Mike Bruno Victorious at FIGHT TIME 5.
Mike Bruno rises ranks from Toughman competitor to MMA main event attraction
By Peter Holehan, Fort Lauderdale Sports Examiner
Before mixed martial artist Mike Bruno became the main event attraction in South Florida shows like Fight Time Promotions’ Fight Time 5 at the historic War Memorial Auditorium, he experienced the plight of what many fighters face on the way up—the struggle.
Embattled with nagging injuries that left him out of the cage and loses that raised questions about his confidence, Bruno also had financial tugs of war with management groups that he felt "mismanaged" him.
Torn cartilage in his ribs and a bone spur in his left foot during training put him out for the majority of time between 2008-2010.
On two occasions, he had lost consecutive fights. The first time came before his injuries in 2007 and the next followed upon his return to the cage.
And when Bruno was winning, he said he was being mismanaged to the point that people were taking advantage of him. The situation grew worse enough for him that he decided to self-manage himself during Fight Time Promotions’ third and fourth events.
"Some of the first companies did not give me money that came from ticket sales and sponsors," said the 25-year-old, who trains at American Top Team in Coconut Creek. "I was on the promotional poster for one of the Fight Time events. I should have had money coming to me. Finally, the one company wired me money afterwards. I told them that the last time I would work with them."
Now, under representation of the ML Management Group, Bruno said he does not have anxiety whenever the phone rings concerning the business side of things.
Healthy again with issues behind him, Bruno has only rebounded back stronger than ever. His latest fight—the main event of Fight Time 5: Total Destruction on June 17 against Mexican Manuel Gallereta—was nearly flawless. There was no finishing blow, but Bruno (12-4) took to his ground—and pound—attack and won over the judge’s decision in an unanimous decision.
Clad with Newbreed gear featuring the Statue of Liberty and American flag in the background, Bruno fought aggressively by taking down Gallereta (8-8) each of the three rounds and wore him down with headlocks and a series of forearm bashes and punches to the head.
Main event victor is what Bruno has wanted since he began entering Monday night Toughman fights during the summer of 2004 on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Then, a high school senior at Olympic Heights in Boca Raton, he was still making the adjustment from state championship caliber wrestler to professional fighter.
At the school, he still holds one of the single-season records in Lions’ history with a 35-3 record at the 145-pound weight class. His wrestling background as a district, regional and conference champion and his additional training in Jiu Jitsu during his off time have provided him with a potent skills combination.
"Once the high school season ended, I got exposed to the underground scene of MMA," Bruno said. "I was earning maybe 50 bucks for winning a fight and would just party at the bar afterwards. Part of that, I regret a little because I could have made better grades and gone to college. But at that point, I also realized that I was a fighter."
Bruno looks to his inspiration from his older brother, Steve, 29, who previously fought on the Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit and won the Spirit M.C. middleweight champion in South Korea in 2006. Today, Steve serves as an consultant and part-time coach to Mike. In all of Mike’s professional fights except for one in which it took place in Canada, Steve is there at ringside.
And he can often be heard guiding him along the way.
"Hit him on top of his head," Steve shouted during Mike’s fight against Gallereta. "Under his chin. You got 30 seconds. Finish him. Come on."
"He’s my working brain," Mike said. "He’s told me the ins and outs of the business. He keeps me level headed and gives me good balance. I owe a lot to him."
While Steve will take part of the credit, he still says that Mike is pound for pound—the strongest wrestler around.
"I’m here to be the voice," Steve said. "My role is to keep his cool and calm. Make sure that he fights cautious and smart."
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IFBB pro bodybuilder Bill Whitmore.
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By Diamond Dave
On the night of Oct. 4th the EliteXC was airing live on CBS. It was a packed house of about 8k spectators most of which were there to see hometown favorite and youtube phenom Kimbo Slice defend his belt and his 3-0 record against Ken Shamrock. Unfortunately, during some light sparring practice Ken sustained a cut over his left eye and the doctors would not let him fight. This obviously put the EliteXC in a precarious position. They had to either announce that the main event was not gonna happen or they had to find someone to take the place of Ken. Between you and me it would have been utter mayhem if they chose not to have Kimbo fight. Actually, Kimbo had to agree first to fight a different opponent or else there wouldn’t have been a main event at all. I’m sure he received a killer bonus but you gotta give some props to Kimbo nonetheless for taking on someone other Ken.
The fight was offered to Seth “The Silverback” Petruzelli. He was already on the undercard and was supposed to fight Aaron Rosa but when he was offered the opportunity of a lifetime he took it. The next occurrence was something that no one had expected. Not only did he take the fight, he won it. And not only did he win, he beat Kimbo in a mear 14 seconds in the first round.
I went up to Orlando to have a lil sit down with the Kimbo killer himself.
DD: What is up brotha! Congratulations! So, give us a brief run down of when the EliteXC came to you and said “Will you fight Kimbo?”.
SP: Well, at first I was a lil nervous when they wanted to talk to me cuz I thought maybe my opponent Aaron Rosa was backing out of the fight for some reason. When they asked me if I wanted to fight Kimbo I talked with my team and after some negotiating with Elite the deal was made in about 10 minutes. I was game.
