Former MSU wrestlers test their grit in ultimate fighting

The roar of screams and cheers from the thousands in attendance surround the former MSU wrestler turned fighter of mixed martial arts, or MMA, in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Spike TV camera crews are scattered around the blood-stained mat as the two fighters are introduced by Bruce Buffer's infamous "Let's Get Ready To Rumble" voice.

But he's deaf to all of it.

His thoughts are zoned in on the man in the other corner, and he can't wait for everyone else to exit the cage so he can unleash some punishment.

"Hurry up, I want to punch this dude in the face right now," Maynard recalls.

"Man, these announcers are long. Hurry up."

The camera crews clear out, and now it's just Maynard, his opponent and the referee.

"Let's get it on!" the referee belts out, throwing his arms violently apart.

Right off the bat, Maynard lunges toward his opponent. He's ready for action.

"I just want to go over and exchange right there," said Maynard, a 2003 MSU graduate. "Because it's kind of nice to get punched just once. Just once to get going and then it's like 'All right, yeah, this is a fight.'"

Fighting in the limelight

In June, Maynard was eliminated in the semifinals of the Spike TV reality series "The Ultimate Fighter," a show that pits 12 155-pound fighters against each other for a lucrative UFC contract.

Although he was not awarded the top contract, Maynard still signed a three-year deal with UFC for about nine fights, he said.

His first match after being eliminated was on the card of the show's finale, and while Maynard dominated much of the match, it ended in a no-contest.

Maynard had picked up his opponent over his shoulder and slammed him to the mat, but his head hit at the same time and it appeared both fighters were knocked out.

With a professional record of 3-0 and 1 no-contest, Maynard's UFC career may have had that proverbial punch to the face, and he is realizing it's going to be a fight to the top.

"Of course the goal is like, 'Man I'm going to get up to the belt, it's on,'" he said.

"But you can't just like talk, 'Oh the belt, the belt, the belt.' You have to keep a goal, but you have to train every day."

Prior to landing a spot on The Ultimate Fighter, Maynard was experiencing some hard times while trying to launch his career.

"There was about a year where I was trying to get going, and I was in small stuff," he said. "You weren't really pulling too much cash, and it's just like man, it's tough to get going for sure."

Still, when he received the phone call from UFC about competing on their reality show, he was not entirely thrilled.

"I felt kind of good," Maynard said. "But I didn't know if I wanted to do a TV deal. I was like man, this is kind of weird you know … all the drama."

Despite his hesitance, Maynard said it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

"I just got to that point where I didn't want to do all this small crap," he said.

From then on, Maynard was committed, and no one knows better than his father what he is capable of once he gets that focus.

"He's just a hell of a competitor," said Jan Maynard, a Las Vegas native.

"When he's on the mat or in the Octagon, he's going to be ready. He's going to give it everything he has."

The first time Jan Maynard watched his son wrestle, Gray was 3 years old. Years later he would watch his son become a three-time All-American while wearing green and white.

So when he decided to climb the fence into the Octagon, it was not easy for his father - a self-proclaimed wrestling purist - to accept.

"MMA was a little more barbaric and violent than I wanted my son to be a part of," Jan Maynard said. "And that's everyone's immediate impression."

As Jan Maynard learned more about the sport and met some of the athletes, he said he was able to be at ease with his son's choice, and now he supports him 100 percent.

"You know he'll go as far as he wants to go," Jan Maynard said. "He could win a belt, certainly he'll have to go through the process probably getting his butt kicked a bit.

"Losing is a catalyst for him."

While many fight leagues try to imitate it, UFC is the top tier of professional Martial MMA, and Maynard is looking forward to getting his shot on the big stage.

"The competition is great man, I mean it's the best in the world," he said. "If you're the top, that's it, that's you. So I can't wait to do that."

Similar roots

Maynard is not the only Spartan to jump into the cage as a modern-day gladiator. His former MSU wrestling teammate, Rashad Evans, is quickly becoming one of the biggest names in the sport.

"I'm a little bit past where I thought I would be at this point," said Evans, who won season two of "The Ultimate Fighter" in 2005. "I always thought I'd definitely be on top, but I didn't think it would come so soon."

On July 7, Evans' professional MMA record suffered its first blemish when he fought UFC superstar Tito Ortiz, a former light heavyweight champion.

The bout ended in a unanimous draw because Ortiz was deducted a point for bracing himself on the cage when Evans was trying to take him to the mat.

"If he didn't grab the fence then he would probably have been taken out in the second round because I was going to ground and pound him," said Evans, who holds a 15-0-1 record.

"Once I got him down, it was going to be over for him," he said. "That changes the whole perception of the fight. He cheated because he made it a draw."

While nothing is set in stone, it is rumored that a rematch of the fight will be slated for October, Evans said.

Next time, he wants to be sure there is no doubt in anyone's mind who the winner is.

"I'm going to go work on those areas where I feel like if I had those areas covered, I would just dominate, you know," said Evans, a 2003 MSU graduate.

"Me and Tito, we're acquainted now. We know each other so next time it's going to eliminate a lot of stuff.

"We should just be able to go straight down to business."

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

While it may be hard to imagine a wrestling squad with these high-powered athletes, Chris Williams competed alongside both Evans and Maynard in college.

"Gray was … a brawler of a wrestler, that was his style," said Williams, an assistant coach for the MSU wrestling team. "If he had to rip your arm off to turn you, he was willing to do that, that was kind of his MO."

Now that Maynard is not bound by the rules of collegiate wrestling, he said it feels great to be able to punch his opponent in the face.

"I would always get pumped up to the point where a scrap would just break out," he said, talking about when he would train with teammates at MSU. "I like to go hard, and then I was like man, (MMA) is a great sport because you can punch them, you can make them pay."

People fed off Gray's intensity, but not all the wrestlers liked it.

"A lot of them didn't like to go with me in practice," Gray said. "Just because I like to not hurt people but just put them through pain."

Williams said he feels Evans does not get the credit he deserves in the UFC.

"They've kind of trashed him," he said. "I think he's proving people wrong again and again. He's got everything it takes to be successful in this."

However, Evans is not sweating the lack of respect.

"I don't get credit, but it's fine with me," Evans said. "I'm going to be the champ. I'm going to dominate. I'm going to be one of the best UFC fighters ever, not just in my era, but ever.

"When I get done doing my thing I think they're going to look back … they're going to really remember me."

Jon Schultz can be reached at schul320@msu.edu.