CODY BOLLINGER INTERVIEW

Posted on | May 28, 2007 | 1 Comment

CODY BOLLINGER: GETTING AN EARLY START IN MMA
By: Rich Bergeron

 

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CODY IS ALREADY WORKING WITH SOME OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS: HERE HE GETS HELP FROM THE NEW UFC LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION QUINTON “RAMPAGE” JACKSON

With fighting in his blood and a former champion as a father, Cody Bollinger is getting an incredible head start in his MMA career. Just 16 years old and making the best of his already extensive martial arts and wrestling background, Bollinger has compiled a perfect 4-0 record in competition so far against professional MMA fighters.

“First I just started off with karate for a couple years, and then I got into wrestling, and I just went from there,” Cody explained. “The place I was wrestling at had MMA, jiu jitsu, and muay thai training, so I started there, and I picked it up and wanted to fight after a couple years of it. It all came from just starting strong in practice. I met Tedd Williams, the co-promoter of KOTC with Terry Trebilcock, and he saw that I just started beating people in the adults class, and I just went from there, and I finally got the chance to fight.”

Bollinger was just 14 when he got into a tournament in Costa Rica called Titans of the Pentagon. Training with some fighters at Body Shots gym, the California native decided to take the long trip to enter a show the gym put on in the central American country. In addition to fights in Costa Rica and his home state of California, Bollinger’s also competed at the Azi Casino in Laughlin, Arizona.

Asked what he enjoys most about the sport, Bollinger answered, “Just competition of it and the dedication it takes.”

He considers his ground and pound game his greatest strength and likes to employ a choke called a “darce.” Despite knowing what he does best, he also realizes he must have an all-around, well-rounded set of skills to fight his way out of any situation. “It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll just take whatever opens up,” he said. “I can stand up or ground and pound, and if a submission comes, I’ll take that.”

Like many young fighters, Bollinger has his heart set on making it into the UFC. “I’d like to be the champ someday, God willing,” he said.

Bollinger is certainly getting into the sport at an opportune time and appreciates that. “Just the last two months it’s been gaining a lot of popularity, and there’s so many people who know about it now and never did,” he explained. “More people understand the sport now, and they understand that it takes skill, and it’s not as dangerous as boxing. More people are getting into it and not thinking it’s so barbaric anymore. They’re appreciating it and starting to watch, and it’s going worldwide.”

Bollinger trains with veterans of the sport like Javier Vasquez, Joe Stevenson, Josh Burkman, Craig Buchanan, Romie Aram, and his father Frankie Bollinger: the former 145-pound World Champ in KOTC. He also gets lots of guidance from his high school wrestling coach.

“I work on my wrestling above all, because you can do all the jiu jitsu in the world, but if you can’t take ‘em down it’s useless,” he said, “So I’m just keeping up on that wrestling position.”

Religion also plays a major role in his life, and he pointed to Christ as a major influence. Beyond the Heavenly Father, his main mortal role model is his cage fighting veteran father.

Frankie explained that his son started out with the wrestling club at a gym owned by Tedd Williams. Frankie bought in with Williams and soon saw his son training with Joe Stephenson, rolling with adults and tapping them out. He decided to try to find a more competitive fight for Cody, but since the teenager’s jiu jitsu technique isn’t perfected yet, they started slow.

“Costa Rica came up, and he trained a lot in Jiu Jitsu, and there was no wrestling at the time going on, so we slowly started taking him up. He fought a tougher opponent each time,” Frankie said. “Just about every time he fought so far, it was against a man who was 25 or older.”

The father hails his son’s strong knowledge of the position of wrestling as his greatest strength, and the fact that the youngster trains with guys like Stephenson, Burkman, and Aram puts him in line to have a fantastic future in the sport.

Frankie does admit his son did have a chance to lose a fight once. “He fought an 18 year old, up at the Azi Casino, and he lost the first round. It was the fight of the night, because he came back and won,” recalled the proud father. “We’re not giving him tomato cans. We’re trying to make sure the skill levels are equal. He’s getting so much stronger. He’s ripped now and only has about six percent body fat.”

