. I had only been training for a year."
Maynard had a professional record of just 1-0 with one no-contest prior to entering the TUF house. With the high amount of pressure and visibility attached to the program, Maynard believes the first option is much safer.
"I would try to get 10 small shows first," said the former Michigan State wrestling star. "Someone should really be ready before they go on The Ultimate Fighter. If you do well, it will really pay off, but if you don't, people will say 'this guy sucks'."
Maynard suffered his only mixed martial arts defeat on TUF to Nate Diaz (matches on the television show are considered exhibitions). Diaz won by submission with a guillotine choke in the second round.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/mma/01/05/maynard.interview/index.html?xid=si_mma#ixzz0bwZpV6Iq
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