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By Alistair Hendrie

At long last, things are looking up for domestic wrestling. Great Britain suffered a calamity at London 2012 when their only representative – Olga Butkevych, born in Ukraine – was eliminated in her opening bout. It led UK Sport to stop all funding for wrestling. But England’s team at this summer’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games, bankrolled by Sport England, injected renewed hope by coming home with five medals – one more than their tally from Delhi in 2010.

Wigan featherweight Mike Grundy played his part by defeating David Galea, the Maltese, for a bronze medal. “I was really chuffed,” says the Team Kaobon wrestling coach, speaking ahead of his professional mixed martial arts debut on Saturday against Anthony Phillips at BAMMA 16. “I was happy to finish with a bronze so it’s all good. I was gutted to lose in the semis so I wasn’t going to go home without a medal. My high crotch throws are a big part of my wrestling game so I used that against Galea. I finished it quickly and got a lot of support from the fans, which was great.”

With plenty of English starlets coming through – Leon Rattigan won Commonwealth bronze at 97kg, while Chinu took bronze in the 125kg class – the feel good factor is rubbing off on Grundy. “At Wigan and Leigh Wrestling Club we have about 60 kids at each class,” he says. “Some rugby and football clubs across the country don’t get that many. Now that wrestling is becoming more popular, we’ve expanded to four or five qualified coaches taking sessions, and we’ve also got a Team Kaobon room upstairs so youngsters can try jiu-jitsu and MMA.”

Clearly, Mike has a passion for his craft. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find a love of wrestling woven into his roots. His father, David, teaches the sport all over Wigan. His sister, Sarah, competed at the Commonwealth Games, losing her 58kg bronze medal match to Tayla Ford of New Zealand. Grundy reckons: “It was the best I’ve ever seen Sarah perform.”

He adds: “Everyone in our family has wrestled or done some form of martial art. My dad wrestled at a moderate level – he is more of a coach nowadays, but he probably provided part of my inspiration for wrestling. I was very shy as a kid. A lot of my friends wrestled so I got into it through them. It built me up a lot, built up my self-esteem and confidence a bit. I became confident in my wrestling and after a while the coaches were telling me I was a natural.”

So much so that an old friend, Shane Rigby, initially invited Grundy to Team Kaobon to sharpen the wrestling game of Terry Etim – then a force in the UFC lightweight division. It paid off soon after, when Etim submitted Edward Faaloloto at UFC 138 in November 2011, jumping up with agility to sink in the guillotine choke.

Indeed, after training and sparring week in, week out, with Etim, Paul Sass and Andy Ogle, it wasn’t long before Grundy was giving mixed martial arts a go himself. “I started trying a few submissions and jiu-jitsu moves and the coaches over there liked what they saw,” he recalls. “Ground elements and grappling are not dissimilar to what I do in wrestling, so I picked that up really quickly. I did find it hard to adapt a taller stance though, because in wrestling you’re taught to stay very low. It was tough at first – I used to forget to keep my guard up – but I’ve got a great coach in Colin Heron who understands that I’m a wrestler by nature. It’s just a case of adding the striking techniques.”

While the Wigan man is not one to rest on his laurels, he tore through his amateur opposition, showing slick ground skills, a formidable body triangle, and hammer fists that would end the efforts of many British featherweights. Just don’t expect him to get carried away. “It’s more what I learn in the gym,” he deadpans. “Training with guys from the UFC at my own weight, I get better every day – that’s where I get my experience. For me, being around this kind of talent is good because the UFC is where I want to be. I haven’t had much cage time because I think only one of my amateur fights went the distance, but I’m always improving.” 

For the future, the 27-year-old has a basis to build on with BAMMA. Saturday’s card, headlined by Paul Daley against Marinho Moreira da Rocha at welterweight, will be televised live across Britain and eastern Europe, while the promotion has shown its ambition with five shows in the second half of 2014. Regardless, Grundy is being realistic when he states: “I could probably make more money from coaching – fighting can be very difficult to make a career from but I’ve got a lot of sponsors who help me out with petrol and other expenses.”

And what about Saturday’s event? “I don’t want to think too much about what Phillips will do on the night because I prefer to focus on what I’m going to do,” says Grundy. “I’ve heard he’s a ground guy but I don’t know much about him – I’m confident anyway. I turned professional because I want to get to the top and it’s an honour and a privilege to make my debut on such a big show.” Grundy has already achieved a lot in wrestling, so let’s see if he can do the same in mixed martial arts. Time will tell.