DD: How's it feel to come in as the underdog, knock out Kimbo and now your biggest story in mma?
SP: It’s been a whirl wind, a surreal moment for sure. I mean, one minute I was on the undercard and people kinda recognized me from the Ultimate Fighter to now an over night sensation.
DD: Kimbo’s a scary look’n dude. What was it like to face off with him?
SP: I never met him prior to the fight but yeah he is somewhat intimidating with the big beard and all but you just have to learn to channel that fear. To tell you the truth I was more nervous about my scheduled fight with Aaron.
DD: Once you realized you were gonna fight Kimbo did you change your fight strategy at all? What was your P.O.A.?
SP: I trained specifically for a stand up fight with Aaron Rosa. I basically just wanted to go out there and exchange a lil with Kimbo and then shoot for a takedown but the opportunity presented itself. He stuck his chin out and I clipped him with a right hook and it worked out for me.
DD: Now that you’re the champ what does Elite have in store for ya?
SP: Well, they said to just ride this for a bit. The time frame they gave me was like January or February for my next fight.
DD: Anyone in particular that you would like to fight?
SP: I would really like to fight Tito Ortiz but I don’t know if he will be ready because of his surgery but I really want that fight. I know I could defend his takedowns and I know I can stand and trade with him.
DD: Yeah, I agree. I definitely would give you the edge if you and Tito were to stand and bang it out. Bro, I’ve known you for a while and I know you’ve been pretty active both in business and as a fighter. You were on TUF season 2, why don’t you tell the readers what you’ve been up to since then.
SP: I did take some time off but I also did fight and beat Dan Severn and Bob Sapp. I’m opening my second Smoothie King with my wife. Also, me and Tom Lawler and about twenty other pro fighters will be opening our own gym THE JUNGLE MMA in Orlando. You can check us out at thejunglemma.com.
DD: Okay brotha, you went from a virtually an unknown fighter to an over night sensation, the classic Rocky Balboa story. You will forever be known as the guy who beat Kimbo Slice. How has this changed your life? I mean do people now recognize you on the street or what?
SP: Yeah definitely, people are like don’t I know you from somewhere??? People are asking me for my autograph a lot. I’ve also gotten some Bad A$$ new sponsors like NEWBREED..
DD: Now that you have beaten Kimbo what are your future plans?
SP: I wanna concentrate on one fight at a time so I’m not look’n too far ahead. I really wanna get my new gym open and get all my fighters out there.
DD: Hey brotha, I know you’ve got a busy schedule so I’m gonna let you run. Thanks so much for your time and again congrats on your big win.
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Get to know Mike brown
A Title Shot: It’s been a long time coming
By Diamond Dave
The world of Mixed Martial Arts has become more competitive than ever. Everyone and their mother is a fighter. Even a stellar record doesn’t always mean you’re guaranteed a spot on the big stage. The sport has become so competitive that it’s much like being an actor or a singer. Hitting it big almost means you have to know the right people and be in the right place at the right time. Now, this doesn’t apply to every fighter out there. I recently had a sit down with one such fighter, my boy Mike Brown. If you haven’t heard his name mentioned much in the MMA arena you’re gonna hear it a lot more. On September 10th he’ll have an opportunity of a lifetime, a shot at the WEC lightweight title. How did he get there? He did it the old fashioned way…he earned it.
DD: Mike “Hold’em Down” Brown, whats up brotha? Okay, before we talk about that little fight you’ve got coming up let’s get the 411 on how you got to this point in the first place. To begin with where are you from originally and how or why did you end up in Coconut Creek, FL?
MB: I’m from Maine and I came down here to get good training and there’s tons of good light weights down here. I moved down about four years ago to train with ATT cuz they’re the best team in the world. I was living up in Maine bouncing around a lot and I use to travel to Massachusetts a few times a week to train with Team Elite and Jorge Rivera. I came down for a visit and loved it so that’s when I decided to make the move.
DD: When and what got you into the fight sport biz? Please don’t tell me Jean Claude Van dam, LOL.
MB: I just fell in love with the sport. I was like everybody, I saw one UFC and I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I was on the underground forum one time and they were looking for some fighters in Rhode Island for a local show up there This was like in the year 2000. Me and my room mate at the time said lets do it. Unfortunately, I had to have knee surgery so I couldn’t fight. Once I healed up though it was bang bang, one fight after another.
DD: How long have you been fight’n anyway?
MB: Since 2001 so about seven years but I started JiuJitsu training in 95.
DD: You’ve been training in the combat sports for a long time but when did you get into MMA training?
MB: I started doing JiuJitsu in 95 and then I added the boxing aspect of it in 97. Something like that. Ya know I went from wrestling to JiuJitsu to adding a lil bit of boxing so it was a gradual progression for me.
DD: How long after the transition to MMA did you get your first pro fight?
MB: It was in 01. I had been training for a while already and it took me some time to actually do it. A lot of people were like “You should do it, you should do it” but I was kinda just training for fun at the time and doing some grappling tournaments.
