Edgar Garcia - This Wrestler Likes to Keep it Standing

By Thomas Gerbasi (UFC.com)

Money may have been tight around the Garcia family household, but at Christmas, one thing was always guaranteed for young Edgar Garcia and his three older brothers – a new pair of boxing gloves. And it was with these gloves that the future UFC welterweight prospect would learn an important lesson of the fight game - how to take a punch.

“Whenever we wanted to fight, we’d put on the gloves and we’d hit each other, but without hurting each other,” he recalls. “I’m the youngest one, so I would always get beat up by my older brothers and I think that’s what made me stronger.”

He pauses, then laughs.

“Now I can say that I can beat them up.”

He’s probably right. 7-0 as a pro, with five of those wins coming by knockout, Garcia has quickly made a name for himself as one of the top 170-pound hopefuls in the sport today, an opinion cemented by his debut in the WEC in January – a 78 second destruction of Hiromitsu Miura, who was coming off a four round war with WEC welterweight

champion Carlos Condit five months earlier. It was as spectacular an entrance as you’ll see, and the result really didn’t surprise the quietly confident Garcia.

“I knew once I hit him, I was gonna hurt him,” he said. “Now I know that I have heavy hands, so once I catch them, I’m gonna hurt ‘em, and they’re either gonna try to take me down or they’re gonna go down. So I kinda was expecting it the way it happened.”

If you saw the way Garcia dispatched Miura or any of his other opponents, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark if you described the native of San Luis Rio Colorado as a striking machine with a background in boxing. But despite the fact that boxing legend Julio Cesar Chavez

was a familiar figure on the living room television while he was growing up, Garcia wound up in the wrestling room at school in Arizona, and not the local boxing gym.

“There was never money for us to go train anywhere, so I did wrestling because it was free in school and that’s how I started,” he said.

In 2001, Garcia finished third in the Arizona State Championships

, and a year later, he won the title, as well as recognition as the State’s Outstanding Wrestler of the Year. And while he attended some college, it wasn’t until 2007 that he got the itch to compete again – this time in mixed martial arts, where he could finally add a little striking to his wrestling. Soon, it became a lot of striking.

“For us wrestlers, people think that we can’t learn boxing, so we want to prove to everybody that we can,” said Garcia. My boxing coach is surprised that I picked it up so quick, and us wrestlers can have some heavy hands.”

He’ll get few arguments to the contrary, especially not from his first pro opponent, Tony Kalani, who he stopped in 14 seconds in June of 2007.

“I was supposed to be the wrestler going up against a Muay Thai guy, and my coaches were telling me, ‘take it down and beat him up on the ground,’” he said. “But it’s a fight, and you’ve got to let your hands go. So I let my hands go, I caught him, and I put him in the corner and finished him off with the knockout.”

Since then, it may be safe to say that the 25-year old Garcia likes to keep it standing, but that doesn’t mean he’s neglecting the rest of his game, which is honed by coaches Chance Farrar, Terrell Hunsinger Jr. and Joey Castro at the Arizona Athletic Club in Yuma.

“Even if a guy can take me down, I can handle myself,” said Garcia. “I practice my jiu-jitsu every day, and it’s a relief knowing that you’re ready to go in any position.”

But there’s something about a good ol’ standup war, and that’s likely what Garcia will see when he steps into the Octagon for the first time this Saturday night against veteran Brad Blackburn.

“I gotta respect the guy,” said Garcia of his foe. “So far he’s 2-0 in the UFC and he was an IFL contender. He has quick hands, but honestly, I think he’s a little sloppy and I’m gonna try and capitalize on that. As a fighter I respect him, but as soon as the bell rings, I’m gonna try and take his head off.”

Sounds like someone is looking to grab a Knockout or Fight of The Night bonus. Well, that’s just what the fans like to hear, and what Garcia is promising to deliver.

“The UFC is as high as you can go, I made it, and now I’m excited to show my skills to the world,” he said. “The fans are gonna see an exciting fight, a lot of striking, and they’re not gonna get bored. I don’t put on boring fights, and when it’s over, they’re gonna say ‘this guy’s an exciting fighter and he comes to fight.’”