Former CU receiver seeking (en) closure
Michael Westbrook is ready to kick his post-NFL time up a notch
By Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News
February 14, 2005
TEMPE, Ariz. - Football cleats have given way to bare feet and instead of shoulder pads, Muay Thai shields protect against broken bones.
Even the setting is dramatically different.
Forget the lush fields of Redskin Park. These days, training camp for Michael Westbrook is in a starkly lit gym tucked in a strip shopping center behind a Ted's Hot Dog stand.
Yet as much as some things change, others are unmistakably the same.
Take Westbrook's chiseled physique and bulging biceps, and, of course, his infamous right fist.
Seven-and-a-half years ago, he used it to humiliate a teammate and forever taint his own reputation.
Now the former NFL receiver, known as much for sucker- punching running back Stephen Davis as for catching Kordell Stewart's Hail Mary pass against Michigan, will throw it again.
Only this time he is getting paid handsomely to do it in his first King of the Cage fight Feb. 25, a no-holds- barred competition that might never be ready for prime time.
The irony of the situation isn't lost on the 32-year-old Westbrook, a two-time All-American during his University of Colorado career (1991-94) who retired from the NFL two years ago after an injury-plagued and controversial career.
"A lot of people probably want to see me lose," he said, alluding to his bad-boy reputation.
When asked what Davis would say about it, Westbrook was as blunt as his new endeavor.
"He's going to make jokes, just like everybody else," Westbrook said.
Davis declined comment.
But Norm Barnett, Westbrook's best friend and former roommate at CU, said nobody will be laughing very long.
"I think a lot of people will root against him and they can go ahead and root against him. But he's going to knock that dude out," Barnett said.
That dude is Jarrod Bunch, a former New York Giants running back who played at Michigan - adding further irony to the "payback" bout in Cleveland that will be televised on pay-per-view March 6.
Human cockfighting?
Westbrook's newest pursuit is known by many names. Cage fighting, no-holds-barred and mixed martial arts are the terms commonly applied to the brutal pastime popularized by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Though it has come a long way since the mid-1990s, when critics such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likened it to human cockfighting and fought successfully to ban it from arenas and the airwaves, the sport still is not for the squeamish.
There are choke holds, arm bars and other moves that can separate joints and break bones if a fighter doesn't "tap out" - an honorable way of saying no mas.
And a kick to the face is never pretty.
But whereas there were only two rules - no eye-gouging or biting - when the sport first was introduced in the United States 12 years ago, now there are dozens.
No head-butting or hair-pulling, no strikes to the groin or spine or back of the head and no kicking or kneeing a grounded opponent.
Judges, rounds and weight classes also have been added in an attempt to bring some civility to a competition that, after early bans, now is legalized in most states, according to the Association of Boxing Commissions.
Insiders insist the sport is safer than boxing. There is much less head trauma because of the lighter, open-fingered gloves and fewer rounds. And while hundreds have died through the decades in boxing rings, mixed martial arts officials say there has been only one recorded death in the sport.
Westbrook, who doesn't drink or smoke and prefers books and movies to club-hopping, took issue with the cockfighting comparison.
"Cocks don't train. Cocks don't get up in the morning and run 2, 3, 4 miles, then come in each afternoon and get in the ring and wrestle, then come back here at night and train," Westbrook said.
Trevor Lally, who teaches kickboxing at Arizona Combat Sports in Tempe, where Westbrook trains, said there is no doubt the sport has evolved, with world-class athletes and Olympians now competing and cross-training.
"It took 10 years, but the cream is rising to the top and all the tough-guy bar fighters are out of the sport," Lally said.
That's not to say many Americans still aren't interested in seeing the bloody violence that earned ultimate fighting its nasty reputation in the first place.
James Lee, Westbrook's cage trainer and a King of the Cage fighter himself, pointed out a major difference between the way impatient Americans view the sport as opposed to fans in Japan - where K-1 and Pride fights often draw upward of 70,000 spectators.
"The Japanese are more educated. They will watch the grappling, the submission attempts. They know the guy is working for a submission," Lee said.
"Americans are screaming, 'Kill him . . . quit laying around.' "
Lee said promoters only fuel the negative image by, at times, setting up what he calls "tomato can" fights.
"They have to please the fans, so they do put mismatches on the card where one guy will beat the hell out of the other guy," he said.
Whether a mismatch or not, unlike the staged World Wrestling Federation, the punches, kicks and blood of mixed martial arts are real.
Money for nothing
For the majority of mixed martial arts fighters, it's not about money.
Lee said probably half fight for free, with 30 percent more earning $800 or less a fight and 15 percent more making $1,000 to $5,000 a fight.
The few lucky enough to make it big could command six figures or more.
Then there's the incredible story of Bob Sapp, a former University of Washington offensive lineman. He was a washout in the NFL but has become a cult hero in Japan because of his gentle-giant persona.
He earns millions each year from K-1 kickboxing and more significantly from endorsements. There are Bob Sapp watches, Bob Sapp apple pies, Bob Sapp bobbleheads, not to mention gorilla suits and key chains endorsed by the 6-foot-4, 350-pound fighter.
In the United States, he is appearing in two movies, Elektra and The Longest Yard remake.
"He found his niche," Westbrook said.
Westbrook insists his fight is not about money, though a lucrative pay-per-view cut is what ultimately persuaded him to jump in the cage - a 241/2-foot octagon of aluminum fencing.
A King of the Cage official had been asking him for two years.
"I kept telling him, 'No, no, no,' " he said. "I know how much those guys make. I'm like, 'What kind of a paycheck are you going to give me? My last paycheck had $100,000 written on it.'
