October 17, 2007
ULTIMATE REALITY
TWO MINNESOTANS WITH A PASSION FOR MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING EARNED ROLES IN THE WILDLY POPULAR REALITY TV SERIES "THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER." ONE OF THEM, PAUL GEORGIEFF OF ST. PAUL, WILL BE FEATURED ON TONIGHT'S EPISODE.
Author: BRIAN MURPHY
Article Text:
Paul Georgieff and Tommy Speer grew up 80 miles apart in Minnesota and traveled separate paths into their respective real worlds, the former an engineering scholar from St. Paul, the latter a dairy farmer near Rochester.
Yet they share a passion for mixed martial arts fighting and were shrewd enough to market their unconventional tough guy traits last summer to score roles on Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show in Las Vegas.
Episode 5 airs at 9 tonight with Georgieff featured in a bout that could move him closer to a coveted career on the burgeoning Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit.
The show was taped over six weeks in June and July. All 16 participants signed confidentiality agreements with the cable network and UFC binding them to secrecy until their episodes are broadcast.
Speer's fight is scheduled to air Nov. 7. Both fight in the 170-pound class, but neither fighter has revealed his fate in the competition despite cagey cross-examination from family and friends digging for a scoop.
"There's a lot of poker playing going on," Speer said about the relentless bluffing for information.
The finalists are scheduled to fight Dec. 8 at the Palms Resort and Casino in a bout to be televised live on Spike. On the line is a six-figure contract with UFC, the premier combat fighting league and marketing juggernaut that is the dominant sport to watch among men under-50.
Months after leaving the blast furnace climate of Vegas in summer and the suffocating hothouse of cameras, boom microphones and testosterone, Georgieff and Speer are neck deep in their previous lives, waiting to share with the world what they already experienced.
Georgieff, 24, is in Madison, Wis., completing his structural engineering graduate degree at the University of Wisconsin, with aspirations to design bridges. Speer is back to milking hundreds of cows twice a day, relishing the time with family and small-town lifestyle he left behind.
Both train constantly and plan to continue fighting, though everything is on hold -- at least publicly -- until the show completes its run.
In the tease to tonight's episode, Georgieff is shown receiving bad news in a telephone call from home.
"I'll be glad when the episode airs and I can talk about it. It'll be a load off my chest," was all Georgieff allowed during an interview last week.
The oldest child of physicians Michael and Dawn Georgieff, Paul was a three-sport athlete at St. Paul Academy, and he trained in and studied judo for a senior project. Attending the University of Vermont, he discovered Brazilian jujitsu before graduating with a degree in mathematics.
Hooked on combat fighting, Georgieff returned to Minnesota in 2005 and started competing for Team Bison, a Bloomington martial arts club, before embarking on his career in ultimate fighting.
"There's really no other competition like it. What better way to test your physical abilities than trying to defend yourself against strikes while executing grappling?" said Georgieff, who has won seven of his eight MMA fights at local venues.
He echoed the mantra of thousands of most mixed martial arts fighters, who combine the disciplines of kickboxing, wrestling, judo and jujitsu.
Now in its sixth season, "The Ultimate Fighter" series is fueling the supersonic rocket that is MMA fighting in the United States. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, which dominates the airwaves with its monthly pay-per-view fights, produces the ratings cow under its blue-chip brand.
How hardwired into male culture is the show? Consider the ratings from its June 23 fifth-season finale, watched by an estimated 2.6 million people, according to the UFC.
Among men ages 18 to 49, advertising's golden goose demographic, the episode outdrew Fox's baseball coverage of the New York Yankees against Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants, NASCAR on ESPN2 and a boxing match on HBO.
That is merely the reality show.
Fans turned off by the corruption and dwindling star power of boxing and scripted soap opera story lines of bloated big-time wrestling are flocking to UFC broadcasts like frat boys to a keg.
Ratings for Spike's Sept. 8 fight card in London drew more men 18 to 49 than all college football and NASCAR broadcasts that day.
Far from being part of a Nielsen family, Speer grew up on his third-generation dairy and corn farm in tiny Elgin, population 850.
The former all-state cornerback and wrestler for Elgin-Millville High School attended a mixed martial arts show in Rochester three years ago, was captivated by the show and determined he could win in the Octagon with his wrestling skills alone.
