George Roop - This Underdog Bites

"I’m gonna play the underdog role and there’s no pressure on me. I’m gonna go in there, take it to him, and give the troops what they deserve.” When it comes to gutsy pre-fight gamesmanship, you’ll have a tough time topping George Roop’s decision to wear his opponent’s t-shirt to the weigh-in. But that’s just what the Arizona featherweight did before his bout last September against Chan Sung Jung.

For a little context, remember that Jung, more familiarly known as “The Korean Zombie”, was the talk of the MMA world after his stirring three round war with Leonard Garcia earlier in 2010 that prompted commentator Joe Rogan to declare it “Fight of The Decade.” Roop, a former member of The Ultimate Fighter season eight cast, was seen by some as the sacrificial lamb for Jung, who seemingly couldn’t be hurt in the prize ring.

So Roop, no one’s stepping stone, decided to make a statement.

“There was all this hype around, him saying he was “The Korean Zombie” and he can just walk through punches, and that was me saying, look, everybody’s human and everybody can be knocked out,” said Roop. “I don’t sell t-shirts, I’m a mixed martial arts fighter.”

It was a move that could have easily backfired, but Roop had no doubts about what he was going to do in that cage on fight night.

“I knew that I could win the fight in any way possible. I knew I could win the fight by knocking him out, by TKO or submission, and I knew I could decision him if I had to.”

Roop went right to option number one, drilling Jung with a head kick in the second round that knocked him out as soon as it landed. It was a defining moment in his four year career, and the perfect end to what was a tumultuous year that began with Roop still coping with the tragic death of his seven-year old son Julian that previous October.

Add in that Roop was in professional limbo as well, and 2010 didn’t look that promising at first. After going 1-2 as a lightweight in the UFC before being released after a loss to George Sotiropoulos at UFC 101, Roop returned to his natural weight class before the year was out, decisioning Matt Dell at featherweight in November of 2009. Then, as the WEC beckoned, he decided he was going to drop another 10 pounds and compete at bantamweight. It was a good idea at the time.

“My initial thought was I’m gonna be the biggest bantamweight on the planet,” he laughs. It wasn’t a joking matter once the cut began for the 6 foot 1 fighter, who quickly realized he was making a mistake.

“It’s definitely the hardest thing I ever had to do,” he said and you can almost hear him re-living the weight cut as he speaks. “At the weigh-in my eyeballs were poking out like that ‘Machinist’ movie. (Laughs) My cheekbones were sticking out real bad, I looked terrible and it was very unhealthy. My fight was cutting to 135 pounds. When I made it, I thought okay I’m done.”

He wasn’t. He still had to fight, and against former WEC bantamweight champion Eddie Wineland no less. Roop lost a three round decision to Wineland in January of last year, a feat which was impressive in and of itself considering the drain it took to get to 135.

“I was thinking that I was gonna be the bigger, stronger guy, but in all reality, the speed at 135 pounds was hard for somebody my size to deal with, especially with Eddie Wineland,” he said. “And I felt okay the day of the fight, but Eddie’s tough. I just wasn’t able to approach that fight with the right gameplan. I really didn’t have a gameplan, my gameplan was to make 135 pounds.”

It wasn’t the way he wanted to begin the year, yet slowly, but surely, things started to click for Roop. He moved back to featherweight, and in March he engaged in an entertaining three round draw with Leonard Garcia that earned Fight of the Night honors. September saw not only the win over Jung, but a new arrival to the family, as Roop and his fiancé welcomed a son, Payden. All in all, not a bad 12 months, and as 2011 gets underway, Roop has the opportunity to make a statement to the featherweight division on national television when he takes on former teammate Mark Hominick on Saturday night in Texas.

And while fighting someone he’s trained with for so long is a first for Roop, he’s ready for it and unafraid to pull the trigger on Hominick should he get him in trouble.

