Kennedy Confident for Ground Battle with ‘Jacare’

Tim Kennedy file photo: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com

A mere mortal couldn’t comprehend what Tim Kennedy did in 2007: go from Army Ranger school to a professional mixed martial arts bout in a matter of weeks. The fact that the Strikeforce middleweight was able to do so successfully is a testament to both his talent and drive.

“Ranger school is really a hard kick in the butt,” said Kennedy. “Sleep deprivation, they deprive you of tons of food, long 20-30 mile walks -- combat patrols through the woods in the mountains... In some cases it takes guys up to a year or two years for them to be able to physically do the things they’re hoping to do before they went to school.

“Two weeks after I graduated from that school, the IFL called me and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a fight at 205 against Dante Rivera. (His original opponent) got hurt, can you step up?’ (It was good) just having that confidence to be like, ‘Oh yeah, sure.’ I haven’t really eaten in three months. I haven’t slept in three months, but I’ll go in there.”

The Austin, Texas, resident finished Rivera with punches in the second round of their International Fight League showdown -- hunger and exhaustion be damned. He won three of his four fights that year -- his loss coming to Jason “Mayhem” Miller at an HDNet Fights event in December -- before taking a year-and-a-half hiatus from the sport to serve his country overseas. The fight against Rivera remains a career-defining moment for the Special Forces Sniper, a stand-alone victory that demonstrated what he is capable of after having nothing resembling a training camp.

It’s part of why Kennedy is confident heading into his clash against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza at Strikeforce “Houston” for the promotion’s vacated 185-pound belt on Aug. 21 at the Toyota Center. At this point in his career, Kennedy believes he has only reached about 70 percent of his true potential. That leaves a lot of room for growth.

“I’m just now getting to a point where stuff that I’ve been working on for years that I’ve never had the time to drill -- on pads or with sparring partners or with the quality of partners that I have now, all those things I’ve been trying to do for so long, they’re just now starting to happen,” he said. “I think having the time to train is going to make me that much more dangerous.”

Extra time means expanding his horizons, and Kennedy recently spent about two weeks in Albuquerque, N.M., training with the talented group of fighters at Jackson’s MMA. Decorated Marine and UFC middleweight Brian Stann convinced Kennedy that working with the collection of 185- and 205-pounders at Greg Jackson’s dojo would be beneficial after both men appeared on an episode of HDNet’s “Inside MMA.”

The 30-year-old Kennedy helped both Stann and Jon Jones ready themselves for eventual victories on the UFC on Versus 2 card on Aug. 1 in San Diego, Calif. He also got some valuable hints regarding Souza from the Brazilian’s most recent opponent, Joey Villasenor, as well as Jackson.

“I talked to both of them, Joey pretty extensively, about what he wished he would have done. About what worked and what he thought didn’t work,” Kennedy said.

The time spent in the desert had a positive impact on Kennedy, so much so that he plans on making trips there a regular occurrence.

“I was really impressed with the overall attitude of all the guys there: real humble, easy to work with, hard working guys. You can’t help but be excited about training there, so I definitely foresee myself going back there and training for some amount of time with those guys.”

Souza is a five-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and has won 10 of his 12 bouts via submission. He has never been submitted in 14 professional MMA bouts and boasted a 10-fight winning streak from 2004 to 2008.

Instead of avoiding his opponent’s strengths, Kennedy believes he can put Souza’s impressive grappling credentials to the test.

“I’m honestly really confident how I’d fare with him on the ground,” he said. “I’ve been in the military and fighting the whole time he’s been earning his accolades as a jiu-jitsu specialist. Am I belittling his talents as a grappler? No. I know that I’m very accomplished down there as well, and I don’t think I’d be apprehensive to get down there and hurt him while we’re down there.”

While earning the middleweight crown is important, Kennedy says it’s more significant as a symbol of the hard work that comes along with arriving at a difficult destination.

“Titles come and go, but champions are forever. Chuck (Liddell) lost his title. So did Wanderlei (Silva). So did Randy (Couture), but they’re gonna be champions forever. So I kind of want that perception of how I perform as an athlete.”