Training Style

“I start with cardio. I do wind sprints followed by stadium circuits or I run in the mountains. I do a three-mile run. I run a 7minute mile, which is a lot to ask at 240 pounds. I go to the local gym (Pop’s House Of Pain) to work on my hands, spar, and wrestle. I also train in submissions with John Lober in Huntington Beach.”

UFC History

Lost in UFC 28

More Information

“My background is in Greco-Roman wrestling. I’ve wrestled since the age of 12. My dad was firm on me being an athlete when I was a kid. I grew up in Huntington Beach, running around with a surfer crowd. My dad wasn’t hot on that because a lot of the surfers smoked dope and stuff. My dad was a lot more proud of me when I was surrounding myself with athletes. I fell in love with wrestling. I wrestled until 1998, until I became a professional fighter. Tito Ortiz and I were good friends since elementary school. I saw him at a free-style wrestling tournament he was attending and he told me that he could get me into this stuff. He said that there was this MMA cage match in a week and asked if I wanted to do it. I said yeah. I went to it and knocked out my opponent. I met John Lober that weekend and ever since I’ve been with John Lober. I got into Jiu-Jitsu just so I could compete in mixed martial arts, so I could overcome the submission attempts. It allows me to strike people and win fights that way. I like to strike.”

Aaron recently had a son and he says it motivates him to train harder. “I just got an IFC title. I want to get as many titles as I can so that my son will be really proud of his dad. He will be able to show all of his friends my fight videos. It motivates me that much more.” Aaron says he is deceptively strong. “I bench 500 pounds at 240. I don’t look like a body builder. If you looked at me you wouldn’t think I was very strong.” Aaron trained as a boxer for a while. “I boxed for a few years but I was just a power guy. I never got too much into the jumping rope aspect of it. I was just bang. I always had powerful hands. I boxed competitively in 1991 but I didn’t really like it too much. It just didn’t work out and I became a mixed martial artist.” Aaron overcame a broken back suffered in a motorcycle accident in 1999 and continued his MMA career.