FIGHTING HIS WAY TO FAME - Joe Lauzon is rising fast in mixed martial arts (Vid)

**PizDoff** · Posted On: 6/13/2007 10:39am

Quincy resident Joe Lauzon, who was born in Brockton, has a job fixing computer networks. But it’s his other job, as a mixed martial arts fighter, that is earning him acclaim and national exposure. (LISA BUL/The Patriot Ledger)

FIGHTING HIS WAY TO FAME - Joe Lauzon of Quincy is rising fast in mixed martial arts (video in story)

By JACK ENCARNACAO
The Patriot Ledger

It was a straight shot from backyard wrestling to the Ultimate Fighting Championships for Joe Lauzon. Growing up in East Bridgewater, Lauzon engaged in full-contact horseplay with neighborhood friends on a backyard trampoline. They mostly imitated the flashy body slams of professional wrestling.

But Lauzon had a secret weapon that he didn’t let friends in on. He had seen the Ultimate Fighting Championships and saw fighters applying sleight-of-hand techniques that brought down opponents for real.

‘‘I could always sink in the rear-naked choke,’’ he recalled, describing a jujitsu technique. ‘‘I knew enough to protect my neck, whereas they didn’t know so much. I would never really explain it to them. You know, I had to keep my advantage.’’

But the tables were soon turned. Friends who were taking jujitsu classes were suddenly catching Lauzon in holds he’d never seen before.

‘‘They did the same thing to me, they started doing triangle chokes over and over,’’ said the 23-year-old Quincy resident. ‘‘I thought, ‘I've got to start this.’’’

He’s never stopped.

On the rise

Born in Brockton to a banker and the owner of a bait-and-tackle distribution company, Lauzon has seen his stock rise sharply in the sport of mixed martial arts thanks in large part to weekly national television exposure on the reality show ‘‘The Ultimate Fighter,’’ which is produced by the rapidly-growing Ultimate Fighting Championships.

The reality show, which airs Thursday nights on Spike TV, highlights 16 fighters as they square off in a tournament. The winner, who gets a multi-fight UFC deal and instant stardom, will be determined in a final fight on a live special on Spike TV June 23. His next fight will air at 10 p.m. Thursday on Spike TV (channel 55 on Comcast).

Lauzon has looked impressive on the show, bulldozing his first opponent and beating the second, too. The show was taped earlier this year, but Lauzon cannot reveal whether he made it to the finals.

Lauzon entered the show, in its fifth season, in a position no other cast member has been in: he’d not only fought, but had knocked out one of the show’s two coaches.

Jaws dropped nationwide in September when the lanky fighter from a nondescript gym in Bridgewater caught seasoned lightweight Jens Pulver with a wild right to end the fight in 48 seconds.

LOCAL NEWS

FIGHTING HIS WAY TO FAME - Joe Lauzon of Quincy is rising fast in mixed martial arts (video in story)

Quincy resident Joe Lauzon, who was born in Brockton, has a job fixing computer networks. But it’s his other job, as a mixed martial arts fighter, that is earning him acclaim and national exposure. (LISA BUL/The Patriot Ledger)

By JACK ENCARNACAO
The Patriot Ledger

It was a straight shot from backyard wrestling to the Ultimate Fighting Championships for Joe Lauzon. Growing up in East Bridgewater, Lauzon engaged in full-contact horseplay with neighborhood friends on a backyard trampoline. They mostly imitated the flashy body slams of professional wrestling.

But Lauzon had a secret weapon that he didn’t let friends in on. He had seen the Ultimate Fighting Championships and saw fighters applying sleight-of-hand techniques that brought down opponents for real.

‘‘I could always sink in the rear-naked choke,’’ he recalled, describing a jujitsu technique. ‘‘I knew enough to protect my neck, whereas they didn’t know so much. I would never really explain it to them. You know, I had to keep my advantage.’’

But the tables were soon turned. Friends who were taking jujitsu classes were suddenly catching Lauzon in holds he’d never seen before.

‘‘They did the same thing to me, they started doing triangle chokes over and over,’’ said the 23-year-old Quincy resident. ‘‘I thought, ‘I've got to start this.’’’

He’s never stopped.

On the rise

Born in Brockton to a banker and the owner of a bait-and-tackle distribution company, Lauzon has seen his stock rise sharply in the sport of mixed martial arts thanks in large part to weekly national television exposure on the reality show ‘‘The Ultimate Fighter,’’ which is produced by the rapidly-growing Ultimate Fighting Championships.

The reality show, which airs Thursday nights on Spike TV, highlights 16 fighters as they square off in a tournament. The winner, who gets a multi-fight UFC deal and instant stardom, will be determined in a final fight on a live special on Spike TV June 23. His next fight will air at 10 p.m. Thursday on Spike TV (channel 55 on Comcast).

