The Triangle Choke: Dustin Winterhalt Interview

ICF Welterweight Champion, Team Vision’s Dustin Winterhalt is a star on the rise. Winterhalt holds a professional record of 6 wins and 0 losses. The hardest part right now for Dustin may not be the intense training or the enormous time commitment; in fact it’s finding an opponent. Winterhalt’s reputation as an elite fighter is growing rapidly which sends potential competitors fleeing. As Dustin finished a tough training session, he spent some time with me to discuss his history, his training, and what his goals are.

TTC- Where did you grow up?

DW- Oswego, New York, its north of Syracuse. It’s a little port city. Really nothing great, cold all of the time. Very cold!

TTC- Wrestling is your primary MMA discipline. When did you start wrestling?

DW- I started wrestling as soon as I started walking really. My father was a wrestler, his brothers were wrestlers, my grandfather was a wrestler. At the time I was growing up, my father was running the youth program where I grew up so we just grew up in it. I had an older brother who was three years older than me; I was his wrestling dummy for as long as I can remember. I’ve been doing it my whole life.

TTC- What was your career like in high school?

DW- I wrestled varsity all four years. I had an old school coach who was real hard knocks, the only way to get better was to get beat up. My freshmen year I had a record of 4-15. It was pretty bad. I took a beating. I wrestled seniors pretty much my whole freshmen year so I was competing against 18 year old men and I was only 13 or 14. My coach told me to just stick with it you will get better. The day after my last match of my freshmen year, I started training. I hated losing so bad, it killed me. I did everything I possibly could during that off season. My sophomore year I went 29-5. My junior year I went 31-3. My senior year I went 36-1. I lost in the New York state Section 3 wrestling tournament in the semifinals. I broke 2 of my lower back ribs. I wrestled back with broken ribs and took 3 rd in the state. That was probably the toughest, hardest thing I ever did. I couldn’t take a deep breath, my ribs were stabbing me. It was terrible.

TTC- Upon finishing your high school career, how was the recruiting process?

DW- Recruiting for college wrestling is tough, you got to have really good grades and be a really good wrestler because there is no money in college wrestling except for maybe Iowa. I grew up real close to Syracuse so I had wrestled with Coach Gene Mills on and off my whole life. He was a world champion himself, one of the greatest coaches and wrestlers ever (read about Gene at http://www.genemills.com/about.htm). I went to another state school that was nearby and wrestled there for a little bit. Starting out I had bills, I couldn’t really go to school full time and work full time. I took a job at a high school coaching wrestling. That probably made me miss the competition the most. I started having dreams I was competing again and wrestling. I had been competing since I was 5 years old. I had to find something to compete in again. Boxing was also a family thing. I had an uncle who was a professional boxer in the golden era (50s). I started boxing a little bit, then spent some time in Rochester, NY kickboxing and some Jiu-Jitsu. Then I moved to Cincinnati and met Josh Rafferty right after he came back from season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter. I told him I was a wrestler and he thought I could help him in his training so he invited me to Jorge Gurgel’s Golds Gym. I really liked it. I met Rod Housely there. Rod trained with other guys several days a week whereas there was only one MMA class a week. I liked training more often. I was use to that from my wrestling background, 5-6 days a week. Rod invited me to come out to a private gym and train several days a week. I helped them with wrestling and they helped me with everything else. I’ve been training with Rod ever since. He kind of took me under his wing. He’s like a brother to me. We’ve been at this now for five years. One day we were training together and Rod was telling me he had to get home, his wife had birthday plans for him. I asked him when his birthday was and he said today, same day as mine! So I guess we have a connection. Rod and I have been through a lot together. As long as I do this fighting thing, I will always have Rod there with me, all the way until I’m done. I will remember where I came from. Rod has really given me all this (speaking of the gym, training and direction). Rod always had a dream to start his own gym. He and I talked about it for a long time. Then we finally said let’s do it. We came up with this place (Team Vision). We have the best group of guys. It is really blowing up, couldn’t ask for anything better.

TTC- When was your first fight and what was your amateur record?

