Kicking Back With The Goat

By Jon Grilz

“I would love a shot at [Yushin] Okami,” exclaimed Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked welterweight “The Goat” Nick Thompson (35-9-1), when asked if he would like a shot at redeeming a loss years prior.

“Thunder” Okami (22-4) is Fighters.com’s fifth-ranked middleweight.

“No disrespect to him, but I got injured in the fight right after taking him down.  I took him down fairly easily.  I’m fairly confident that when I’m on top of anybody I’m going to end the fight.”

To the average MMA fan, this might seem like a lofty goal, but it doesn’t stop there for Thompson.

“I have my last final [exam before graduating University of Minnesota Law School], then I take the bar [exam] in July.”

Not to mention his fight scheduled for 3 June at Sengoku III versus Chute Boxing Academy’s “Maicon” Michael Costa (9-3).

“I’ll fight at heavyweight if the offer is right! Or 155, I’ll just cut off a leg!”

Perhaps a fight against sixth-ranked heavyweight “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (28-1).  “It’d be scary, but fun from my position!”

There is no shortage of personality for the man that has enough sense of humor to be known as “The Goat”.  Not to mention continuing with MMA after starting 1-3.

“I just enjoy it.  I was never really good at it.  It was just something that I was enjoying, then I started beating people I wasn’t supposed to beat.
 
“I would be brought in as an opponent.  I think Josh Neer is a prime example.  He had just fought in the UFC; and, they brought me in just to get him a win, then I beat him [via rear naked choke in the second round] and a couple of black belts from Top Team.

“I was just being brought in as a tune-up fight and, suddenly, I was beating guys; and, my coach pulls me aside and says ‘Hey, you should really think about doing this and really taking a shot at it.’”

“It wasn’t even really until after the Karo Parisyan fight that my wife sat me down and said that I had to make a decision whether I was going to train full time or not.  Until the Karo fight, I was only training maybe four hours a week.  Now I’m training four or five hours a day.”

Of course, that isn’t to say that all of Thompson’s fights have been lined up as he would like.  Thompson admits that “there have been sometimes when I wasn’t excited to fight.”

“My last fight, [a controversial unanimous decision win over "Pitbull" Fabricio Monteiro (16-7)], I was excited to be in Japan; but, just style-wise and where I was coming from in my career, it seemed like a lose/lose fight.

“If I beat him, I was supposed to be him.  If I lost to  him, I lost to a guy that wasn’t very good.  Fights like that are hard to get up for.

“Mark Weir was another example when I fought him in BoDog.  Mark is a tough guy, he will knock you out if you make a mistake.  He hits fairly hard, but, at the same time, he was on like a four- or five-fight losing streak; and, it’s kind of like: If I beat him, so what?  And, it’s not an easy fight.”

Easy or not, Thompson has strung together 11 straight wins after losing to “Heat” Karo Parisyan (18-5) at UFC 50 in April 2006, many of which he has fought at 170-pounds, a difficult achievement for a fighter who stands 6′1″ and walks around at around 210-pounds, according to his trainers.

And now, fighting at Sengoku, the welterweight fighter will have to drop even more weight to get to the required 167-pounds for his division.  Nick confessed that on Mother’s Day he, “went over to my mom’s house; and, they made a great dinner; and, I brought my own Tupperware of chicken, heated it up in the microwave.”

For a moment, Nick’s usually cheerful face suddenly showed a sign of regret.  “It’s not just hard on me, it’s hard on my wife.  We’re newlyweds, 25-, 26-years old.  Most people like to go out and get burgers or go to bars with friends.  I can’t do that.”

Of course, that isn’t to say that he has to either.  Remember, Thompson is a graduating law student who has more than just mixed martial arts as an option.  So, why wouldn’t he give up being hit in the face for a living?

To Nick the answer seemed simple.  “I can be a lawyer when I’m 40!”

After years of fighting and enduring strain to personal relationships, Nick has learned the hard lessons he wishes he had known earlier.

He said, “One [lesson] is really surrounding yourself with good guys.

“Coming to a  school like [Minnesota Martial Arts Academy] may be more expensive than going to a smaller school, but the learning curve is just so exponential.  If you are paying $15 more a month to come and train with top level guys, it really pays for itself.”

Without pausing to think, Nick offered more advice for prospective fighters.  “Another one is: Get management!  It is really tempting when you’re a young fighter that, if a promoter says, ‘Here’s $50 and a sandwich, go fight this guy.’

“When you are a young fighter, you should have the mentality that you will fight anyone, but you really need a manager or a coach to say, ‘Hey, no, here’s what you are going to do.’

“And the last thing is something I learned too late in my career.  I wished I had learned sooner…to train out of your comfort zone.  If you are really good at jiu-jitsu and suck a wrestling, you need to practice your wrestling.

“It’s better to suck in practice than to get in a fight and realize ‘this guy is better than me at jiu-jitsu and I don’t know how to wrestle’.  It isn’t terribly fun at practice, but it’s better than losing in a fight.”

As always, Nick is thankful for his wife, his training partners at Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy, and his sponsors Tapout and Island Nutrition.

Photos of Thompson with Emelianenko and Thompson in Costa Rica are copyrighted by Nick Thompson from www.nickthompson.tv.