So he watched fighting videos to get the basics down, worked out with other wrestlers and landed on a local card. Speer, 22, won his first bout by getting his opponent to verbally submit and then started training with jujitsu expert Mario Roberto in Rochester.
In his videotaped pitch to "The Ultimate Fighter" producers, Speer demonstrated how to milk a cow and offered a tongue-in-cheek assessment of life on a farm. The tactic worked, and by the middle of growing season, Speer was off to the desert with bags packed with guilt.
"The night before I left, I just wasn't into it. Summertime wasn't a bad time to be gone; you milk cows all year 'round. But there's a lot of work," he said. "It's just my dad, brother and grandpa. We don't hire any help."
With her son leaving home for the first time, Sirena Speer shed buckets of tears but was not about to deny him.
"Six weeks is hell for a mother not to be able to talk to her son, but it was the opportunity of a lifetime," she said.
Before the reality show, the UFC couldn't strike a television deal with cable networks queasy about the sport's barbaric reputation, even after it secured sanctioning in Nevada and New Jersey in 2001.
The UFC eventually found a willing partner in Spike, an MTV subsidiary with programming tailored for males, and "The Ultimate Fighter" debuted in January 2005.
"It was our Trojan horse," UFC President Dana White said.
The show has a basic premise. Divide 16 up-and-coming fighters into two teams for six weeks of training and fighting, house them together in boot camp conditions and videotape everything.
The debut season introduced the sport's biggest stars, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, who coached each team. The show was an instant smash hit with fans receiving a behind-the-curtain look at the lifestyle of combat fighters.
More than 20 fighters who appeared on the show have earned fight contracts with the UFC, none more celebrated than Matt Serra.
Serra won his weight class in Season 4 and earned a welterweight title fight against defending champion Georges St. Pierre in April. A martial arts instructor from Long Island, N.Y., Serra made history by knocking out St. Pierre to become the first "Ultimate Fighter" alumnus to win a championship belt.
Serra is coaching this season against former welterweight champ Matt Hughes. Adding another layer of tension to the show, the two Matts barely conceal their disdain for one another and are scheduled to fight after the series finale.
Mixed martial arts fans easily were drawn to the show while fans of reality television attracted to the drama became crash students of MMA, White said.
"All the misconceptions were crushed. People realized, wow, these guys are athletic. They train hard. They're smart. We were able to showcase what a MMA fighter is.
"And the show's edgy, hip and cool, too."
Georgieff applied for the show to improve his technique and determine whether a professional fighting career was sensible. In a sport that celebrates brawn, he relied on his brains to earn a role and played up his academic credentials.
"I figured I'd have to stick with one typecast in order to stand out amongst all these other applicants, to show them a person who was not the 'meat head fighter,' " he said.
Georgieff and Speer are fighting for Te am Hughes. Each said the nonstop training regimen was brutal, preventing them from cruising Sin City's clubs and casinos, while living conditions were hardly ideal without any form of entertainment.
However, neither suffered the loneliness or cabin fever that made life miserable for other cast members.
"Anybody who knows me knows I'm a mentally sound guy. I just went one day at a time," Speer said. "It sucked, but it was not that bad. You just don't get to do everything you want. There are a lot of worse places in the world.
"Like Iraq."
"FARMBOY" TOMMY SPEER
Age: 22 MMA record: 9-1-0 Hometown: Elgin, Minn.
Trains in: Elgin
Skinny: Works full time on his family's corn and dairy farm. ... Made professional fight debut in 2005 after training with Mario Roberto Jujitsu in Rochester. ... All-state cornerback, four-year varsity basketball player and nationally ranked wrestler at Elgin-Millville High School. ... Attended Rochester Community and Technical College.
PAUL GEORGIEFF
Age: 24 MMA record: 7-1-0 Hometown: St. Paul
Trains in: Madison, Wis.
Skinny: Pursuing master's degree in structural engineering from University of Wisconsin. ... Started fighting in 2002 after training in judo and Brazilian jujitsu while attending the University of Vermont. ... Lettered in Alpine skiing, tennis and football at St. Paul Academy before graduating in 2001.
Brian Murphy can be reached at
brianmurphy@pioneerpress.com.
