Former vaulter Tyler Stinson now a top MMA fighter

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http://mmajunkie.com/news/26813/tyler-s ... d-show.mma

Tyler Stinson planning to demand a title shot at Strikeforce's weekend show
by Dann Stupp on Jan 04, 2012 at 4:30 pm ET
If victorious at Saturday's "Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine" event, Tyler Stinson has every intention of demanding a shot at the organization's vacant welterweight title.

A five-and-a-half-year pro, he believes his body of work makes him deserving, especially if he tops opponent Tarec Saffiedine at this weekend's event.

It's been quite a ride for a former standout pole-vaulter whose first MMA training sessions took place in a kitchen.

Stinson (22-7 MMA, 1-0 SF) and Saffiedine (11-3 MMA, 3-1 SF) kick off the Showtime-televised main card of Saturday's event, which takes place at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. "Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine" is part of Showtime's "free-preview" weekend, which means Strikeforce could have one its biggest cable audiences ever.

That's just fine for Stinson, who today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) he's in the event's leadoff-broadcast spot for a reason. Quite simply, few fighters care about their profession like he does.

"I go out there, and I'm ready to die in the cage," he said. "It's a sport, but once that bell rings, I flip a switch. It's kill or be killed.

"I go for whatever is spectacular, but I'm always going for the knockout. My goal is to knock someone's head off his shoulders."

That mindset hasn't boded well for his opponents, who have been on the receiving end of nine-, 10-, 16-, 32- and 33-second knockouts.

Stinson's career, though, began innocently enough. Like so many other former high-school athletes, Stinson (who nearly won a state championship in the pole vault) was watching the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter" with his roommate and best friend. They looked at the training, the pre-fight preparations, the rigors of the sport that they saw on Spike TV for the first time.

"Hell, we could do that," Stinson told his roommate.

So they went out and purchased some cheap boxing gloves, and they proceeded to beat the crap out of each other in their kitchen, which served as a makeshift training facility. Two days later, he found an Oklahoma promotion that was taking fighter applications, so he fudged the facts about his supposed array of training disciplines, and he agreed to take a fight a few days later for a whopping $300 to show and $300 to win.

"I cannonballed into the sport on a whim," he said.

Stinson's first training camp lasted a few days – and it took place in a garage with a boxing coach who wouldn't even let the left-handed fighter use his natural stance.

"Oh, you're a southpaw?" the coach asked Stinson. "I hate southpaws. You're fighting as a righty."

Stinson was too much of a TUF noob to argue otherwise. But he went out there, gave it his all, and suffered a split-decision defeat to Kevin Adams. But he was encouraged, and the switch was flipped. A month later, he rematched Adams and picked up a second-round knockout victory – his first of 15 in 22 career wins.

"Then it all just clicked like that," he said.

Stinson toured the Midwest's regional scene over the next few years and then went 2-2 with Bellator after winning one of the organization's open tryouts (while he admittedly was hungover because he was unaware of the open audition until the morning of the tryouts). He then debuted with Strikeforce in July and knocked out Eduardo Pamplona in just 15 seconds at "Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Henderson."

Stinson, a 25-year-old Kansan, now wants to prove he can handle the division's best. Saffiedine is 4-1 over his past five fights (all but one of which have come in Strikeforce), and the lone defeat came to fellow contender and undefeated wrestling stud Tyron Woodley. He rebounded in July with a decision victory over big-show Scott Smith.

Stinson, though, isn't exactly impressed.

"I think he's got one speed, one pace," Stinson said. "He doesn't have that killer instinct. It showed in that Scott Smith fight. He had him rocked a few times, and Scott Smith is a tough dude, but even when he had him rocked, he didn't turn it on."

So for Stinson, Saffiedine is just a stepping stone to a bigger fight – a shot at the belt recently vacated by Nick Diaz.

"I love this sport," he said. "I'll die in this cage. Not only is this my job and how I pay the bills, this is what I love to do. I have big plans in this sport.

"So after Saffiedine – after knocking him out – I'm planning to demand a title shot."

[rainbowgirl28]

I hear via Facebook that former DII All-American Dakota Cochrane is also making a name for himself in the MMA world.