"He finally came up with a solution to the problem."
Westbrook, whose initial Washington Redskins contract was worth $18 million over seven years, said this fight could make him NFL-type money.
King of the Cage owner Terry Trebilcock said Westbrook stands to make several hundred thousand to several million dollars or more depending on the size of the pay-per-view audience.
A typical card reaches 25,000 to 40,000 buyers, but Trebilcock estimates Westbrook's fight might draw five times that many. He said the Westbrook card will be available for $29.95 on pay-per-view (including Comcast and local satellite providers).
Despite the potential big money, Westbrook insists his first King of the Cage fight probably will be his last.
So why do it at all?
"I want to see if I'm pretty accurate about what I think about myself," said Westbrook, who endured his share of fights while growing up at Detroit. "I think I'm fast. I think I can handle myself pretty well and I'm in training to do so. Once the bell rings, I'll see if I'm right."
Learning the ropes
Westbrook never has fought in an organized fight like King of the Cage.
But he has been intrigued with Brazilian jiujitsu since he first saw it a dozen years ago and he watched puny underdog Royce Gracie win the $50,000 UFC purse by beating much larger opponents with pretzellike submission holds.
"It was violent, but people that were supposed to be great fighters weren't standing a chance against foreign art," said Westbrook, who has a blue belt in
jiujitsu and recently won a national competition at Torrance, Calif. "There are so many positions to be caught in on the ground. Every limb is vulnerable to attack and from so many different ways."
Though he knows jiujitsu, a form of wrestling in which one can use the karate uniform to choke out an opponent, he had to learn boxing for the hand techniques, Muay Thai for the kicking and wrestling for the takedowns.
Last week, he was working on his striking.
After jumping rope and shadowboxing to get the sweat flowing, he moved to one-on-one combat that emphasized middle kicks.
Each time, an explosion echoed through the mirrored gym as his shinbone smacked against the padded forearms of his sparring partner.
"If you don't block (that kick) with your arm and it happens to hit ribs, that's the worst pain you'll ever feel in your life," Lally said. "If it doesn't break your ribs, I guarantee you won't be able to fight and you won't be able to breathe."
Lally expects most of the Westbrook-Bunch fight will be with the hands and only transition to the ground and leg kicks if one fighter tires.
"He's still a little tight on his feet," Lally said of Westbrook's work in the ring. "Like anybody, no one's used to getting hit in the face. On the ground, he's more comfortable.
"But if he hits or kicks this guy, it could be over real quick."
Gustavo Dantas, a two-time world champ in Brazilian jiujitsu, has been working with Westbrook about five months. He said Westbrook's athleticism and ability to learn quickly have worked to his advantage.
But Lally said the key will be getting Westbrook to relax under serious fight pressure and not simply count on his athleticism against a man who is 33 pounds heavier and recently played George Foreman in The Don King Story.
"It does take a different person to get in that cage," Lally said. "Westbrook will learn there's no team out there, no one to blame if he didn't prepare himself. A lot of people can't handle the pressure or intensity of the sport. I think Westbrook can handle both."
Not for long
In the NFL, a perceived lack of focus and discipline, not to mention a slew of injuries, worked against Westbrook.
Though the Redskins drafted him in the first round (No. 4 overall in 1995) because of his big-play potential, he never lived up to it.
He caught only two touchdowns in his first two seasons in Washington, which were marred by injury - he missed 10 games the first two seasons and 32 overall - and controversy.
His NFL career got off to a bad start because of a training-camp holdout. Then came the ugly episode Aug. 19, 1997, in a preseason practice at Redskin Park.
Westbrook admits his emotions were stoked when teammates talked about who had the best hands on the team but didn't put him in the top 15.
When Westbrook challenged them, Davis entered the conversation and, according to Westbrook, called him a "sensitive b----."
"He said something that I didn't appreciate, but anything at that moment I wouldn't have appreciated. I was just upset," Westbrook said.
He snapped, punching Davis in the mouth, then hitting him several more times while the running back was on the ground.
"That was probably the 15th fight of that camp, but mine happened to be caught on camera and I became public enemy No. 1," said Westbrook, who was fined $50,000 by the team, forced to apologize and ordered to attend counseling.
His next mistake was avoiding the media for the next 20 months.
"You can't win that battle. I figured that out," he said.
Different mind-set
Westbrook has no doubts he will win this one and isn't worried whether it earns him newfound respect or more criticism around the league from people he believes have misunderstood him.
"There's not a slight doubt in my mind. The last time I doubted MYSELF, I was getting into a lot of trouble as a young football player in the NFL. I thought negative and negative things happened to me," he said.
"I evolved, and learned to think a different way."
He then recited a Buddhist saying:
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Fight talk
• What is being said about Michael Westbrook's venture into ultimate fighting:
"People have all taken a stance on Michael Westbrook. The fact is, he's a phenomenal athlete. It's not like Mark Gastineau, a football player who wants to be a pro boxer but doesn't really have the skill. He's one of the top athletes in the world and he's ready to fight."
Terry Trebilcock, King of the Cage owner
"Mike was always a martial arts guy, he always enjoyed that and when he was playing ball, that was a big part of his training in the off-season."
Terry Robiskie, former position coach with the Washington Redskins
"It comes down to who's more prepared. We'll see."
Jarrod Bunch, Westbrook's opponent
debruinl@RockyMountainNews.com
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
in training camp. Strained back. Left PCL tear 1996 preseason vs Detroit. Another PCL tear same year vs Giants. Same knee. 4 injuries in 2 years. His body never seemed like it could handle the NFL.
I'm sure they don't Michael. I'm sure they don't.