“I’ve never been in that situation with somebody as close as Hominick,” he admits. “We’ve worked a lot together in the gym, so he definitely knows what I bring to the table and I know what he brings to the table as well. And I’m not saying we’re best friends, but for the most part, I like almost everybody I’ve fought, so I’ve really had no ill feelings toward anybody and it’s going to be easy to put the hurting on him. It’s what I do, it’s what I enjoy doing, and afterwards, it’s gonna make us respect each other even that much more.”

Roop, a pro since 2006, has a quiet confidence about him, something that probably served him well back when he was a high school quarterback, and which fits him nicely these days. He’s not a braggart, won’t make a lot of noise, but it’s clear that when it’s time to train or fight, he’s there on business and eager to show just what he can do. And that doesn’t come overnight. It’s taken an ability to navigate plenty of potholes, detours, and bumps in the road, and he doesn’t regret one step of the journey.

“If you look at my record, I don’t have one of those 12-1 records or just a couple losses, and I haven’t trained MMA since I was a little kid either,” he said. “I started training a couple years before The Ultimate Fighter show, so I’m evolving every day as a fighter. I learn new stuff and I pick up stuff from everybody and those losses on my record are big learning experiences for me and that’s the way I look at it. It might sound silly, but I’m happy for those losses and they’ve made me the fighter that I am. I truly believe that I match up with (UFC featherweight champion) Jose Aldo better than almost anybody else at 145 pounds. I’m big, I’m strong, my technique has definitely come very, very far, and my wrestling is improving every day, as well as my striking and jiu-jitsu. I’m an evolving fighter and I’m changing it up every fight. You’re just gonna see me getting better and better.”

Having said that, Mark Hominick is the man in the spotlight, the one who will receive a shot at Aldo’s crown should he win on Saturday night. George Roop likes that feeling of being the underdog, and he embraces the role. He won’t wear a Hominick t-shirt to the weigh-in, but his fight night intentions remain the same as they did last September – to show that this underdog can bite.

“I feel like I’ve gotten the underdog role in my last three fights and it’s the best role they can give me,” he said. “I wasn’t supposed to beat Leonard Garcia, I wasn’t supposed to beat Chan Sung Jung, I’m not supposed to beat Mark Hominick, and I understand this, but I’m gonna play the underdog role and there’s no pressure on me. I’m gonna go in there, take it to him, and give the troops what they deserve.”

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Andre Winner - One Motivated Underdog

"Obviously from the last fight I’ve got some pent-up aggression. A lot of people see me as the underdog in this fight and they expect Siver to beat me, so it’s really motivating me to go out there and just put a whupping on him.” You could see it on Andre Winner’s face. Pinned against the Octagon fence by Nik Lentz while thousands of fans voiced their displeasure, Winner’s Boston debut on August 28th was going far from the way he pictured it.

After back-to-back victories over Rolando Delgado and Rafaello Oliveira, the Leicester, England product was on the verge of a breakthrough in the crowded UFC lightweight division if he could defeat Lentz, a Division I wrestler who was unbeaten in his previous three Octagon bouts. But it wasn’t meant to be on this night, and while losing the unanimous decision was bad enough for Winner, having his attack completely nullified for three less than compelling rounds was even worse.

“It was very boring,” said Winner of the bout. “When you’re in a fight like that and you’re not really getting hit, and they’re not really making you fight or pushing the fight, you’re kind of like comatose in there. You kind of fall asleep and you’ve only got three rounds. Even though the rounds are five minutes, you’ve only got three rounds and it’s not like boxing, where you’ve got 12 rounds, so if you lost the first three, you can start to work back in the later rounds. Once one round’s down, you’ve got to win the next two and then by the time you’re waking up and saying I’ve got to start doing something, you’ve lost another round, and then you try to do something in the third and you’ve lost the fight. So it can slip away from you very easily if you’re not careful. That’s kinda what happened to me, and it was a very frustrating type of fight.”

When it was over though, Winner didn’t sulk, didn’t cry to the MMA Gods for justice. He simply spoke to UFC matchmaker Joe Silva and asked to get back in action as soon as possible.

“I talked to Joe after the fight and I was obviously frustrated and I wanted to get straight back in there,” said Winner. “So I just asked for another fight.”

