2011’s 157lb NCAA Division I champion wrestler for Arizona State University Bubba Jenkins turned to mixed martial arts as his next form of competition and has since bolstered a perfect 4-0 record since his professional debut in 2011. The former collegiate wrestler has earned himself four straight finishes in the lightweight category, three of which were in the first round and his most recent being in the second, as well as signing a long term promotional deal with Bellator MMA. “The Highlight Kid” is widely considered to be one of MMA’s top prospects and with his credentials and desire for competition, the hype is well deserved. In MMALinker’s exclusive interview with Bubba Jenkins, we were able to talk about him as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter, his relationship with Jon Jones and Ben Askren, his recent victory over Mike Barreras, and a glimpse of his future in mixed martial arts:

 

M: Hey Bubba, congratulations on your Bellator debut!

BJ: Thank you man, I appreciate that.

M: Did you happen see the picture of Barreras after the fight?

BJ: Yeah, I saw it. A bunch of my friends sent it to me.

M: When you see that type of stuff, do you ever feel bad at all or have you realized it’s just part of the sport?

BJ: I usually would feel bad, I do feel bad, but I heard some rumors about him that weren’t so good so I kind of felt indifferent.

M: Having recently signed with Bellator on a long term promotional deal, how have they treated you so far?

BJ: Oh man, I love Bellator. I’m having a great time being with Bjorn and the organization. Everyone’s really friendly and really helpful in guiding me through this game. There’s a lot of people that fight for Bellator that are extremely happy with them. I can’t speak anything but good things about them. Bjorn has really reached out to me and given me an opportunity that I’m going to grab by the horns and ride all the way out.

M: Back in 2011 you had released a video blog saying that you wanted to head to the UFC for the money. Do you think Bellator would be a better home for you or are you still thinking about the UFC in the future?

B: I’m really not sure. Right now I’m happy with Bellator and, you know, I’ve got a contract with them for an extended period of time and I’m going to look to fight one fight at a time and continue staying on that path and focus on that.

M: In that same blog you talked about Askren: what’s your relation to him? Was he an assistant coach when you were wrestling at Arizona State?

BJ: Yeah, when I was at Arizona state he was an assistant coach there. When I was getting recruited I got recruited to to Missouri – they were the first real school that recruited me – but I ended up not going there so I had to see them in competition a bunch of times. I’ve known Askren for a long time and we just kinda stayed friends. I mean, he’s a good guy, he was on my coaching staff and I was on his team. We finished sixth in the country as a team and had two national championships.

M: How did you and Askren get involved with the Sunkist Academy? Was it something you reached out to do?

BJ: When I was wrestling at Penn State, me and Brian Stith had been friends for a long time. We had actually wrestled at the same school – not at the same time, he was exactly four years ahead of me – after he heard that I was released from Penn State all the schools in the country started hitting up my phone and wanted me to come to their school and Stith happened to be someone that I was very loyal to and someone I respected, his name is Brian Stith. He was actually the roommate of Cain Velasquez and wrestled at Arizona State before me during the time of Cain Velasquez and Aaron Simpson and all those guys. He was always someone that I was very close to, I considered him to be kind of a cousin and family member. Once I got over there I wrestled for Sunkist in the summer time and after that I started wrestling for Arizona State.

M: Could you compare coaching at Sunkist to coaching on The Ultimate Fighter? Which one was more enjoyable for you?

BJ: I would say coaching for The Ultimate Fighter was more enjoyable just because there were so many famous people there, it was a new sport to me, it was like a new career. It’s like when you get out of college, and going into a new business and then in your new business your boss is telling you to direct a new program and you get all the big league players and all the people you want to work with. That’s like what it was for me. I got to hang out with Mike Tyson and Jon Bones Jones for seven weeks. It was a dream, it was like a bucket list of things to do for a fighter.

M: Now Jon Jones reached out to you to be on his coaching staff, correct?

BJ: Yeah, me and him had the same management. He was at one of my fights and we got to talking and he realized that I was a talented wrestler. His management called me, I signed with them not too long after that and he made me a coach for TUF 17. He called me up and figure that it would be a good spot for me.