Lauzon has looked impressive on the show, bulldozing his first opponent and beating the second, too. The show was taped earlier this year, but Lauzon cannot reveal whether he made it to the finals.

Lauzon entered the show, in its fifth season, in a position no other cast member has been in: he’d not only fought, but had knocked out one of the show’s two coaches.

Jaws dropped nationwide in September when the lanky fighter from a nondescript gym in Bridgewater caught seasoned lightweight Jens Pulver with a wild right to end the fight in 48 seconds.

‘‘It was kind of like a dream,’’ Lauzon said of the fight, wiping sweat off his brow after a recent workout at the Reality Self Defense gym. ‘‘We had our game plan from nine weeks out and we drilled it to death. Everything you saw in the fight, we had done 1,000 times in training.’’

Smart fighter

If there’s one thing Lauzon has, it’s brainpower.

An information technology professional for a Cambridge-based company, Lauzon admits he’s a bit of a nerd. In addition to his job fixing computer networks, he’s also the driving force behind massmma.net, an Internet portal where fans discuss and chronicle the local mixed martial arts scene.

Soon after his friends started forcing him to submit in the backyard with jiu-jitsu holds, he sought the training of Joe Pomfret. A fifth-grade teacher in Brockton, Pomfret had done a jiu-jitsu demonstration for Lauzon’s senior class in high school.

‘‘Sure enough, his friends actually came down first and started learning it and they kicked his butt,’’ said Pomfret, 34. ‘‘He couldn’t have that anymore, of course.’’

Pomfret said he saw something almost immediately in Lauzon, who wasn’t much of an athlete growing up.

‘‘When you see two people doing the same thing, you can see how one person just has a more natural ability at it than somebody else,’’ Pomfret said. ‘‘For some reason, ever since he walked through that door, he was just better than everybody. It's really hard to explain.’’

Lauzon, whose younger brother Dan also fights, played a big part in ushering in the mixed martial arts program at Pomfret’s East Bridgewater gym. He sought training in other gyms across the state, and brought new tricks back to his training partners.

Ex-champion goes down

Lauzon entered the fighting game at 18 and it’s ‘‘been basically nonstop fighting since then,’’ he said. He amassed 12 professional wins prior to making it to the UFC, where he was matched against former 155-pound champion Pulver.

‘‘They were pretty up-front with it, I was supposed to get knocked out by Jens,’’ Lauzon said. ‘‘Get him a knockout, hype the television show, everyone is happy. But we weren’t going to settle for that.’’

The win cemented Lauzon’s name in the UFC trivia books, but he hopes the cable television exposure brings him a higher level of fame.

‘‘You’re going to have an easier rise and easier path being on the show than otherwise,’’ he said. ‘‘They’ve kind of built us as characters. If you’re just some random fighter coming into the UFC, every single fight’s going to be tough because you’re either going to sink or swim. If you’re on the show, you've already got a huge following. I can go real far.’’

http://patriotledger.com/articles/20...ews/news03.txt

Video at link.
Great picture to capture Joe's good side!

**Steve** · Posted On: 6/13/2007 3:36pm

Awesome.

And that picture is pure GOLD!

**J-Lau** · Posted On: 7/05/2007 2:39pm

The picture is pure me blowing my nose into my shirt

***Plasma*** · Posted On: 7/05/2007 2:43pm

J-Lau you know when you are fighting next?

**J-Lau** · Posted On: 7/05/2007 3:03pm

3-4 months.... not sure who or when exactly. I just know someone is gonna get choked.

**Dr. Sleepless** · Posted On: 7/05/2007 3:16pm

I COULD TAKE HIM!!!!1111111

**Neildo** · Posted On: 7/05/2007 4:12pm

Out for lunch, maybe.

GOOOOOO JOE!

**Carpe Noctem** · Posted On: 7/06/2007 1:36pm

Originally Posted by J-Lau

The picture is pure me blowing my nose into my shirt

Pure NOSE GOLD!!!:tongue5:

Boogers FTW! Actually I can't wait to see the next fight...:happy7:

***WhiteShark*** · Posted On: 7/06/2007 1:47pm

Can you send me that shirt? I want to sell it on Ebay!

100% J-lau noze gold!!1 NO RESERVE!

**Alasaurus** · Posted On: 7/06/2007 9:36pm

Joe,

You rock! Thank you again for the picture and the great show at fight night, I
really appreciate that!

You got the better of our local Utah guy, Brendan. That was a fun fight
to watch.

What is your preference (if any) when you fight? Standup? Ground and Pound?
Subs? I saw one of your videos on youtube and besides the other skills you
have you seem very good at leg locks.