The Gerald Harris Blog --- All Available Posts Revived

[Schlottke]

The first 22 posts of this blog were pulled from Gerald's blog on TheMatForums from 10/31/2006 - 04/12/2007. Everything after the 22nd post will be made by him. Feel free to ask your questions and stay up to date with Gerald's professional fight career.

Find him online at: http://geraldhurricaneharris.com/ for apparel & more information about him!


Disclaimer
-This blog is to provide information on my Mixed Martial Arts, Folkstyle,
Freestyle, and possible Real Pro Wrestling career. I will not
post information or respond to questions about teams that I work out
with, individuals, or any specific/personal information about
anyone other than myself. I will post competition
results and other information
feel free to e-mail me @ geraldharris2@hotmail.com

Name: Gerald Harris II
Age: 26
Hometown: Tulsa, Ok
College: Cleveland State University
Weight: 184/185
Well,
let me start off by introducing myself. I'm a teacher, wrestling
coach, football coach, Folkstyle/Freestyle wrestler, and MMA Fighter,
father of two, with custody of two teenagers. Pretty busy
huh? I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma - graduated from
Tulsa East Central High School and finished my education at
Cleveland State University (Cleveland, OH) I was a 2x state
placer (2nd, 3rd) High School All-American (8th/98') and Freestyle
Junior National All-American (6th/98') After graduation (BA
History - Fall 03') I served a year as Graduate Assistant while
attending graduate school at CSU, then I moved to Florida to
teach/coach for two years. Now it's 2006 and I have moved back to
my hometown and started a new life.
So, where do I start - I
can tell you how I got started in the sport of MMA - Cage
Fighting. Before I go into this story, let me tell you that the
last time that I had a fight was in the 6th grade (I won). Well,
money has always been an issue for me every since I was a young
man. I was born and raised in extremely poor conditions, project,
drug & gang related neighborhoods, but I always found a way to stay
out of trouble. I never valued material things, just education
and making friends - so money was never really an issue. Now that
I am grown and I have responsibilities, money and time are
everything. In college it's common to be broke, but I had a son
my sophmore year and did everthing that I could to help him and his
mother. After graduation - I had to make a change, so I did a job
search and ended up in Florida. It was great in Florida - the pay
was high, the school system was excellent, and I was enjoying
teaching/coaching. The only problem is that I was missing my
family -my mother and father were battling with their health and my
life felt empty without being home, so I packed my bags and moved back
to Oklahoma. (people always ask why did I leave Florida for
Oklahoma)
This is where my life changed - my spirits were lifted
from being around my family and friends. Everything seemed
perfect, but the money was low. Extremely low - I went from an
above 30k job to a $10 an hour substitute job. On top of that I
have two boys (6years old and 7 months) and custody of my two little
brothers ages 16 and 17 years old. While I was at the gym lifting
- an old friend came up and said "how you doing" I said "BROKE" and he
said "You wanna fight"! I laughed at the challenge, because
he outweighed me by 100lbs, but he didn't smile and said "I'm serious,
I wanna put you in a cage fight" My real response was "aw hell
naw" until he mentioned the pay! I needed the money so bad,
because I didn't have a car (it broke down driving from Florida), no
place to live, and my family needed help. So, I took him up on
the offer. I was supposed to be in exibition with a month to
train for the fight, but I ended up in the 185lb Freestlye Cage
Fighting Tournament.
I stay in descent shape, so I was confident,
but I had a lot to learn. It was July and my first fight was a
month away - so I went to my old stomping grounds. Back to Ohio
to train with friends that were involved with MMA. I learned a
lot and got roughed up a bit, but it all paid off. A couple days
before I went home I recieved a phone call offering a fight a week
before my scheduled bout? I needed the money so I took it.
I
had no idea what to expect, because sparring is not equal to someone
trying to kill you in that cage. I took a 205lb bout, but I only
weighed about 190 - at weigh it, the guy came in looking like John Cena
and he was a solid 200. I didn't like him because he shook my
hand a gripped me up all tight (with the pat on the back) like we were
cool?
Ok, let me take you through my next three fights -
I have some links to pictures and a short video also. The first
guy I fought was Jon Lopez - the fight was pretty crazy, but I got some
great takedowns and landed a heavy right in the guard that made
him tap out, but I threw another right that knocked him out. It
was my first win and I was excited. Here is a link to the
fight picturers by Richard Rowe
http://www.taosactionphotos.com/gall...Fight_8-11-06/
Oh yeah, Matt Hughes was there and I took a picture with him.



