The newly recruited Red Bears lightweight, Mike Corey, is a man of few words. It’s not that Mike isn’t sociable; it’s just that he believes actions speak louder than words.

For example: the IFL presents its fighters with info forms to fill out in order to provide fans with a little background on their favorite athletes. For the question, ‘Family information?’ Mike simply replied, “ I have one.”

Then further into the questionnaire, where it asks fighters what their favorite techniques are, Mike wrote, “All of them.” Ironically, Corey’s response to the info form probably revealed exactly the kind of ‘cash-on-the-barrelhead’ man he really is.

And it was early in life that Mike decided to let his actions do the talking when he took up wrestling. “My buddy in high school was going to do wrestling. At the time I was a freshman, and I thought, if he’s going to do it, so am I. It ended up being really fun and I enjoyed it,” says Corey.

Mike then signed up for the bigger fights when he joined the US Marines and took on a number of duties in Iraq. “I was working on the radio, searching ‘Hodgies’ … I did a lot of medevac stuff, which involved carrying people from helicopters to the medevac centers, searching them and helping them out, and providing security.”

Mike, did you get much self-defense training in the marines?

“Did a little bit – but most of it was on my free time while in America. I trained in Iraq too, but it was just kinda goofing around: boxing matches and wrestling out in the desert.”

A lot of marines seem to get into MMA. Did you cross paths with Adam Lynn or Josh Odom?

“You know I did with Adam Lynn, yeah. I started training with him at Next Generation, and that was when I first started training MMA seriously – with Adam, Chris Brennan… Adam is a real cool guy… tough guy.”

Did you know Mark Miller while in the marines?

“No. I didn’t meet Mark until the trials for the Red Bears.”

Is he a wild roommate?

“No, he’s good; we’re just watching some TV.”

How did you get to be with the Red Bears?

“My coach, Steve Berger, told me about a tryout, so we came up to Chicago. They had some dudes up there and we just did some stand-up, wrestling, jiu jitsu… Then they called me back a couple of weeks later, and I sparred with their original 155-er… and so here I am.”

Had you met Igor Zinoviev before?

“No, just met him today.”

He said he planned to work a lot with you guys in the future.

“Yeah, it seems like a good thing, and that’s what’s been working most – well, shit, it works in most sports, so I think that’s a great idea.”

Do you mainly specialize in Thai boxing, wrestling and jiu jitsu?

“Stand-up boxing, Muay Thai, jiu jitsu, and I like to throw in a lot of strength and conditioning-type stuff to get the cardio to peak, but yep, that’s kind of it right there.”

When you say ‘strength and conditioning stuff’, what does that consist of?

“All sorts of stuff that your body can’t adjust to: running and hill-sprints combined with heavy lifting; or running and hill-sprints with boxing – lifting heavy with some sort of stand-up drill where your body can’t get adjusted. So we’re running, then doing some sort of sprints, then agility-type drills…”

So you’re shocking your body rather than letting it get into a comfortable rhythm, like in a fight.

“Yeah; not like, ‘Oh, today I’m going to run,’ or ‘Today I’m going to lift some weights.’ Let’s combine everything and your body can adjust to whatever.”

What do you expect from Shad Lierley?

“I expect a good fight. He’s a good wrestler, heavy hands, good endurance – probably… I’m sure it’s going to be a good fight and really tough. I’m excited about it.”

What will your strengths be?

“I’d say pretty well rounded and good endurance. Hopefully, if he’s better than I am at something, I can keep fighting and find something that he’s weak at and exploit that.”

Mike, is there anything you’d like to add?

“I’d like to thank everybody at St Louis Top Team, my mom and dad, my girlfriend, Dee, and I just appreciate everybody helping me out to get here: It’s a dream come true to be fighting here.”

Shad Lierley (Orange Trunks) of the Tiger Sharks fights against Mike Corey 
(Red/Yellow Trunks) of the Red Bears during their IFL match hosted by the
 International Fighting League at The Mark of the Quad Cities April 7, 2007 
in Moline, Illinois.