And he got one, as he’ll return to the Octagon this Saturday night to face Germany’s Dennis Siver in what should be a polar opposite to the Lentz fight for Winner. Needless to say, that’s music to his ears.

“I’m happy with it,” said Winner. “It’s gonna be an exciting fight. He’s a good kickboxer, he’s got a good ground game also, he’s pretty tough and he’s well-conditioned. But I’ve got a good gameplan, and if all goes to plan, then it should be a comfortable night. But I never truly believe that because nothing ever quite goes exactly the way you want it to. So I’ve prepared myself mentally and physically for a tough fight, and I’m gonna go out there and give the crowd what they want. Obviously from the last fight I’ve got some pent-up aggression. A lot of people see me as the underdog in this fight and they expect Siver to beat me, so it’s really motivating me to go out there and just put a whupping on him.”

For Winner, it’s his third straight bout on foreign soil, with this fight in Oberhausen following the Lentz match in Boston and the Oliveira bout in Charlotte. But if the Ultimate Fighter season nine finalist isn’t feeling homesick – in fact, he’s enjoying his world travels as he introduces himself to the rest of the globe.

“Wherever I go there’s a lot of support, and I love the fans wherever they are,” he said. “The great thing about MMA and the UFC is that the fans are always pumped and they give the fighters a hundred percent support. I’m grateful that we’ve got great fans like that. I love going abroad and meeting different people and seeing different parts of the world, and it’s very important because the more popular you are, the more tickets you sell, and that’s what I want to do. Obviously first and foremost I want to go in there and win my fights in an exciting fashion, so I get that notoriety. And when people come to the fights, I want them to think ‘yeah, Andre Winner’s on the card; that’s gonna be a good fight.’”

He knows that wasn’t the case in the Lentz fight, yet he hasn’t taken a defensive posture about it. On the contrary, he’s accepted the result and done everything in his power to make sure his tools are never neutralized like that again, because someone somewhere will look to replicate the gameplan that issued him that defeat this past summer.

“I’ve always been working on my all-around game,” said Winner. “(UFC vet) Paul Daley’s been getting ready for a fight and he brought over Kenny Johnson, so it’s always good to work a little bit with him. He’s worked with the likes of BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, and those kinds of guys. I’ve also been working with Victor Estima, a very high-level jiu-jitsu coach, and I’ve been trying to improve my wrestling and grappling game, and hopefully I can get out to the States after this fight and really work on some of my wrestling.”

Wrestling has been the Achilles Heel for many British fighters, the notable example being Dan Hardy against welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in March, and Winner admits that it’s not the easiest task to find world-class wrestling instruction in the UK.

“The toughest part is just finding the coaches for it and finding the time to get it all in,” he said. “You need to find someone of a good caliber and obviously in the UK it is tough. There are places, but to find the wrestling in particular, there are not as many high-level wrestling guys out here. It’s about finding the right people and finding the right camp that you can go to, and getting out there, training, and spending that time.”

But truth be told, Winner did take some positives from the fight with Lentz that he plans on building on this weekend.

“I had a Division I wrestler trying to take me down for the most part and I was able to stop most of them or get back to my feet,” he said. “So I think Dennis (Siver) will have a lot of trouble if he tries to take me down. There are some things I didn’t do well in that fight as far as my cage craft and my footwork, and for whatever reason I neglected them in that fight. It woke me up to those things and you’ll definitely see those things in this fight.”

If he puts it all together and gets back to the form that got him on the UFC map in the first place, it will be a positive end to 2010 and a harbinger of what he hopes will be a big 2011 campaign.

“I’d like to keep active like I did this year,” said Winner of his goals for 2011. “I’d like to get four fights in and I’d love to get a matchup with (fellow 155-pound prospect) Cole Miller at some point. If he’s free to fight and I’m free to fight, and he’s up for it, then I’d love to get a matchup with him because obviously he had that impressive win over Ross Pearson and I’d like to try to get one back for the team and kinda throw my name right back up there also. But I just want good matchups and exciting fights.”

And to forget August 28, 2010.

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