Ulli Pohl Ready to Throw Down Friday Night at Wild Bill’s!
Posted on 31 January 2010
Ulli Pohl, MMA’s nice guy, is ready to make one enemy Friday night at Wild Bill’s as he gets ready to lock horns with Allen Little out of Eagle Kickboxing & MMA in Lawrenceville.
Ulli comes into the fight with an 0-1 record and he takes on the undefeated 3-0 Allen Little.
With only five days left till fight night, Ulli took some time out to talk with Georgia Fighters.
You’re 0-1 in MMA. On Friday, Feb 5 at Wild Bill’s you’re fighting Allen Little who is 2-0. Why take on an undefeated fighter? Why not fight a lesser guy to get a win under your belt?
I think Allen just fought on the Hiram card and won which takes him to 3-0, but in reality I’m not concerned with records cause I honestly believe that there is no such thing as a lesser fighter these days. Anybody who has the spirit and courage to accept the challenge to step into the very lonely place of a cage or ring regardless if he is 0-10 or 10-0 so he can continue to test himself, is what I respect more than anything.
The fact is the only way to put all the training you learn on a daily basis into a practical situation is to have the balls to get in there with anybody regardless of who they are.
Something I learned from my boxing coach Merhav Mohar was there are 2 types of fighters: those who are groomed to become champions and those who are journey men. He explained to me the Champion had his path carved out for him, and his record was a top priority to maintain in order to build him up to title contention or getting to the big show, but the journey man was the worst type of fighter to compete against, for a journey man knew he would never be a champion, more often than not he had tasted defeat, and he usually was the type of personality that was very hard to predict, because of this you never knew in what frame of mind that fighter was showing up day of the fight. This is a amateur fight that Allen and I are having so there is no money involved, so to answer your question, I just love being able to still compete in this sport. I really mean this as a humble person, but I’ll get in there and mix it up with anybody, the one thing I’m not scared of in this world is getting my butt kicked,I had plenty of those growing up in South Africa lol !
Tell us about your training. You train at a couple different gyms, don’t you?
Yes I’ve been blessed with two awesome adopted “families”. The first is my Jiu Jitsu family at Alliance under the guidance of Jacare, his wife Elaine and Cobrinha. Training at Alliance has changed my life in so many great ways inside the gym, but even more so it has allowed me to grow as a person in aspects outside of the gym that I never thought possible. I can honestly say I am a better person because Jiu Jitsu, and I have dedicated my life to it, for this I will be forever grateful and in debt to Jacare and everyone who trains at Alliance. It is such a close knit group that is very hard to put into words. Every single guy that trains there becomes like a brother to you, the
amount of knowledge and camaraderie that is shared everyday is like no place I have ever experienced in my life before. I feel blessed to be apart of the Alliance Jiu Jitsu Team and I am eternally grateful to be apart of it.
My second Family is all the guys at Knuckle Up Sandy Springs led by CJ Wilson and Paulina. Knuckle Up was a trail blazer in the early 2000’s and due to that rapid growth they stepped on a few toes and hurt some peoples feelings which caused it to eventually come crashing down in early 2009, mostly due to some business errors and a shaky economy. After the dust had settled and a few had moved on, CJ and Paulina with the help of a handful of amazing people had the balls, drive and commitment to pick up the pieces of what was left of the business and turn Knuckle Up from a corporate type monster into a family owned and run gym. These days this level of loyalty is so rare and I wish I had more time to tell you more of this story, but because of these people Knuckle Up has become such a warm and inviting environment opening there doors to absolutely anyone, they have managed to turn things around in less than a year and move in such a positive direction its a god send to me. This is where I train my MMA, strength and conditioning and it also is where 8 guys that I also refer to as my brothers, beat the crap out of me on a daily basis. They know who they are and I’m very thankful for everything they have done for me!!
What about jobs? Seems like you stay quite busy between teaching classes at Knuckle Up, working security at the Gold Room, working with GeorgiaFighters.com. Anything else you do?
Everyday I wake up in the USA, it is the best day of my life. I know this sounds corny but it is really how I feel! As a kid growing up I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up, I just knew that everyday I wanted to be doing something fun all day everyday, something I really enjoy. To understand this a little more of where I’m coming from, the one thing I will never understand is why most of the human race wakes up everyday to do something they hate and all they get in exchange for it is paper.
This concept is like Greek to me – swap most of my time for something I don’t enjoy doing and in return all I get is some green colored paper, that is just crazy to me! really! So coming back to your question, I have a really fun life everyday that this country has afforded me. It pretty much consists of like you said, I get to teach fitness kickboxing at Knuckle Up to some really cool people, I get to train Jiu Jitsu everyday with my family, I let my other family beat me up in the ring, and then I get to meet and talk to thousands of people almost every night working at a nightclub called the Gold Room, a restaurant called Bluepointe, and then just to top it off, I am a partner with two really cool guys named David and Jose in a dot com, and together with them we get the opportunity to bring all the happening Georgia fight news to the local fans through a site we own called GeorgiaFighters.com. I feel like I’m fulfilling that dream I had as a kid, in getting to do what I love to do every day of my life.
Oh yeah and on my downtime I really love going to Utah about 4 times a year to go snowboarding.
With both you and Allen Little being Atlanta residents, have you talked to anyone that trains with both of you guys to find out anything about him at all?
I know, train and am friends with his Jiu Jitsu coach, but out of respect for the coach -student relationship he and Allen have, I did not ask about Allen, although I do know he has some tough wrestling and he will be coming in great shape if he trains his stand up with Gary Brown and Phillipe Gentry.
You’re originally from South Africa. Tell us what brought you to America, how long you’ve lived here and where is your family at. Did you come to America alone? Why Atlanta?
I moved here when I was 22 years old with a backpack and a suitcase with my best friend Dean Carbis, to mainly get away from the crime and the poor job market back home at the time, that was 11 years ago already. His older brother and cousin were already here running an auction company and a restaurant so that’s how we landed in Atlanta.
My first job was washing dishes at night in the restaurant, washing cars and moving furniture in the day. I did that for a little more than a year and just worked my way up from there. It’s been an incredible journey that just keeps on getting better everyday. My whole family is still back home, but I now consider the U.S my home and will be a citizen in the next year which will be my biggest accomplishment in my life thus far.
I plan on applying to the Atlanta Police Dept once I become a US Citizen.
What edges do you think you’ll hold in this fight on Feb 5?
I got put through hell in my training camp getting ready for this, so all I can say on this matter is I really feel Allen and I are going to put on a great show for the crowd!
What’s your thoughts on fighting on the undercard of a Junie Browning fight?
No disrespect but I don’t care who else is fighting on this card, all I care about is the 15 minutes I’m in the ring with Allen, and all the people that helped get ready for this, and all the people who are coming out to support me !
Is he good for the sport? Bad? Do you think he’ll bring an all new crowd to Wild Bill’s on Friday, Feb 5 to watch him fight?
I don’t think he’s good for the sport, I’m sure he will bring a new crowd in because some people love drama for some reason, but besides hoping Aaron whoops his ass, I really haven’t given it much thought.
Once again I really would just like to say thank you. So many people have and are good to me and I really will bring my best to put on a good show for them come Friday, Feb 5 at Wild Bill’s Fight Night!
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