Grice gearing up for UFC 100…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
Sorry for the lack of updates. It’s been a crazy week for the Boneman in his other realm, minor league hockey.
If you have any interest in all, just follow the last week of blog posts for the Oklahoma City hockey scene right here.
If not, hey, it’s time for UFC 100 this weekend in Las Vegas. After a quiet couple of weeks in the fight game, good to be excited about something once again.
The card is anchored by three major fights: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves and Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping. And I’ll get to those fights later in the week.
But today is about one of the prelim fighters, Matt Grice from Harrah. Grice will take on Shannon Gugerty in a pre-PPV bout at the event and left for Las Vegas yesterday.
I had a chance to do a phone interview with Grice and his trainer/workout partner, Shawnee High assistant coach Jason Merrell, about how everything is going.
Grice said he is feeling great right now. Asked if this is a must-win, “they’re all must-wins in the UFC, especially in this loaded division (lightweight).”
Grice lost his last bout in February, returning from a two-year hiatus to become an Oklahoma City police officer.
But the love of the fight brought him back. Merrell said Grice has had one of his best camps and is coming into this one with no excuses and is ready to showcase what he can do.
Grice has an extrememly interesting story. A four-time state champion at Harrah, his college career was derailed by a nasty car accident. Yeah, that’s a tease. You can read more about Grice in Saturday’s paper, looking forward to writing this one.
While Grice will be in “full preparation” mode, wondered what it will be like for Merrell.
He said it’s a once in a lifetime experience to go to something like this. He’s very interested to work out with some of the other camps and see what he can learn.
There won’t be much sight-seeing. Merrell said that may have drained Grice for his UFC bout in England. This time, “there will be a lot of looking out the window, but that’s about it.”
UFC also came out with an official magazine that I picked up Monday. Because of all the hockey stuff, haven’t had a chance to read it yet but will soon.
And despite taking almost a week off, I didn’t miss much, thankfully. Nothing earth-shattering to report in MMA or boxing at this point. Vic Darchinyan returns on Showtime on Saturday, so that should be good.
The biggest fight of the last week was the epic Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. Federer won 16-14 in the fifth set in the most amount of games ever in a championship final.
Happy to be back and expect more UFC 100 thoughts and links the rest of the way.
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