Ronnie Britt Week 2 Blog

This week I will outline my training schedule and go into my training partners past and present, among other things. The early days of the Des Moines Extreme Fighting team was just Dan Anderson, Chris Bott and myself. I found these guys online back in the year 2000 and they were like me, looking for kindred souls who loved submission grappling and the UFC. We basically trained three days a week at Danny’s place and three days a week at my place. Both places were outfitted with wrestling mats wall to wall in our basements. At my place we eventually built a cage and trained in that as realistically as possible. As you can imagine, our wives were less than thrilled to not only have a basement dedicated to fighting, but to have a menagerie of foul mouthed, smelly goofs making a mess every time they came over. Not only that, there was always the chance someone could be seriously injured and we could be sued and lose our homes.

Most of the guys were pretty cool guys to hang out with, let alone choking and punching them. Our little group eventually grew as we continued to ask (beg) people to train with us. Guys like Brett Feeley, Chris David and Lance Hood soon joined in with the training as well. About 6-7 mnths after getting our core group going, we found out that a place called Toad Holler was putting on amateur MMA fights in a boxing ring. Chris Bott and I went on the 2nd or 3rd week of the fights and we liked what we saw, this was right up our alley. Most of the guys that fought were brawlers, wrestlers and other assorted tough guys. I didn’t see very many submissions, but I saw alot of really tough hombres. Some of our guys did get in there and test their mettle. I prefer to do MMA fighting in a cage so I just did submission matches there. But what this did was acquaint us with other fellow MMA fans….and other potential guys to train with. It got our names out there and got the DMEF name out there a bit. Soon we had all kinds of people coming to train. We added guys that became regulars like Mikey Van Meer, Chris Mickle, Ian Tice, Dillon Kepner, Doug Owens and Jeff Carstens. I used to take a Polaroid of many of the guys (and gals) and put them on the wall, my collection was up to about 80 or so. I figure I got pictures of about a third of the people that came down to train. Many of the names that passed through the basement sessions of DMEF either briefly or after a period of training became UFC fighters, names like: Josh Neer, John Halverson, Kevin Burns, James Giboo . Others were already UFC vets, like Tyrone Roberts and a few other Miletich guys whose names escape me now. Local fighting celebrities like Victor Moreno, Joe Brammer, Vern Jefferson, and Gino Hildreth to name a few have spent a little time with DMEF in the early days. There just wasn’t too many places to train in the beginning. Chris David and Anthony Porcelli eventually opened up their own places. Now there are quite a few places and new teams all over the place.

When I think back to those training days, I often times recall the great friendships I have built and the great people I have come to know. You cant hardly sweat, bleed and go to war with somebody without building a bond or really getting to know them. I have seen guys come in knowing nothing about fighting really to becoming a champion somewhere. Its a great feeling to know you have been part of that. Its not without sacrifice. I have seen one of our guys get staph infection so bad, he died three times on the operating table and eventually give up training. I cant tell you how much blood I have had to clean up off the mats or how many concussions there have been. There have been broken orbital sockets, broken fingers, broken noses and broken teeth. I had my nose broken three times in a six month period, three broken fingers and several broken toes. Mikey Van Meer KO’d me once with a kick to the neck while sparring, which knocked out my mouthpiece so that when I slammed into the floor, I broke three teeth. I had a pro MMA fight with Wes White that went 15 seconds, but I had to go to the emergency room the next day for a busted rib and the subsequent swelling which caused my lung to be compressed. I have torn numerous ligaments, I even once separated my hand from my wrist, let me tell you, that hurt! But if you love something or have a real passion for something, you take the bad with the good. I have had far more good with MMA than bad of course, or other wise I wouldn’t be doing it!

What I am doing right now is training for my last fight. After a hard day of work, my schedule goes like this; Mondays I go to Spartan Strength and Performance in Clive and endure the rigors of trainer Nick Rouse. I am convinced he is former CIA and thinks I am a Taliban in need of torture worse than waterboarding. Tuesday mornings its three miles of sprints in the morning and then at night I go to DMEF and spar with Danny Anderson and the gang. If iron sharpens iron, I wonder what it does to tin foil? That’s how I feel sometimes, lol. Wednesday its back to Spartan to see what wickedness Nick has in store. Its usually kettle bells, squats and tire flipping! Thursday morning its more sprinting and then its back to DMEF after work, usually I work on my boxing and submissions while there. Friday I drag myself back to Spartan because I might have a muscle that hasn’t cramped up yet and I don’t want it to feel left out. Saturday I head to Des Moines Jui Jitsu Academy and do some MMA training in the cage there. The beatings I take there…those guys don’t respect their elders very much I will tell you that right now! Sundays I will get in some training at DMEF or wherever I can….mostly Sundays are to catch up on my honeydew list. That’s more demanding and tiring than anything! When my schedule allows I make it to Roundkick Gym as well to get into the HIT class headed by Pete Petersen, he is a Marine (once a Marine, always a Marine) if that tells ya anything. On top of that I try to eat right and cut out the alcohol. By the time the fight rolls around, I should be ready to go. If anything, I will take out my anger about not having any beer and having to eat vegetables out on my opponent. After the fight, hopefully all he saw was a hairball and that was it, lights out.

OK, next week I will have some stories from the fights and training to make you laugh. I will also answer some of the questions people have posted for me and emailed me as well.

Till then, don’t croak!

The Warfrog