Photo Credit: Zuffa LLC

Adam Gerber In the beginning he was only Tony Martin, and when he came into the UFC, he was a Lightweight (155), with one hell of a rocky start. He fought, and lost to, a row of killers in the promotions most talent-rich division. In his UFC debut, the former collegiate wrestler lost to Russian prospect Rashid Magomedov by unanimous decision. In the 1st round of the fight, Martin tore his LCL, and thus began the rocky road for Rocco. Tony Martin carried on after healing his injury, and sprinkled in some wins on his record over lesser names, most notably Johnny Case. But mostly Martin struggled to clench victory over some of the staples of the fringe top 15 of Lightweight. It didn’t help that problems in Martin’s personal life kept him training in Minnesota, instead of at his preferred super-camp, American Top Team (ATT) in Florida. Martin had been quite candid in acknowledging that his stand-up was lacking in his game plan, and that it was something that he wanted to work toward fixing. After his loss to Rashid Magomedov, Tony Martin went on to lose to Beniel Dariush by submission, Leonardo Santos by submission, and Olivier Aubin-Mercier (OAM) by split decision.

OAM defeated Martin by Split Decision Photo Credit: USA TODAY

But despite his Cinderella beginning, I’ve never had a hard time getting jazzed for a Tony Martin fight. There may not be a flashy finish, and he may not even win, but he was always fun in a scramble and has an unrelenting reserve of grit. It’s cliché, but there is no fucking quit in this man. It was enough to pique my interest in Tony Martin. He was a tough, determined performer, with a long build and good athletic potential. There were also momentary glimmers of greatness. Here and there in his fights at Lightweight, if you looked close enough, the sparks of success were there, but they hadn’t caught kindling. Many fighters have these little glimmers, but it is up to them to polish and accentuate them. Martin needed to feed the fire. On April 21st, 2018, Tony Martin stoked the flames. After losing by split decision to OAM, he decided some changes needed to be made. He moved up a weight class, to Welterweight (170), because he believed the harsh weight cut was causing him to underperform. He also finally moved to Florida in order to train at ATT, after the loss convinced him the move is what would “be best in the long run.” His first fight after moving up in weight and moving camps to ATT in Florida, ended up being a dominant decision win over Keita Nakamura which signalled a beautiful beginning in Martin’s new weight class. But it seemed the bells were already tolling for Tony Martin.

Martin defeated Nakamura by Unanimous Decision Photo Credit: Zuffa LLC

Despite the decisive win in his Welterweight debut, Tony Martin was told by the UFC, under no uncertain terms, that he would be cut from the promotion after he finished the last 2 fights on his contract. It didn’t matter whether or not he won them, he would be looking for a new job when the contract came to a close. When asked about why he thought the UFC wasn’t interested in being in the Tony Martin business anymore, Martin said that he figured that his rocky start in the UFC led to him being pegged by higher-ups as a boring fighter. Just as it started to get going, the UFC threw a wet towel over the fire Martin was building. And to a certain extent, they may have been right. Tony Martin’s performances were fun enough to watch for the average hard-core fan, but he had hardly set himself apart from the rest of the roster in terms of spectacular moments in the cage. Mix this with a blue-collar “I’ll fight whoever the UFC gives me” attitude and an aversion to smack talk, and he didn’t exactly have a lot to sell himself on – other than what he did in the octagon. Even the name “Tony Martin” is about as generic as it gets, and generic is the last thing you want to be when the business you are in is almost entirely about which peacock has the brightest feathers. It is hard to even find anything MMA related when typing “Tony Martin” into the search engine of your choice. But Martin was about to bet on himself in more ways than one.

Rocco’s new signature side burns Photo Credit: Zuffa LLC

Enter Anthony Rocco Martin, mostly just known as “Rocco” now, sporting what has become a signature set of sideburns. And just as he transformed in namesake, appearance, weight class, and training location, he transformed his skill set. Keeping his opponents at distance on the end of straight punches, chopping low kicks, a well hidden uppercut, good head movement in pocket exchanges, and a fast and efficient right straight led to a breakout performance when he knocked out Ryan LaFlare with a head kick in the 3rd round in Las Vegas.

Photo Credit: Steven R Sylvanie, MMA Junkie

The smouldering embers swelled into a towering inferno of un-deniability.

