1 - American Zealot

Pat Miletich
is a willing
“demonstration
victim” during
the training
sessions he
provides for
uniformed
professionals.
C
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BY
RICK STEWART
ertain events in life can define the
course of things to follow—they can
pave the way, slam the door, or
help an individual determine if they
possess the right stuff to continue
down a particular career path.
Patrick Jay Miletich was the first Ultimate Fighting
Championship welterweight champion. He has
personally trained almost a dozen world champions
in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), including
some of the biggest names to ever come out of the
UFC, such as Matt Hughes, Tim Sylvia, Jens Pulver and
Robbie Lawler. When that day of reckoning came for
Miletich, let’s just say he didn’t blink.
Before his UFC career, Miletich entered his very first
mixed martial arts tournament in Chicago. It was a
“winner take all” event titled “The Battle of the Masters,”
which Miletich recalls as “an eight-man entry event with
no rules and no time limits.” Biting and eye-gouging
weren’t allowed, but beyond that competitors could do
whatever it took to win.
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Miletich advocates grappling to the point of exhaustion,
saying extreme fatigue is a starting point for preparing
students for real-world fighting conditions.
The tournament had no weight classes, and
Miletich was the smallest competitor. The first
guy he faced was Yasunori Matsumoto, a three-time bare-knuckle champion.
“Completely unassuming,” Miletich said, “this Japanese fighter was very
stout, had extremely strong hips and powerful kicks.”
With utmost respect for his opponent’s fighting skills and wanting to avoid
his feet at all cost, Miletich shot in quickly to get him to the mat, where he
felt he would have the advantage.
“I got him on his back,” Miletich recalled, “proceeded to put him in an arm
bar and began torqueing on the guy’s arm to get him to submit. The hold is
painful, and I fully expected the guy to tap out any minute. When he didn’t,
I torqued harder and harder until I began to hear the tendons in the guy’s
elbow begin to snap like guitar strings, yet he still would not submit.”
Miletich continued to apply pressure until he dislocated his opponent’s
“I TORQUED HARDER AND HARDER UNTIL
I BEGAN TO HEAR THE TENDONS IN
THE GUY’S ELBOW BEGIN TO SNAP
LIKE GUITAR STRINGS, YET HE STILL
WOULD NOT SUBMIT.”
elbow, basically breaking the arm in half.
“To my amazement,” he said, “the guy used the dislocation to break free of
the arm bar and get to his feet, where he proceeded to get me in a headlock
and choke me with the arm I had just snapped in half. I finally escaped his
hold and was able to get my own hold on him and choked him out.”
Miletich went on to win the fight and the tournament, setting into motion a
course for the successful career that followed.
The son of Croatian parents who immigrated to the United States with their
parents, Miletich was the last—and the smallest—of five brothers.
Born in 1968 in Bettendorf, Iowa, a blue-collar town along the Mississippi
River east of Davenport, Miletich says about the only thing he couldn’t
accomplish with hard work and determination growing up was growing itself.
“In a roundabout way,” he says, “if I were completely honest with myself,
never reaching the physical stature of my older brothers probably ended up
being a good thing—that and being a punching bag for them along the way.”
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DURING “UFC BRAZIL,” MILETICH
BECAME THE FIRST UFC
LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPION,
DEFEATING MIKEY BURNETT.
Yet whatever Miletich lacked in stature, he more than made up for in heart.
“Being undersized as an athlete,” he said, “does not mean you have to be
or act like the underdog.”
An All-State football player who played far larger than he really was,
Miletich was also an All-State wrestler and a formidable presence on any mat.
Inspired by his uncle Johnny “Miller” Miletich, a boxer who competed in the
1932 Olympics, Pat Miletich gravitated to the gym and boxing at an early age,
and then learned martial arts in various styles.
Undefeated in Muay Thai kickboxing and professional boxing, Miletich
began to draw a lot of attention. The Marine Corps came calling with an
offer for Pat to wrestle for them, and he nearly accepted. Yet he was holding
on to his dream of playing college football for his father, who was offensive
coordinator for St. Ambrose University. When Pat was 18 years old, however,
his father died of cancer, and plans changed quickly.
A scrappy wrestler and tough-as-nails street fighter, Miletich felt unfulfilled
by the stand-up jab, and roundhouse blows of the typical boxing match.
Undefeated in the ring, he still felt like he wasn’t performing to the best of his
abilities. Miletich could see the advantages of blending his boxing skills with
his wrestling, and his wrestling with his martial
arts training.
At home on the
Miletich wasn’t exactly sure what he was
mat, Miletich has
looking
for. Then along came the Ultimate Fighting
everyone’s attention
Championship, and he knew he had found his
as he interjects timely
true calling.
clarification into
He made his official UFC debut at UFC
training. His students
16,
winning the very first UFC Lightweight
soon understand that
Tournament. During “UFC Brazil,” Miletich became
the skills they learn in
the first UFC lightweight champion, defeating
this training session
could someday save
Mikey Burnett. In 2001, the UFC changed weight
their lives.
class limits, making Pat Miletich the welterweight
division champion.
Now, when he’s not providing commentary for
Showtime, you can find Miletich in various gyms and training rooms across
the country providing critical “working” knowledge and combative concepts to
uniformed warriors who need these skills to ply their trade.
NRA American Warrior magazine recently caught up with Miletich in a little
town just outside of Youngstown, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border. There
with his business partner Don Roberts, Miletich was providing instruction
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to law enforcement officers, teaching them skills
that could save their lives one day during a violent
exchange, hostile fight or wrestling encounter with a
noncompliant suspect or dangerous felon.