DW- My first fight was at Ice (Metropolis) against Gerald Pierson. I was supposed to fight at 185 lbs. at the time. The day of the fight they told me they didn’t have anyone at 185. They had a guy at 208lbs. I’d been training my butt off so I decided to fight him. I beat him but I went off of pure wrestling skills, shoot a double leg, take him down then ground and pound. After a few times he caught on to that; at that point in time you could knee to the face. Every time I shot in I would catch a knee to the face or an uppercut. My face was around twice the size as normal, my eye was swollen shut with all that I was smiling from ear to ear. It was great to beat an experienced guy like him. My amateur record was 9-2.

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TTC- You are the 170lb Champion in ICF (Intimidation Cage Fighting), tell me about that.

DW- Yeah, I’m still the champion. Before that, Roger (Roger Bowling) and I both had MMA Bigshow belts. Roger then stated he wasn’t going to fight for MMA Bigshow again. As result, I fought for their belt and won it. Then Jason (MMA Bigshow Promoter) got Roger to fight again. So then, Jason didn’t want me to fight for it. It was kind of a funny situation. I always said Roger and I are like Shogun Rua and Wanderlei Silva. We are best friends who will never fight each other. We started together and we are going to end together. People would probably like to see that fight but we are like brothers. There are too many fighters in the world for best friends to be fighting. I know it’s a business and everything else but there are plenty of 170 lbs fighters to go around.

TTC- What are your long term goals in the sport?

DW- I want to make a career out of it. My dream since I can remember was to be a professional athlete. I played football and wrestled growing up and thought being a pro athlete would be the greatest thing in the world. I love to train, I love to sweat, I love to work hard. I want to be able to live off of it (MMA) and do it full time. I’ve always wanted to be the best in the world at one thing. Fighting is that one thing…

TTC- Speaking of working hard and training, it’s hard for fans to know and understand what you guys go through on a day to day basis. Explain what training is like for you?

DW- Training right now is crazy. Its like having two full time jobs. Most of us fighters work full time. I work Monday thru Friday from 6:00 AM till 2:00 PM. At 2:15, I’m at the gym doing strength and conditioning, lifting for an hour to an hour ½. Sometimes we will hit the pool, sometimes run hills, sometimes run stairs. Then at 4:00 or so I’m at the school doing MMA training for around 2 hours. Then sometimes there is a class at night to work on technique, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, those classes go until 8:30 or so. I get up at about 5:00 AM and stay at it until around 8:30 or so PM. I think most fighters go to bed early. I go to bed around 9:00 PM. My days off are actually harder days. I have more time to train on the weekends. I typically have 3 sessions of training on the weekend. I train MMA in the morning, strength/conditioning in the afternoon, then again later in the evening. Its full time, you live it.

TTC- What weight do you walk around at and how is the cutting weight process for you meaning if you fight on a Saturday when do you start cutting weight?

DW- I walk around at 185lbs. It has never been really a problem for me. I typically start cutting a little on Monday. I’m lucky my body reacts to hard work. It really doesn’t get difficult until Wednesday-Friday. Wednesday and Thursday are tough, the weigh in day, Friday, is terrible. By fight night I’ll be back up to 180 lbs.

TTC- The big fight between GSP and BJ Penn is fast approaching. They fight in your weight class. What do you think about this matchup?

DW- BJ Penn is hard to count out. A lot of people consider BJ Penn the greatest pound for pound fighter ever. GSP is phenomenal. He seems to get so much better every single fight. I think it comes down to which BJ Penn shows up (Penn has a history of occasionally not being in tip-top shape). It will be a good fight.

TTC- At this point of your career, how do you think you would stack up with the 170 lb fighters in UFC, Affliction, Strikeforce etc.?

DW- I think I would do very well. I would take it as a challenge. It would make me work even harder, want it more. I give credit to every single fighter but a fighter I would like to fight is the WEC champ, his name escapes me (referring to Carlos Condit). I’ve saw him fight a few times and he doesn’t impress me. I would like to fight him.

Best wishes to Dustin. He will be competing at US Bank Arena on Saturday, Aprill 11th. Tickets go on sale Saturday, January 31st at 10:00 AM.

Many of Dustin’s Team Vision members will be competing on Saturday, January 24th at Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky. To read more about the event and to purchase tickets please visit http://www.intimidationcagefighting.com/.

By Scott Dryden
ProFighting-fans.com Staff Writer