Hamill Ready To Prove Himself

A gash nearly an inch deep ran from eyebrow to eyebrow across the bridge of his nose and his eyes were covered in blood. His shoulder was separated and arm limp after he was on the painful end of a takedown for one of the rare times in his life. The opponent was the impregnable, insuperable and undefeated Jon Jones, pounding holes in his face for more than minute.

Matt Hamill quit? If you thought that watching December’s Ultimate Finale you know nothing about the man’s will to win. Hearing impaired all his life, Hamill’s had to claw his way through the collegiate ranks – he left Purdue University after one season for the tiny Rochester Institute of Technology because the interpreting services promised by the larger program weren’t adequate, whereas RIT had a full-time interpreter at every practice and competition – and Mixed Martial Arts. Jones became the first to take Hamill down in his 10 pro fights, had him pinned and was beating him to smithereens before he was tagged with a disqualification loss due to an illegal 12-to-6 elbow.

It was a shock to the system, but an experience Hamill didn’t want to end. It wasn’t on his terms and when life has gone against the grain, Hamill has always made it work to his advantage.

“I was so disappointed with how the fight went, but you can’t predict injuries,” Hamill told Heavy.com. “If it was up to me I would have kept going once I was able to pop my shoulder in and clean the blood off my eyes, but that’s what happens in MMA.”

Hamill suffered a Grade 2 shoulder separation and dislocation which kept him from a full training camp until mid-March. At the start of his therapy he was unable to bench press 135 pounds or do push-ups. Twelve weeks later he was pressing 275 in sets of 12 and seven days before a critical showdown against Keith Jardine at Saturday’s Ultimate Finale he’s at virtually 100 percent capacity.

The Hammer’s been humbled before. A disputed decision cost him a victory over Michael Bisping in 2007 and a year later he was stopped by Rich Franklin in what he considers the lowest point of his career. The loss to Franklin forced Hamill to go back to the beginning and refocus his training on boosting his killer instinct. The “victory” over Jones was a wake-up call that told him around every corner there will be a new young gun waiting to take him out.

Hamill is no longer humbled. He is very angry.

“Trust me when I tell you that night has only made Matt stronger, made him hungry again,” said his trainer Duff Holmes. “It pissed him off!”

Saturday night in Las Vegas will be headlined by two TUF veterans, Jardine from Season Two and Hamill (Season 3,) and while Hamill enters a winner of eight of his 10 MMA bouts (7-2 in the UFC), Jardine could be fighting for his UFC life. The Dean of Mean holds wins over Brandon Vera, Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin. He’s also lost his last three to Quinton Jackson, Thiago Silva and Ryan Bader, the latter two by vicious knockout, and was blasted by Wanderlei Silva and Houston Alexander.

At 15-7-1 Jardine is just 6-6 in the UFC. His unorthodox style and bulldog mentality will drive opponents nuts. His weakness is a glass chin that’s seen him hit the deck five times. Immediately after returning from Australia and the Bader fight, Jardine was back training at Jackson’s Submission Fighting with Greg Jackson stating his approach will be anything but “win or else.” Throughout his career it’s been hard to predict which Jardine will show up on fight night. If it’s the one that arrives to Las Vegas with his UFC career on the line, he might be at his most dangerous.

“I expect Jardine to have a ‘do or die’ attitude which will be a bigger challenge for me and I’m ready to prove myself this fight,” Hamill said.

Because it’s early and late in his career, a win could spark Hamill, 33, to a run up the loaded light-heavyweight division, and a loss tumbling to the middle of the shuffle. Once known solely as a wrestler, Hamill has won all but one of his fights (Seth Petruzelli) via knockout or TKO, one reason why Holmes argues he’s yet to reach his summit.

“Matt entered TUF 3 with absolutely no amateur MMA experience,” Holmes said. “There aren’t many guys who can just walk into a UFC career like that. If you look back at all Matt’s fights, he does something new in every one of them. Matt’s peak is a long way off. He will be a viable athlete in this sport for as long as he wants to due to his fighting style and amazing fan base.

“A title shot is something he wants and regardless of what happens in this fight Matt is the type of guy who won’t ever stop until he gets what he wants. I’ve said before how proud I was of the way he hung in there [against Jones] after suffering the shoulder injury. A win here will erase all that and put him back on track.”

Until Franklin’s kick smashed his liver and Holmes called him out for a lack of focus, even suggesting he meet with a sports psychologist, Hamill was on track to potential stardom. He left RIT a three-time NCAA Division III National Champion and won a silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling and gold in freestyle wrestling at the 2001 Summer Deaflympics. Like Hamill, Bader is a collegiate wrestling champion who used his foundation to neutralize Jardine before taking him out. Reviewing tape of the fight Holmes learned a lot about Jardine and noticed close similarities between Bader and his fighter, their ability to take it opponents without a ground game to match.

“This fight was easy for us to study because when I’m studying a fighter I like to study their training partners as well,” Holmes said. “I feel you can learn a lot about a fighter when you see what he’s used to dealing with on an everyday basis. Not only did we study Rashad (Evans) but they actually faced each other on TUF, so we took a very close look at that fight as well.”

Win or lose, “Hamill the Movie,” a documentary chronicling Hamill’s early life through the end of college, will be released this fall. “There are still a few tweaks that are being made,” Hamill said. “I’m very excited to show people what my life has been like in a nutshell and how far I’ve been able to come.”

The Hammer has come further than anyone could have imagined, but if you think he’s finished your lessons are far from complete. Hamill wants it all and if he can further dictate the terms the beating Jones gave him will be the start of a sequel, one that ends with him as a champion.