Every
since that day I have been training like crazy and found a new love for
the sport of MMA. My second fight was about the same except for
one problem - I cut too much weight. For some odd reason my scale
was 4 pounds heavy - so instead of weigh-ins at 185 +/- 1lb I was all
the way down to 181 and I felt very weak. I fought well, but I
felt very tired - I ended the fight with two knees to his forhead that
split him open. That win put me in the semi-finals against the #1
seed.
This was my 3rd and toughest fight so far - the guy
was undefeated, strong, fast, and dangerous. I studies film and
trained hard for the fight, I also cut my weight right and weighed in
at 185.5. The first round went slow, but the 2nd round I slammed
him and landed another right that KO'd him followed by a flurry of
punches.

So,
here I am -it's October 31st 2006 - I will be fighting in the Freestyle
Cage Fighting Championships on Friday, November 10th 2006.
Here's copy of the poster and a link to the commercial that airs local on Spike TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDIJTGz8SXQ
l('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDIJTGz8SXQ&eurl=');">
Gerald "Hurricane" Harris 3-0 with 3 KO's

Remaining Schedule for 2006

Saturday November 18th: Real Pro Wrestling Trials

Saturday November 25th: Oklahoma Open

December 28th/29th: Midlands Championships (pending entry approval)

[Schlottke]

Well,
I would like to say thanks for the e-mails and questions.  Feel
free to post them in the forum and I will answer them.

A couple answers for some people regarding their e-mails.

* The fight is next Friday at 8pm in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Brady Theatre - special guest UFC Fighter Andre Arvloski (spelling?)

*
In college I was a 3x NCAA Qualifier and Eastern League Wrestling
Champion.  I wrestled a lot of well known wrestlers, but most
people remember my crazy match with Roshalt in the 2nd round of the
2003 NCAA's on the way to his first title.

* I did not have an
amatuer career in fighting - I jumped straight to the pro's.  I
train at Mikeys Gym and I also have a personal trainer for strength and
conditioning

*My trainng schedule varies from 2-3 workouts a day.  A mix of cardio, strength, live sparring, and MMA technique.

[Schlottke]

JohnnyThompsonnum1
said "Can't forget about your run at the Midlands a few years back
either.  I suppose as any wrestler, probably weren't happy about
not winning it but you still had a great tournament.  Beat a
returning National Finalist and finished 5th in a very tough
bracket.  Something to note, I'd say.

I
have many all time favorite college wrestlers but here are some that
make my top list. Johnny Thompson, Jamie Heidt, Doc Vecchio, LeRoy
Vega, Travis Shufelt, David Bolyard and Tom Clum.

"

---

Oh
yeah, well I had a "curse" at Midlands - I made it to final 16 every
year, but I lost - Jr year I took 8th by forfiet.- I lost 2nd
round and wrestled back 8 matches just to place.  I remember being
down 9-0 to a Illinois wrestler with 11seconds left on bottom and
pinned him with a reachback neck wrench with .01 second left. In
the consilation place round I ended up losing to Nixt in
Double O.T. on a stall call (I was on top) then I just
forfieted out to 8th  after pulling my MCL real bad in the Nixt
match.

-Sr year I took 3rd and here's the short story
I won
a tough quarterfinal match against returning 174 runner-up from
Princeton (he was a real funky wrestler, but I can't remember his
name) It was a wild match, but I scored all the points.  He was
not strong at all, but he had hips from hell and was
dangerous defensively.  I lost in the semi's to
Wattenburg and wrestled back to beat Becks (Penn State) for
3rd place.  I wanted to beat Becks so bad for beating on me
at High School Nationals in 98'.  I tried to
wrestle with a swolen torn MCL (it happened the day
before) and he just slapped me all over the mat until the ref made
me forfiet. 

[Schlottke]

[Schlottke]

JohnnyThompsonnum1 said "Dlareg said "JohnnyThompsonnum1
said "Can't forget about your run at the Midlands a few years back
either.  I suppose as any wrestler, probably weren't happy about
not winning it but you still had a great tournament.  Beat a
returning National Finalist and finished 5th in a very tough
bracket.  Something to note, I'd say.

I
have many all time favorite college wrestlers but here are some that
make my top list. Johnny Thompson, Jamie Heidt, Doc Vecchio, LeRoy
Vega, Travis Shufelt, David Bolyard and Tom Clum.

