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IVAN SALAVERRY
From US Marines to UFC Battlestations  Ivan Salaverry delivering a high kick to Tony Fryklund © Marc Wickert All photos copyright
2004 Zuffa LLC When Ivan Salaverry entered the Octagon at UFC 50: War of ’04 he knew his opponent Tony Fryklund would be coming at him with all guns blazing. But the cool Canadian, who now calls Seattle home, was prepared for Fryklund’s aggressive entrance. It seems Ivan has spent most of his life adapting to circumstances. "I was born in Toronto, Canada, and lived there until I was five. My parents then moved the family back to their homeland, Chile, where we spent three years living in the coastal city of Vina Del Mar. When I was eight, my parents divorced and I moved to the United States with my dad where we lived in Queens, New York, for six years, before finally winding up in Seattle in 1985," says Salaverry. With an MMA record of 9-3-1, the 33-year-old Ivan first became involved in martial arts through a high school wrestling program, and continued wrestling in the marines, before taking up Jiu Jitsu. He later learnt striking skills at the A.M.C. gym in Kirkland, Washington, under Maurice Smith and Matt Hume. Prior to UFC 50, Ivan was in Japan for the K-1 tournament. "Basically, we trained Bob Sapp. He picked me up one day and said, ‘Do you want to train me?’ And I said, ‘Of course.’ I mean, we’ve known each other for a while and we’re good buddies. He started pushing me to get some fights, and I began fighting over there too. It was fantastic. It was great. "Bob Sapp and I train each other and spar together. We’re part of a stable of guys. There’s Maurice, Matt, Bob, Josh Barnett, Aaron Reilly, Roman Roytberg, Dennis Hallman, Jeff Monson…We’re basically all sparring partners and trainers for each other. But Maurice and Matt are the head trainers." Ivan is known as being a smart competitor and describes his well-rounded skills as his greatest asset in the Octagon. He likes to upset an opponent’s game plan by striking the grappler or taking down the striker. Sometimes he’ll trade with the striker and then take him out of his comfort zone by taking the striker down. "I try to play anything that will give me an advantage. I might even take a little bit of a beating just to tire them out. Whatever it takes: rope a dope or anything of the sort. "I try to be a smart fighter. I definitely go out there and do the best I can as far as researching the guy, watching film on him, and looking for weaknesses. I try to prepare as much as possible. I think the game has evolved enough. You certainly have to look at it strategically: not just go out there and think that your style or charisma is going to take over the opponent." Ivan’s average training week consists of two workouts per day. In the morning he does conditioning and cardio, plyometrics and weights. The evenings are taken up with kickboxing, submission wrestling, and sparring once or twice weekly, comprising kickboxing with shoot takedowns. Salaverry admits the sparring nights are pretty agro. "They’re full on…full sparring sessions. They’re like regular training sessions, but if there’s a fight approaching, you have a countdown with the workouts. So in the first few weeks you build up. In the middle of the preparation for the match, you really train hard. By the end of the lead up, you start dwindling down and doing things that are going to be less stressful on your body, so you can recover." Many of the sparring nights include bouts with former world kickboxing and former UFC champion, Maurice Smith. "Absolutely. He kicks my butt. The old guy still kicks butt. Sam Greco trains with us too. He trains with us in Japan. He’s an awesome guy.He’s the one who really found Bob Sapp. He came out of the pro-wrestling situation and he said to Bob, ‘Man, you really need to go out to K-1 and try it.’ And ever since then, we go and train with him whenever we can meet up."