It’s not always easy for Frankie to convince others that he has his son’s best interests in mind, as some look at what he’s doing and admonish him as a bad father. “It only takes one bad loss for a kid to put a black eye on the sport,” he said, “But he’s not just a kid. You have to realize he’s wrestled all over world. He’s wrestled in the Ukraine, China, Japan, all over the place with USA Wrestling. He’s not your usual wrestler, and he’s not your usual kid. Sometimes there’s a lot of backlash against what I’m doing, and some people think I’m a terrible father, but I take it with a grain of salt. I match him with people who have the appropriate skill for him to compete against. He’s wrestled since he was five, and he’s got four state championships. He’s competed in Freestlye and Greco, USA Youth Wrestling, and this year he made it to state tournament, won four matches and lost two. One was against my nephew who took third in the state, and the other guy he lost to took first, and Cody was beating him with 30 seconds left. He lost six to five against the state champ. Since then he beat both of them in Freestyle and Greco, and his junior year should be a real stellar year for wrestling.”

The elder Bollinger can also shrug off criticism because he can draw on his own fight career to teach his son everything he needs to know about how to avoid the pitfalls of the business. “I fought for five years, and I was the King Of The Cage 145-pound champ, but when I turned 39 I got two ACL surgeries,” he explained. “I decided to just train and not fight anymore. There’s only one Randy Couture in this world.”

The MMA world was still untapped as far as potential for growth when Bollinger started out in 2000. “I knew back then, one of main reasons for me to fight was to pave a road for my son,” he said. “I knew there was no money in it for me. The most I made for a fight was 8 grand, and that was after my championship fight, and that was only after I had to sell so many tickets. I knew once the athletic commission got on board, I knew the sport would take off. Some people tried to sell it as barbaric, but I always saw it as a beautiful chess match, and my plan was to do as well as I could to try and pave a road for my son, and I’m really happy for him.”

Though Bollinger knows his son is already pretty well-rounded, he’s also aware of the constant evolution a fighter needs to maintain in order to stay on point. He’s working with Golden Gloves boxing instructors and cross-training in other disciplines to get a leg up as early as he can.

“It used to be Gracie could submit everyone, but that ain’t the case anymore,” said Frankie. “The top level wrestlers come in and keep you from submitting, and it’s all about constant learning. There’s Liddell, and all those other guys out there who are better wrestlers than him, as good as he is.”

The UFC is ultimately where he’d like his son to go, but the short term goal for Cody is to get into a solid college wrestling program. “The best fighters come from there and the Olympics in Pankration or Grappling,” said Frankie. “I’d like to see him in college, getting a degree ultimately. Fighting keeps him in shape for the wrestling season, which runs from November to March in high school. After that he’s pretty burned out, and to keep him at his level, he needs to be doing something. A wrestling match is six minutes of every muscle working and only short periods of rest, so it’s kind of a break for him when he’s fighting.”

As far as where Cody attends classes, it all depends on the coach and what kind of environment surrounds the school’s team. He’s looking for the proper mentor for Cody and a climate where church attendance is encouraged more than binge drinking. “I want to keep him going to church and out of bars, and I hope to find a coach who can be a good mentor for him,” said Frankie. “I think about 80 percent of kids go to school and learn things they shouldn’t be learning. We’re looking at UC Davis, because Mark Munoz is there. He’s an Olympic wrestler, and he knows Cody from youth wrestling. We’ll see what opens up next year when they start recruiting.”

Cody will have his next fight on June 8 at the Soboba Casino in Hemet, California. He’ll face Chad Walteres, who is also undefeated. “He’s a pretty good wrestler,” said Cody. “He’s got some nice throws, and he knows how to strike, but I’m gonna outstrike him.”

An amateur PRIDE fight is also possible, and if it happens he’ll be pitted against Japan’s “toughest 16 year old they can find.” His father and a few promoters are trying to hash out the details. His next definite match will be on July 19th back in Costa Rica with Titans of the Pentagon again.

“I’d just like to thank my sponsors Sick Submissions, Sprawl, and Unbreakable Mouthpieces, and above all Jesus Christ, because he gives me all my opportunities in the sport.”

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