Chipola student pursues MMA dream

With boxing’s popularity in America on the decline, the sport of Mixed Martial Arts has seemingly filled the void for gladiator-style competition throughout the country.

The MMA craze has even reached its tentacles to Jackson County, as Chipola student Miguel Maus has ventured into the ring with hopes of mastering the sport that combines boxing, martial arts and wrestling.

The Chipola sophomore said he has been training for six months now and has competed in two fights, both losses.

Maus’ first fight was Oct. 22 in Hattiesburgh, Miss., for the MMA organization Extreme Fight Night.

His last fight was Saturday night in Biloxi, Miss., for Fight Force International.

Maus was forced to ‘tap out,’ or submit, in his first fight and suffered an early knockout Saturday night.

He said that Saturday’s loss, which came at the hands of Larry Weatherly, was a freak occurrence.

“Basically, we both swung at the same time and I got caught with the flusher shot,” Maus said. “There was really nothing I could do about it. We were both fully extended. The difference is he got me on the chin.”

However, Maus, who fights at 170 pounds, said that two defeats would not deter him from continuing to pursue MMA, even if his friends think he shouldn’t.

“I can’t end on that kind of note,” he said. “I had some people that didn’t like how that happened and they were like, ‘maybe you should think about stopping.’

But I can’t end on that note. You can’t quit just because you get knocked out. That could’ve happened to anybody.”

In the meantime, Maus, who said he has boxed since the age of 15, will continue training and working to make sure that doesn’t happen to him the next time he steps in the ring, which he said would most likely be in January or March of next year.

Maus trains three days per week for two hours each at Blountstown’s Extreme Combat MMA gym and said he does 500 push-ups and 1,000 sit-ups or crunches every morning.

When he’s at the gym, Maus said he has to work at every fighting discipline that goes into MMA fighting.

“We mix it all up. We don’t do just one thing every day,” he said. “I practice takedowns, kickboxing and boxing and I spar at least once or twice per week.”

However, with Maus’ formative training coming primarily in boxing, learning the ropes on ground-fighting becomes a high priority.

“We wrestle a lot,” he said. “I have no wrestling background, just boxing, so I’m trying to catch up my IQ on that.”

Maus said he was inspired to pursue MMA after watching one of the sport’s most famous stars, Ultimate Fighting Championship Middleweight Champion Anderson “Spider” Silva, take out American Rich Franklin in a fight last year.

“Honestly, I’ve always been into boxing more, but when I saw (the Silva fight) I was hooked and have been ever since then.”

While Maus said he has no plans on giving up the MMA dream in the near future, he made it clear that he’s not putting all his eggs in one basket.

“This is just something I’m doing,” he said. “I’ll go wherever it takes me, but it’s not like it’s all or nothing.

“If it doesn’t work out, I’ll still going to college and have school. I’m pre-med, so I think I have a bright future either way.”

The fact that he plans on splitting his time in the classroom learning how to help people and in the gym learning how to hurt people is a source of comedy for his friends, Maus said.

“A lot of people think that’s funny,” he said. “I want to help people, but I’m trying to beat them up in the cage.”