''I loaded a Gun with one 9MM round and told myself if I did not make it, I would put it in my mouth''

Catching up with the first UFC welterweight champion: Pat Miletich

Bettendorf, Iowa is known for a few things. The Quad Cities Convention Center, an NCIS actor, and Mixed Martial Artists. As of the 2010 census, there was 33,217 people living in Bettendorf. The sleepy city has sent 6 fighters to the UFC. None more notable than Pat Miletich. The first man to ever wear the UFC welterweight championship.

Miletich grew up in a basement. A basement with a leak. Every time it rained, Miletich stood in water. It rains a lot in Iowa. His Dad, no doubt tired from chasing 3 Miletich boys around, set his sons up in basement with the leak, when the Miletich boys started scuffling, shit broke, better to get the boys away from the guests. Good call. It was in that very basement, Miletich decided that he was going to one day be a champion in the UFC.

There is more than a few ways to get into professional fighting. For Pat Miletich, it was simple necessity. Miletich started wrestling at age 6, instead of pursuing Football after High School he wrestled at a Junior College. It was during his Junior College years that his Mother fell ill. Miletich, feeling the call to care for his ailing Mom, left school and worked 3 jobs. Pouring concrete and bouncing at 2 different bars, Miletich was involved in his fair share of barroom brawls. Including one, in the dead of winter where one patron, surely drunk, hit him with a brick in the side of the face. Miletich rolled with the brick shot, recovered and knocked the drunk patron out as cold as the Iowa winter.

During that time, Miletich found Ju-Jitsu . Eventually ending up at a Renzo Gracie seminar in Chicago. He competed locally. Winning 15 fights leading into his UFC debut where he beat Townsend Saunders and Chris Brennan. Eventually, Miletich became the first UFC welterweight champion. I asked him if he looks at the welterweights nowadays and stops to smell the roses of being the inaugural champion. Miletich scoffs at that. Saying ‘‘I am so busy nowadays, I never think about fighting unless I am commentating, only time I will think of it, is if someone messes with my family’’

Miletich is full of hilarious stories about bar fights and weight cutting, he is also brutally honest. When I asked him about his fight at UFC 17.5 (Yes 17.5) against Mikey Burnett in Brazil, he called it the ‘‘Worst fight of his career’’ He was in ‘‘Survival mode’’ ‘‘I needed to win that, to make the money’’ By far the most important fight of his career was against Shonie Carter in August 1999. Miletich had been so busy, making plans to build his new house (Paperwork was signed) He had not been entirely focused on cutting weight. He had gained 2 lbs the night before the fight (weigh ins were day of) He had to kill himself to make weight. Eventually cramping up so bad he had to be brought to the Hospital to get 3 bags of saline by an associate with a terrible Tourettes Syndrome affliction.

Militech won the fight by head kick. Good thing. The win bonus is what was going to pay for house that was already agreed upon to be built. Talk about cutting it close.

Eventually Militech retired from the sport. Winning his last fight against Thomas Denny in 2008. He focused on training young fighters. He did it well. He founded Militech Fighting Systems and trained the likes of Tim Sylvia, Matt Hughes and Robbie Lawler. Militech also founded Fire Horse Combatives, and he travels the country training both Military personnel and Law Enforcement officers on how to use their hands to get out of sticky situations.

Militech has also carved out quite the The television career. He commentated for Strikeforce before the sale, ESPN, and Showtime. Miletich commentated most recently for Legacy Fighting Alliance on AXS TV. Until he didn’t. Militech tells me he was unceremoniously let go by phone call after it was revealed on September 15 that AXS TV is ending the agreement with the regional promotion. Militech tells me has Fifteen dates left on his contract, and he will leave it up to the lawyers. Militech is taking the break in the action and his employment to take in some soccer games and hang with his 3 daughters. I did ask Miletich if maybe commentating for the UFC may be a possibility and if there was an open line of communication. The simple answer is no, citing he and Dana White’s relationship being a bit cold at this time.

Militech is also positively middle America. He loves his country, and is outspoken about it. He has visited troops in Afghanistan. Making the Fifteen hour flight to the Middle East in the flesh to see the troops deployed on the War On Terror. He also Hosts a podcast called the Conspiracy Farm. Co-Hosted by Jeffrey Wilson, Militech is frank and hilarious as ever talking about current events and the worlds conspiracies, the podcast is available on every major platform like Itunes and Spotify.

I asked Militech when his 3 daughters are older, what single event of his career is he going to tell them about first? He sighed. He said ‘‘ I will probably start by saying that I loaded a Gun with one 9mm bullet and told myself, if I don’t make it as a fighter, I will put it in my mouth’’

He loaded that Gun in his old basement in the house he grew up in. Probably in a puddle of water, with his ailing mother nearby, the financial situation worsening. Militech needed to make it. It was a do or die moment. We all have been there. I am either going to this, or I am literally going to die trying.

Militech made it. First welterweight champion. Beautiful daughters. No more fighting bars with bricks. No more weight cutting, and last but certainly not least, no more puddles.