The Past and Future 01.10.09: Nick Catone

Posted by Robert Steele on 01.10.2009

The Past and Future profiles the career paths of the known and the unknown in MMA. This week a profile, with exclusive interview, of soon to debut UFC fighter Nick Catone.


Nick Catone

The Past

Maybe it's just me, but Nick Catone looks like a menacing Mark Wahlberg. Enough that I think "Max Pain," with that spelling, would make a good moniker. "Say ‘Hi' To Your Mother For Me" might be too long for Bruce Buffer to say. In any event, the name he will likely be given by others when he fights Amir Sadollah on February 7th at the Sun Dome is "Inexperienced."

While he may not have any UFC wins yet, his MMA record is 6-0. This number doesn't exactly qualify him as a veteran. But when you add this to an outstanding wrestling resume, moving from Brick Memorial High School to Rider University, it seems a lot more impressive. In 2004, he was ranked seventh in the NCAA Div. I for 184lbs. I asked Nick about his most memorable wrestling moments. He noted his "100th win in high school and in college, breaking the single-season takedown record at Rider University" and his "two conference titles at Rider University."

It was wrestling that led Nick to MMA eventually, almost haphazardly:

I was coaching at a wrestling club and Bill Scott--my current Jiu-Jitsu instructor and trainer--was teaching a Jiu-Jitsu class after the wrestling class. He talked me into sticking around after practice and trying it out one night… I liked it and started going on a regular basis. A year later I had my first professional fight in Atlantic City. And a year and a half after that, I'm training for my first fight in the UFC. Everything happened so quick and now I'm training everyday for a living and I love it.


Nick Catone wrestling for Rider University

Nick Catone has continued under Bill Scott and progressed to the level of Purple Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He stated the transition from wrestling to Jiu-Jitsu as something for him that was "fairly easy to make." He indicated he likes the atmosphere where he trains at Shore Academy. "You need guys to push you, and guys that are better than you to keep raising the bar." Over the past couple years he has seen vast improvement in his fighting. As of late he focuses training off of his back, in the unfortunate event that he ends up in that position.

Weeding-out weaknesses and being a well-rounded fighter seems most important to Nick. While he knows wrestling is his "backbone," he also knows he can't use it as a crutch. He said the great thing about being a strong wrestler is that "you can dictate where you want the fight to end up." This is common in Nick's previous MMA fights--move the opponent, take him down, ground and pound, or submit him. He has done this with a certain amount of aggression. With the "level of guys fighting in the UFC," however, you cannot rely on one aspect of your game. In "some smaller organizations you can probably get away with being one dimensional, but not at this level." This is why Nick now constantly works on his stand-up, and developing his Jiu-Jitsu to the next level.

After winning the USKBA Middleweight Championship (which he still holds) Nick signed a four fight deal with UFC. Nick's potential big break was put on hold after his scheduled fight at UFC 91 against Amir Sadollah was scratched due to Sadollah's leg infection.

The Future

Nick Catone has been training to fight Sadollah since the early fall of 2008. He must be sick of him by now. I asked him how he stays focused:

I just focus on one day at a time and the workout that's [in] front of me. This will be the first fight of my career where I have been training full-time, so that's a big plus for me and [it is] something I wasn't able to do my first six fights. I'm constantly training Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling at Rider University, working on my stand-up, strength training, and conditioning. So I think… not doing the same thing day-in and day-out helps me stay focused. I have great trainers and training partners who push me and are behind me 110%. I've been training for this fight for a long time and I feel [that] I'm ready to go.

As with the originally scheduled fight, Nick Catone will likely come in to this one as an underdog. This, more than anything, is due to Sadollah having greater name recognition. Both fighters lack having a great deal of hard MMA experience, Sadollah even more so. They both train hard, are undefeated, and are at similar experience levels. This makes it difficult to give the edge to either.

Catone's biggest asset might be his humility. He has great respect for anyone "who steps in the cage and goes through the daily grind that goes with training for a fight." When asked who he would be interested in fighting, he simply said, "[Whoever] the UFC throws at me."

What does the future hold? Well, despite what Junie Browning may say about "another boring wrestler," wrestlers who have developed sound defence and striking have been very successful. This is Catone--a strong wrestler who works hard to eliminate any weaknesses. And with Nick Catone's aggression and fierce ground and pound, his fights will be anything but boring.

Images from nickcatone.com