Ivan, at UFC 50, did you expect Tony Fryklund to come out aggressively? "Yes. Absolutely. That’s the one thing they told me: that he likes to come out strong with the strikes." And you pulled that up pretty fast? "Well, they told me I could go for the takedown right away, and then we could strike. But I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to counter this aggressively.’ I thought my best strategy would be to counter his aggressiveness with my aggressiveness. And it worked. If I were to have run around the cage and got too technical, I don’t know if it would have been as good. So I took it to him." You connected with some solid strikes, and at the end of it, Tony’s right eye was closed up. "Yeah. I started out with a few kicks and tried a few takedowns, but it wasn’t happening. And then I said, ‘Okay, let’s go in with a combination.’ And I just went in with a combination flurry, and I got him with a kick at the end. It knocked him down. Then I jumped on his back after I saw that." Where did you pick up the back crank from? "We always do it to each other in training. In the collegiate or free-style wrestling it’s illegal to do, so we always do it to each other in the gym. Yeah, body scissors and triangles to the body are illegal, so we do them to each other." You must be good mates? "Oh, yeah. And we look for pro-wrestling moves and different things…I think a lot of people are stagnant with the same old Jiu Jitsu submissions. So we like to play around a little bit with pro-wrestling and old-time wrestling moves. The Japanese have some really crazy submissions. I think, sometimes different techniques get trendy, and people can read that. You don’t want to be known for just one particular move. "So…When I got the back, and I saw I got the hooks, he was holding onto my hands. I thought, ‘Man, let me see if this works.’ And I put the triangle in the back. And slowly he started screaming. At first I honestly thought I was just going to wear him out. And then I saw that he was getting stuck for breath, and I thought, ‘Oh, I can get this.’ So I just cranked it and he screamed, ‘Arrrrr. My back. My Back.’"
He couldn’t tap out. He had to do it verbally, didn’t he? "Correct. I had one of his hands, and the other one he was lying on. A lot of people were shocked. ‘What was that?’ It was weird because we always do it at the gym." Because you go outside the usual spectrum of techniques, the fans appreciate you for that, and they see you as a more colourful competitor. "I hope so. I hope the fans look to fighters for a little more diversity in their style. In the States, that’s the one thing. I love fighting in the States, but people really like a brutish fight. In Japan, I’ve noticed they’re the opposite. They are looking for technique. There’s silence when you walk into the ring. Those people don’t clap until they see something that’s technical. That was a big shock for me. Now I know what to perform." Do you have your sights set on the middleweight title? "Yes. For the UFC, absolutely. There are a lot of good fellas in there: David Terrell, Lee Murray, Rich Franklin…I’d love to get my re-match with Matt Lindland. Hopefully, UFC can see that, and I can get it." Ivan, is there anything you’d like to add to this article? "Yes, I’d like to come down to Australia right now where it’s summertime. I’m freezing here. Oh, Lawdy, it’s freezing and drizzly. I’d also like to thank my fans for all the support and the emails. I appreciate it." Your sponsors? "Sinister Clothing line and G Conspiracy."
For more on Ivan Salaverry: www.ivansalaverry.net and www.ufc.tv
IVAN
SALAVERRY An MMA Master Mechanic
© Marc Wickert All photos copyright
2004 Zuffa LLC
When Ivan
Salaverry’s name appears on a fight program, MMA fans are always
thrilled to know they are in for an action-packed bout where the
unexpected is bound to happen. For years Salaverry has been wooing
crowds with his unorthodox brew of thunder, lightning and ring-crafted
wizardry that usually takes his opponents by surprise and leads Ivan
to victory.