Many military and law enforcement organizations
seek the training expertise he offers for their
agencies and units, hoping to provide their people
with a tactical advantage over enemy combatants or
aggressors they encounter on the street. But while
Miletich has become well known for his success
in the ring and for the Miletich Fighting System he
developed for training other competitive fighters,
he is not without detractors concerning the training
program he operates for those in uniform.
His critics range from traditional law enforcement
training entities that compete for the same training
dollars to administrators or those in leadership still
entrenched in old-school tactics, and media/legal
driven law enforcement agencies who live in fear of
lawsuits and political backlash. Some hold to the
CRITICS RANGE FROM TRADITIONAL
LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING
ENTITIES THAT COMPETE FOR
THE SAME TRAINING DOLLARS TO
ADMINISTRATORS OR THOSE IN
LEADERSHIP STILL ENTRENCHED
IN OLD-SCHOOL TACTICS ...
Miletich has an engaging
personality. His smile is
infectious, as is the intensity
he brings to training.
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As the old saying
goes: No pain, no gain.
Students don’t just
see and hear tactics
offered by Miletich
and company; they
experience them
as well.
Fire Horse
Combatives
partner/
instructor
Don Roberts
mindset that anything even remotely resembling
bad boy—or badass—should be immediately
blacklisted as a bad idea.
Miletich, however, understands the frustration of
the detractors he competes against for market share.
“Hell,” he says, “I understand the human nature
involved when something’s working against your livelihood.”
Yet he is baffled and has little use for those who have reached the pinnacle
of their law enforcement career and have either forgotten what it was like on
the street, have become hand puppets for the politicians they work for, or
have become politically principled gumshoes themselves.
In many law enforcement agencies and even military units under
declining budgets, training dollars are often the first financial line items to
get the ax. What these bean counters fail to realize is that properly trained
personnel are less likely to make mistakes, less likely to get killed, and,
therefore, less likely to get the department sued for excessive force or acts
of negligence.
Statistics show that
violence against law
enforcement officers is on
the increase. More and
more law enforcement
personnel each year are
encountering combative
and noncompliant suspects.
Whether the legal system
and the politically motivated
who have enabled such behavior are to blame can certainly be debated. But
what can’t be disputed is the cultural shift in noncompliance and declining
respect for authority.
Miletich’s most recent business venture, Fire Horse Combatives, bucks
conventional wisdom and old-school mindsets to blend “real world”
combative concepts with departmental compliance standards. Partnered
with Roberts, a commissioned police officer and a formidable mixed martial
arts expert, Miletich teaches the right balance of personal defense and
reasonable restraint to reduce officer injury and curb the escalation of
situational violence.
This new venture, and the joy that comes from knowing he is empowering
SOME HOLD TO THE
MINDSET THAT ANYTHING
EVEN REMOTELY BAD BOY—
OR BADASS—SHOULD BE
IMMEDIATELY BLACKLISTED.
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Weapon retention and
disarming techniques help
those in uniform avert
disaster during struggles
with adversaries.
those who serve this country on the front lines,
may prove to be his most fulfilling venture yet.
In this new endeavor, Miletich gets a little frustrated by old-school
leadership within the rank and file of law enforcement or the military that
believe there is no business for mixed martial arts within their training
curriculum, opting instead for traditional hand strikes and the same old
known holds.
Miletich and his team know from personal experience that, like real fights
and aggressive confrontations, real-world street encounters don’t begin or
end like a boxing match or a staged fight with rules. Almost all fights that
military and law enforcement personnel encounter end up on the ground
with combatants that have little regard for rules, fair play or breaking the law.
Consequently, learning to brawl and grapple, subdue and submit those they
are up against with the least amount of force becomes essential in protecting
those who serve.
Roberts and Miletich firmly believe that law enforcement and military
personnel need to learn how
to fight in the real-world
situations they will encounter.
While many departments
are trying to teach tactics
that appear to have been
drafted by the attorney who
defends the department after
a complaint, the bad guys are
busy learning skills that have
only one objective—winning.
Miletich knows that the
best fighters in the world
utilize a combination of many
skills that involve holds,
strikes, kicks and wrestling
moves to overwhelm and
defeat their opponents. At the end of the day, someone will be the victim, and
someone the victor, during a violent exchange.
“Proper training,” Miletich will tell you, “can make a huge difference in
which one applies to you.”
Those in leadership positions must make the difficult, yet moral, decision
MANY DEPARTMENTS
ARE TRYING TO TEACH
TACTICS THAT APPEAR TO
HAVE BEEN DRAFTED
BY THE ATTORNEY
WHO DEFENDS THE
DEPARTMENT AFTER A
COMPLAINT.
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Don Roberts’ quick jab to the
abdomen is met with a Miletich
response to the nose.
Advantage is in the eye of
the beholder. As Paul Simon
said: “One man’s ceiling is
another man’s floor.”
to support their people in the face of political correctness. Good men and
women go out every day to thwart evil and evil people. They should never be
expected to do this with one hand tied behind their back, less equipped or
less than ready.
Of course, there is a time and a place for “rules of engagement.” But no
warfighter, law enforcement officer or first responder should ever be expected
to pause in a moment of extreme danger to worry about the “what-ifs” of an
after-action review.
Training can’t just be the proverbial can that departments keep kicking
down the road. Leadership needs to take whatever steps are necessary to
prepare their people to kick ass and take names.
LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO TAKE WHATEVER
STEPS ARE NECESSARY TO PREPARE THEIR
PEOPLE TO KICK ASS AND TAKE NAMES.
All of the law enforcement officers we spoke with during the Fire Horse training
were quick to praise not only what they had learned, but also the commonsense
approach Miletich and Roberts brought to their combative training.
If your department wants to improve the survivability of its officers and
learn techniques that will work when things go to “hell in a handbasket,”
Miletich and his group are a great place to start. You can visit his website at
www.mfselite.com or e-mail him at [email protected].