M: Could you ever see yourself participating in a show like The Ultimate Fighter?

BJ: I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do anything like that. I couldn’t imagine not having my phone, not having television, computers, my lady, and my dog. I couldn’t do that.

M: You moved to Coconut Creek in the end of 2011. Did you go to American Top Team yourself or did they seek you out?

BJ: They called me for recruitment and told me to come in and see how I liked it, see how everything goes.

M: When you did go there, they announced that they were bringing in a bunch of high level wrestlers. Would you say that the camps wrestling training has improved since you got there?

BJ: Oh absolutely, I believe that Kami, the wrestling coach they have there, is doing a really good job. He’s a really good coach and we continue to get better every day. We got a lot of guys in there that were rough around the edges not too long ago but now it looks like they’re really getting the hang of it and understanding the wrestling aspect of the game.

M: Alright well let’s move on to the Barreras fight for a little bit. During the fight, was there anything that surprised you? Anything you didn’t catch going over his tape?

BJ: I guess what surprised me the most was that I was so anxious. My anxiety was way through the roof – I told myself I was gonna be very calm, keep the heavy pace but be calm about it. At no point was I calm. I just kinda batter rammed through him so that was pretty much the only thing that surprised me, that I didn’t stick to my game plan of staying calm. But next time I’ll try and have a more calm performance.

M: After watching the tape of your fight, did you think the guillotine attempts looked closer on camera or were they, you know, pretty tight?

BJ: The first one was tight. The other ones I had felt him wearing off. I just wanted to stick to the fundamentals, stick to what I knew, of how to get out of the guillotine. Not make the wrong mistakes. Although I was in a very tight guillotine, I made it out and turned that situation into a good one taking full mount by taking him to the ground so it eventually worked out. But the other ones weren’t as tough because, like I said, I felt him wearing down.

M: When you landed that right in the second, did you think that he was hurt or did you shoot inf o the take down to finish him off on instinct?

BJ: I felt that he was hurt. I felt that if I took him to the ground while he was hurt and dazed that I could punch him out.

M: Winning under the Bellator banner, how different was the feeling compared to winning under RFA or TPF?

BJ: Well, I don’t wanna speak down on RFA but this was a televised fight for me that I was pretty excited for. I had watched Bellator a bunch of times on T.V and there were a bunch of big-wigs in the audience, so it was a pretty exciting night for me for my debut. It’s something I’ll never forget so I don’t really wanna compare it to anything else.

M: It was announced that you’ll be facing LaRue Burley at Bellator 100?

BJ: Yeah, LaRue Burley. I’ll be fighting against him.

M: What can you tell us about him after reviewing his tape? What are you focusing on for your training camp?

BJ: Man, honestly I need more tape of LaRue Burley. I only saw a good 30 seconds. He seems to me like a brawler, he seems pretty tough. He’s a wrestler I heard. I’m looking to out do him at what he looks like he does.

M: So do you see yourself winning the fight on the ground?

BJ: Right now I’m just gonna let it happen, you know? Last time I decided to take something and make it into what I wanted to be. This time, with it being my fifth fight and all and me getting a little bit more experience and a little less ring rust with it being so close after my last fight with me feeling good and feeling in shape already, I’m just gonna let the fight happen and let it be what it is.

M: Now this fight is gonna be in Phoenix. When was the last time you competed in Arizona?

BJ: Actually, when I wrestled. I don’t know the exact date, but it was a long time ago. I’m excited to go back, you know? Tell all my friends to come out, it’s gonna be a fun time. I’m very appreciative that Bellator was even like “Hey, we’re going to Phoenix. We should put Bubba on the card!” you know? They’re just intelligent people for that because I’m definitely gonna try and put on a show .

M: After this fight, do you think you’re going to in the mix for a main card opponent?

BJ: After this fight? Nah man, this is my second fight, I have no clue what they’re gonna do if they’re gonna try and rush me to the frontĀ  or stuff like that. I’m just gonna stay patient, stay humble, stay with my camp and stay with what they want us to do. You know, talk with Bjorn see how he likes things to go and from there I’ll just keep it 100.

