ARLINGTON, TX, June 2, 2012 – XKO 15 is coming up tonight at the GYM for fans in the DFW area. At the top of the card is a fight featuring two well-traveled veterans in Austin’s Matt Thompson and 4x NCAA wrestling champ Jake Rosholt, an Oklahoma transplant currently training out of The Gym with Marc Laimon and the rest of Team Takedown.
As far as this main event goes, many would characterize the UFC vet and hometown fighter Rosholt as the prohibitive favorite. While that may be a fair characterization considering his pedigree, one person doesn’t buy into that and that’s his opponent.
“I don’t want to lose,” says Thompson. “I don’t like it, never have and that’s my motivation.”
Matt says his life isn’t defined by his occupation of mixed martial arts fighter. Being a good husband and father is more important to him than anything that happens in the cage.
Be that as it may, fighting is still how he does his part to put food on the table for his family and he hasn’t had an easy time picking up opportunities so he’s got to make the most of every opportunity that comes his way – including this one against Rosholt.
“I don’t hug balls and kiss ass,” he says about why he thinks he hasn’t gotten as many fights as others with his level of experience. “I don’t do well with the politics. I try to do things my way and that’s always held me back, but training and fighting strangely comes natural.”
Hesding into XKO 15, Thompson says he feels good as ever, doing a lot of MMA sparring in preparation for a relentless opponent that will want to win as badly as he does.
As far as predictions go, in typical fashion, he doesn’t have one.
“I never plan because it never works out that way. I’m just going to go with the flow.”
“Thanks to my two main training partners Reuben and Erik at fit and fearless here in South Austin. I’ll see you at the fights.”