Mike Pierce’s Three Keys to Success Posted by Admin | at 10:52 PM

Mike Pierce’s parents didn’t want their son in the family business.

“Even when we were young, my parents told us, ‘we don’t want you doing anything construction wise. We want you to use your head and not doing something where you’re breaking your back every day.’”

Pierce laughs, not only because he did wind up spending time as a union carpenter (even working on the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) tram project), but because his new day job can’t exactly be described as white collar cubicle hopping. In fact, a day on the construction site may be seen as preferable at times to getting punched in the face. Not to Pierce though.

“The pivotal part of your life is when you decide whether you want to make some sacrifices and try to do what you’ve been dreaming about doing, or do you want to go back to clocking in and out your whole life,” said the 29-year-old, who used the money from his construction work to build a little safety net before jumping into the MMA world in 2007. He hasn’t looked back since, with the prospect of going back to his old job being a daily motivation.

“If this doesn’t work out, then you’re back to the old grind,” he said.

That doesn’t seem likely at this point, ten fights into a pro career that has seen him turn back Mike Dolce and Mark Miller before making his first appearance on the world stage in a WEC bout against Justin Haskins in March. For the Portland, Oregon native, it was his chance of a lifetime.

“You’ve got one shot, one opportunity to bring something to the table that says ‘hey, I belong here, I want to stay here, and this is what I’m about,’” he said. “That’s what I tried to do in that fight, and the first two rounds didn’t look too pretty, but in that third round I hit him with a liver shot, dropped him, and finished the fight. So that’s what I was ultimately trying to do – make it exciting and just have fun.”

The third round stoppage of Haskins established Pierce as a fighter to keep an eye on, but as soon as he had made it in the WEC, the rug was pulled out from him when the organization discontinued its welterweight division. Pierce, disappointed but not discouraged, went back to the gym and then signed to fight less than two months later against unbeaten Paul Bradley.

“He was undefeated and looked really good on paper as a two-time All-American from Iowa,” recalled Pierce. “I ended up beating him in his hometown, unanimous decision, and luckily it caught the attention of the UFC, and I got picked up. I was happily surprised.”

On Wednesday in Oklahoma City, Pierce gets his second fight under the Zuffa banner, this time for the UFC against veteran Brock Larson. Larson’s last two fights have seen him roll over Octagon newcomers (Mike Pyle and Jesse Sanders) in less than a round, and his aggressive attack can rattle anyone in the 170-pound weight class. Pierce isn’t shaking in his boots though.

“The best way to deal with guys who like to push the pace and come right at you is to give them a taste of their own medicine,” he said. “You come right back at them just as hard until one of us breaks down mentally or physically. It’s a matter of who wants it more and who breaks down. That’s why I’m excited about this fight. He (Larson) has a lot of experience, has fought a lot of tough guys in the WEC and UFC, and I’m just expecting a war. He’s got skills on the ground and knockout power, I’ve fought guys like that before, and it should be fun.”

If Pierce’s idea of fun is a bit different from most people, call it the competitor’s mentality, a state of mind where nothing is better than testing yourself against someone who is just as good, if not better, than you are. Pierce got his indoctrination through wrestling, where he competed at Portland State University, and when he saw the impact a solid wrestler could have in mixed martial arts, the transition was inevitable.

“Back when I was watching this, I was thinking to myself ‘I think wrestlers could do pretty darn good in this,’” he smiles. “Then Randy (Couture), Dan Henderson, and all those old-school wrestlers that I knew started getting

into this and making an impact. That’s kinda when I said, I want to try this and see what happens. Then after my first amateur fight, I was like ‘yeah, this is definitely something I can see myself doing for a while.”

And though this is mixed martial arts, Pierce hasn’t gotten into the wrestler’s trap of learning some standup and then abandoning mat work for the lure of the big standup knockout. He’s sticking to his bread and butter when the bell rings.

“Wrestling is my first love,” he said. “I train striking all the time and I’m always practicing that, but I’m also always refining and keeping my wrestling in check too. I never forget what got me to where I’m at and you’ve got to be mindful of that.”

Wrestling. Hard work. Family support. It’s been Mike Pierce’s recipe for success thus far; now he just needs to keep the momentum going in the biggest organization in the world. But again, he’s not rattled.

“I hope people see that I’ve got heart and that I’m ready to throw down with anybody,” he said. “Brock’s got a little bigger name than me, he’s been around a while, but I want the fans to go away going ‘wow, that kid put it on the line and let it all hang out.’”