LAFAYETTE, LA, January 27, 2012 – “I hate not training,” says Eric Scallan of Louisiana’s Gladiators Academy. “I love the feeling of stress and pressure you get when you have a fight coming up. I know I still have so much room to grow as a fighter. I think that as a mixed martial artist you never stop learning and never stop growing.”
Training alongside guys like UFC-vets like “Crazy” Tim Credeur, Rich Clementi, Dustin Poirier, and many others, Eric considers himself to be on the right path towards defining himself as a fighter but knows he still has a long way to go as far as reaching his ultimate goals in the sport despite the fact that he began wrestling when he just nine years old.
“You just don’t stop being an athlete,” he says about why he’s stuck with combat sports for so long. “I still have so much to grow as a fighter. MMA gave me structure and discipline in my life and now, it’s about improving yourself mentally, physically and spiritually. That’s why I do this.
It wasn’t too long ago that Eric wrestled for Wartburg College in Northern Iowa only to kicked off the team after two years for behavioral problems. Looking at how he approaches life now, it’s a far cry from those days where he was living on the brink of something disastrous on a personal level.
“I would be on jail or dead if it wasn’t for MMA. Training and competing in this sport took away all these negative feelings and emotions I felt and turned them into something different, something far more positive.”
Now with an 8-3 record in MMA, Eric’s made it a point to center his life around only good things.
“I’m a big brother for the Big Brothers and Sisters of Acadiana,” he says about his volunteer work for an organization that provides mentorship and opportunity for positive youth movement for hundreds of kids in six Louisiana parishes. “It (volunteering) is a service I love to do. “Being a mentor helps me get out myself and be a positive influence in a child’s life.”
Above and beyond that, Scallan is working on getting into graduate school for psychology in the hope s that he can seek even greater understanding of behavioral issues in order to provide an even greater service to his community.
With that type of initiative and level headedness, it’s almost a surprise that he’s still the same old animal in competition as he’s always been.
“You will never see me take someone down and lay on them like a wet blanket,” he says about his style. “I always try to bludgeon people to death with elbows or kill people with a hate choke.”
Those are strong words but hey, that’s what MMA competition is all about, metaphorically-speaking of course.
Scallan Fighting at G1 Fights: Sovereign Valor vs. Yoshihito Kuroki
Eric is scheduled to fight this Saturday night at the G1 Fights: Sovereign Valor card at the Coushatta Casino and Resort as part of the USA vs. Japan main card feature. He is ready to put on a show for the fans even though he first thought he wasn’t even going to fight at all.
“I originally declined this fight because I wanted to take time off to let my body heal,” he says after fighting six times last year. Then Sean Spencer got hurt and I took the fight with (Pancrase vet) Yoshihito Kuroki without even thinking twice. “I know he’ll be a challenge even though we barely know anything about him. We think he’s a ground guy with some good judo but I would love to see him attempt to take me down. I’m ready for anything! I’m going to knock him out or choke the life out of him. He won’t make it out the first. He’s gonna join the Eric Scallan two-minute club.”
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