With a wealth of experience that Salaverry has acquired through a career of international competition in a variety of fighting codes and events, Ivan is able to take his adversaries out of their comfort zone and use this strategy as a combat technique in itself. For his match against Joe Riggs at UFC 52, Salaverry employed this game plan yet again, and showed what a true Mixed Martial Artist he is. "Riggs was an awkward fighter for me. There are a lot of guys out there who are big, strong boxers and wrestlers, but the southpaws always make me a little bit tentative. However I trained hard and I trained specifically for him," says Ivan. "He was a very strong kid. I’d been watching a lot of film on him, and that is his only drawback: that he depends too much on his strength. He depends on the flurry of punches, the takedown and the ground’n’pound. You don’t see a lot of technique or depth in his fighting. From his films, I saw there was an opening for me to work with this, particularly on the ground." Riggs had previously fought at 300lbs before he came down to 185lbs for his clash with Joe Doerksen at UFC 49. So Ivan knew Riggs had retained a lot of his strength from when he was a heavier fighter. But the pace of his bout with Riggs surprised Ivan. "It was very fast. Honestly, it was really fast. My game plan was to cover all bases with good boxing and kickboxing, then move into a transition of wrestling, and from the ground, to look for a submission or ground’n’pound. I try to work the whole genre of a fight – particularly with this fight. I knew if I spotted a hole, it would be either through his boxing against my kickboxing, or if through his wrestling, it would be through my being a little more elaborate with my jiu jitsu, submissions or transitions." And with Ivan’s current MMA record standing at 11-3-0, what separates him from many other fighters is the variety of competitions he has fought in, including UFC, IFC, K-1, Shooto, Abu Dhabi, and Super Brawl. Salaverry’s diverse background has enabled him to be victorious through a range of techniques including KO, TKO, body triangle, triangle choke, and arm bar. "He’s a good, strong fighter, but there was a lot lacking. He didn’t have that finesse or the techniques to take him over to being a better fighter. Joe has had a bunch of fights – something like twenty or thirty fights (28-6-0), but all in all the situation is, if you fight the local circuit you’re only going to be fighting local guys. I’m training with Tito Ortiz, Dennis Hallman, Jeff Monson, Maurice Smith…And if not here, I go to Japan and I’m training with Sam Greco and Bob Sapp…It’s a different level. It makes me feel very comfortable in the cage. And I knew Joe wasn’t going to manhandle me like he seemed to do with a lot of his other opponents."
Ivan, at UFC 50 you defeated Tony Fryklund by body triangle, and at UFC 52 you submitted Joe Riggs by triangle choke. What is it about triangles? Were you good at geometry as a kid? "No. Actually we were watching a film on Tony…What happened with him was a fluke. Most of those moves we just do in wrestling practise. You just crack them on your buddy and ‘ha, ha, ha.’ I didn’t really think he was going to tap out, but he did. I must have had it perfectly on his spine when he tapped out. "On Riggs, we practised too. We basically knew that when he gets you on the ground, he’ll stand up and he’ll dive in with the ground’n’pound, with the punches. So we timed it every time. I worked it with Josh Barnett and Brad Kirk. They would dive in and I would try to kick. I would kick to the face or chest and then slide in to the triangle, and/or arm bar. And that was the transition." You like to take your opponents out of their comfort zone. That was pretty much the case with Joe, wasn’t it? "Absolutely. The thing about when we were grappling on the ground was, he thought I’d just stay on the ground and take his barrage of punches. I tried to stand up, I tried to go for the kimura, attempted an arm bar, and then I went down. He tried punching me again and I kept pushing him off me. He stood back up, and that’s when I thought, ‘Okay. Now I’m setting him up for his game,’ because that’s what we’d been practising for all that time. And when he dived in I caught him with an up-kick." So you were setting a trap using his game plan as the bait. "Definitely. I approached the fight with the thought that I wasn’t going to let him punch me. I mean I really protect myself well, and we practised that ground’n’pound. I have the best guys out there pounding on me, so I wasn’t in fear of his pouncing on me. No way. If anything, I was thinking, ‘Don’t take that punishment. Try to get out, try to work the submission. And if you see something…’ What we saw was that he dives in with those punches. When he starts diving he’s vulnerable to any kind of up-kick." I hope you don’t mind this comparison, but it seems you and Yves Edwards are two of the most exciting guys out there. You’re both always looking for new angles to introduce into your fights. "That’s a real compliment. Yves is a great guy. I’m very envious of his kickboxing ability. It’s amazing to watch how he sets his opponents up with his kickboxing. And you know what? He’s not bad at all on the ground. That man can take care of himself very well." He showed his ground ability against Eddie Ruiz, didn’t he? "Yes." Do you have your sights set on the middleweight belt against Evan Tanner? "Right. But for me it was sad to hear Matt Lindland challenge any 185-pounder out there, like he owned it or something. There’s a lot of talent out there right now in the 185 category, in the UFC, who will give him a fight. I’m one of them. I’d love to have a rematch with him. Love to have a rematch with him. I don’t know why he opened his mouth like that, like he owned the belt. The truth of the matter is that Rich Franklin and Evan Tanner are the ones who should be rightfully fighting for the belt. "Lindland’s a contender, like many others, but he still has to go through David Terrell and a few other people to get the right to hold that belt. I certainly don’t think he’s the number one contender. I think there are a few guys out there, and the ranking system isn’t always correct, but I think he definitely has to fight through Terrell. I think I have to fight through him, Terrell, Tanner, and Franklin. There’s a lot of talent out there…David Loiseau, Jorge Rivera, Lee Murray…There’s a lot of talent out there at 185. Matt should realise there are a lot of people he has to go through before he starts pounding his chest."
