Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts News calls Pequot Lakes High School graduate Marc "The Pummel" Hummel a "brave soul" for agreeing to fight Logan Storley at Resurrection Fighting Alliance 32 Friday, Nov. 6, at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake.
According to the website, several potential opponents backed out against Storley. Apparently they were intimidated by his credentials. Storley was a four-time All-American wrestler at the University of Minnesota, finishing sixth, fourth, third and fourth at the NCAA Championships. He finished his Division I wrestling career with a 119-27 record.
Storley recently made his pro debut in his home state of South Dakota, defeating Bill Mees by TKO at RFA 29 in August. Hummel, who enters the bout with a 7-7 amateur record, believes he has nothing to lose in his pro debut at 170 pounds.
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Marc Hummel
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Age: 26
High school: Pequot Lakes graduate 2007
College: Central Lakes College graduate 2015, currently taking online classes from College of St. Scholastica in Duluth
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"(RFA was) honest - it's all odds are against you," Hummel said, "but that's the kind of action that makes me feel dangerous when the odds are against me and no one expects me to win. I kind of like being the underdog. It's a feeling I haven't really had that much before. I had it in teams sports, but not so much like this when I can come in and experiment.
"He's new to MMA, but I can game plan for his wrestling. As far as him game planning for me, I like having that unpredictability. I've been doing this a while. I have videos out there of my amateur fights, but it's completely different now that I've started training with (MMA veterans) Brock Larson and Rob Nelson (of Brainerd and Crosslake) a lot more as well as getting much stricter with my diet."
Hummel said Storley attended the same high school as former Gopher and NCAA wrestling champion Brock Lesnar, who went on to win multiple MMA titles. Hummel said the story line is Storley and Lesnar have similar credentials except for the NCAA and MMA titles.
"There's all this national hype that he never got his national championship in wrestling so now he's going for a UFC run," Hummel said. "He's very early on in his career. He's 1-0, he finished the (first) guy pretty easily. We know he will be strong, we know he will be tough, we're just going to make it our best effort."
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The Hummel/Storley bout could be part of a live national broadcast on AXS TV and will be replayed later that night on Fight Network. They're currently scheduled as the swing bout on a 12-bout card.
"If (the rest of the fights are) going too quick, then they're going to get our fight on," Hummel said. "If the fights are going long and they're really good matchups going into the second and third rounds, then they might end up pushing us to the very last fight. That's what a swing bout is. It all depends on how the other fights are going.
"It makes it tough on us because we're trying to prepare in the back. You don't know exactly when you're going to fight. There can be a good half-hour to 40-minute difference."
Hummel, who wrestled one season in high school, was introduced to jiu jitsu by Nelson, owner of Ultimate Martial Arts in Baxter. Hummel's first amateur fight was in 2011.
"I think I took a lot of fights I shouldn't have early on maybe," he said. "I was just kind of ambitious. I wasn't training correctly for those so most of those losses were from quite a while ago.
"I've been training more correctly now and pretty consistently coming up on two years. I train three days a week here and as much as I can in St. Cloud."
Hummel, who lettered in five sports at Pequot Lakes, trains at UMA and Performance Compound in St. Cloud. He graduated from Central Lakes College last spring. He played one year of football for the CLC Raiders and one year for the semi-pro Brainerd Lumberjacks.
Currently he's taking online classes through the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth. In addition, he teaches classes at UMA four nights a week and has worked as a server at area restaurants.
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"I do that to pay the bills because fighting is definitely not a game to get rich in," he said. "You've got to do something outside of (fighting). It's nice to have a (fighting) career, but then like my dad says you have to have that education. (An education is) not necessarily a backup plan - it needs to be a necessity. (Fighting is) not something you can rely on doing full-time forever."
MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5861. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bertsballpark .
