COLUMBUS — Kevin Fitzpatrick trains every day to do something most people spend their whole lives trying to avoid: fighting.
The 28-year-old New York City native is a mixed martial arts fighter and the founder of Relentless Grappling and MMA in Columbus. Fitzpatrick works as an E-911 dispatcher during the day and spends two evenings each week teaching 12-15 students, ages 13 and up, how to fight using multiple martial arts disciplines. Some of the disciplines include Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai kickboxing and Samba. Several techniques are meant to work while standing, using fists, feet, elbows and knees to strike an opponent, and others are grappling techniques used to control and subdue an opponent standing or on the ground.
Fitzpatrick has been training himself in mixed martial arts for four years and instructing for three. He”s also an amateur fighter. After competing for two and a half years, he”s compiled a 2-1 record and the 6-foot-4-inch, 250-pound fighter is working toward a shot at the Strikehard (Tuscaloosa) heavyweight title.
Since opening Relentless MMA in Columbus, Fitzpatrick”s organization has bounced around from gym to gym looking for a home. Relentless currently trains at GameTime Sports in Columbus each Tuesday from 7-10 p.m. and Thursday from 8-10 p.m. The team formerly used the Columbus Police Department Police Club, where Fitzpatrick agreed to, and still does, train police officers at a reduced rate.
Because mixed martial arts encompasses such a wide variety of fighting styles, each with its own subtleties and nuances, Fitzpatrick admits he”s not an expert in every style. To fill in the gaps, Relentless works with the few mixed martial arts gyms in the area, such as Amory MMA, to share techniques and training tips for a more comprehensive experience.
With the explosion in popularity of mixed martial arts, Fitzpatrick says plenty of books and videos have flooded the market which teach mixed martial arts techniques, but to get a true grasp on the myriad styles, he suggests in-person instruction.
“Definitely go to a gym where they can show you the basics,” he says. “Without somebody actually showing you what to do and you feeling yourself do it with somebody watching you, it”s not going to turn out quite right.”
What got you into mixed martial arts?
I started off just watching it on TV with a friend and we talked about how it would be awesome to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but at the time there was nowhere to learn it. His older brother said he had been going to Memphis on and off for three years learning it and he could teach us as long as we had a place to learn.
Did you have experience in any one martial art or did you learn them all at the same time?
When I first started I never had any kind of formal training so my original love and discipline is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I (worked as a corner man) for a couple guys in MMA fights and got to train so then I started having to learn other things. We made a lot of connections with other gyms and picked up on a lot of Samba, which is another style of ground fighting, and learned a lot of Muay Thai (kickboxing) and quite a bit of influence from wrestling. Greco-Roman wrestling, not World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling.
What opportunity is there locally for competition?
There”s a lot of opportunity to fight. Right now I”m currently fighting in an organization called Strikehard out of Tuscaloosa, Ala.
We”ve got three fighters of our guys fighting on their card (at Hooter”s) in Tuscaloosa June 26 (at 7:30 p.m.)
I”ve got a title shot coming up as long as I can win my next fight. My original intention was to go pro by the end of the year, but once I was offered the title shot, I”m going to hold off a little bit.
Do Relentless students participate in other martial arts competitions as well as MMA?
We do participate in grappling tournaments and jiu jitsu tournaments. Grappling tournaments incorporate a lot more wrestling and Samba.
Last year I won the Mississippi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation heavyweight championship for the state.
Is any one style used as a foundation for MMA?
No one fighting style is truly dominant over the rest. You want to be well-versed. You could be the best standup fighter in the world, but once somebody takes you off your feet, you”re in the dark.
You want to have good standup because you”re always going to start off standing up. And you”ve got to work on your wrestling to stop takedowns and stop throws. But you”ve got to be good on the ground because chances are the fight is going to end up on the ground, whether in real life or in the cage. You want to make sure you”re not the person getting choked to sleep.
What would you say to people who look at MMA as a brutal sport?
It”s hard to imagine somebody not seeing the competition side of it. You can go to any fight and pick the guys who are really trained and the guys who are just the wannabe street thugs, because the street thugs don”t last long in the cage against somebody who knows what they”re doing.
Talk about what the sport requires a far as conditioning and technique.
Technique is very important because, at the end of the day when you”re tired and beat down and exhausted, all you have is your technique. Your cardio can only go so far. Your strength can only go so far. But our technique will always be there.
Conditioning is very important. If you and another person are on a relatively even technical level, all he”s got to do is outlast you. Weather the storm, and when you get tired then it”s just picking you apart.
What are some of the things you do to stay in shape?
The cardio routine we do is 15-18 minutes of hardcore calisthenic cardio without a break. Eighteen minutes doesn”t sound like a lot, but when you”re nonstop moving, it”s quite a bit.
We start off with a slight warm-up of jumping jacks, then go into pushups, mountain climbers, explosive jumping jacks, flutter kicks, leg raises, crunches, explosive pushups, stand up to throwing one-two”s and squat jumps.
Describe your mindset prior to a fight.
When you”ve got a fight coming up, the butterflies kick in long before you enter the cage. If you let them, the butterflies will eat you alive.
Once you get into the cage and the referee says “go,” the butterflies are gone. And as long as you have faith in your training, it shouldn”t be an issue. If you doubt your training and you doubt yourself, the doubt is going to kill you and you”re going to lose to yourself.
What”s the benefit of MMA training for someone who doesn”t plan to compete?
I always say you can never know how to defend yourself too much. For the most part, people will walk away from a fight, but there may be a point where you don”t have a choice.
I remember asking a guy the question “If you had to fight, do you feel like you could intelligently defend yourself?” and his answer was “I”d like to think so.” Personally, I can”t live with that.
I”m not saying I could definitely win a fight, but I could intelligently defend myself without taking serious damage.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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