Do you think Matt might have just done that because he knows the squeaky gate gets the attention? "Sadly enough that happens a lot. That’s why many of those guys get to see the titles. Phil Baroni - how many fights did he lose before he was ousted? It was incredible. He was always losing and still getting back into the game. It’s sad because there are a lot of guys at 185; they lose one, and you don’t ever see them again." Are you training now, or have you taken time off? "I took a week off after the fight, and right now I’m just doing maintenance workouts and training other guys who are going to be coming up for fights." You’re obviously still training with Maurice Smith. "Yeah, but right now Maurice is training Gary Goodridge for the K-1 Vegas show coming up this weekend. And then he’s going to jump with Pete Spratt for the Australian A-1 version. He’s also doing the circuit over in Europe, and trying to get into the Chinese market. We’re all connected – it’s weird, but we’re all connected." Wherever you compete, the spectators are very warm towards you, aren’t they? Like at UFC 52. "It was amazing. It was awesome. The thing about it is, I think they see me as a breath of fresh air because they’re used to these fighters with a harsher mentality. I don’t want to be offensive in any way, but there are a lot of competitors who are more brutish and vulgar in their attitude towards the fight game. "There’s also a different type of fighter out there like me. And I’m a martial artist. I’m a little more subdued and mellow. I’m not out there banging my chest and saying I’m the king of the world. I’m out there trying to do the best I can with what I’ve got. If that takes me to the belt, then so be it." Ivan, is there anything you’d like to add? "Only that you’re going to see a lot more of me in any which way possible. I’m going to be fighting and training, and you’ll see me out there forever. When I’m not fighting I’ll be training fellas or having my own school. I’ll be around for a while." Your sponsors? "G Conspiracy, Tuttle Chiropractic, Hands On Health Massage, Pro Body Discount Nutrition Center, Ring Sports United, and EndZone Athletics."
For more on Ivan Salaverry: www.ivansalaverry.net For more on UFC: www.ufc.tv
IVAN
SALAVERRY Big Times Ahead in Seattle
©Marc
Wickert ©photos
WFA
At
the time of this interview, Ivan Salaverry is talking to knucklepit.com on
his cell phone while driving up to Vancouver to pick up a front desk.
