I recently caught up with Bob Gilstrap, UFC 17 veteran.
April 2014
Guru: In 1997, you had your first pro-recorded fight against Chris Munsen. Why did you choose to get into MMA then and what kind of background did you have for that fight?
BG: My story is this: I had always been interested in martial arts. Growing up I was very over weight and my nickname in high school was "fat kid". My home life growing up was pretty tough and I had multiple times seen my mother get beat on and wished when I was young that I could do something about it. I was always fascinated with Bruce Lee. After high school I moved away to where I knew no one so to fill my time I looked into martial arts. I first got involved in Taekwondo. Most people go once or twice a week for an hour or so; I was going every night for several hours or until they kicked me out. Needless to say, I excelled fairly quickly at it going through the first 6 belts in 6 months. As soon as they allowed it I began competing in their tournaments. I was a purple belt at the time and was entered in one of the black belt tournaments and was on the opposite side of the tournament from a guy who was a black belt and running through the competition. I did not meet up with him until the finals and was the only guy to even score a point against him (though I was not a black belt at the time). Before the end of the tournament I attempted a spinning crescent kick and landed wrong hurting my knee. Therefore putting me out of the tournament. My problem with Taekwondo was in fact it was a point based martial art, not actual contact. In point-based martial arts, it comes down to physics. The smaller, leaner or lighter the opponent is then the faster he or she is. Well I knew that though these people might be faster, I was surely tougher and stronger so I started to seek out full contact Martial arts. About 6 months after I had heard about a gym in Kirkland Washington called AMC.
I went in to check them out and joined immediately. There I was introduced to my Coach Maurice Smith as well as his partner Hyru (sorry as I do not remember his last name). I fell in love with the full contact kickboxing immediately because I knew my strength and size and punching power made a difference. It took me about 6 months before my first amateur kickboxing match but I knew I had found my sport. I liked to compete but did not like team sports all that well as your fate rested in the hands of some of those who may not take the sport a seriously as I did or maybe did not train as hard. I was never a great athlete or excelled in other sports but knew that now it was all up to me and I had no one else to blame for my losses and did not have to share in my victories with those who get carried by the rest of the team. After pursuing an amateur kickboxing career under Maurice whom I still think is one of the greatest stand up fighters of all time. He deserves a spot in the UFC hall of fame one day. Eventually, in walked the now current owner of AMC Matt Hume. Matt had introduced himself to Mo and had been fighting in Japan in the Pancrase organization and is a great athlete and coach of his own accord. Matt was the first person to introduce us to grappling which he later named Pankration. Matt had intended to teach Mo and a fellow gym member and friend of mine, John Renfroe, how to grapple. I was introduced to it in the sense I call the "little brother syndrome". I was the only other person in the gym big enough and interested in it to allow Matt to show the techniques on me and then allow Mo to practice them on me followed by John. So I was basically their dummy or little brother who all three picked on while learning these new techniques. Their focus was not on me learning at the time but to push both Maurice and John in that direction to start fighting in grappling competitions. After about six months of those three (jokingly) abusing me my defense started to get so good that the time John was ready to be sent out for his first competition, they thought I would do okay as well. So began my journey into Mixed Martial Arts. I did really well in my amateur career which led to my first fight against Chris who then, I believe was only training with another Washington state gym owner and later friend, Charlie Pearson out of Everett Washington. At the time and no offense to Charlie, I had trained under the two most experienced and best coaches in Washington, which made me more than ready to fight.
Guru: In your career, you fought many former champions including Josh Barnett, Jeff Monson, and Newton. Who was the toughest opponent you ever faced?
BG: They were all tough in their own way and I am not sure if it is just because I am getting older but I would have to say my toughest opponent has been my most recent fight against Andy Petek. He was so incredibly strong. Next to him I would say toughest would have been Dario Amorim. At that point in my career, I was pretty confident as I was undefeated as a pro with 5-6 wins under my belt and had slacked up a bit in my training (young, dumb and over confident) and with Dario I had never hit someone so hard and so many times without them quitting.
Guru: What was your experience like fighting for the UFC? And how were you treated?
