Tim Boetsch began his Ultimate Fighting Championship career in rather abrupt fashion.
His first-round technical knockout of David Heath at UFC 81 in Las Vegas, on Feb. 2, 2008, came on only 10 days notice.
“I think the short-notice part helped,” recalled Boetsch, a Lincolnville native, “because it didn’t give me time to think about it too much and get nervous. I just showed up, went and fought and it turned out pretty good.”
That debut has led to a long-range career in the world’s top mixed martial arts promotion for the former All-American wrestler from Camden-Rockport High School in Rockport.
Boetsch will fight for the 23rd time over more than 10 years under the UFC banner Saturday night when he faces Brazilian Antonio Carlos Junior in a three-round middleweight bout as part of the UFC on FOX 29 card to be held at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
The bout is the featured attraction of the show’s preliminary card and is scheduled to begin at approximately 7:30 p.m. on FOX-TV.
“I didn’t really think about it in the beginning, but now as I look back on the career 10 years in the UFC is a pretty big landmark, I would say,” said Boetsch, who turned 37 in January. “I don’t think many people pull that one off but I’m definitely feeling good so I’m going to keep plugging along as long as I can.”
Boetsch is among the older fighters in UFC, according to survey done by Michael Hutchinson of thebloodyelbow.com, the average age of a ranked UFC fighter was 31.
That study revealed that the four heaviest weight classes in the UFC are also the oldest, led by Boetsch’s middleweight division where fighters average 34.8 years old.
Four of the top 15 fighters in the latest UFC middleweight rankings are older than Boetsch, including top-rated challenger Yoel Romero (40) and No. 2 Jacare Souza (38).
In addition, sixth-ranked Michael Bisping, the UFC middleweight champion until last November, is 39, while No. 9 Vitor Belfort is 41.
David Lockett, senior director of public relations for the UFC, said the promotion has not done a study of fighters’ ages but acknowledged Boetsch’s senescent status within the sport.
“There are several fighters who are older than Tim, but he is older than average, for sure,” he said.
Boetsch, who made his professional MMA debut in 2006, did spend late 2009 and early 2010 out of the UFC after getting off to a 2-2 start with the promotion. He returned for good in August 2010 with a unanimous decision victory over Todd Brown at UFC 117.
Ever since, he’s been one of the sport’s more durable combatants. He emerged as a middleight (185-pound) contender and is thriving as a heavy-handed veteran who has turned the physical threat of advancing age into a cerebral asset that has helped him win three of four fights during the last two years.
“I think, honestly, my maturity level is coming into these fights,” he said. “I don’t want to say I’m comfortable in there, but just knowing what to look for and having all that experience is starting to pay off.
“Typically if you get surprised by something in the fight game it’s not good, but I haven’t been surprised in quite a while.”
Boetsch, who lives with his family in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and trains in North Carolina with former Bangor-based MMA and boxing contender Marcus Davis, said the benefits of that experience are not used just on fight nights.
“Understanding how to train smarter and not beating myself up in training as much as I used to has been big for me,” he said. “I feel like I’m just doing things right now and it’s been showing in the fights.”
Boetsch (21-11 overall, 12-10 UFC) rose to prominence in the UFC with his come-from-behind third-round TKO of Yushin Okami in Saitama, Japan, in February 2012.
The fight was Boetsch’s third after dropping from light heavyweight to middleweight, and he lost the first two rounds to the third-ranked Okami before rallying with a fight-ending fistic flurry.
“That was a career-defining fight for me,” said Boetsch, who moved into the UFC middleweight rankings after that victory and at one point was rated as high as fifth in one of the promotion’s deepest divisions. “I was still in the mindset of fighting like I did as a light heavyweight and was conserving energy during the fight and taking a bit of a beating.
“I had a self-realization sitting there that I could go out there and push myself hard because I was feeling good and heavy handed and I went out and knocked him out,” he added.
Boetsch’s other highlight fight during his first decade of UFC competition was a homecoming contest in August 2014 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. The show was brought to the Queen City by UFC president and 1987 Hermon High School graduate Dana White.
Boetsch got off to another slow start but scored a second-round technical knockout victory to thrill the partisan crowd and earn a $50,000 performance of the night bonus.
“That was the first fight Marcus and I started working together again,” he said. “Everything started clicking and the rest has been history.
“We’ve had a pretty good run and put on a bunch of good shows and fights since then, and it’s strange to say but it’s 10 years later and the mind is sharp, physically I’m still holding up real well, and luckily I haven’t sustained any major injuries in my fight career, which not a lot of guys can say.”
Boetsch’s upcoming fight might be the first bout where he serves as the standard for a younger fighter trying to break into the middleweight elite.
The 28-year-old Carlos Junior (10-2 overall, 6-2 UFC) has won his last four fights, three by rear-naked choke submissions. He will try to take Boetsch to the ground where he can capitalize on his grappling skills.
Boetsch hopes to make this a stand-up striking contest using both fists as well as his feet. Kicks proved decisive in his most recent fight, a second-round TKO victory over former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, last June 25.
“I think this is [Junior’s] first real step up in competition,” said Boetsch. “I’ve obviously fought the highest-level fighters in the sport and he’s a guy who got into the UFC through the TUF show in Brazil. He’s had some relatively tough fights but I wouldn’t say he’s had any high-, high-level competition.”
The nearly 10 months since Boetsch’s win over Hendricks, which earned “The Barbarian” another $50,000 performance of the night bonus, marks the longest hiatus between bouts in his pro career.
“I actually had a few fight offers and agreed to them earlier on but for whatever reason the powers that be made other decisions,” he said. “I got called up on this one and was more than happy to take it.
“I’ve got a good feeling about this, I think I’ll have a good night in Glendale.”
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