The Triangle Choke: Chad Hinton Interview

As Chad Hinton is preparing for the biggest fight of his career, he took some time to speak with me and give me full access to his gym, Cincy MMA & Fitness. Chad has had a busy week with radio appearances and “throwing” out the first puck with his son at the Cincinnati Cyclones hockey game. Quite a week leading up to the big fight at US Bank Arena.

TTC- Speak about your fighting background and how you got started in MMA.

CH- I started wrestling when I was 9 years old. I wrestled in grade school, high school, college and some open tournaments after that up until my late teens and early 20s. I met my wife and that put a stop to it! Basically, a solid wrestling base; I picked up boxing when I was about 17. I started getting into Meanest Man contests. I started going to Spears Gym and Northside Boxing and stuff like that. I stuck with that for a few years. Probably around 3-4 years ago I was going to another gym on the west side (Cincinnati) and we kind of got a club together, like a fight club basically. About 5-6 of us were training in the upstairs of this little gym. My partner and I Tony Brucato got together and approached Marty Slone, who was teaching kickboxing, about running this facility for us (Cincy MMA & Fitness). It all worked out really well. Tony and I put a business plan together. I built the place out myself. I’m in the construction field so it worked out well for us. We’ve been here for about a year and ¾.

TTC- Tell me about your first MMA fight as an amateur, the nerves, butterflies etc.

CH- My first amateur fight was in November, 2007. It was at the Belterra Casino. It was against Nick Wright. He had a lot more experience than I did. It was weird because he had actually fought some professional fights and amateur fights. When we did some research on him we found all of his pro fights were non-sanctioned. That was probably the key to that. He was a .500 fighter as a pro and an amateur. At first we were kind of concerned with him due to an inexperience perspective. I was pretty confident though. I always train hard and for the worst case scenario. It went pretty quick. I won via a submission in the 1st round forty some seconds into the 1st round. I really wasn’t worried or scared. I was pretty confident in my abilities at that point.

TTC- You had two fights as an amateur then made your pro debut. Tell the readers about that experience.

CH- My first pro fight was against Mik Berwanger. That was at Belterra as well. Coming into the fight I knew Mick was a tough guy. He had far more experience than I did. I think Mick was something like 5-2 as an amateur. We both made our pro debut. I knew he was tough as hell. I had saw him fight before. The fights I saw no one lasted more than 30-40 seconds. He was really aggressive. The fight went really well for me. That is where I started fighting with injuries. My first fight I was somewhat healthy just a little sick. The fight against Mick I had a broken foot, broken ribs. I was very concerned because I knew he was tough. It went well. I won the 1st round pretty easily. In the 2nd round I was fortunate enough to get a TKO. It went pretty well.

TTC- The big event, US Bank Arena four days from now (interview conducted on April 7 th, 2009). You take on a UFC veteran in Jeff Cox, a big time guy with a ton of experience who has faced some of the sport’s biggest stars. What do you know about him and what have you done to train specifically for him?

CH- I know quite a bit about him. I’ve done quite a bit of homework on him as you can see out there (in the gym). Every time I train I play video of him fighting. I’ve studied his tape enough to know where his strengths are and where his holes are. More than anything, I watch his takes to keep motivated, focuses and pumped up. He has a ton of experience. It’s not just local experience. He has national experience as well against some very tough guys like Thiago Alves (#2 ranked Welterweight in the world. He fought Bart Palaszewski in which he fought a very tough fight until he got knocked out. He fought Manny Gamburyan, Gleison Tibau, all tough big name guys. He has a record of 16-6 overall. Jeff Cox is an older guy to. He’s not a young guy who is going to be foolish and over aggressive. I know he is going to be methodical and smart. That is usually my corner since I’m one of the older fighters (37 years old). I’m a little bit more patient and I like to think I’m a little smarter than some of these guys. That card is kind of gone in this fight. As far as training for him, I train for every guy like I’m fighting the absolute best in the world. I train like I have to climb Mt. Everest or swing across an ocean, take down Brock Lesnar, that is kind of how I train for every fight.

TTC- Win or lose, what does the future hold for you in MMA, meaning what are your ultimate goals?

CH- My goal is to go as far as I can as fast as I can. Like we talked about, I’m 37 years old. Granted the new 37 isn’t the same in my opinion. As you can see with the facility we have here, it’s helped me increase my knowledge when it comes to nutrition. I take care of my body. I have a very strict diet. I drink water primarily. I don’t drink any alcohol or anything like that. I eat really well, no fried foods. I really watch everything, I have to. If I’m going to compete with these younger guys, I have to be two steps ahead of them.

TTC- What does your typical training week look like, how many days etc?

CH- I train six days a week. I’m not a morning/night guy. I can’t be with my job. I’ve got a pretty packed schedule. There use to be a time when I did come in at 5:00 AM to train then come back in at night. My wife takes care of herself pretty well, likes to work out. So we juggle our schedules where she comes in during the morning. I get up with her to start work. I come here for a few hours to take care of some business then off to my job. I come here afterwards to train then go home and try to play dad. I try to give the time to my kids that they deserve. We pay attention evenly to all the disciplines. It’s not like the old days with Royce Gracie where fighters were only one discipline, Kimo and all those guys. The fighters are much better today, no disrespect to Royce Gracie and all he accomplished.

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TTC- Talk about your fight team here, how many, pros etc?

CH- I’m the only pro. We have a lot of guys who are close to turning pro in MMA. We have some guys who were pros in some of the disciplines. We don’t want to rush these guys. I’ve seen too many promoters rush these guys and it is never good. Really, it is no good for the sport. Watering down this sport doesn’t do it any favors. I’ve seen it where you show up at weigh ins and the promoter points at an amateur and says hey, do you want to turn pro tonight for $200. The fighter say hell yeah! That puts a big dent in the sport. Then the guy goes out and loses in 20 seconds. Then the fans are pissed off because you have 6 fights that end in 30 seconds. It doesn’t do anyone any good. We have around 20-25 guys that actually compete in MMA. We have some upper level amateurs that are doing really well. We are fairly new in terms of the MMA team itself. The team has really only been around for 8 months to a year. Its also part of the process to pull guys out of specific parts of the disciplines then put them in a MMA 101 class. We like to think we have a pretty good system around here that is going to improve the quality of our fighters. Our record reflects that we are something like 35-6. Four of those losses were in one night.

TTC- Thanks Chad for your time. Any messages for your fans?

CH- We are excited about the event. Its going to be great. I want to say I’m very impressed with the ICF. Steve Stanton has done a great job with the promotion. Exciting cards and a great show…

By Scott Dryden
ProFighting-fans.com Staff Writer & Director of MMA Content