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The past six months have been pretty big for Perryville jiu-jitsu instructor Chad Morrison.
In August, he was named Most Distinguished Man of the Year and inducted into the Universal Martial Arts Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Houston. On Saturday, he will be making his professional debut in the Fuji World Pro series, part of a 26-bout jiu-jitsu card at Matteson Square Garden in St. Peters.
"I'm looking forward to it," Morrison said. "I feel I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life."
That should be no surprise. A seasoned tournament competitor who has won several national and state titles and had a brief amateur career in mixed martial arts, Morrison, 43, said he's trained harder — and longer — for this match than any previous one.
"Three months, since early November," Morrison said, "which is longer than any other camp I've ever done. Usually when I train for a fight, it's six weeks max. I wanted to make sure my diet was on point. I wanted to make sure I cut out a lot of negative eating and stuff I was doing. I didn't really realize it, but I picked the worst time of the year, actually, to start a camp, through the holidays. All the good stuff my mom usually cooks me around Christmas, I had to skip all that and stay devoted to the to the course."
In addition to watching his diet, Morrison, who owns Perryville Jiu Jitsu and Sparta Jiu Jitsu, has also spent considerable time training, both in the weight room and on the mat.
"I'm training five days a week between Sparta and Perryville," said Morrison, who now holds a brown belt under Professor Rey Diogo and the Carlson Gracie team. "I'm rolling a lot more — I still teach, but I get in there with the class and take part a lot more than if I was just teaching. I've been doing a bit of cross training, going to other gyms, places that have a bunch of heavyweights and training with those guys, bringing guys into my gym. It's a lot different than the norm."
Part of the reason for all the hard work, Morrison said, is that the Fuji World Pro series is serious business.
“This is actually a pro show,” Morrison said. “They pick the elite. They usually only do top-name guys in the area. Some of them come from out of the area. Each person has their own specific style, brand, stuff like that, that they want to kind of showcase.”
Morrison said he had applied to participate in previous events, but wasn't selected. This time around, they called him. Morrison said his recent hall of fame induction gave him a boost in name recognition.
"I definitely think the Hall of Fame helped with it," Morrison said. "I think a lot of people maybe see me as just a good coach and a good competitor, but I didn't really have the recognition or the pedigree like some of these bigger guys who've been in the UFC or fought in Strike Force or whatever. That's kind of how they built their gyms, you know, and I didn't really have that that catapult."
After accepting the bout, Morrison was given the opportunity to choose his own opponent. He chose Neal Lewis, another 43-year-old heavyweight brown belt from a much larger academy. On paper, Morrison, 6-6, 230 pounds, has the advantage in reach over Lewis, who checks in at 5-9 and closer to 300 pounds. Morrison is out to prove that's not his only advantage.
"He's got every option available to him," Morrison said. "We're kind of limited in our area because it's still new to the area. My goal is to prove that you don't have to come from a big, huge academy to have really effective jiu-jitsu. So I'm going in to prove a point. I'm not going in there for the exercise or the money or whatever is coming with it. I just want to go out there and beat this guy."
Tickets for the event are available online at
CageTix.com, where spectators are asked to pick their favorite fighter before selecting their tickets. General admission tickets are $50 and front-row seats are $100. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Saturday and matches are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
"They've got to pick me as their favorite fighter," Morrison said, laughing, "or I will find them and choke them."
Those unable to attend will be able to watch the action online via live-stream through
BJJFanatics.com.
