| UFC Star Joe Stevenson Visits SHS |
| Written by Jason Kleber |
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In MMA fighting you really have to want it. There are wins and there are losses, but to win a fight requires desire and training...a lot of training. When someone else is trying to defeat you, get you to tap, choke you out, or just knock you unconscious, that's when desire meets training and preparation. "Mixed Martial arts is about everything mixed together. So not only am I a boxer, or a kick boxer, not only do I do judo, not only do I do Jujitsu, I do it all at the same time." said UFC fighter Joe Stevenson. Stevenson recently visited Sultana to share insight about his sport to a pack auditorium. Stevenson has been fighting professionally for over eleven years. He is twenty-seven years old and married with four boys. He graduated from Silverado High right here in Victorville, California. Stevenson owns his own training facility callled the Cobra Kia in Victorville. He doesn't only train there, but also in Big Bear and Albuquerque. He is the second best fighter in his division in U.F.C. Joe first started fighting professionally when he was sixteen, but wrestled and started Jujitsu a while before. "I may be twenty-seven years old, but I feel like I am forty-five. We put our body threw a lot. It is actually more or less the training that does more damage. Not the actual fight," said Stevenson. He trains relentlessly, even leaving his family to prepare to face the best fighters in the world. He tries to bring them everywhere that it is possible, but sometimes his profession requires separation. Currently Stevenson has 31 wins, 10 losses, and 0 draws. He currently fights as a lightweight, but used to be a welterweight. Stevenson is noted for his effective use of the guillotine choke. In between his training for an upcoming fight, he came to Sultana to put on an MMA display and dispel some of the sport's misconceptions. Joe feels that fighting isn't just two guys going at it in a cage. It takes a lot of skill, preparation, and hard training. It is a way of life. Stevenson wants to keep fighting as long as his body will allow him to, even at the high personal and physical price. |