2013-03-30
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Inside The UPF: Ichabod Crane

Fighter profile of Ichabod Crane by Dale Saw

 Hello again and welcome back to Inside The UPF. I am your host Fred Meyer. Today we have a young man on the show with a very bright future ahead of him. He recently signed on to the UPF in the heavyweight division. He fought most of his fights in the light-heavyweight division though. He has now decided to go back to the division he started in and has not disappointed his fans. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome legendary school teacher, now UPF heavyweight fighter Ichabod Crane. 

  Freddy: Welcome to the show. First off I want to say I'm a big fan of your work. And I think everyone is dying to know, are the rumors true about this "Headless Horsemen?" Can you enlighten us about that?   Ichabod:[Smiles.] Yes, I would like to set the rumors at rest. I am, unfortunately, of no relation to Mr. Crane from the Sleepy Hollow story. I am just a well endowed young man from a small town in New England who happens to enjoy the finer things in life: old music, pretty girls, and bloody fist fights. Also, Mr. Meyer, I would love to say that I'm a huge fan of your stores.   Freddy: Thanks, but please just call me Fred or Freddy. Those are three of my favorite things. Along with the UPF of course. I'm glad you set that straight. I was gonna ask you about the Headless Horsemen but its apparent that you know no more then I do on the subject. So, if we aren't going to talk about him lets talk about you. Maybe you can tell our audience a little about your background, how you got into fighting for a living. And why mma?   Ichabod: Didn't Ichabod lose his head or something? And I'm pretty certain that I read somewhere that Ichabod was into a little girl. I don't know. Let's start over. Okay. I got into fighting mostly as an outlet for my energy. If you asked my mother, she would tell you that I was an obnoxious bundle of energy just waiting to explode. She made me take wrestling in school and Jiu-jitsu during the summer. My real passion is boxing, though. Mixed martial arts is really a booming sport right now with fighters competing all over the world with a combination of skills. I think boxing, wrestling, and some Jitz could make for a decent fighter at least.   Freddy: Um... I'm not too sure about that Ichabod story. But, who really cares? Maybe some english junkies. But, we're mma junkies not some bookworms looking for a hook to crawl up a die on. Haha. Yes I agree that wrestling with boxing and jiu-jitsu makes for a dangerous combination. Are you are proving so far that you are a dangerous man as well. Undefeated in six bouts in three different orgs. and a QFC match. So what made you switch orgs so many times with so few fights? And, why did you decide to make the jump from Tokyo based orgs to the Hilo based UPF?   Ichabod: Well I competed on the opening card of a proposed organization called SPFT. It was as a deal with some people I knew behind the scenes. I had never done mixed martial arts but I had seen a few fights from guys like Ken Shamrock and Bas Rutten and I was hooked from that point forward. After the first event, SPFT closed down when the owner got kidnapped by Yakuza or something, no kidding. I fought on regional QFC show because I was hooked after that first fight. It was never supposed to go any further than that though. MMA is great and all but my dream was to be a botanist. My real love is flowers believe it or not. So after the dominant performance in the regional show, I got word that this company wanted to hire me for a few shows. Coincidentally I owed a few thousand dollars to a company called Capital One, you might have heard of them, for an after party I threw. To be more precise I spent about $3,250 on Candi. Yes that's Candi with an 'i'. This fighting gig was right up my alley in a sense. I dominated in AFL, the fight league I was contracted to, and was in line for a potential shot at the title. In the first round of the championship tournament I rematched Jung Sung and was well on my way but I had to fly state side for personal reasons. I was released from my contract and took care of my issues and I'm back so that's all that matters I guess.   Freddy: Thats quite the story there. Haha. A botanist? I gotta say I didn't see that one coming. Haha. To each his own I guess. I personally don't know a thing about flowers. Except, they're pretty and smell good. Haha. Well if you can keep the wins going I'm sure you'll see a title fight coming your way. How does that sound? Ichabod Crane UPF Heavyweight Champion. Of course, Helge Fossmo, current champ, will be in the way of that goal. Wanna say anything about the current champ?   Ichabod: Ichabod the botanist. It has a nice ring to it. Alas, I've given up my peaceful dreams in search of something a little bit more violent. I'm not usually one for trash talking, unlike one of my training partners whom you may have heard mouthing off in the welterweight category. He keeps telling me to call out Helge and start campaigning but that isn't really my style. I will say that if you take away Helge's wrestling, what is he? A decent ground n pounder when he gets you there but if you get a guy with awareness on the ground, he could find himself in serious trouble, you know?   Freddy: So you're saying, basically, that you feel you would stand a good chance against our reigning champion? And this is something that you and your training partner have discussed?   Ichabod: I think that my Jujitsu would nagate his ground n pound. The champ grapples great but I'm a great grappler if you get my drift. I think he would take me down and be in my world. I didn't go for any submissions in my last fight because, honestly, I didn't expect my opponent to try and take me down like he did. I should have expected it and gone for subs. And yes, my training partner has been urging me to call the champion a bitch and start pushing myself in that direction. We'll see where I stand after I fight Rickson.   Freddy: Well that sounds like a match I'd love to see. Hope it goes down. And we are running short on time, you mentioned your fight with Rickson Gracie. Any quick predictions before we go? How do you see that fight playing out?   Ichabod: Before I start spouting off let me tell you that I was there when Rickson tapped out the red belt, Jake Long. I'm a huge fan of Rickson's and I think he's a tremendous grappler. However I don't believe that this translates well into mixed martial arts. I think Rickson relies too heavily on his Jujitsu and has neglected his wrestling and that's going to cost him in this fight. I'm going to be the first guy to knock him out cold on the feet.   Freddy: Either way it'll be one hell of a fight, I can't wait. Well that is all the time we have for this weeks Inside The UPF. Tune in next week. I'll be sitting down with current heavyweight champion Helge Fossmo. And, we'll be discussing his thoughts on the heavyweight division. Until next time, I'm Fred Meyer signing off.   Authers Fred Meyer: Dale Saw Ichabod Crane: Marcus Whitman

 

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