Archive for the 'Tim Kennedy' Category

Tim Kennedy is a guy that is hard to not like; a fighter who puts his heart into his fights and into defending his country. Kennedy talked to Heavy.com about his upcoming fight and his past military experiences, as well as them accomidating his fighting career. Tim, a true fighter, looks forward to being deployed again in the future.

Heavy.com: So you feel like your potential is far from being reached?

Tim Kennedy: Yes. Both in skill in technique and physically. Having been a full time soldier for the past six years, deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places, the mixed martial arts game, certain aspects of it have evolved and I wasn’t part of that evolution. So I might be behind the curve on a lot of the stuff and I’m playing catch up. I think the learning curve is gonna be very steep and I’m getting up it fast, but truth be told, I’m behind it right now.

Heavy.com: What do you feel is the biggest evolution that you’ve kind of missed the boat on?

Tim Kennedy: I think the guys like Georges St. Pierre that are amazing athletes in the first place and have been able to train with the best in all of the different realms of mixed martial arts: boxing, kickboxing, jiujitsu, wrestling, and really take a certain skill set and perfect it. You can take guys like Anderson Silva and throw them in a professional boxing ring and he’s gonna do really, really well. Or a professional muay thai fight. Or you can send him to NAGA or Grappler’s Quest or Abu Dhabi and watch him crush people in jiujitsu. I know what I’m really good at and fortunately I’m able to use my experience to put that onto my opponents. Sure, there are still aspects of my game that need to be refined. You know, one of them has been my muay thai kickboxing.

I just spent some time up in Boston with Matt Phinney and Mark Della Grotte at Sityodtong just working on my finesse kickboxing. Working on elbows, knees, footwork, sweeps, you know, all that stuff that I’ve really been neglecting because I was just that powerhouse boxer, wrestler, Pit style kickboxer. I think I’m behind on some of the niche tricks of the trade that you’re able to integrate into an MMA fight.

Total MMA mentioned earlier this year that this could be an issue for the IFL . Hope to see him back in the ring soon.

From the IFL:

McGIVERN TO REPLACE KENNEDY IN IFL MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE BOUT AT ORLEANS ARENA IN LAS VEGAS

Kennedy Called to Military Duty; McGivern To Battle Horwich for 185-lb. Crown; Four Other Bouts Finalized On Eight-Fight Card on Feb. 29

NEW YORK and LAS VEGAS, February 4, 2008 – Miletich Fighting Academy middleweight standout Ryan McGivern (Bettendorf, Iowa), recognized as one of the most improved, up-and-coming athletes in the International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI), will fight for the 185-lb. title against current champion Matt “Suave” Horwich (Portland, Ore.), one of three championship matchups at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Friday, February 29. McGivern replaces Tim Kennedy (Fayetteville, N.C.), an active U.S. Military member who has been called into duty.

Four other bouts have also now been finalized on the eight-bout card, including three featuring Xtreme Couture vs. Mario Sperry’s World Class Fight Center camps. Benji Radach (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) will compete for Xtreme Couture in a middleweight bout against Leopoldo Serao (Brazil), Lew Polley (Coconut Creek, Fla.) will battle Alexandre Ferreira at 205 lbs., and Santino Defranco will take on Rafael Dias in a featherweight contest. The Lions Den’s Pat Healy (St. Louis) will take on Team Quest’s Jake Ellenberger (Omaha, Neb.) in a matchup that may determine a future title bout at 170 lbs. (Team Xtreme Couture’s Jay Hieron of Las Vegas holds the belt at present).

“While it is disappointing to us and to Tim that he will be unable to compete due to his military obligations, we are excited and fortunate that a fighter of Ryan McGivern’s caliber is available to step in,” said Bas Rutten, IFL Vice President, Fighter Operations. “Ryan has been a great success story and his all-around style should make for an entertaining matchup with Matt Horwich.”

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The training discussed in this article is a look at general Army training. I did not talk specifically with Tim Kennedy about his Special Forces training and we did not discuss his tour in Iraq. Opinions expressed are my own and not SSG Kennedy’s or the Army’s.

By Jonathan Snowden

For some fighters going to the resort town of Big Bear, California, for a few weeks before a fight helps toughen them up and get them focused. Army Staff Sgt. Tim Kennedy is not that brand of tough. Before the Army Combatives tournament in 2005, Kennedy wasn’t “roughing” it in cabin with his boys, he was completing one of the Army’s most difficult courses. SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. One soldier I know who has been through Ranger and Airborne school and been in combat says it is the hardest thing he’s done in the Army. You start in the woods of Fort Bragg, on your own, with some of the Army’s top Special Forces soldiers trying to track you down. That’s the easy part.

When you are captured, and you will be, you are taken prisoner. Then they will break you however they can. Remember all of the atrocities at the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq? Forced nudity, stress positions, endless physical training, even water boarding? The Army does this to its own soldiers at SERE school to prepare them for the worse case scenario. So, one week before his fights in 2005, the Army tried to break Tim Kennedy. Despite this, he won the tournament. Tim Kennedy is that kind of tough.

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