Mark Bocek Takes The Long Road Home To Fight at UFC 129

The quotations in the following piece are excerpts from an exclusive Bleacher Report interview with Mark Bocek.  

The Journey

MMA is the world's fastest growing sport (as Dana White has repeatedly said). All across the world, MMA gyms and jiu jitsu schools are seemingly ubiquitous these days (just how many Gracies are there?) There are fighters from many different countries (Dong Hyun Kim-South Korea, Takanori Gomi-Japan, Dennis Siver-Russia/Germany, Cheick Kongo-France etc.) fighting in the UFC. Each one has a unique tale of how they have reached the pinnacle of success. This narrative is a classic one of unshakable determination and an indomitable will. UFC 129 will be a pivotal point in determining how much magic remains in this story. 
 
The 155 Division

The list of stars includes: B.J. Penn, Gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar, Anthony Pettis, Melvin Guillard, Clay Guida, George Sotiropoulos, ad infinitum. The U.F.C. lightweight category is stacked. In my opinion, it is the toughest division in all of sports today. One quality name, of many, not mentioned is that of Torontonian Mark Bocek. The resilient and talented jiu jitsu specialist is on the precipice of breaking through the masses and being recognized as a top contender. This will play out in front of Mark's hometown at Ontario's first ever UFC event. Which one is he again?

  
Who is Mark Bocek?
 
Ontario, Canada conjures up images of hockey players persistently playing under the lights at outdoor rinks in the cold, late nights. Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, Rick Nash all grew up playing hockey in the Canadian province. Hailing from Woodbridge, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto), this should be a hockey story. But while most kids hit the local rink, Mark hit the mats-globally. It paid off. Mark is now a professional fighter on the verge of stardom. He is diligently trying to establish himself as a top five fighter in his unforgiving division. The 9-3 lightweight fighter has a record of 5-3 in the world's most competitive mixed martial arts organization: the U.F.C. Mark also competes in the most challenging division which is 146-155 lbs. (The light heavyweight category 186- 205 is also considered the deepest.)

Mark's three losses are to: the current champion Frankie Edgar, Spike television's The Ultimate Fighter: Season Six champion Mac Danzig, and a controversial decision loss to Jim Miller: a loss fought on Miller's home turf in New Jersey. Now most of Mark's peers, who were playing hockey, are watching him on television. After all these years, most of them are now beginning to understand what jiu jitsu is and what he has been doing all of these years. Still unsure of who he is?

The next time you see a muscular, red-headed, fighter (with a unique, black, tattoo design on his back) winning by submission- it's probably Mark. The tattoo is the symbol for his jiu jitsu team with a red piranha in the middle representing power.

  
The Rise
 
While many people became fans of MMA through the UFC reality show: The Ultimate Fighter, there was a small group of devout and loyal fans who fell in love with the original U.F.C. shows. This was the impetus for Mark's arduous odyssey."I was always intrigued by Martial Arts, as a kid I studied Kempo Karate. When I saw UFC 2, I knew it was something I had to pursue and I have been doing it ever since."

The 29 year old fighter says that when he watched UFC 2 on March 11, 1994, he found his vocational calling. But, he found it difficult to study jiu jitsu in Toronto at that time. In that era, the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame was not a rich breeding ground for inspired grapplers. Within Toronto, he assiduously pursued the acquirement of knowledge and skills by any means that he could. Having a small pool of people who trained in the sport at the time was one of many obstacles he faced- and overcame. 
 
"I had to travel to different gyms everyday since it was only a select group of people training BJJ. I had to travel to the States and Brazil to really understand the art and I still do. I always believed this sport would blow up. Once you see it, whether you like it or not, you respect it."

Mark's group initially relied heavily on learning tools such as: old video tapes , books, and going abroad for seminars. Despite this, Mark's accomplishments are plentiful: five-time Canadian Grappling Champion, two-time ADCC Canadian Trials Champion, three-time Pan American medalist, two-time Grapplers Quest Champion and a gold at the BJJ World Cup. How did he achieve such success?

Mark did not allow distance, money, culture, age, nor language to hold him back.  "I was 14 when I went to train with Rickson Gracie, I went down for a few summers, the same with Renzo Gracie. The first time I went to Brazil I was 15. The longest I stayed in Brazil was for one year."
 
