After dodging bullets as an Army Ranger for the last four years, Tim Kennedy thought he would retire to something much safer. A fulltime career as an MMA fighter. After spending the majority of the last two years defending our country in deserts of the Middle East, Kennedy will now be able to pursue the military and MMA simultaneously.
When Kennedy returned from his last deployment, the International Fight League had already been 6 months dead. However, it did not take long for Scott Coker’s Strikeforce to make an offer. Kennedy defeated his first StrikeForce opponent Nick “The Goat” Thompson, with a second round TKO.
“My whole objective was to be able to continue to serve while pursuing my fighting career. I’m especially happy to be able to continue to serve as a Special Forces Soldier,” Kennedy told GoWAMMA.com. “The Texas Army National Guard has a great reputation for supporting their Special Forces company (and they have) the reputation on being the best National Guard Company; I wanted to be with the best.”
Kennedy’s next challenge comes on September 25th, 2009, when StrikeForce heads to SpiritBank Event Center in Tulsa, OK. He was supposed to be fighting Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, husband of Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. However, Santos had to pull out of the fight because of an injury he suffered during training.
“I'm disappointed that Cyborg is hurt,” Kennedy told GoWAMMA.com. “I was looking forward to fighting him. We are looking at a few guys. Undefeated Zak Cummings looks like a possibility."
Kennedy has been preparing for this fight by training across the country with some of MMA’s elite trainers.
"I spent the last couple weeks up in Boston working on my striking with Matt Phinney, and Mark DellaGrotte at Sityodtong,” says Kennedy. “I'm going to Dallas for a week to train with Travis Lutter, and Guy Mezger then spending the last three and a half weeks doing the final preparations here at Fort Bragg, NC.”
Kennedy’s MMA career now seems to be moving full steam ahead, as his fight with Cyborg is the evening’s main event on ShowTime’s StrikeForce Challengers broadcast. While Cyborg poses a challenge for the sniper, one has to wonder what any opponent can throw at Kennedy in a cage that he has not already seen in the desert.
FACTS (Courtesy of Rangerup.com)
- Born outside of San Luis Obispo, California, he is part of The Pit, the now famous breeding ground for top talent like Chuck Liddell and Jake Shields. Tim’s west coast trainer is the very skilled John Hackleman.
- Before joining the Army in 2003, MMAWeekly.com ranked Tim in the top ten of all middleweights.
- In 2002, he won Grappler’s Quest West 3 in Las Vegas, defeating Diego Sanchez and Jeremy Williams.
- In 2003, he won the Spartan Cup Pankration Championship in San Diego, California.
- In 2003 Tim beat Jason “Mayhem” Miller in Extreme Challenge 50 in Utah. In that event, Dennis Kang did not advance after losing to Miller in the preliminary fight. Tim beat Cruz Chacon for the Championship. During the tournament, he had “The Iceman,” Chuck Liddell in his corner.
- For the past two years Tim has trained with Greg Thompson, a Royce Gracie Black Belt, at Team ROC, and Alan Shebaro, a Carlos Machado Black Belt, in Fayetteville, NC.
- Tim’s record is nearly perfect, but does include two losses:
- His first loss came in his first professional fight - a 2001 match with heavy-handed Scott Smith. It ended due to an odd cut stoppage. Both fighters wanted the cut stoppage to continue.
- His second loss was in the Jason "Mayhem" Miller rematch. Tim controlled the majority of the fight, but Miller managed to regain control after an an illegal elbow to the face that cut Tim open. Miller was not penalized a point, as he should have been. If he had the decision would have gone to Tim. Kennedy hopes to avenge that loss in a rubber match.
- Tim was undefeated in his three fight career in the IFL, and included wins of UFC TUF alumnus Dante River and the man would eventually become the IFL Middleweight Champion, Ryan McGivern.
- Tim earned a Combat Infantryman Badge and Bronze Star for being engaged in heavy combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom, in 2006.