DD: Well, that leads me to my next question brotha. I’ve known you for a while now and I know you’ve fought in the big leagues long before the WEC. A lot of people out there don’t know that you’ve been a really active fighter over the years. You’ve pretty much flown under the radar. What other associations have you fought for? Why don’t ya give us a lil time line of your fight career.
MB: Yeah, I started fighting in small shows in Massachusetts like Mass Destruction. That’s where I began, the real lil shows. So I fought there and then when I moved down here I used to fight in the AFC (Absolute Fighting Championships) . Then I fought in the UFC, I fought in Bodog, I fought in Japan a few times for a show called Deep and also a show called DOG. I’ve been around.
DD: Yezzir, you have indeed my man. Now that we’ve got a little background on ya lets talk about your upcoming title shot against The California Kid, Urijah Faber.
Have you ever met Urijah and do you have any ill feelings toward him? Now’s your chance to put it all on record brotha. Give us something juicy.
MB: No hard feelings. Nothing like that. I met in him back in the day when I fought in the UFC. He was just starting out and he was in one of the training rooms. He actually asked me some questions like “Hey, where you from? How did you get started?” Ya know we were both shit’n a lil bit back then so I don’t know if he even remembers. He was just starting and I already had about ten or eleven fights. Um, he seemed like a nice guy.
DD: Nothing bad to say about him?
MB: No, no.
DD: You know I’m digging for something.
MB: LOL, no, not gonna happen.
DD: Anyway, how have you been preparing for the big fight and do you have a POA?
Give us a day in the life of Mike Browns training schedule.
MB: Um, doing what I always do. Training with ATT the best team in the world. I’ve been sparring a lot. Working on my kickboxing and JiuJitsu. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are my heavy training days and all the other days are more technical and conditioning. Um, nothing new. Just doing the same shit I’ve always done.
DD: Just another a day in the office , right?
MB: Yeah, I’m doing what I’ve always done cuz that’s what got me here. I’m not changing it up.
DD: Yeah, why fix something that’s not broke.
MB: Ya know Dave, I’ve had some success. I’m just training a lil longer now cuz it’s a 25 minute fight.
DD: How do you think your style matches up with Urijah’s?
MB: Well Diamond, I think my style matches up pretty good. I think I’m a bigger, stronger guy. We have similar styles. He’s a lil more wild but we’re both strong wrestlers. I’m a lil more under control and by the book and he’s more unpredictable. I’m very controlling. I usually dictate the game and I’m always on top. I kinda do the same thing every fight where he’s kinda all over the map.
DD: Cool, Cool. Alright Mike, I know you’re not a young buck anymore and in the fight business and at 32 you may even be considered past your prime. Do you think your age will be a factor in the outcome of the fight?
MB: No, I think I’m in my prime. For the fight I’ll actually be 33. My birthday is two days before the fight. I think late 20’s early 30’s is a males athletic prime. I’m stronger and quicker than I’ve ever been. Ya know, as long as your body holds up at this age I think you’re gonna be better than ever. Right now I’m healthy and I’m the best I’ve ever been.
DD: I’m sure it’s difficult to look beyond your next fight especially since it’s for the title but who would you like to fight in the future?
MB: No, this is the guy. If people asked who do you wanna fight and where do you wanna do it I’d say Urijah Faber in Florida.
DD: Yeah, you couldn’t ask for anything better. Right here in your home town.
MB: Yeah, yeah, I couldn’t ask for a better fight in a better place.
DD: The California kid against the Florida kid.
MB: I’m the Florida adult. I’m the old man so... no but it’s perfect. I’m at the perfect age. I have enough experience and the stage is set for me. I couldn’t ask for things to be timed out more perfect.
DD: Alright, where do you see yourself in a year from now and how much longer do you think you’ll be fighting professionally? How much fight do ya have left in ya brotha?
MB: I think a few more years as long as my body holds up. When my body starts to fall apart and I start get’n more injuries then I’ll start think’n bout get’n out. Right now I’m healthy and I hope to have the title soon.
DD: What are plans after your pro fight career? Do you think you’ll open your own MMA school ? If so where would you set up camp?
MB: Maybe I’ll get into the apparel biz. Start my own clothing line.
DD: Hahaha, very funny. Yeah, you could call it the Old Breed.
MB: No really though, I wanna be involved with the sport. Maybe I’ll open my own gym, coaching or something like that. I just love the sport.
DD: Hey Mike, I know you’re a busy man. Real quick, what’s gonna be the outcome of the big fight?
MB: Uhh, I don’t like to make predictions but it’s gonna be a good fight. It’s not an easy fight for either guy. I’m not an easy guy to beat and neither is he. Tough fight for both us and hopefully I’ll be on the winning end.
DD: Okay brotha, you wanna say anything else before we sign off?
MB: Go NEWBREED!!!
DD: Haha, you da man! Good luck brotha and I’ll see ya at the fights.
MB: Thanks Diamond Dave, I’ll see ya there.