  
The Canadian now holds a black belt in Kempo Karate and in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Bocek, through self belief and dedication, went on to become one of Canada's most decorated jiu jitsu players. His perseverance in grappling was rewarded with his impressive showing on the sport's brightest stage.

 
 "The ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) is the world championships of no-gi grappling.  You can get in by special invite or winning the ADCC trials, I won the North American trials in 2006 for the 2007 world championships. In the world championships, I lost my 2nd match to eventual 3rd place winner Andre Galvao after I beat Drew Fickett."(Drew Fickett holds a submission win over top welterweight contender Josh Koscheck.)

 Mark's ground skills have been parlayed well in the big show. In addition to having seven of his nine professional wins coming via submission, he has won two UFC Submission of the Night awards. He has also trained with many of the sport's best camps: American Top Team, Team Quest, Nova Uniao, and Greg Jackson amongst many others. He is currently an instructor at Toronto's Xtreme Couture- where now people flock to his seminars and classes. Interestingly, along his journey, he met some rather influential people.
 
"In the year 2000, I was training with John Lewis and I was a purple belt at the time under him. Dana and the Fertittas (Lorenzo and Frank) were his personal students at the time and had just started training. John asked me to come along to help out. I did on a few occasions and that was how I met them; shortly after, they purchased the UFC.
 
Today
 

Mark admits he has learned a lot about the important areas of the fight game. He continually strives to improve his ground game and admits he needs to enhance his striking to be successful at this level. He has only one knockout from his nine wins. " I didn't really understand weight cutting (dieting and weight cut recovery) I was pretty depleted in my earlier fights.  I made the necessary adjustments and I feel great on fight day now (100%).  My career has gone very well since, I won 4 out of my last 5 fights and I did think that I beat Miller but that was in the past."

Mark speaks to the sacrifices and shares some intimate aspects of fighter life. "Everyone thinks that the fight is the toughest part but actually the training is, they don't understand weight cutting and how important and difficult it is.  We train really hard everyday and that can be stressful when your body is already sore but you have to get in there and work on your weak areas.The interaction between fighter and fans is kind of interesting since they respect you so much for doing something so serious. It's very rewarding when a child comes up to you with a big smile on his face saying I loved you last fight.

 Marketability

 
After his most recent win, an impressive submission victory over Dustin Hazelett at UFC 124 in Montreal, he declared himself to be the best jiu jitsu player at 155 pounds. This has increased his notoriety. Mark explains that there is no disrespect involved, but lets his accomplishments speak for themselves. As for breaking his usual demeanour of humility and being soft-spoken, he stated that this is what people want. He believes fans seek out story-lines and the added hype serves to give the people what they desire. He recognizes this as part of the game and keeps the sport's followers intrigued.

 As a result, he now has more interview requests and is being discussed with greater frequency on forums and in the MMA world. One might expect that such an impressive record and after achieving laudable accolades that he would have already been well recognized. Fortunately, when he does get noticed, it is always a positive experience. "I usually only get recognized by hardcore fans or at MMA events when its concentrated with MMA fans, other than that maybe once or twice per week.  Nobody tries to fight me now but they did when they didn't know me. I have been in a couple street fights when I was younger and thankfully never got hurt."
  
Many people tend to believe that all pro-athletes make ridiculously large sums of money, but 10 of the 20 fighters from the most recent UFC event- UFC 125- made 25,000 or less and the UFC is the biggest MMA organization in the world. Sponsorships help cover the bills for the majority of MMA's warriors.The self-confidence that has gotten him where he is, continues to buoy the determined Torontonian. "Not all fighters are rich, neither am I, but the UFC takes care of me really well and it's only getting better, if you're one of the top guys you are taken care of. Not all fighters will get to the top of their divisions though. I will get there. It's hard to stay at the top if you have a part time job compared to other fighters who train full time. I train full time because I believe that I will make it to the top."
 

Mark's next fight will be in Toronto on April 30th. Everything about this encounter will be of great import. His place on the ladder will be riding on a great performance. As always, in the lightweight division, he is in tough.

