By Joe Rosner

Chicago Fighting Arts Magazine recently sat down with light-heavyweight Ultimate Fighter finalist, Stephan Bonnar, at the Gold Coast Multiplex, where Bonnar works as a personal trainer. Bonnar is obviously an athlete, but you’d be more likely to guess bicyclist or runner than mixed martial arts fighter.

Recently returned from Las Vegas after his awesome fight with Forrest Griffin and eight weeks of monastic confinement at the UFC National Training Center house, the 28-year-old native of Munster, Indiana kicked back between clients to discuss his influences, experiences, and expectations for the future.
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Before the UFC

In school, I got into a lot of fights. I had two older brothers and I can’t count the times they kicked my ass. It got really easy for me to shake that off, when I got my ass kicked. I have a certain amount of toughness. So, when I first started jiu-jitsu, I tapped out a lot and it didn’t bother me.

Ever since I was 5 years old, I was just fascinated with martial arts. If I could watch Bruce Lee, I’d do that. I liked wrestling, too. I started that when I was pretty young, around 9. I had to beg my parents for a year before they let me do that. I had to beg [my parents] about another year before they let me join tae kwon do, when I was about 12. I pretty much did those two through high school. After that, I got into bodybuilding and working out. At Purdue [University], they had a tae kwon do club and a jiu-jitsu club. My instructor, Dexter Grove was pretty cool. He showed us a lot of hapkido and we even did some grappling.

After getting my degree [in Physical Therapy], I came back here and found out about jiu-jitsu. I had always watched Ultimate Fighting. Even in wrestling practice in high school, I’d get yelled at because I’d be trying arm bars and things. I didn’t know how to do them. I saw Royce Gracie do them, so I gave them a try.

It was like a relief to find it. I was thinking, “God, what the Hell am I doing all this working out for? I need to put it to some use.” I did a couple of tournaments at the beginner level and won. Then, a fight promoter came in looking for guys to compete in the Ironheart, a four-man light-heavyweight tournament. I’d been meaning to [get into] boxing at the gym, and that gave me some motivation to go try that. I didn’t have that much training, maybe a month of boxing and six months of jiu-jitsu, when I did that first Ironheart. I won and that motivated me to keep doing this.

I competed in a few more jiu-jitsu tournaments and then, in 2002, I decided, “Why not train in boxing really hard and enter the Golden Gloves?” That gave me something to train for and develop those skills. I wound up winning that. I was going to do the Golden Gloves again, but wound up getting my nose broken a week before. Instead, I went to the Pan Am [Games] at the Blue Belt level and ended up with the gold. I also fought in Brazil in 2003.

In 2004, I won the Open Division of the Golden Gloves and got to go to the Nationals in Kansas City. I probably had the least experience out of anyone there, but ended up stopping my first two opponents. I made it to the third round, but lost a decision there. But, I was happy with that. I’ve now had about 17 amateur boxing matches.
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Going to the (Reality) Show

First, I tried out for The Contender. I went to tryouts at the Italian American Sports Museum. Then, someone asked if I was trying out for the Ultimate Fighting reality show [Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter]. I hadn’t heard anything about it. It was a Friday and the tapes were due on Wednesday. The next day, I put something together and over-nighted it. A few weeks later, I heard from them.

The TV show did very well. A lot of people just haven’t seen Ultimate Fighting, but once they do, they’re going to love it. It was an entertaining show. The fights spoke for themselves. You got to see some knockouts, submissions, hard-fought decisions, knees, takedowns, punches . . . it’s wild, it’s something new, it’s entertaining. The finales had 2.5 million people watching. During my fight [a loss to Forrest Griffin] just by word of mouth, with people calling each other and telling them to tune in, it quadrupled to 10 million.

Dana [White, the UFC president] got us all in the office before the fight and told us what was at stake—that this was for the contract, for our dreams. Thinking about that made me nervous; it gave me stage fright. So, I blocked that out, thinking, “I’m in here by myself fighting Forrest. I’ll do everything I can to win. I’ll fight my heart out even if it’s just for nothing.”

Looking back, I wish I’d thrown more high kicks, the spinning back-kick, and the spinning hook-kick upstairs. That’s what I love about this sport: You’re free to do whatever the Hell you want. In tae kwon do, people would be ready for [those kind of kicks]. But here, you get in boxing mode and it’s a big surprise. I almost caught Forrest with [a spinning hook-kick]. It almost landed. A lot of people say only low kicks work; don’t throw fancy kicks or high kicks. I feel a spinning back-kick is pretty safe; if you miss it, people just get out of the way.

Right afterwards, I don’t know who, maybe people from the Commission, came in and said, “Congratulations. Great fight.” I said, “Don’t congratulate me yet. We might have to go to a fourth round.” I thought I had done enough to get the decision, but that’s the way it goes with close fights.
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What’s Next?

In Vegas, I couldn’t go anywhere without people asking for pictures and autographs. But, [in Chicago] it’s not too bad. Here and there someone will recognize me.

I just found out my next fight will probably be in July or August. Maybe with Sam Hoger, but nothing is confirmed. [Regarding a rematch with Griffin] My guess is that they’ll save it for the third fight of the contract. They [the UFC] aren’t dummies. They know it’ll be a big draw.

I know fighting is temporary. In the next few years, I want to make the most of it. I want to see how much better I can get at jiu-jitsu and muay-Thai. I’m [also] getting ready for my Muscle Activation Therapist certification test, so I’ll have that [afterward]. It’s a really in-depth form of physical therapy, where you go through the whole body finding positional weaknesses and then bring the strength back. There are more than 200 [separate] muscle tests. You’ve got different tests for divisions of fibers. There’s a lot to learn, all the little muscles in the neck, et cetera. I’ve been injured a lot and been to my fair share of therapists, but nothing like this. I didn’t believe it the first time I went through it.

[For now,] I’ve got a big opportunity in front of me; I want to make the most of it. I don’t want to have any regrets. I want to stop working and train full-time, like a lot of guys [are able to].