Another round

Eighteen days before his fight in Desert Rage V, Jeff Welsing is on his back at the Arizona Athletic Club, legs wrapped around Anthony Haile's waist.
 
Haile is in Welsing's full guard, and since he can't deliver any fight-ending blows or submissions from this position, he needs to pass that guard and get north of Welsing's hips.
 
To accomplish that, Haile slowly moves his weight forward, grabs an arm and pins it with his left leg. As he does this he describes exactly what he is doing. Once Welsing understands the technique, they switch positions and Welsing tries the move himself.
 
Because Welsing - wrestling coach at Yuma High - is an adept wrestler and is strong and large for his 160-pound class, he'll utilize the strategy called "ground and pound" against Kenneth Ames Saturday night at Cocopah Casino.
 
To get the win, Welsing will have to know how to pass Ames' guard, which is why he is rolling around on a wrestling mat with Haile, owner of the Arizona Athletic Club in the Southgate Mall.
 
Welsing will be one of 26 fighters competing in a local mixed martial arts fight card at Desert Rage V.
 Of course, there will be plenty of his students there rooting him on.
 
Desert Rage promoter Justin Haile said Welsing has one of the larger followings. They lowered the age limit for attending the fight from 21 to 14 so his students can watch their teacher fight.
 
Doing well in front of the kids he asks so much of is part of Welsing's motivation.
 
“I coach football too, and the football players and wrestlers, they all get excited,” Welsing said. “(I am) somebody that they look up to, somebody that pushes them and tells them to train hard and I'm out there doing it. It helps in their mindset. 'Oh he practices what he teaches.'”
 
And while some of his current students will be at the casino Saturday, some of his past students are too busy with successful MMA careers of their own to be there.
 
Efrain Escudero is the season eight lightweight winner of Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter." Each "TUF" champion is awarded a UFC contract. While the nation sees Escudero (11-0, 9 submissions) as a talented wrestler with a penchant for the rear naked choke, Welsing remembers Escudero as a short, chubby sixth-grader with a big heart when he wrestled on the Somerton team.
 
In seventh grade, he lost his baby fat and in eighth grade he was beating everybody and placed third in the city championship despite a broken arm.

“I told Carlos that Efrain is going to win the show,” Welsing said. “Trust me, I know that kid.”
 
Welsing also worked with Edgar Garcia (7-0) in the Cibola wrestling room when the eventual state champion was still in high school. Now Welsing is training with Garcia at the AAC as he prepares for a June 20 fight against Brad Blackburn (13-9) on the "TUF" season nine finale.
 
“Edgar is going to be a superstar in the UFC one day,” Welsing said.
 
Welsing is facing Ames (1-3) from Yucca Valley, Calif., who got his first win at Desert Rage IV. Ames favors the Muay Thai martial art utilizing strikes with his hands, feet, elbows and knees.
 
Although he has been studying MMA for less then two years and has lost the last two Desert Rage competitions, the 34-year-old coach is a respected part of the local cadre of MMA fighters that compete on Desert Rage cards and even the major league of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
 
After high school in Denmark, Wis., minutes from Green Bay, Welsing wrestled at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh from 1993-1998. Ten years ago, Welsing moved to Yuma and became the Somerton Middle School wrestling coach for five years.
 
Somerton has a reputation for producing natural athletes and Welsing can lay claim to having a part in that tradition. During his tenure, the Somerton team won the city championship for two consecutive years.
 
With his days of competition behind him, his high school wrestling students eventually pushed him into testing himself in the MMA arena.
 
According to Welsing, his introduction to MMA two Augusts ago came when his friend Carlos Flores asked him to come to Torture Athletics and show those at Flores' gym how to wrestle.
 
Flores (2-0) holds the heavyweight Desert Rage title.
 
“I came in and started showing some wrestling and he started showing me some jiu jitsu and I kind of liked it and I thought it would be kind of interesting to learn, so I started going over there and kept going, and they asked me if I wanted to do a fight,” Welsing said.
 
He said his decision to compete was the natural result of practicing the sport.
 
“I'm training so I might as well do something worthwhile, so I decided to do it,” he said.
 
Flores has a more nuanced view behind Welsing's motivation.
 
“He comes up to me one day and says, 'Hey my kids are bugging me, they say I've got to do this. I have to do this one fight and see how it is,'” Flores said.
 
April 26, 2008 was his first MMA fight, against Florentino Martinez in Desert Rage III. According to Flores, Welsing was “whooping the crap out of (him) and got caught in an armbar and lost.”
 
“We look at him and tell him, 'What's up? Is that your one fight?'” Flores said.
 
Welsing didn't want to finish with one loss. And for his second fight, he was matched up against Herman Terrado in Desert Rage IV on Nov. 8. Terrado had more experience, a 2-1 record, and Flores described him as a high level Muay Thai fighter.
 
After the subsequent first-round knockout, Welsing told Flores he was done competing. But he kept training, and he isn't done.
 
“He's (Welsing) going to do great on this one and I truly feel sorry for his opponent,” said Flores. “This guy really wants it now. He's a totally different animal.”
 
Torture Athletics is where Welsing does most of his training, with about 50 other guys - 10 who are dedicated to fighting.
 
The gym Flores put together is located on a dirt lot off a dirt road near the intersection of 8th Street and Avenue C.
 
It's a garage inside a fence with a blue tarp secured over the roof. The air conditioning is a portable fan and two cracked doors. Inside, it's mostly padding on the floor, walls and support beams with equipment fit in one third of the cramped space.
 
“It's old school in a shed and no air conditioning…It's not what you call a state-of-the-art facility, but I like it that way,” Welsing said.

Desert Rage promoter Justin Haile said Welsing has one of the larger followings. They lowered the age limit from 21 to 14 so his students can come watch their teacher fight and either root for or against him.

Doing well in front of the kids he asks so much of is part of Welsing's motivation. “I coach football too, and the football players and wrestlers, they all get excited,” said Welsing. “(I am) somebody that they look up too, somebody that pushes them and tells them to train hard and I'm out there doing it. It helps in their mindset. 'Oh he practices what he teaches.'”