The Past and Future 02.23.09: Leonard Garcia
Posted by Robert Steele on 02.23.2009
“I’m doing everything different for this fight.” The Past and Future profiles the career paths of the known and the unknown in MMA. This week a profile, including some pre-fight and career comments from WEC featherweight Leonard Garcia.
Leonard "Bad Boy" Garcia had won eight fights in a row before losing to Roger Huerta in a memorable battle at UFC 69. Despite all of his wins leading to that fight, it was this loss where he would gain most of his mainstream recognition. Sometimes the losses define the individual more than do the victories. This has been true for Garcia both professionally and personally. But on March 1st, in his home state of Texas, he hopes to win the WEC Featherweight title from Mike Brown, and change all of this.
The Past
"My dream was to play ball," Garcia said, thinking back to before his MMA career began. Growing up, Garcia aspired to play college football. An article with MMAweekly.com describes in detail Garcia's dispute at a diner with an intoxicated man, which led to Garcia being stabbed several times. At only age 18, with his lungs punctured, he was unable to continue to pursue his dreams to play football.
Garcia eventually recovered and found a new dream in MMA. It wasn't a complete jump. As a young teen he had done some boxing training. Later on, in his late teens he did some jiu-jitsu training as well.
Garcia remembers the difficulty of his first amateur fight. He had been plucked out of the crowd as a replacement at a small event. "I remember thinking how much harder it was to fight than I thought," he said. Nonetheless, he would win with a guillotine choke submission. Through his dedication and commitment to the sport, he had plenty of success early in his career.
And although most people may think of Garcia as primarily a striker, his early victories came mostly by submission. His first five professional wins were all by submission. This streak ended at the inaugural WEC 1, when Garcia beat Victor Estrada with a second round KO.
Huerta looking down Garcia makes the cover of SI
Soon later Garcia made his memorable UFC debut against Roger Huerta at UFC 69, in a fight that would be the first MMA picture to be displayed on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In the first round Garcia had a few attempts to put Huerta away by submission, but Huerta escaped, gaining side control in order to land some punches. In the second round was some good trading with Garcia managing to get back to his feet after having Huerta rain blows. Finally, in the third round Garcia attempted a choke, but Huerta escaped again, gained control and rained more blows. An epic battle ended to nice applause. Huerta won by scoring 30-27 from each of the judges.
Garcia commented on his strategy going into the fight with Huerta. "My strategy was to keep it standing," he said. While this didn't work out exactly as he planned, it made the fight an exciting showcase of two young talented fighters.
After losing to Cole Miller at UFC Fight Night 11, Garica moved back to WEC to fight at 145lbs. At WEC 32, he won over Hiroyuki Takaya with an early first round KO.
In March of 2008, personal problems would get in the way of Garcia's career. He was arrested for an alleged involvement with a cocaine drug trafficking ring. These charges were later dropped. Despite this, they were a huge distraction for the young fighter. "It was hard to stay focused and I wasn't able to train at all," he said.
Garcia would overcome everything and go on to beat veteran Jens Pulver with a flurry of punches. The TKO would end the fight quickly, in just over a minute. "I was surprised that it was so quick," he said, "but I knew I would get him."
Garcia vs. Pulver
The Future
While Garcia is a completely capable lightweight, he seems more natural at 145lbs. WEC has a densely packed featherweight division. At the top of the heap, along with Garcia, is Mike Thomas Brown, Urijah Faber and Wagnney Fabiano.
Who is the best? This should be sorted out within the next year. Garcia will fight Brown on March 1st at WEC 39, with the winner likely going on to face Faber in the future. And Fabiano will fight Fredson Paixao in April at WEC 40.
The consensus for the Garcia versus Brown fight is that it will end in victory for Brown. Most seem to feel that Brown's superior ground game will be too much for Garcia to handle, leading to a similar result as Garcia versus Huerta. This, however, is a different weight class and taking Garcia to the ground may be more difficult for Brown than it was for Huerta. At the same time, Brown can certainly trade standing up if needed.
Garcia indicated his preparation for this fight is something new. "I'm doing everything different for this fight than [I have for my] others," Garcia said. "He's very well rounded."
According to a recent MMAjunkie.com poll, most fans don't see Brown remaining champion within the next year. Over two-thirds of fans think Faber will be champion soon, whether he needs to beat either Brown or Garcia.
Of the top featherweights in WEC, all only have a few losses each. Faber has beaten Pulver twice. Garcia has beat Pulver once in an impressive fashion. And Brown has beat Faber. It's hard to pick between any of these top featherweights. But it certainly would be nice to see Garcia be known for a big victory or two.
Leonard Garcia would like to thank: God deserves all the credit, also Duane Ludwig, Cowboy Cerrone, Greg Jackson, Mike Winklejohn and our team.
images from wec.tv and Leonard Garcia's Myspace page.
