Fighter prepares for Florida match

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — With his opponent’s undefeated record, Brian Van Hoven knows he has his work cut out for him.

The 35-year-old fighter, who stands at 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 155 pounds, boasts 5 wins and one loss, spent his Independence Day weekend working out in the gym before he steps into the ring this weekend in Orlando, Fla.

“Once he feels the power and my speed in my hands he is going to want to make it a wrestling match, and I am going to keep it on my feet, and I feel that my wrestling is going to be superior to his,” said Van Hoven.

The mixed martial arts, or MMA, fighter from Woodbridge will looking to add another win to his professional MMA record while facing Vinnie Samero on Saturday as part of World Extreme Fighting, where 20 fighters will face off at Florida’s Silver Spurs Arena.

One year younger than Van Hoven, Samero stands 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 155 pounds, has never lost during his pro career and hails from Orlando – making him the hometown hero, said Van Hoven.

The fight will be televised later this month on Fox Sports Net, allowing a national audience to watch as Van Hoven showcase what’s he’s learned at his Woodbridge gym, Gold Medal Grappling.

When he left the Marine Corps after 10 years of service, spending most of that time wrestling, he decided MMA was his calling.

Mixed martial arts, a mixture of Brazilian jujitsu, wrestling and boxing, for years has been growing in popularity. Organizations like Ultimate Fighting Championship have provided the sport a national audience each week on cable TV.

Gold Medal Grappling, a gym that sits in a gritty warehouse complex filled with automotive, boat, machine and glass repair shops off U.S. 1, is where future MMA fighters come to train.

“Anyone that would come by here and say that place doesn’t look clean, that wouldn’t be the type of person that we would be looking for here,” said gym owner and MMA fighter Elijah Harshbarger.

At least 20 wannabe fighters each week come here to this auto repair shop that has been converted into a gym with weighs and workout machines to get a feel for what MMA is all about, said Harshbarger. Most, he said, leave when they find out  it requires way more effort than other gyms, where the focus is “losing weight and having fun.”

Harshbarger, Van Hoven and 10 others on Saturday spent their morning facing off in sparring matches in the gym that’s been converted from an old auto repair shop. Now its floors lined with training mats and exercise equipment.

A mix of Eminem and ACDC play on a boom box in the background as the men first throw punches at each other as if they were boxing. Then they use their legs and feet to try to bring their opponent down to the mat.

Once there, a wrestler’s instinct kicks in as the two foes do all they can to weaken their opponent by putting them into a headlock, pinning them so they can’t move, forcing the beaten man to cry truce.

Harshbarger, a former wrestling coach at Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge ­­­– his alma matter – has been doing this professionally for four years.

It started in his basement at home, moved to the wrestling room at Gar-Field and then grew into a full time business.

It’s a place where he can focus on Ameri-jitsu, a style of fighting he has championed for years.

“All of the other gyms focus on Brazilian Jujitsu, where I love to fight more, so I said I’ve to open up my own place,” said Harsbarger.

This story originally appeared on insidenova.com.