Photo Credit: Steven R. Sylvanie, MMA Junkie

And at UFC 229 in Las Vegas, from the ashes rose Anthony Rocco Martin.

Photo Credit: Steven R. Sylvanie, MMA Junkie

UFC 229, of course, was the Khabib/McGregor card. Also known as the most watched UFC event in history.

Rocco puts a stamp on his KO of LaFlare. Photo Credit: Steven R. Sylvanie, MMA Junkie

Rocco was placing bets on himself figuratively, and literally. He bet that his body would adapt better to Welterweight, that changing camps would be beneficial, he bet on using his original birth name “Anthony Rocco Martin.” And he bet on the mutton chops, because if that’s not a gambling man’s facial hair, I truly don’t know what is. Literally, he bet a parlay on the fights of 229, betting on himself to win by KO, and took home an extra $15k for the risk that night. On December 2nd 2018, in Adelaide, Australia, Rocco fought one of the most highly-touted prospects from Down Under: Jake Matthews. The young Matthews had also recently made the jump up to Welterweight from Lightweight due to him growing out of his teenage years, and was coming off of an impressive 3 fight win streak, including his Fight of the Night against Li Jingliang, in which Jingliang attempted to illegally gouge Matthews’ eyes in order to escape a submission. Suffice to say, the people were hot on Jake Matthews. Rocco defeated the young Aussie prospect with an Anaconda Choke in the 3rd round, and all of the sudden, Rocco had completed the final 2 fights on his UFC contract with 2 sensational finishes. One happened to be on the biggest card ever, and the other against one of the most promising prospects of the very division Rocco was settling into.

Rocco submits Matthews with an Anaconda Choke. Photo Credit: Zuffa LLC

However, the UFC kept their promise, and Tony Martin was never offered another contract with the promotion. But there was an offer on the table for one Anthony Rocco Martin.

Rocco credits much of his recent success to his girlfriend, Kayla Harrison, Professional Fighting League (PFL) star, and how she has been able to help him sort out his personal life. They met after training at ATT together in Florida. Perhaps these personal problems are related to the ones that led to him forgoing training at the super camp ATT, to train in Minnesota during his early UFC career.

Kayla Harrison at PFL 6 Photo Credit: MMA Fighting

Harrison, a former Judo training partner of Ronda Rousey, is a 2 time Olympic Judo gold medalist, Judo world champion, and 2 time Pan American Games gold medalist. She made her MMA debut at PFL 2 on June 21st, 2018. She is currently undefeated and is considered to be one of the next big female stars in combat sports. And the two of them seem thick as thieves, especially after Rocco’s most recent win in Wichita, another dominant unanimous decision – against Sergio Moraes. After winning, he attempted a Wizard of Oz joke for the Kansas crowd in his post-fight interview, “Toto… I don’t think we’re in Brazil anymore.”

Rocco defeats Moraes by Unanimous Decision

He ate the exasperated groans from the crowd like breakfast and was ready to explain away his corny-ness to the media, when Harrison stepped up and saved him, telling everyone that the lame joke was her idea (to be fair, it was also her idea for him to re-brand himself as “Rocco”, so she is 1-1 so far). Oh well, you can’t nail every gimmick, and Rocco was ready to take that one on the chin for his lady. I don’t blame him; I wouldn’t want to get judo-thrown when I get home either.

The result remains the same, when you punch “Anthony Rocco Martin” into your search box; it knows exactly what you’re looking for.

Damian Maia is the monumental next task for Rocco. Heralded as one of the best Jiu Jitsu practitioners of all time in MMA, a longtime staple of the Welterweight division and currently being on the wrong side of 40, Maia looks to continue bouncing back after 3 straight losses to the divisions elite. This includes a title shot against then-champion Tyron Woodley, and a main event fight against current-champion Kamaru Usman. He was able to get back on track with a submission win over Lyman Good in February, and looks to continue on that course by stifling Rocco’s new found flame.

Damian Maia Photo Credit: Steve Marcus, Getty Images

In his adopted division of Welterweight, Rocco breaks into the top 15 for the first time and looks to keep momentum and prove the point that he is here to stay. On June 29th in Minneapolis, against Jiu Jitsu master Damian Maia, we see how high this phoenix can fly.