Military Man Turned Mixed Martial Artist; Perkins is Ready to Drop Bombs on the Competition

By Randy Thomas
 
For those who know Patrick Perkins, he’s a nice guy; a caring friend with a good sense of humor who loves to talk about fighting and seldom is without his video camera.  For those who have to stand across the cage from him, it’s another story.  With a stare that will pierce an armored car, and the explosiveness of a scud missile, Perkins is a focused warrior, set to go into battle with one mission in mind- winning.
 
Perkins was first introduced to hand to hand combat while he was in the Army.  Army Combative’s are from the Gracie school of Jiu Jitsu.  They view the system the same way a mixed martial martial artist does; a physical chess game where one wrong move can lead to defeat.  A couple of his battle buddies were into MMA and would teach Perkins some moves during their free time in the barracks.

When his active duty ended and he moved to Iowa, Perkins thought about pursuing mixed martial arts further and after a few researches, he wound up on the MCC web site.  He navigated around and found Roundkick Gym.  A few days later he was a member.
 
Perkins recalls, “Having settled into a gym, I just went about my ways going there two times a week and doing Jiu Jitsu classes.  Every once in a while the subject of DMX (an MCC-owned amateur fight circuit) came up, and I finally got curious.  After checking it out two weeks in a row, I thought “Hell, I came do that.”  So, the very next week I was all over it.  I contacted the promoter with a thousand different questions. You would have thought I was signing up for the Army again.  I showed up, fought, and got my first victory.  I was hooked.”
 
The first couple matches seemed like nothing to him.  One fight ended in a one punch knock out.  He decided to step up his competition and faced fellow MCC prospect, “Mean” Dean Bradley.  Although he won the fight, he felt was it was like to take abuse instead of giving it.  Perkins recalled the time by adding, “I couldn’t buy a punch and I knew, that wasn’t going to work.  Everyone kept asking, how long are you going to do this, what is your goal?  At the time it was to see if I could go 5-0 at DMX, and if that happened, I would go up to MCC and see what would happen there for five fights.  With all that, I knew I had to have some stand up training added, so the next day I went in and signed up for Muay Thai at RoundKick.”
 
Eventually Perkins made it to MCC.  He learned another valuable lesson.
 
Perkins stated, “Against Miguel Rios I learned something: I can lose, and I can lose quickly.  I held out an arm for a fraction of a second, he got it, arm bar, game over.  I have nothing but respect for Rios, he’s a great guy, but I did not like the taste of losing.  I spent about a week mentally beating myself up, then decided, that’s never happening again!”
 
Perkins rebounded from that loss with a highlight reel worthy win over Brad Davis at MCC Trials III.  At MCC 24: “Reloaded”, he will face Chad Vandermark.  He’s prepared harder than ever before.  He’s taken an important concept from his military training: “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst”.  He’s been living that motto for years.  On January 16th, the 34 year old fighter will put that and himself to the test.
 
 
Q and A with Patrick Perkins

MCC: What branch of the Military are you in, and what all have you accomplished in it?

PP: I’m in the Army. Stationed out of Dodgeville, WI with the 469th Engineering Company. I belong to the “300 Club” for scoring 328 out of 300 on the extended scale in the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test), got the Physical Fitness Excellence Award for scoring the highest in the whole company, and I’m also registered as a Sharp Shooter.
 
MCC: Have you served overseas for the Military?

PP: I have and I haven’t. I have not gone with the Army, but I have been to about 20-30 different countries (yes, including the bad ones) from when I was an overseas contractor. As a contractor I did electrical construction on US Embassies around the world. I’ve been shot at and bombed more than once and worse, as a contractor, we never had the ability to shoot back. I was able to live out of the states for a good 10 years, see the world, but really there is no place like the states. It’s too bad most take it for granted.
 
MCC: Was the Army Combative’s harder or easier then what you do and how you train now?
 
PP: The funny thing about Army Combative’s, is that it is VERY BASIC. Sure, it’s the Gracie school of Jiu Jitsu that they are teaching, But even the instructors tell you not to use it out on the civilian world because “…you’ll get your ass kicked.” Training at Round Kick, you can take as little or as much from it as you like. It can also be as easy or as difficult as you like. Going into a fight, I’m there mostly two times a day working on my stand up. It’s harder where I’m at now, because I make it that way. I am all about technique. Speed and power come second. I want the techniques down first and I try to do as much muscle memory work as I can to get that, then I move on to the next lesson. In the Army you will do Combative’s every once in a while, out here now, I do them every day.
 
MCC: Are you able to add a lot of things you learned in the Military to your MMA game?

