Strikeforce’s Tim Kennedy fascinates fans already with his impressive, extensive military experience, but the middleweight’s exhilarating life doesn’t stop at fighting and serving his country.
Kennedy made the commitment to serve in the United States Army in 2004, and has followed through on his obligation to his country ever since. Kennedy has been deployed overseas multiple times, and it put a hold on his rising MMA career. The possibility of the same scenario happening again is very real, and if it does, the soldier will not hesitate to make the same decision.
“I’m still 19th Special Forces Group,” Kennedy told MMADieHards.com. “If something comes up there is always that chance.”
For now, thankfully, nothing has come up to pry away Kennedy from his family and his occupation as a professional mixed martial artist.
Kennedy was a product of John Hackleman’s gym famed “The Pit” in San Luis Obispo, Calif. but now trains full-time at Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting in Albuquerque. Jackson’s facility is known for a stable of elite fighters, which allows Kennedy to adequately prepare for his upcoming opponent.
Kennedy meets heavy-handed Robbie Lawler at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson on Saturday at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Though Lawler is tough task for anybody to defeat, Kennedy believes his training camp was equipped with the proper people to prepare him for this matchup.
“Training has been perfect,” Kennedy said. “I have great training partners and everything has gone exactly how it was supposed to. We had the regular crew from Jackson’s, plus Jorge Rivera is here getting ready for a fight, Brian Stann came in for a couple of weeks, and Keith Jardine and Joey Villasenor. I’ve been doing a lot of rounds with Diego Sanchez; he’s a really solid southpaw with good wrestling, so that was a benefit to me.”
A fantastic training camp, coupled with intelligent fighting, give Kennedy a good feeling about being victorious in this bout. If he utilizes his strengths, and avoids the left-handed Lawler’s, he is confident he will be triumphant.
“Honestly, Robbie has better wrestling credentials than I do,” Kennedy admitted. “He did a lot better than I did coming up through wrestling. He’s a dangerous ground and pounder. He’s a brawler with good takedown defense, so it’s not like I can just shoot from the outside and be able to score a takedown.
“I think I have the advantage in the jiu-jitsu, I think I’m more dangerous in the clinch, and up against the fence I think I’ll have some advantages. I think I will have more strength in the clinch, and as long as I stay away from his power right and his straight left (hands) I think I have a really good chance at winning this fight.”
Something the two combatants share in common is a loss to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
Kennedy does not dwell on the defeat, but he would like another crack at Souza.
“I want to fight ‘Jacare’ again because I think he is one of the best guys in the world,” Kennedy said. “I’m not one of those guys who looks back. It was a close fight and I lost that fight, but I want to continue to fight the best. I don’t want to fight him to avenge the loss, I just want to fight him because he’s one of the best.”
Souza is the Strikeforce middleweight champion, so Kennedy could get a chance to accomplish two of his goals in one night if given a title shot. He admitted another crack at the Strikeforce belt would be good, and that things have improved since Zuffa purchased the promotion. While he is not bent on jumping ship to the UFC, a superfight between the organizations intrigues him.
“Strikeforce has been real good to me,” Kennedy admitted. “Everything that was difficult about fighting for Strikeforce has changed since the UFC took over. Some of the marketing and bureaucratic logistical process pulled portions of the fight game that were hard. The matchmaking was always difficult with Strikeforce, but now the UFC is running it their way and I think it’s gotten better. I’m happy there and I would love that belt and possibly some superfights against some of the bigger guys.”
The Strikeforce middleweight’s life is consumed with training day in and day out, but his heart lies with the Army. He, too, is happy with all that has been accomplished overseas, but does not want people to forget that there still is a war going on. The troops need everyone’s support, even if Osama bin Laden has been eliminated.
“People need to keep supporting the troops,” Kennedy said. “Yeah, bin Laden is dead, but people can’t forget that the same number of troops are still over there. The same number of dudes are still dying. Keep supporting the troops, all the non-profit groups. The Green Beret Foundation, Brian Stann’s Hire Heros, Wounded Warriors, Soldier’s Angels, those are all good groups. People (shouldn’t) forget because they’re fighting for their freedoms.”
When Kennedy is doing things unrelated to MMA or military work, he does them spectacularly.
“I’m cooking a lot,” he said. “I’m doing a lot more cooking shows and cooking articles. I think I’m also about five or six months away from being able to start competing in the top world-ranking long-range shooting competitions.”
Weaponry aside, Tim Kennedy is rarely a longshot.
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