Ian Watts wanted last Saturday to be his final fight. He needed another chance against an opponent who won their last match by a doctor's decision.
Watts didn't get that chance Saturday at the New Daisy, and he plans to keep training until it happens.
Watts, an international studies and political science major at The University of Memphis, started training in mixed martial arts (MMA) in 1998, when he regained interest in the Tae Kwan Do training he had as a kid.
"I got back into it by training in judo and kickboxing with Jeff Mullen at The U of M," Watts said. "He's the one who got me started training on the ground."
Watts, who now trains exclusively at the Memphis Martial Arts Center at Poplar and Highland, studies Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Ferguson and Muay Thai under Will Whitlow.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a relatively new martial art known for its devastating ground techniques.
Muay Thai, the national sport of Thailand, is a martial art and ring sport that utilizes both punching and kicking techniques, as well as knees and elbows.
"All four of the arts we teach here are referred to as reality or combat martial arts," said Ferguson, an instructor at Memphis Martial Arts Center. "They utilize takedowns and controlling opponents on the ground."
Watts said reality-fighting broadcasts in the United States have increased the sport's popularity in this country.
"In Japan it's huge," Watts said. "Over 60,000 people show up to watch the matches in Tokyo."
Watts, who is a full time student, also has three jobs and finds it difficult to find time to get in the gym.
"Right now, getting a degree is the most important thing to me," he said. "Fighting is a lot of fun, but I have no interest in doing it professionally."
Watts added that the shelf life for professional fighters isn't very long.
An injury he sustained three years ago made him consider giving the sport up for good.
"I got my eyeball knocked out," Watts said, adding that it was not dangling out of the socket. "I still don't know if it was intentional, but he thumbed me in the eye."
The strike shattered the orbit of Watts' eye and half of his sinus wall collapsed.
Following reconstructive surgery, his left eye is now surrounded by pieces of metal.
"For almost a year, I had double vision," he said. "It was kind of like being drunk for seven months."
With school as his priority, Watts is sticking to grappling matches to avoid another serious injury.
"There's too much riding on it now," he said. Watts said that most competitors have a mutual respect for their opponents but occasionally people get into the sport with the wrong intentions.
"Sometimes people will show up to fight downtown (in competitions) and they want to kill you," Watts said. "They don't respect the code of conduct that goes along with different martial arts."
As far as the self-defense skills he's learned, Watts said that he keeps everything inside the ring and the gym.
"It's a sport just like any other," he said. "If I wanted to start a fight, I could go yell things on fraternity row."
The match lost in a doctor's decision last year still bothers Watts.
"I was ahead of him in the match," he said. "I was coming in to take him down and he just got a lucky shot."
Despite juggling a full course load and three bartending jobs, Watts said that the discipline of training carries over into other aspects of his life.
"It's a great way to deal with stress," he said. "You can always go workout and dump all of it."
Taking 12 to 15 hours each semester and working in bars until 5 a.m. some mornings, Watts said that it's a challenge to get into the gym and train.
"Ian started training with me a year ago," said trainer Dave Ferguson. "He's made great strides and improvements in the past year."
As his trainer, Ferguson said that he'd like to see him spend more time in the gym.
"If he dedicated himself 100 percent, within the next year, he could be fighting professionally," Ferguson said.
For now, the international studies and political science student has his aim on finishing college and learning Arabic.
"I'd encourage anyone to get into the sport as long as they're doing it for the right reasons," he said.