PP: Oh, definitely, mostly its the mental aspect. There are four Army Ethos:

1. I will always place the mission first
2. I will NEVER accept defeat
3. I will NEVER quit
4. I will NEVER leave a fallen comrade

Three of the four go right along with MMA fights. The mission, to win the fight. This means putting any and all time you can into getting ready for it. The training, the diet, the mind set, and most importantly, the time. That means loosing a lot of “US” time with the girl, drinking time with the “boys”, and etc. Hell, Christmas Day, I still put in my time at the gym.
Numbers 2 and 3 are pretty self explanatory. Your going to get knocked down and punched in the face at times. As the old cliche goes, “It’s not that you get knocked down, it’s whether or not you get back up.” With the Army training, you learn, that you are pretty much unstoppable. You are limited only by the limits you place on yourself. There is no quit, ever.
 
MCC: Do you feel the Military has made you mentally strong for fighting?

PP: For sure!  Just about the time in your life when you are supposed to be learning that you aren’t ten foot tall and bullet proof, you join the Army and they reinforce in you “YOU ARE 10 FEET TALL AND BULLET PROOF”. When you do basic training, they give you something called a “smart book”. It’s a freaking life manual. It not only deals with about everything you can run into in the Army, but just life in general. It teaches you how to eat, live, etc. I take all that to heart. I have an American theme tattoo sleeve and I had it before I joined the Army.
 
MCC: What do you feel that most fighters lack, that you do not?

PP: Will Power, Drive, and no pressure. I do this because I truly love to do it. I have no delusions of making this a career or to the UFC. I’m not taking anything away from the kids out there that do have that hope and dream, but I don’t have it. That doesn’t mean I want to win any less, it just takes all the burden of thinking I have to do something magical or memorable to win and make a name for myself. I think that’s why I’ve done well. My brother always tells me not to sweat the small stuff and that’s totally true. You work on the big things and don’t worry until there is something truly to worry about, and you will have way less stress in your life.
I’m also extremely null. Once I was overseas and had to give blood because I had to in order to get a transfusion for my daughter. I looked over at the guy next to me that was already plugged in, they stuck me, I pumped my fist and filled the bag, making sure I beat the other guy. I came out of the room saying “yeah, he even started ahead of me!” That’s how competitive I am.
 
 
MCC: What do you feel that you lack as a fighter, that you would like to work on?

PP: Patience! I’ve just recently started to learn to let the fight develop and not to rush it. The only person I’ve lost to was Miguel Rios and, again not to take anything away from him because he is a great Jiu Jitsu guy, but I rushed it, stopped thinking, became focused on one thing, and then rushed it. He saw it, took advantage of it, and I lost quickly. Now, I wait to feel the fighters out a little. What is this guy trying to do? Stand? Go to the ground? What is he good at, weak at? What does he do when I do this or that? A lot of those questions I have just recently learned from talking to and working with Joe Brammer. It all goes back to being patient and seeing the reactions instead of just going out there fast and furious.
 
MCC: You ran right through everyone on the amateur scene up until your loss to Miguel Rios.  Then you bounced back with a highlight worthy win. How do you plan to approach this next fight?

PP: With way less stress on myself. I put myself into so many stressful situations going into that fight with Miguel. My Company Commander was coming, but I had to get tickets to him. My family was running late. I was freaked that I was going to miss something or be the guy that they were looking for when we were supposed to be seeing the doctor, or having the meetings. I wasn’t a wrestler back in high school, so I didn’t know how to loose weight. Going into this, I now know what is going on, what to expect, etc. It will be way more about the fight than worrying about what is going on around me. I’ve spoken with Mick at Nutrishop several times and have my stack all figured out for losing weight. I know how to cut now. I just have way more knowledge of what to do and how to do it. The less stress the better.
Losing to Miguel put this sour taste in my mouth that really fueled me into the Trials against Brad Davis. He ended up taking the brunt of all that being built up and with all the new training I had received in my fight camp I created. I keep that feeling of losing with me, and use it as fuel to push me when I’m tired, when I don’t want to get out of bed, when I’m sore, etc.
 
MCC: Chad Vandermark tends to be the aggressor. How to prepare to counter a fighter like that?
 
PP: I think he has seen me fight more than I’ve seen him fight. I’m not sure if he will stick to his normal attacks or not. I’m prepared either way. It’s really hard to say what you are going to do going into a fight, because other than the beginning, there is nothing else you can do other than react. You come out, you touch gloves, and you have a general plan of attack, but beyond that first punch or block, it’s just a matter of falling back on your training.
In my last fight at MCC, I had a one tracked mind. I knew I had to watch for triangles and arm bars, but I was so focused on a game plan I had come up with and executing it, that I missed the big picture and still got caught off guard. A trap was set and I fell right into it. We’ll see what happens after the first few exchanges, then I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.
 