“I’m getting ready to open up my gym. It will be ready in early
September. We’re currently doing the walls and all the construction,”
says Salaverry. On
22 July, 2006, Ivan defeated Art Santore at the World Fight Alliance (WFA):
King of the Streets event, held at the Forum in Los Angeles. “I
enjoyed it. It was a good win for me because it was through a strike, and
a lot of people were surprised that I do have kickboxing abilities – as
opposed to just submissions. “I
knocked Art down with a roundhouse. Then he staggered and moved back a
little bit. I got him with another kick, which didn’t do too much. I
followed up with a right cross and then I left-hooked him. He dropped, and
that’s when I got on top of him and started punching before the referee
stopped it.” With
that win behind him, Ivan is now ‘heads down’, frantically getting the
Ivan Salaverry MMA Gym finished for it’s first-weekend-in-September
official opening, at 8th and Thomas in downtown Seattle. Not
only will the gym be a great place for name MMA fighters to hone their
skills, but it will be the ideal place for people off the street to come
in and be prepared for life on the streets. “There
will be after-hours sessions for MMA fighters – say from 8 till 10 in
the evening - when I’ll be preparing fighters for competition. And that
will be a closed-doors situation. I love my guys, but when they’re
bleeding and cussing, it’s not appropriate to have them surrounded by
nine-to-five regular folks.” Ivan,
on your web site you say people have a natural fighting spirit. “Everybody
has a strong fighting instinct inside them. And I show people how to
harness that instinct by teaching them strong, well-rounded techniques. I
want people to come to me with a yearning for a mixed martial arts
lifestyle – to be healthy, to lose weight, and to learn techniques of
wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, submission wrestling…”
So
you’ll be one of the instructors? “Absolutely.” Who
else? “Right
now, I have kickboxer Danny ‘Boy’ Bennett, and I’m trying to get
Brad Kertson in there for MMA.” Are
you accepting registrations prior to the official opening? “We’re
already taking applications and there’s an enrolment form on my
website.” Will
you be doing individual styles as well as MMA? “I’m
dividing it into striking and grappling: one curriculum for submission
wrestling and one for kickboxing. There will be another curriculum class
for MMA.” Will
you still be training and fighting out of AMC or your Ivan Salaverry MMA
Gym? “I’ll
now be training and fighting out of the Ivan Salaverry MMA Gym.” Are
you working out with Maurice Smith these days? “Maurice lives here in Seattle, so we practise together sometimes, but right now he has the commitment with IFL, and he’s doing his own thing in another part of the city. We still train and chat, but we’re busy doing our own things.”
Will
you be getting involved in the IFL? “Listen,
right now I’m not going to say no to anybody. I’m presently involved
with the WFA, but I think the IFL is a good idea… and the UFC is a good
idea. Now is a good situation for fighters. There might be certain
disagreements between the UFC and me, but all in all, it’s good for
fighters to have a lot of different promotions gunning for them. I want
success for the IFL, the WFA, and for the UFC, because it affects
everybody – the organizations and the fighters.” Are
you still picking on Tito at training? “No,
it’s the reverse: I get picked on. He’s a beast. I was just with him
last weekend and we did a photo shoot for Team Punishment and it was
really cool. I know he’s going to be going to Big Bear to train soon, so
I’ll be heading up there as well.” What
did you think of Tito’s and Tim Sylvia’s victories? “Listen,
all the congratulations to Tito, but Ken needs to retire from competition
and concentrate on coaching. It’s another paycheck for Tito and another
paycheck for Ken, but is it really what the public wants to see?
Does it really want to see another beating of Tito on Ken? I
wouldn’t particularly want to see that. And I think Ken needs to retire
and stop talking so much crap about Tito. Tito has shown that he’s a
good guy… I mean, from the TV show and from all the people saying so.” What
about Tim’s victory over Andrei? “Man,
it became a boring fight, but you know what: Congratulations to Tim. I
didn’t think he was going to win, but he took it to him.” When
will ‘Little Ivan’ be arriving? “He’s
arrived and 14-pounds heavy. He was born July 9 and is doing very well –
a super, super healthy kid.” So
which one’s Ivan the Great and which one’s Ivan the Terrible? “Oh,
gees. I believe I’m Ivan the Terrible.” Your
next fight? “I
don’t know. They’re talking about some time in November or December
for the WFA, but nothing’s set in stone. Ivan,
is there anything you’d like to add? “If
anybody would like to check into my website, they can see what things I
have going.” Your
sponsors? “G Conspiracy, Tuttle Chiropractic, Hands On Health Massage, Pro Body Discount Nutrition Center, and Britt Salaverry Real Estate.”
For
more info on Ivan: www.ivansalaverry.net
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