Follow Knuckle Junkies

RSS
Chris Oth | Knuckle Junkies

Another go-around for hard hitting Heatherly

By Brett Auten | Knuckle Junkies

Just seven days after electrifying the crowd with a jaw-dropping knockout, Chris Heatherly will return to his comfort zone; the cage.

Heatherly, who fought at 185-pounds at Shamrock: Redemption bumps up to 205 to take on Tony Souders on Saturday at Nemesis Fighting Alliance.

�A couple of matches of MMA in a few weeks is a great time,� Heatherly said.

Saturday�s fight could be Heatherly�s swansong as an amateur. The 24-year-old is currently 21-1, holds seven titles, and is looking to go pro in March. But first there is Souders, who has made a name for himself in a short amount of time in the cage.

�He�s a good dude,� Heatherly said. �We talked on Facebook and best of luck to him. I hope he gets down to 205 because I�ll be there.�

Heatherly, who made quick work of Kain Royer last weekend to take home the Shamrock middleweight strap, does have a bit of extra motivation going into Saturday�s bout.

�I�m not going to say that I�m after him for any certain reason but he fought and beat a couple of my teammates and he�s walking around like the big dog and I�m trying to put him on a leash,� Heatherly said.

�I have a lot of fights. I�m more experienced, have a better wrestling background, and have better stand up. I know he�s nervous because he�s been to two fights to check me out. I showed him tonight a six second knockout. I don�t know how you train for that. I�ll be after him.�

Coming out of Cahokia, Heatherly was a two-sport standout. He was a four-time conference wrestling champion and a national Greco-roman champion.

�I owe a lot to my wrestling coaches,� he said. �They trained my like a champ.�

Wrestling scholarships are extremely hard to come by, even for conference champions, and Heatherly was recruited heavily for college football. He eventually went to Joliet Junior College. But at 5-foot-9 and with the nickname �Stump�, Division I college stardom seemed far out of reach.

�They told me I needed to get a little taller,� Heatherly said. �I could get bigger but not taller so I started a career in MMA."

At 250-pounds, Heatherly was always athletic and possessed great footwork. He was known for being able to pull off a back flip at a moment�s notice. Once he jumped into MMA, there was no going back. He tallied 10 fights in his first year, going 9-1.

With dynamite hands to go along with his strong wrestling base, Heatherly quickly racked up victory after victory and along the way built a strong following of supporters.

�A lot people say, �Man, you�ve got lots of fans. Those aren�t my fans, those are family and friends,� Heatherly said. �Everybody who wears a Team Stump shirt are friends and family. They come and represent every time. Some of them spend a boatload of money to come watch me fight and I plan on putting on a show every time they see me.�

Heatherly splits his training between the Southside Fight Club, headed up by Mike Green and Berger�s MMA, ran by longtime veteran Steve Berger.

�Any time I needed something, Mike Green was there,� Heatherly said. �And there�s Steve Berger. There�s nothing like training with a guy who fought in the UFC.�

The fighters at Southside are a close group who not only believe, but feed off of each other.

�Every day is the same thing,� Heatherly said. �We hate each other when we�re sparing but we love and support each other when we�re done.�

Heatherly plans on dropping down to 170 for when he goes pro. But for now, �Stump� is concentrating on his second fight in 14 days.

�In wrestling, you may have 100 matches in a year,� Heatherly said. �This is fun. This is what it�s all about.