On Saturday, November 29th, Mike Rio fought in his second professional mixed martial arts (MMA) bout. For those of you that don’t know Mike Rio, he is a 3 time wrestling collegiate national champion who has competed at the highest levels of collegiate wrestling and has trained with some of the best (including former Olympic champions). He also happens to be the head wrestling coach here at the Freestyle Fighting Academy’s Combat Athlete Program.
When the bell rang for the fight to start Mike Rio charged forward in aggressive fashion taking the fight to his opponent (FFA style). They started trading punches and Mike landed a big overhand right. His game opponent, kick-boxer Nathaniel Robinson, countered with a rapid fire straight cross that smashed Mike’s nose and made his legs wobble. The crowd roared with excitement thinking it was about to see a fighter get finished…this was a dramatic and tense moment for FFA.
What happened next sounds like something straight out of a movie. Trying to keep himself from falling, Mike Rio posted his hand on the mat and literally did a 360 spin, still confused from the punch. His opponent charged in to finish him and Mike Rio, more on instinct and still dazed, grabbed a single leg and picked the other fighter up over his head and slammed him powerfully to the mat. To Nathaniel Robinson’s credit he was able to get back to his feet, but Mike immediately shot in like a pit bull going after his prey and took Robinson down yet again. This time Mike Rio started unleashing some devastating ground and pound.
Picture this… at one point Mike Rio was standing over his opponents open guard with blood pouring down his nose, onto his chest, and into his opponent’s face. From this position Mike started landing some vicious right hands that he was cocking back behind his shoulder and smashing into the other fighter’s face. You could hear the thump of the punches through all the screaming, that’s how hard he was dropping them! To avoid punishment Robinson rolled over and turtled up on all four. Mike used his newfound submission skills learned at FFA to quickly take his opponent’s back and choke him with a rear naked choke. All this happened in less than two minutes! The fight was officially over in 1:49 seconds of the first round.
I am now predicting, based on what I saw that night, that Mike Rio will be the next Dan Henderson. His quick recovery from a devastating knockout punch was amazing. The power of his slam was reminiscent of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. And his devastating right hand from the top was awesome. After the fight his nose was more crooked than a curvy road and he never complained. It was the worst broken nose I’ve ever seen (worse than what happened to Rich Franklin in the Anderson Silva fight). To see pictures of the nose and what I mean go ahead and log on to www.teamFFA.com. Also, Mike Rio showed the heart of a lion. When you see him around the gym, don’t hesitate to walk right up to him and congratulate him on his victory. He deserves it. Mike Rio is now 2-0 in his MMA career. Congrats Coach Mike!
Coach Kevin Perez
Instructor
Instructor