MCC: How do you see this fight going?

PP: The results from each of our fights seem to always be dramatic. I’ve never had a fight go to decision and I really don’t ever want one too. That’s one of my biggest fears in fighting, leaving it up to someone else to decide if I won or not. What a gut wrenching feeling. I’ve had a couple one punch knock outs and I saw what he did to Leo at the MCC Trials, so each of us knows we have knock out power.

MCC Trials III

October 10, 2009

Midwest Cage Championship held it’s third amateur MMA event to seek out the next big name in the fight game, and several fighters showed up to earn their shot for a spot on the MCC roster.  MCC co-owner, Ryan Hass noted, “When we were putting the event together we had ten fights scheduled, but we kept getting more and more interest from fighters, so we ended up with fourteen fights.  We had enough fighters to put more on, but we only have so much time to work with.”  Fighters from all over the Midwest showed up and put on performances worthy of getting their invitation to the Midwest’s top promotion.

One of the most exciting fights of the night was, unfortunately one of the shortest.  Corey McDonald and Chad Thornburg put on a stand up war with McDonald landing a barrage of punches for the TKO victory in just 33 seconds of the first round.  The eighteen year old fighter, trained by muay Thai ace, Pete Peterson did exactly what he intended to do; he kept it standing and landed quicker and more powerful punches.  A teammate of MCC standout, Zak Laird, McDonald will get his shot with MCC at the promotions largest show of the year; MCC 23 “Thanksgiving Throwdown”.  “Like Laird, this is a kid people need to keep their eye on, stated MCC co-owner, John Halverson.  “We’ve seen him fight a couple times and he gets better with every fight.  If he turns out to be anything like Zak Laird, the sky is the limit for him.”

A training partner of MCC Middleweight contended, Andy Branson, Nick Lepa made his MMA debut against a very experienced fighter, Chad Zurfluh.  The entire fight was a back and forth battle as the the wrestler, Zurfluh was able to nullify the jiu jitsu game of Lepa.  It was near the end of the second round when Zurfluh made the mistake of giving up his back, and the blue belt took full advantage of the position and forced the tap out due to a rear naked choke.  Although new to the sport, he proved that he is worthy to perform.  Fight fans may see him step in the cage along side his teammate, Andy Branson, at MCC 23.

The lone knock out of the night came from Chad Vandermark when he  landed a huge right hand to the chin of Leo Villareal folding him like a lawn chair.  A student of Anthonly Porcelli’s Des Moines Mixed Martial Arts Academy, Vandermark had been sidelined for months with a broken hand.  He was eager to make his return at MCC Trials and wanted to put on an impressive performance to leave no doubt in the fans minds that he deserves to bang with the best.  “The knock out came so fast we had to watch it over and over on video.  It was crazy,” stated John Halverson.  He added, “These guys were trading punches and next thing you know Leo is on the ground, legs folded underneath him and Chad’s walking back to his corner with a smile on his face and his right hand in the air.  He asked me for his shot on MCC.  How could I say no?”

In a rematch from earlier this year, Josh “The Jack Hammer” Troen, agreed to fight Tony Crowder again- the aggressive, experience fighter he submitted in his second ever MMA fight.  Unfortunately for the Jack Hammer, Crowder did his homework and put in his time at the gym.  Shortly after getting dropped from a leg kick, Crowder weathered the flurry of punches and snatched a picture perfect arm bar, forcing Troen to submit just 28 seconds in the first round.  Immediately after the fight, the victorious Crowder wasted no time in calling out MCC bantamweight fighter, Nate “Teddy Bear” Williams.  Fight fans can expect to see this fight soon!

In the main event of the night, middleweight brawler, Patrick Perkins faced off against Brad “Popeye” Davis.  Although Davis came into the fight the underdog, despite being the more experienced fighter, he put up a very competitive fight until a liver kick stopped Popeye late in the second round.  Perkins was surprised by the heart and tenacity that Davis brought to the table, but with only one loss to his MMA resume, Perkins remained calm and picked his shots and he knew it would only take one- and, he proved that. Perkins moves on to be 7-1.

Fight fans will now see the select few, make their debut in the MCC cage, at MCC 23: “Thanksgiving Throwdown,” Wednesday, November 25th, at Vets Auditorium.