At the gym where he trains for his fights, The Pit in Arroyo Grande, Calif., wine and viticulture junior and fighter Mike Gahan kicked the bag so hard, he caused his sparring partner to stumble backwards. It was near the end of his one-and-a-half-hour practice. He sparred with teammates, jumped rope and traded punches with Howard Davis, the 1976 Olympic gold medal winner for boxing.
Gahan, a wine and viticulture major, will make his professional fighting debut at Cal Poly’s Mott Gym on May 22, after both a broken skull and broken foot kept Gahan from making his professional fighting debut on two separate occasions. All proceeds for the fight, called “Fight for Wrestling,” will benefit Cal Poly’s wrestling team.
Gahan weighs in at 165 pounds and stands five-feet-nine inches tall. He may not feel that his size would bring him success in other posts, but it certainly has in the cage. His official amateur record is 3-0 and his unofficial fight record is 8-1. The unofficial fights aren’t sanctioned by the California Amateur MMA Organization (CAMO), so they don’t appear on his official record. In his only loss, Gahan wasn’t unprepared, he said.
This time, he won’t make that mistake.
“He’s ready for his fight,” Davis said. “Mike’s more than ready.”
Davis has been living in Florida, but for the past few weeks has been working with Gahan’s professional team over at The Pit, Gahan said. Gahan has been on The Pit’s pro team for about two years, but has been interested in mixed martial arts longer. He’s been fighting since he was in high school; back then it was just a hobby, he said. He moved to San Luis Obispo to go to Cal Poly in hopes to play football. But, he felt that his size would keep him from making Cal Poly’s football team and decided to continue with his hobby of mixed martial arts.
“I just didn’t have the size to play,” Gahan said. “I knew about The Pit and started off in the kickboxing class. I tried out for their professional team and have been on it for about two years now.”
Unofficial fights, or “smokers” as MMA fighters call them, aren’t regulated by the CAMO and therefore are looked down upon by MMA officials, Gahan said. CAMO, founded in 2009, “is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to help foster the growth of the sport of amateur Mixed Martial Arts and to oversee the health, safety and welfare of the athletes that choose to participate in it,” according to its website. They are also responsible for regulating MMA fighting and have a 38-page rule book, which fighters and fight officials must abide by.
“I think the reason the CAMO looks down on smokers is because they’re a lot less regulated,” Gahan said. “You get some really bad match-ups in those kinds of fights, sometimes even pros going up against amateurs. You can really tell the difference in fighting a pro versus amateur fighters. I’ve definitely had some fights where I thought the guy could have been a pro.”
Debuting at the place where he goes to school seemed almost too perfect, Gahan said. Classmates, coworkers, friends and family members will all have a chance to see him fight.
“When I heard about this fight, I jumped at the opportunity,” Gahan said. “What a place to have my first professional fight.”
While going to Cal Poly, Gahan has been commuting by train to The Pit in Arroyo Grande. His trainer, John Hackleman, known as The Pit Master, has been training Gahan since he began his workouts at The Pit.
“Mike’s got a lot of strength,” Hackleman said. “Not just in his punches, in his kicks, too.”
Gahan focuses on standing up throughout the fight, he said. He said he plans on avoiding his opponent’s take-downs and making the fight a match of strength. He doesn’t know who he’s fighting yet, but said it doesn’t .
“My game plan isn’t really a secret or anything,” Gahan said. “I like to stand up. My main thing is to work on my feet. I feel really confident trading punches with people. If I do get taken down, I’ll get right back up. It takes a lot of energy to take someone down, so when you get right back up it’s demoralizing for them.”
Gahan has had plenty of practice on his feet trading punches with some of the world’s best. Currently, Davis is training with The Pit’s pro team. He works on their punches and footwork. One of Gahan’s teammates is Chuck Liddell.
“My style of fighting is probably most like Chuck’s. He tends to fight on his feet mostly,” Gahan said.
Also fighting on the card will be former Cal Poly wrestler Sam Temko and Brandon Drucker, Cruz Gomez, Preston Scharf and Terry Cook, fighting out of Chuck Liddell’s SLO Kickboxing. Casey Noland of Atascadero, Calif., an experienced female MMA, will take on Jenny Trujillo of San Jose, Calif.
Tickets for “Fight for Wrestling” are $35 for general admission; $55 for reserved bleachers, floor and chair-back seating. $75 for VIP chair-back seating. $25 for Cal Poly students with a valid student ID.