BG: My experience for the UFC was a bit overwhelming. A few weeks prior, I was riding my bike for weight loss and I wrecked it and dislocated my shoulder and did not feel up to fighting. Maurice had told me that the UFC is not something that you could back out of. At the time of the accident I was less than 200 pounds like I was supposed to be. As soon as I could not train as hard, my body shot right back up to 212 pounds. The day before weigh-ins I had to cut to make weight. I ended up cutting 14 pounds and making it but I was not feeling good at all. The experience was good and their event was by far the most organized and professional that I had ever encountered. However, I think they were a bit too serious as in my pre fight interview. Most of my answers to their questions were comical as that is more my persona and they did not like that and kept asking me to redo my answers into something they wanted to hear. It was almost a reality-based situation as they asked questions and wanted certain answers to make you look how they wanted. Of course this was back before Dana White who I now think gives the fighters a bit more free expression to be themselves. Overall, the treatment was nice and their professionalism was great but the best part was how the fans treated me.
Guru: If you had an opportunity to rematch any of your losses, who would you like to fight and why?
BG: This is an easy one. If I could rematch anyone it would definitely be Carlos Newton just because of his attitude. He was the only guy, win or lose, that treated me poorly. After all my wins, I did what I could to take my opponent out congratulate them, get to know them and of course since I won more money I was sure that I picked up the bar tab. Even after losing to guys like Josh Barnett and Jeff Monson, they were both great guys and we are still friends to this day. Carlos was just an arrogant dick.
Guru: Many of your fights had more than 5 minute rounds. What was it like fighting for 30 minutes straight against Dario Amorim?
BG: I miss the 30-minute rounds. It gave me a chance to wear the bigger guys down. I was one of the smaller heavyweights so I needed time against the bigger guys. As soon as they broke it down into the 5-minute rounds, it gave them time to rest and could come out strong again. I will fight anyone for 30 minutes. I loved that time frame. Two guys enter, one guy leaves. Just like my last fight against Andy, I was upset with the ref stopping it. I was giving up a lot of muscle weight to him and things could have gone differently if he did not get a chance to rest. However it is no fault of Andy's and I have been in contact with him and hope to get him some heavyweight fights down here in Colorado as I feel he will do well. Andy is a Good guy and I wish him the best but now that I am back on the circuit I will be looking for fights in the 205-pound range or even perhaps the 185 division. The fight against Dario was epic and I loved every grueling minute of it. That was my first loss as a pro and it went the distance. I got more recognition for that loss than any of my wins. For example, I had guys like Marco Ruas whom I looked up to, come up to me and in broken English congratulate me for that fight. The promoter Sergio Batarelli still says that my fight with Dario is one of the top 3 best Vale-Tudo fights ever.
Guru: Do you train with or are you training any big-show veterans right now?
BG: I am not currently training with any
Guru: Seraphim MMA is your current home, who is the next up-and-comer out of your gym that we should watch for?
BG: By far the first to mention and who is our current Colorado top ranked 135 pound amateur to watch out for is Trevor Polhamus, We also have a 15 year old female who just won her debut fight up in Montanan on the beat-downs and back-flips card that I fought on named Sierra Suits that will be someone to look out for.
Guru: Do you still watch MMA? Who are your favorite fighters to watch and who do you think the greatest fighter of all time is?
BG: Yes I still watch. There are so many fights now and having so very little time as I own my own gym, I do not get a chance to see them all and we focus a lot on local talent as they are who we need to go through for myself and my fighters but I do not get to see all those fights either. I used to love watching Forest Griffin, I think Jose Aldo has talent. I was on the Anderson Silva bandwagon until his fight in the Middle East where I believe he lost respect for the sport and became to arrogant. I believe his first loss recently was well deserved on his part but feel for him on his second with a poorly timed kick and look forward to his comeback. I am biased as the greatest fighter of all time. I do not believe that my coach Maurice got enough recognition for his wins and what he has done for the sport but maybe all time hero would have to be the class act of Randy Couture. I really like Chuck Liddel as well.
Guru: Are there any websites, or social media sites you'd like your fans to reach you?
BG: As for looking out for me and my team I invite everyone to like us on face book at www.facebook.com/seraphimmma , I also have a twitter @seraphimmma and @thatguygilstrap but I am still learning that whole tweeting thing.
All my best,
Bob Gilstrap
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