 
Next Fight
 
His opponent will be former WEC champion Ben Henderson. Henderson is 12-2 and is the former WEC lightweight champion. "Smooth" brings into the Octagon eight submission wins, two more by KO, and 2 via the scorecards.The W.E.C. has recently amalgamated with the U.F.C. and in the last lightweight fight for the WEC, Henderson lost his title to Anthony Pettis via decision- a back-and-forth fight made famous for the Matrix-esque kick that Pettis landed on Henderson. The very well rounded Henderson is a difficult challenge as he brings excellent wrestling skills, durability, and a history of winning. 

The grappling sensation likens Henderson to a WEC version of Clay Guida. Mark feels that Ben has great cardio, impressive wrestling, but limited striking ability. Hendeson's two losses were via submission and decision; the brown belt in jiu jitsu has been called "Unsubmittable" after some recent performances where he escaped deep chokes. Ever unflappable, Mark  feels confident in his chances. He is focused on the task at hand, but understands that beating a former champion will push him closer to his ultimate goal: wearing the belt. He will get his chance to move closer to his lofty aspiration with his hometown behind him. 
 
The Big Stage

At UFC 129, Mark will be the hometown hero, but he will be far from the most popular or well known fighter on the card. Canada's three-year-running Sportsman of the Year, Georges St.Pierre, will be fighting Jake Shields. The uber-populaur and affable Randy Coulture will be battling Lyoto Machida. The electric Jose Aldo duels with fellow Ontarian Mark Hominick and many other Canadian fighters will also be on the card: Ivan Menjivar, Rory MacDonald, Claude Patrick, Sean Pierson, John Makdessi, Yves Jabouinnd, and Jason MacDonald.

  
The inaugural event is also expected to break UFC 83's attendance record of 20, 011 which was set in Montreal in April 2008. This broke the then North American MMA record of 19,049. According to the UFC's Tom Wright there should be approximately 35,000 people under the closed Rogers Center ready to celebrate a lifetime of dedication and effort of one of their own. Wright told MMAWeekly,“We’ve talked about the 30,000 to 40,000 range. Whatever it is, we’re going to set a record here in terms of turnstile attendance,” said Wright. “I can tell you it will be north of 25,000 and probably south of 40,000.” The UFC gate record is $5,397,300 from UFC 66 in Las Vegas, which featured a rematch between Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell and Tito (The Huntington Beach Bad Boy) Ortiz. This is also expected to be broken in Toronto. Ticket prices for UFC 124 at the Bell Centre ranged from C$75 to $600.

This record setting show will be a life changing moment for the Woodbridge native. Although, M.B. is not the catchiest acronym, he will finally have his opportunity to perform in his hometown. Mark will be an integral part of the historical night in Toronto and his presence will give the locals plenty of reasons to puff their chests out from under their TAPOUT shirts. "Since the beginning I believed this is all I would be doing, after I won my first Pro fight in 2004 I knew I could make it and was addicted.  Sacrifices, training everyday and putting a lot of stress on my body but I enjoy it."

  The Future

 A win over a former champion places Mark two or three fights away from a title shot. A journey culminating with a happy ending is contingent upon passing this threatening impasse. Where his place on the ladder shall be on on May 1, 2011 is cloudy. Impossible to see the future is. But, the rewards of hard work are undeniable. "I want to fight the best guys. A win over Ben Henderson puts me in the top 5 of my weight class, so, one fight at a time, but the belt is my eventual goal. I would like to compete as long as I can, I love it and I hope I never suffer any serious or permanent injuries.  After fighting I will always be involved with the sport through coaching and seminars, I would like to write a book and I'm working on a clothing line."
 

 At 29, there is a lot of fight left in this scrappy, young man. Nonetheless, his colleague and fellow UFC 129 combatant, Randy Couture, is the exception to the rule. One day, Mark will no longer be a cage fighter. But, with his work ethic and unwavering self-belief, Mister Bocek will be successful at whatever endeavour he chooses. The qualities that he exudes have universal applications. His long term future will probably allow for more time with his other passion: riding his super-bikes. But, it is doubtful, he will ever stop grappling. 

Regardless of the outcome at UFC 129, this is an inspirational tale. Mark should be proud of the route he has taken to make it to UFC. A testament to his character is his name on the bill when he fights in his hometown at one of the most important sporting moments in Canadian history. His relentless quest has taken him from Toronto, across the planet, back home again. He has returned with the eyes of the MMA universe on him and his city.