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Tim Sylvia Gets His Shot At The Crown By Loretta Hunt 
Although Tim Sylvia doesn't have much love for Ricco Rodriguez these days, don't expect to see him chuck any chairs at the UFC Heavyweight Champion in the pre-fight events leading up to their square-off this Friday at UFC 41: Onslaught. "There was some [love] until yesterday when he started running his mouth about me and my team," remarks Slyvia from his home in Davenport, Iowa. It's a couple of weeks before the 6'8" 250-pounder will get his shot at the crown, and Sylvia is relaxing in the few hours between his morning and evening workouts. Rodriguez has appeared on a Canadian radio station that past weekend, where the "Suave" one apparently directed comments towards not only Sylvia, but also towards his team--Miletich Martial Arts. "He did that once before and it's been a while, so I let it go when he said stuff about Matt [Hughes]," comments the former Maine native with a twinge of genuine forgiveness in his voice. "But running his mouth about my teammates--you know they had a tough time in Canada with Jens losing to Ludwig and Tony losing to 'the Crow' [UCC 12]. He actually brought that up!" proclaims the exacerbated giant, as if Rodriguez has committed the ultimate cardinal sin.It becomes abundantly clear that if you mess with one Miletich fighter, you're messing with them all, and as Sylvia relates the story of how he found out he'd be getting the next heavyweight title shot, one can almost imagine a tattered picture of Rodriguez's mug dangling from a dart board hanging in the famous Iowa gym. "I didn't even know at first. Monte [Cox, Sylvia's longtime manager] had told the rest of my team before me." Standing in the hotel check-in line for UFC 40, Sylvia overheard fellow teammate and resident lightweight powerhouse Jens Pulver rant, "He better beat that boy's ass or I'll never talk to him again."
Three years have gone by since Sylvia made it his personal goal to fight in the UFC, an accomplishment he achieved last September with his debut against Wes "Cabbage" Correira at UFC 39. Not bad for a man who has test-driven more nicknames in the last few months than an 18-year old with free reign in a Camaro dealership. "Superman." and "The Grizzly Bear" have fallen to the wayside, and it seems Sylvia has settled on "Maine-iac," an homage to the northeasterly state he hails from. It was back in this rural countryside famous for its succulent lobsters, that Sylvia took his first step towards becoming a professional athlete, competing as a high school wrestler and studying Okinawan karate for seven years. Eventually moving to another town and taking up work as a bouncer at a local bar, the then 330-pounder was first introduced to grappling when his colleagues would meet twice a week at a Gold's Gym to roll. As a group, they picked up moves from anyone that could spare them and absorbed knowledge from every instructional tape they could get their hands on. After a year, a confident Sylvia entered a few local grappling competitions and quickly progressed to open-hand amateur NHB fights in Rhode Island. Future NAGA founder Kipp Kollar was the promoter of these shows, and he helped the promising potential land a fight with the IFC in New Jersey. From there, the chain of events fell like dominoes. A chance meeting with Pat Miletich at one of the UFC's led to a week long invitation to train with him and his established crew. After a week where Sylvia says he "trained his ass off," Pat didn't have to ask twice when he offered Sylvia a permanent chance to train with the team. The easygoing heavyweight was back in Iowa by month's end training for his next fight in the WEF.
As hefty as Sylvia is, you'd think he'd have a hard time finding a training partner comparable to his or his 240-pound opponent's size for that matter. But once the match-up was solidified, a call went out to all ready and available heavyweights to make their way to the field of dreams. Besides fellow in-houser's Mark Hansen and J.D., established 275-pounder Kerry "Meat Truck" Schall and 250-pound Travis Wuiff (also a UFC vet) were both enlisted to help Sylvia with his training. Sylvia also called on old friend Randy Couture, who ironically, Sylvia had helped train for the very same foe just a few months ago. Sylvia says he was lucky enough to join Couture in his home for the two weeks prior to the former champ's fight, and rose each day to a knock on his door and a welcoming, "Are you ready stud?" from the congenial mentor. Training one-on-one each day, Sylvia vividly recalls just how hard Couture trained for his third shot at the heavyweight title, which made it even more difficult for him to watch Randy fall prey to Rodriguez's onslaught. "I was really hurt by it. It bothered me a lot. We all thought he was going to win. I really don't know what happened to this day."
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