Recent Success Has Lyle Beerbohm Targeting UFC

Heading into last year, Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm was making a name for himself in the Strikeforce lightweight division when back-to-back losses not only cost him his undefeated record, but his contract with the promotion as well.

“My loss to Pat Healy was in a really, really close fight, and in my fight with (Shinya) Aoki, I made a mistake I shouldn’t have,” said Beerbohm. “I’m not a really patient fighter – and on the ground you have to be patient – and I just wanted to get up and get out of there so I gave up my back and he ended up choking me out pretty fast.”

So when Beerbohm was getting ready for 2012, he felt some change was needed to get him back on track.

“I’ve been training really hard and have been doing a lot of things I’ve never done before,” Beerbohm told MMAWeekly.com. “I’ve been training a lot of stand-up and been doing some strength and conditioning, and I think it’s really going to help my game out.

“I changed gyms also and had never had a coach before. I had always done things on my own. It’s just more structured. I’m doing a lot more technique, a lot more moves instead of just putting on the gloves and fighting like I used to.”

With changes in tow, Beerbohm has won both his fights this year, which includes his most recent at King of the Cage: Wild Card against Chris Ensley with some added incentive.

“I’m a purple belt in jiu-jitsu and I wanted my brown belt, so I asked my coach what I needed to do and suggested that if he called the move and I finished with it, I would get my brown belt,” said Beerbohm. “He said he wanted a straight arm bar from side control on top, and I went out there and at 1:26 that’s what I got. And right there in the cage he gave me my brown belt, so that was pretty cool.”

Back on track, Beerbohm is of single mind when it comes to what he wants to achieve next, which could become a lot easier should he be victorious in his next fight.

“I’m fighting on June 16 against Marcus Aurelio,” said Beerbohm. “I think I definitely should win that fight and my goal is to get into the UFC, so Marcus is a great opponent (to build towards that). He’s fought a bunch of tough guys in a lot of top promotions, so it should be a great fight.”

Not content to return to Strikeforce, for Beerbohm it’s the UFC or nothing.

“I feel that’s where I belong,” he said. “I had a couple losses, but both those guys are Top 10 fighters, and you can’t keep me down too long with losses like that. So it’s whatever (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva says, that’s what I’ll do.

“Hopefully, it’s sooner than later, but I do whatever it takes to get there, 100-percent.”

E-mail Mick Hammond
For more UFC News and UFC Rumors, follow MMAWeekly.com on Twitter and Facebook.