By James Brydon
SPORTSNET.CA
You may know the name, but if you knew how Robin Black had spent his past two years, you’d probably be surprised.
Black is known to most as a rocker. The Manitoba native, who now calls Toronto home, had his own glam rock band in the eighties — Robin Black and the Intergalactic Rock Stars — and was a judge on MuchMusic’s 2006 VJ Search.
But the 33-year-old has always had a passion for something else, something a little more “combative.” And no, it doesn’t involve smashing a microphone stand or guitar on stage.
No, Black has taken a route that has become in vogue for many athletes and celebrities. He’s become a mixed martial artist. And it wasn’t easy.
“I’ve trained twice a day, five days a week pretty much for the past two years,” said Black. “I’ve taken probably eight or 10 days off in that entire time.”
Black will get to see the fruits of that labour Saturday night in Gatineau, Que., when he makes his professional MMA debut against Chris Myra at Freedom Fight: Title Quest at the Robert Guertin Arena.
Update Sunday, July 27: Black was defeated in his first fight, surprisingly taken down by a triangle choke from Myra, known more as a striker. “I got rocked early,” Black told Sportsnet.ca. “(I) fought my heart out, got through the round… got caught in a sub(mission) in the second round.”
For Black, it has nothing to do with riding a bandwagon. He has been involved in martial arts ever since he was seven. He took karate as a kid as well as taekwondo, becoming a black belt in the latter. He continued to stay active and training different disciplines as he grew up.
But then came his “rock star” stage. During his twenties he said he traveled around the world, drank lots of beer and he didn’t train a lot. But he knew he missed the old part of his life. And a few years ago he picked up training again and expanded his disciplines — first with Muay Thai, then jiu-jitsu, and ultimately MMA.
And he couldn’t be happier.
“I love the minutia of fighting,” Black said. “I love all the details of it. I love watching it, I love training it, I love reading about it and researching it.
“I love the purity of it. I love how beautiful it is and how scary it is.”
Black said his with one particular discipline, jiu-jitsu, it goes even deeper.
“I love it like a nerd loves Star Trek,”
There’s nothing nerdy about Black, to be sure. With spiky, coloured hair, multiple tattoos and piercings, to go with a five-foot-six featherweight frame, you would expect to see him fighting off the groupies in the backstage of a concert, not other competitors inside a ring.
But after dedicating all the time he has in the gym — he currently trains out of the new Xtreme Couture in Toronto, any female fans who liked him as a shirtless musician won’t have any trouble seeing him in action as an “ultimate fighter.”
While Black said there’s no tape on his opponent making it tough to prepare for, he’s got a bit of an advantage, considering his main training partner was Myra’s last opponent. Ian Dawe, who is also fighting on Saturday’s card, was the last guy to face Myra (0-2), at a King of the Cage event a year ago, which he won by TKO as a result of a cut.
“Ian has relayed in detail many times over how that fight went,” Black said. “So I know a little bit about him. His striking is his forte and he’s a pretty tough guy. And I know he used to have some weaknesses with his wrestling and his jiu-jitsu, which is by far my strength and I’ve been working wrestling with some top guys.”
Those top guys include former IFL standout Chris Horodecki, with whom he has also been doing some private striking lessons, and UFC veteran, former TKO champion and current Affliction fighter Mark Hominick, considered one of the most skilled featherweights in the world.
“I feel like I can stand and bang with (Myra) if I want to,” Black added. “And if I don’t want to, I’ll be able to take control of where the fight happens and finish him with my jiu-jitsu.”
Being a well-rounded fighter is really important to Black, not just for himself, but because he feels it is what demonstrates what makes the sport so special — and why it’s gaining such popularity.
“The fighters that I like, and I love to watch, are guys who are mixed martial artists. They’re not jiu-jitsu guys who try to punch. They’re not kickboxers who try to learn submissions,” Black explained. “I like the way the whole sport connects to each other. You take people down off of strikes. You work submissions from your wrestling game. That’s what I really try to do.”
He uses Hominick as a perfect example, especially after the London, Ont., native’s most recent win, last Saturday in the debut of Affliction.
“Everybody knows he’s one of the best, most accurate, most technical, and all around best strikers in the world, at any weight. And here he finished a guy with an armbar,” Black said. “He defended a bunch of takedowns, threatened some triangles and all kinds of stuff and submitted him. And that just shows you what kind of athlete the guy is and he’s a perfect example of what you need to be as a mixed martial artist.”
Watching that fight was a unique experience for Black because of the relationship he has developed with guys like Hominick.
“I was pumped watching that fight,” Black admitted. “You’re training with a guy, you get to know him a little bit. You seem him around all the time. And all of a sudden, when you’re a fan watching the fights, it’s a lot different when you know the guy you’re fighting. And it’s not an experience probably most of my friends get to have, or most fans get to have.”
On Saturday, Black will experience something else most people don’t get to have. But he insists, while it may not be easy, you can if you really want to.
“I’m just one of those guys that it suddenly occurred to me that this isn’t a farfetched thing any more than trying to be a doctor or a lawyer is farfetched,” Black said. “You can do this, you just have to do the things that are necessary. You have to train most of your day. You have to give up delicious junk food and ice cold beer most of the time. And go to bed early and get up early and run and be in pain a lot.
“But if you do all those things you can do this. … A few years ago I decided I can do this and I worked my ass off and made every sacrifice to try to have this experience and here it is. I’m just so pumped.”
NOTES: A documentary about Black’s quest to become a mixed martial artist, called Robin Black: Cage Fighter, recently aired on MuchMusic. … A few days after his fight, he’ll go back to being a rock star for a bit. He travels to England where he’ll perform six shows in a week.
