5 Oz’s Exclusive Photo Gallery: Aaron Simpson Training For UFC 102

I recently had the opportunity to spend a day with the boys from Arizona Combat Sports, and in doing such, had the chance to watch one of the most talked about rising stars in the UFC training for what will be the biggest fight of his professional mixed martial arts career up until this point.

I made my way to the gym headed up by twin brothers Trevor and Todd Lally that  currently houses fighters such as Ryan Bader, CB Dollaway, Carlos Condit, the Steinbeiss brothers, and Jamie Varner for a story I recently finished on the history of AZCS which will be featured in the upcoming issue of Extreme Fighter Magazine (EFM is available at Barnes and Noble, Wal-Mart, Borders, Target, Waldenbooks and countless other fine newsstands across the U.S.). Simpson, along with all of the others previously mentioned, couldn’t have been any more welcoming and down to earth. A genuine pleasure to hang out with.

On Saturday evening Aaron “A-Train” Simpson will be cruising into enemy territory and facing off with Ed Herman on the Portland resident’s home turf at UFC 102.

For any of you guys vaguely unfamiliar with Simpson and what he’s capable of (you won’t be for very long), allow me to bring you up to date.  Below is an excerpt from a previous interview I had conducted with Simpson:

A natural born competitor, Simpson immersed himself in the world of combat from adolescence and has not taken a back step since. In high school the budding athlete put together a jaw dropping record of 142-1 during wrestling competition. Upon graduation the Phoenix, Arizona native continued with his success on the mat for the prestigious Arizona State University wrestling program. While with ASU he was named a two time All-American, won a Pac 10 championship and holds wins over Mark Munoz and Olympian Ben Askren.

Having maintained an unblemished straight A record throughout his days wrestling, Simpson went on to graduate from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and earned himself a masters degree in higher education. Needless to say, the academic and athletic stand out had his options upon graduation. He easily could have gone on to secure himself a number of different jobs in a variety of different fields with his strong education, but that wouldn’t have been Simpson’s fate. Simpson was meant to be a fighter from day one.

Simpson wanted to give back to the team that had given so much to him, and shortly after graduation he landed a job as an assistant wrestling coach for ASU. For nine years Simpson shared all of the fundamentals he had learned during his many successful years on the mat with many of the best athletes ASU’s wrestling program has ever produced. It was during this time that the lifelong wrestler finally discovered his true calling in life.

As fate would have it, UFC veterans CB Dollaway, Ryan Bader and Cain Velasquez had all fallen under the guidance of Simpson during his coaching days with the school. Even back then his up and coming pupils often expressed their desires to possibly transition into mixed martial arts in the future. Simpson didn’t thnk too much of it at the time. Even after Jesse Forbes came up to train with him in preparation for his stint on The Ultimate Fighter in 2006, sure it peaked Simpson’s interest, but nothing was set in stone at the time.

This is where former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz comes into the grand scheme of things. Longtime friends from their wrestling days in college, Ortiz had recently enlisted Simpson’s services during his preparation for his showdown with current king of the UFC’s light heavyweight division, Rashad Evans, in July of 2007. After the time Simpson spent with Ortiz in Big Bear and the experience of being able to help corner Ortiz in his bout with Evans, there was nothing left to consider. As soon as he got back to the desert he hooked up with one of the best gyms in the business, Arizona Combat Sports, and the rest is history so to speak.

Jump starting his career with a first round beatdown of Tim Coulson in October of 2007, Simpson went on to fight for the WEC in his fourth professional bout and graduated to the UFC in his most recent bout, a first round mauling of former training partner Tim McKenzie on the first of April. He has been extended out of the opening round only once during his career and has finished every single one of his bouts by knockout.

Training with an incredibly talented group of fighters at AZCS like Carlos Condit, Jamie Varner, Jacob McClintock, Jesse Forbes and former students Dollaway and Bader have helped to propel Simpson into the biggest fighting promotion in the planet in the blink of an eye. One would think that his overwhelming wrestling pedigree would be the backbone of his fighting style but Simpson has surprised many with the dynamite in his fists and willingness to exchange punches with tremendous success. The combination of skill in the the separate aspects of MMA have left Simpson as an obvious up and coming talent to keep a very close eye on in the future.

****Below is a collection of exclusive FiveOuncesOfPain.com photographs taken recently of  Simpson deep in training for Saturday evening’s bout by MMA photographer Marco Brito.****