Former K-1 Kickboxer Scott Lighty Successfully Transitioning to MMA at Strikeforce

In August 2005, K-1 kickboxer Scott Lighty (5-0) was a win away from the Grand Prix championship in Las Vegas. He had fell karateka Tatsufumi Tomihira in the first round with a head kick and won a unanimous decision over Golden Glory’s “Die Faust” Chalid Arrab (7-3). Only Russia’s Ruslan Karaev stood between him and the K-1 trophy.

An aggressive Lighty beat Karaev so dizzy in the first round, Karaev staggered to Lighty’s corner at the bell and had to be redirected by The Pit boss John Hackleman. But, thirty seconds into round two Lighty got slugged with a straight right from the southpaw and never got back in the fight, despite continuing to move forward throughout the final two rounds of the decision loss.

After a 1-1 night at the following year’s Las Vegas GP, Lighty decided there wasn’t enough K-1 action to keep him busy and he’d join his teammates Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked light heavyweight “Iceman” Chuck Liddell (21-7) and “Brazilian Pit Bull” Glover Teixeira (7-2) in the increasingly popular sport of mixed martial arts.

Lighty told Fighters.com Wednesday, “At first, it was like starting all over again. At the time, I was fighting the best in K-1 and large shows. At first, I wanted to jump right into Strikeforce, UFC, etc.”

But, Lighty took a year off and learned the skills necessary to compete in MMA. “Transtioning from kickboxing to MMA, there was a lot of things I could do in kickboxing that I would not be able to get away with. (Kicking relentlessly, my stance, breaking when then referee steps in, etc.) There was also this wrestling thing that I had to learn. By the way, its pretty hard!

“Taking a whole year off to prepare myself was very frustrating. After a while, I was questioning myself, why I was doing this. It’s hard to stay focused with training when there are no fights in the future. There were many times I found myself thinking about moving on, getting a non-fighting job. But, I knew that I would never forgive myself if I quit. And that is one thing that I do not do.”

On the terrestrial portion of Saturday’s Strikeforce card in San Jose, Lighty won his fifth consecutive fight since transitioning into MMA, a 2:05 TKO of Mike Cook (7-7).

Lighty described the action, “I was relaxed and picked my shots. I caught Mike with a head kick, which dropped him. I then was head hunting with high kicks. I saw that the body was open and landed a liver kick followed by a left hook to the liver. Mike did not want anymore. “Big” john McCarthy stepped in.”

It was his first fight since winning a unanimous decision over Kawika Morton (2-3) at Pure Combat in Fresno in August 2008. Lighty explained, “My lay off was due to contract. I’m always ready to fight.”

And, he hopes to fight again before 2010. “I would like to get one more fight in before the year is over. Like I said, I’m always in shape and ready to go, so whoever Strikeforce has lined-up for me, its a green light.”

Of course, at the top of the Strikeforce card “Dreamcatcher” Gegard Mousasi (22-2-1) won the Strikeforce light heavyweight title by TKOing “Babalu” Renato Sobral (31-9) in one minute.

“I give myself a year,” Lighty said before he’s ready to challenge for the Strikeforce title. “I just want to stay busy and fight. That’s when I’m most happy: fighting, training, eating, sleeping, my girlfriend, and my dog “Tugboat”.