BREWER, Maine — The chance to fight close to home has prompted Lincolnville native Tim “The Barbarian” Boetsch to compete as a light heavyweight for the first time in five years in his next mixed martial arts bout.
The 34-year-old UFC veteran, a middleweight since 2011, will move up to the 205-pound limit to battle Ed “Short Fuse” Herman of Fort Collins, Colorado, on the main card of UFC Fight Night 81 on Jan. 17, 2016, at the TD Garden in Boston.
“I saw they had announced a fight card in Boston, so I called my manager to see if there was any way to get on the card and fight close to home again,” said Boetsch, whose only previous UFC bout in New England was his victory over Brad Tavares in Bangor on Aug. 16, 2014.
“My manager called back and said there’s a fight but it’s at 205 against Ed Herman, who’s another middleweight who doesn’t want to cut weight anymore. Everything just made sense so I said, ‘Sign me up.’”
Boetsch’s last 11 fights have been in the 185-pound middleweight division where he rose to a top-five UFC ranking after a come-from-behind stoppage of Yushin Okami in Japan in early 2012.
The former four-time wrestling state champion from Camden-Rockport High School believes the speed and quickness he developed during those experiences and his work with current trainer Marcus Davis at Team Irish MMA Fitness Academy in Brewer will boost his return to light heavyweight.
“Marcus talks about being a machine gun rather than a single-shot shotgun,” Boetsch said. “I’m training to push hard for 15 minutes, to throw punches, get takedowns and go after submissions the whole time. I don’t feel like I really achieved that as a light heavyweight before because I never pushed myself as hard as I needed to. Certainly that has changed. I’m confident I can go hard the whole fight now, and that will make the difference with me.”
Boetsch (18-9) will attempt to end a two-match slide in 2015 after falling via second-round submission to Thales Leites in January — though he did earn a $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus — and by a first-round knockout by Dan Henderson in a main-event bout in New Orleans in June.
Boetsch spent the summer with his family in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, working at his landscaping business, staying in shape, waiting for his next fight and reflecting on his stunning 28-second loss to the legendary Henderson.
“I’ve tried to replay it a million times in my head, but for whatever reason I never saw the punch,” he said. “I never saw it coming. I trained to slip out of the way of that right hand. Everybody and his brother knows that’s what he throws and I was looking for it, trust me, but it found it’s way through and I paid the price.”
Boetsch’s most recent bouts typically have been more slugfests than scientific battles, and he expects nothing different from Herman (23-11, 1 NC).
“He’s pretty proficient at everything he needs to be to be effective as a fighter, and he’s one of those guys who doesn’t mind standing in there and throwing down and putting on a show on for everybody,” Boetsch said.
“If that happens, I’m not going to say I’ll be feeling sorry for him because I won’t, but I’ll be happy to be in that exchange with him.”
Boetsch plans to return to middleweight after fighting Herman, and hopes his Boston debut will be the springboard for a successful 2016.
