MMA athlete credits Zen-like philosophy for heavyweight success

Matt Mitrione won’t take a punch in the face for free. Certainly not if he can help it. In fact, in five of 18 professional fights, he says he hasn’t even been touched. Having played on some of Purdue’s greatest football teams, Mitrione (LA’04) employs unique training methods in his bid to become a Bellator mixed martial arts heavyweight champion.

In February, Mitrione avenged an earlier loss to Roy Nelson, winning by decision and putting him a step closer to the title fight of Bellator’s eight-man MMA tournament. Alongside Domenic Reno, Purdue’s senior associate director of football strength and conditioning, Mitrione, who turns 40 in July, still trains like a football player.

“I’m explosive and think I’m more athletic than any other heavyweight on the planet,” says Mitrione. “I have a depth of training and abilities that most fighters have never experienced.”

In addition to not taking a beating in practice, Mitrione has a battery of drills to build foot speed and refine his handwork, and an almost Zen-like philosophy keeps his head on straight. “This is an incredibly humbling sport,” he says. “If you get ahead of yourself or believe you’re better than what you are, it almost immediately comes back to get you.”

With 13 wins (11 by knockout) and five losses, Mitrione has been both victorious over and humbled by some of the toughest men in the world. “An athlete can be successful in fighting if you can handle getting the crap kicked out of you,” he says. “You just have to understand the consequences of that happening.”

In getting his mind right for a fight, Mitrione focuses on the competition and what amounts to 15 to 20 minutes of work to “trivialize the moment, making it less significant.”

An undrafted free agent who nevertheless played in nine NFL games, Mitrione says a foot injury spelled the end of his football career but led to the beginnings of a new life. His foray into the mixed martial arts game came in the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter. It will end, he says, when he feels like he no longer needs to compete.

Though relatively young, Mitrione and former teammate Drew Brees (M’01) rank as elder statesmen still at the top of their professional games. Fitting, perhaps, for the first two recruits from Joe Tiller to arrive on Purdue’s campus in what surely seems like yesterday for both.