M: In the lightweight division, do you see many fighters than can hang with your wrestling?

BJ: Well, I don’t know man that’s just one of those things we’ll have to wait and see. Wrestling and MMA Wrestling are completely different. If you named all the wrestlers in the game – they’re all pretty tough. We’ll see how it goes with the future fighters. I’m pretty excited just to be apart of the competition and part of the Bellator movement. I’m a competitor, I like to compete. One reason I didn’t stop what I was doing as an athlete and go into something different is because I love to compete. I love competition. This is the toughest tournament in sports, so I’m gonna go do it and find out what’s up with it.

M: With Eddie Alavrez’ contract being sorted out, he’s fighting Michael Chandler at the Bellator PPV. Who do you think is going to win the fight and who would you rather fight down the road?

BJ: I don’t know who’s gonna win that fight man, It’s been a long time since Alavarez has fought and Mike looks really good. When I was on the card with him, he puts those one and twos together real nice. I think I’m gonna have my money on the wrestler in Michael Chandler, but who knows. We’ll see how it goes.

And I don’t know who I’d rather fight. I’d probably rather not see a wrestler, you know, because I know the heart of a wrestler. The heart of a wrestler, man, in the sport of MMA is built from the cloth that a champions built from. I wouldn’t say that I wouldn’t want that because if you’re trying to be the champion you definitely want the best so it would be hard to say who I would wanna fight, I can’t really throw that out there. I would want the best fighter possible at that time.

M: Do you see yourself going through the lightweight tournament to get a title shot?

BJ: Well right now we’re just focused on the fights they have set up for us. Eventually we’ll get into the tournament but we don’t really have a disclosed number. We’re just going one fight at a time, get through these next couple, get them out of the way. Really I’m just focused on number five, after number five focus on number six, so right now it’s LaRue Burley.

M: How many times are you training per week?

BJ: We train every day, man. You know, this is the job this is what we wanna do. If I’m not doing something very physical or very, very intense, I’m doing something related that’s very mental or very relaxing. I just wanna focus solely on my sport and on my craft. A lot of my time goes into you know, even if I’m not in the gym, goes into wanting to being the best in training and in MMA.

M: Good stuff. We had a post going on our MMALinker forums asking some fans what they wanted to ask you. The first was “Does being away from from family ever effect your training mentally or physically?

BJ: Well, I’ve got a good support crew. It usually doesn’t effect my training. Right now I’m solely focused on winning and they know that, so they really back me and they keep me in the right state of mind to really focus on that. Maybe later down the line we’ll bring them aboard and have them closer so maybe we won’t have to go through a little bit of the emptiness that there is. As fighters we know the lifestyle and my family members back us, they know the life style. If they’re willing and able, then I know everything will be okay.

M: Another fan asked “How difficult did you think the transition would be from wrestling to MMA compared to how difficult was it compared to what you thought?”

BJ: I thought it would be pretty difficult as far as learning how to block, learning how to get out of submissions and getting out of chokes, but once you learn the fundamentals and once you know what to look for it actually – I’m a fast learner so – it actually becomes a little bit easier. One thing I didn’t expect to be as difficult as it is is getting hit over and over. After you start sparring and getting to those late rounds, even though it’s sparring, you’re beat up pretty bad after a long week. A long week of wrestling guys and stuff like that, you’re pretty sore and what not but you aren’t as physically beat up and injured as you are after a long week of sparring to the point where you need ice packs and other things to keep you healthy. It’s a definite look at the different punishments that you receive, so that’s something I definitely wasn’t expecting.

M: Well that’s about all we got for you here, is there anyone you want to give a shout out to?

BJ: Absolutely! Shout out to American Top Team for being who they are, Huntington Beach Training Center out there with Tiki, Dave Thomas management – they’re doing a great job for me at TNT management, and shout out to you guys for having me on. It’s been cool.

M: For sure, good luck in your next fight and hopefully we get you back after you win!

BJ: Absolutely! Follow me on Twitter! (@2sinsurrJenkins)