"

---

Oh
yeah, well I had a "curse" at Midlands - I made it to final 16 every
year, but I lost - Jr year I took 8th by forfiet.- I lost 2nd
round and wrestled back 8 matches just to place.  I remember being
down 9-0 to a Illinois wrestler with 11seconds left on bottom and
pinned him with a reachback neck wrench with .01 second left. In
the consilation place round I ended up losing to Nixt in
Double O.T. on a stall call (I was on top) then I just
forfieted out to 8th  after pulling my MCL real bad in the Nixt
match.

-Sr year I took 3rd and here's the short story
I won
a tough quarterfinal match against returning 174 runner-up from
Princeton (he was a real funky wrestler, but I can't remember his
name) It was a wild match, but I scored all the points.  He was
not strong at all, but he had hips from hell and was
dangerous defensively.  I lost in the semi's to
Wattenburg and wrestled back to beat Becks (Penn State) for
3rd place.  I wanted to beat Becks so bad for beating on me
at High School Nationals in 98'.  I tried to
wrestle with a swolen torn MCL (it happened the day
before) and he just slapped me all over the mat until the ref made
me forfiet. 

"

---

You did finish 3rd didn't you? I
feel like a real idiot.  I don't know why I said 5th, must not
have my head on straight today or something.  The guy you beat
from Princeton was Greg Parker.  Set the match with Wattenberg
aside, it was still a great tournament.

I
have many all time favorite college wrestlers but here are some that
make my top list. Johnny Thompson, Jamie Heidt, Doc Vecchio, LeRoy
Vega, Travis Shufelt, David Bolyard and Tom Clum.

"

---

Na,
it's cool - because that was a long time ago.  Some people are
e-mailing me about Midlands - I will be at 184 if they approve my entry
form, so it will be interesting to see who I face at the
tournament.  I will update the blog as the tournament goes all the
way through the finals.

[Schlottke]

185LB FREESTYLE CAGE FIGHTING CHAMPION! 

It
was my toughest fight ever, he had great stand-up and an expert in
subs.  I fought off a lot of Triangle Chokes and a couple arm bars
- conditioning played a big factor in this fight.  I ended up
slamming him with a double so hard that it broke his ribs!  I have
to work on my boxing!  Here are some pics - I may take a fight on
the 30th of November in KC,Mo - but I'm not sure yet.

I
have to give thanks to all my friends, family, and fans for all of the
support.  Another special thanks to my strength/conditioning
trainer Wes Wright. 

I'm 4-0 with all 4 wins by KO in the 2nd round................

[Schlottke]

Sheerstress said "

_{Congratulations on the win!}

_"

---

Thanx,
the Kansas City fight was cancelled for the 30th, so I will be
wrestling in the Oklahoma Open.  I will be competing in the RPW
Regional Qualifier Friday the 18th - it's about 10 minutes from my
house.  I thought that it was in the same arena as Cliff Klein
Tournament, but it's not - there are going to be so many wrestling fans
there.  I hope that the tournament times work together so that the
fans can come watch the trials...........

[Schlottke]

Well, I just sent in an entry form to Midland Wrestling. Hopefully they accept my entry and I can compete in December. I'll post the reply sometime next week. RPW Trials this weekend. I've heard of some good competition coming, so it's going to be a good one. I'm not sure how many fans will come because there is another major tournament going on the same day?


Well,
I took 2nd at the RPW trials to Ben Wissell.  Good match, but I
didn't do enough to get the victory.  I got two or three good
slams/throws during the tournament.  Attendance was low, but there
was a huge tournament going on next to the arena and a lot of people
came in and out at various times, because there kids were
wrestling.  There was a nice crowd at the 1st round, but the
finals ran at the same time as the finals from the other
tournament. 

I gotta take a break, my body is still
recovering from last weeks fight.  I was going to wrestle in the
Oklahoma Open, but I don't think so, I'll wait for the invitation to
Midlands.

[Schlottke]

Ken Chertow said "

Keep working to improve and excel. Be THE MAN.

Ken

Ken Chertow

Gold Medal Wrestling Camp

"

---

Thanx
Ken - RPW Trials was a great experience and there were some good
matches.  I think that I was the only person to get a 6 point
touch fall.  It was a pretty good throw and it should be
on the video.  This season will be pretty good with all
the good coverage of competitors/competition and interest in the sport.