MARK “LIGHTS OUT” MATHESON INTERVIEW

Posted on | May 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

MARK MATHESON: WORKING TOWARD A COMEBACK

By: Rich Bergeron

 

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Mark “Lights Out” Matheson of Team Dragon Warrior is a young man who literally fought his way out of the projects and accomplished his dreams through hard work, dedication and constant practice. Nursing a shoulder injury that put him on the sidelines, Matheson will undergo surgery to repair the damage and then set about doing some damage of his own in the New England MMA circuit once again.

The Lynn, Massachusetts native first watched the sport back when UFC 1 hit the airwaves. He was just seven years old then, and the more he saw the more he wanted to participate. A friend of his, who will be fighting in a match this coming summer, showed him some moves before he started seriously training in martial arts after he found Sensei Steve Pento. Running classes out of his basement dojo, Pento took Matheson under his wing. “A little while later I found my first fight,” said Matheson. “Everyone’s dream is to become a professional at something. I just always had an interest in Ultimate Fighting, but I never thought I’d do it. I just had an opportunity and jumped on it.”

Pento, who is paralyzed from the waist down and still manages to train in MMA, is one of Matheson’s biggest role models. “Sensei Steve taught me first of all discipline, and he’s a big inspiration. You just have to look at his situation and what he does.” he said about his teacher. “Outside of training my big inspiration was my fiancée, because she’s always been 100 percent behind me, and she really supported me through it all.”

MARK AND SENSEI STEVE PENTO AFTER MARK’S UNANIMOUS DECISION WIN AT WFL’S LACONIA MAYHEM AGAINST MIKE “THE PSYCHO” HANLONHis family, which includes three kids, keeps him going through all the ups and downs. He keeps a full time day job, and maintains payments on his apartment, all the while still finding time to train. Through all his fights he’s motivated by the support he gets from his family and his team. “Win or lose, every time I fought the other guy came out hurting and knowing the Dragon Warrior name,” he said.

MATHESON’S FIVE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER LEARNING AN ARM BAR FROM HER DADMatheson’s first fight went to the ground, and he recalls not being very confident in his hands back then. Today, he prides himself on his ability to strike and always wants to “stand and bang.” He added that “leg kicks, the overhand right, and the right hook are my favorite strikes.”

His ultimate goal in the sport is to be a full-fledged professional Ultimate Fighter. He knows the UFC is “a longshot,” but he’d love to make it to that level or get into a King Of The Cage show. “I’m not really out to beat people up,” he said. “I just want to improve my skills, make my sensei proud, and win a title.”

Last December, Matheson had his plans put on hold when he suffered a terrible shoulder injury. He dislocated the shoulder going for a takedown shot on Bobby McAndrews who came in with more of a boxer’s skill set than an MMA fighter’s. Matheson is still bothered by how “arrogant” McAndrews was about what he considers a cheap win. “It was really bad. I sprawled, my shoulder popped out, and when I went to go tell the ref, he hit me in the eye,” Matheson recalled. “Then he’s running around celebrating like he just knocked me out. He should have said, ‘I don’t want to win that way.’ A true fighter should not celebrate a win off an injury he didn’t even cause through his own skills.”

To make matters worse, McAndrews clapped him on his bad shoulder after the fight, and Matheson said even his girlfriend was disrespectful. “I’m one of the classiest fighters you’ll ever meet,” he explained. “When I go up to introduce myself, I always say, ‘Let’s put a show on.’ It isn’t a fight, it’s a competition, but when it comes to him [McAndrews] I’m looking for a fight now.”

He’s looking forward to coming back and somehow earning a rematch with his new arch-enemy. He would also like to get back on a steady winning track after starting out 2-4, facing three undefeated fighters in his first three matches. Still, not all of his losses were discouraging.

“My best fight was probably with Ben Manseau, because I had very limited training at the time,” he said. “I went in there, and in the first round I knocked him down with a right hook, and I rocked him with a nice head kick. He took me down and tapped me out in the end, but I went into that fight on three days training, and I took a guy that was a Miletich Fighting Systems guy, I took a guy that was 5-0, and I gave him a good fight. That inspired me. It hurt me when I lost, but it inspired me to keep going.”

GOING FOR A HEAD KICK AGAINST MANSEAU AT COMBAT ZONE 17 TAKE CONTROLOne of the worst moments he can remember came against Mike Thomas, who fought in the Rage in the Cage and came over from Arizona to fight Matheson. “My confidence got in the way. My ego was kind of blown up a little bit after I took him down and started pounding him in guard,” said Matheson. “He rolled me, and he was about 6 foot 4”, and he wrapped me up in a triangle. I was winning the fight all the way until that triangle. I wasn’t fighting smart, and he sunk the triangle with no problem. I’m 5 foot 7, so he almost had a foot on me.”

MARK PRESSING THE GROUND AND POUND GAMEMatheson could storm right back onto the circuit with a title shot in one of the local leagues, but he wants to pace himself. “I have an MRI coming up for my shoulder, and I’m supposed to have surgery in August, and my doctor said after that I should be as good as new,” he said. “I was offered a Combat Zone title shot, but I feel that I don’t deserve that right now, and I’ll probably fight with the WFL. I’m looking at going with them, win two or three fights, and maybe get a title shot with them. I’ll probably be training full time probably about a year from now when I’m back to normal. I’m trying not to have the shoulder problem end my career.”

It has been a long, difficult journey for Matheson so far, but he refuses to let one small hurdle stand in his way. “I started out at about 135 pounds, and I was a heavy drinker, but then I met Sensei Steve, and he turned me into the fighter I am now,” he said. “I came way too far from the life I lived to let my shoulder stop me, so I’m trying to get back and do it 100 percent.”

EVEN THE CAMERA CAN’T CATCH MARK’S FAST STRIKES IN THIS SHOT OF HIS KO OVER DAN KOBUS OF MSA AT COMBAT ZONE 15He also gives credit to someone who came along before Pento to plant the fighting seed in his head. “I just want to throw thanks to Ron Morris, who got me into it before Sensei Steve gave me the killer instinct. Ron Morris and I started out wrestling, not knowing any submissions, back when we lived in the projects in Lynn,” he explained. “Then we started training in Steve’s basement, and we’re really successful now. We were a couple guys with a dream, basically a broken dream, and we knew about the UFC and that was it. Just a couple guys with a broken dream in the projects of Lynn hoping for some miracle to happen, and then Sensei Steve came around.” He also pointed out that Ron Morris will be fighting in the Calloway Cup this summer.

Though he now lives in Manchester, New Hampshire, Matheson said he will “always represent Massachusetts.”

Look for the time off to reinvigorate his vision and get him focused on coming back with new intensity. “I’ll definitely be back as a different fighter,” he said.

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