Fighting is hard enough. Fighting perception is sometimes even harder, and for veteran lightweight Pat Healy, it makes every bout practically a two on one situation.
“I feel like every time I go to fight, I have to fight my record too,” said the 28-year old Oregon native, who sports a 26-15 slate, one that looks bad at first glance, but that also holds some hidden gems if you look close enough.
How many diamonds in the rough are there? Try wins over Carlos Condit, Dan Hardy, Paul Daley, Mike Guymon, Ryan Ford, and most recently, unbeaten rising star Lyle Beerbohm. That’s a victims’ list any fighter would be proud to own, but without investigation, a 26-15 record looks, well, like a 26-15 record, and Healy’s had to live with it.
“People get held to their records a lot, and that’s something that’s definitely hurt me,” he said. “They don’t really look at who I’ve beat; they look at my win-loss ratio and don’t realize that I took a lot of those fights when I was 21, 22 years old. I was in college, I was completely broke, and people would offer me money for a tough fight and I wasn’t really training the best. I was just doing a lot of wrestling back then and my MMA knowledge wasn’t that great, but to survive, it would make sense for me to take those fights.”
And with no manager plotting out his career trajectory, Healy was basically in a situation where the phone would ring periodically, and the conversation would go something like this:
“Hey I got a fight in two weeks, you want it?”
“Yeah, sure.”
That was that, and sometimes Healy would win, sometimes he’d lose. Whatever the outcome though, he earned his paycheck and wasn’t particular in who was across the ring from him on fight night. We mentioned his wins already, so in giving equal time, fighters like Brad Blackburn, Denis Kang, Chris Leben, Chris Lytle, Chris Wilson, Jake Ellenberger, Josh Thomson and Rory Markham got the best of him, and there are no slouches among that group.
But again, perception is often reality, so when he was matched up with the unbeaten Beerbohm in February of this year, it was expected that Healy would put up a fight, but fall short against his 15-0 foe in the end.
That didn’t happen. Instead, in perhaps the most pivotal fight of his career, Healy delivered when it mattered, pounding out a close, but unanimous, decision win. When it was over, the disappointments of the losses and of falling short in his only UFC fight in 2006 (against Anthony Torres) all disappeared. Finally, he was a player in a major organization.
“It was great,” said Healy of the win over Beerbohm. “Nobody really notices my good wins because they were never on a good stage. They were always on smaller shows, so that was a huge first step for me as far as getting my name out there, and it was very justifying. I feel like people are starting to take notice now.”
The fans and the media aren’t the only ones though. In fact, before the rest of the world caught on to the reality that Healy could fight on the top level of the game, his peers knew it, with some even bringing him into camp to spar and to pick his brain on the fight game.
“George Sotiropoulos brought me in to train,” said Healy. “BJ Penn, who I’ve become good friends with, has brought me in his last two fights, and he’s gonna be in my corner for this fight and then I’m gonna go train with him for his fight with Condit, who is somebody I beat, so I have some pretty good knowledge there. And that helps to justify me also. I think I’ve always had a good reputation among other fighters, and anybody I train with or get in there and spar with, I think they all come out respecting me.”
Yet while Healy wanted to capitalize on the Beerbohm win and strike while the iron was hot, that wasn’t going to be the case. He thought he had an April fight with Japanese star Shinya Aoki locked up, and he even started training for it, but the bout went to Beerbohm instead. Then there was the sale of Strikeforce, but the way Healy sees it, that was the best news to come out of the last few months of waiting.
“I know there was a transitional period with Strikeforce being bought, but that’s a promising thing because since Sean Shelby has been the matchmaker, we’ve had contact with him and he’s let me know since the (fighter) summit that I was gonna be on the July 30th card or this August 12th card, so it’s nice when you know or you’re in contact with someone.”
So finally, Healy returns to the cage this Friday to fight in Las Vegas for the first time in over three years against Iowa vet Eric Wisely.
“He’s a tough guy,” said Healy of Wisely. “He’s never been finished in 22 fights, and that’s a testament to anybody. He’s solid, he’s fought in a lot of main events, a lot of five rounders, and he hasn’t been on the big stage yet, which I think can affect anybody’s performance, and that’s one thing I think I’ll have in my favor. But I see some holes in his game on the ground and I see some great opportunities for me to do some devastating ground and pound and really take advantage of playing the position game against him on the ground.”
Wisely has won four in a row, including wins over Hermes Franca and Matt Veach, but it’s hard to see him having an experience edge over Portland’s Healy, who also has plenty of hunger to keep his momentum going and get into the title race at 155 pounds. But playing Devil’s Advocate, would he consider a return to 170 if he was offered a shot at some of the high profile names he’s already beaten? Given his history, you know the answer to this one.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said without hesitation. “I walk around at like 185 and I’m sure some of those guys would love a rematch with me and I would be happy to oblige. Although I’m hard-headed and I have the nickname ‘Bam Bam,’ as I look in the ring, I’m a real thinker, I don’t make a lot of mistakes twice, and I think anytime I would fight a guy again, I think I would have an even better performance. So I’m really hoping that I could get some of those big fights that would really get my name out there even more.”
First up is Wisely though, and in terms of what to expect, Healy is a no frills fighter. He’s not going to pull off some crazy moves or put on more of a show before the fight than during it. Instead, he’s going to put his mouthpiece in, bite down, and give the fans a fight. What more could you ask for?
“That’s one thing I’ve always said – no matter what, you can look at any one of my performances, and whether a win or a loss I always came and fought my heart out,” said Healy. “I always laid everything on the line, and I never took the easy way out. So I think that is a little badge of courage for me and something that if people really took a good look at, they can grow to respect that.”
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