Jerry Bohlander : Scrappy Lion

Sorry if yall are getting sick of me profiling old Lions Den fighters. But I figured after doing Ken and Guy Jerry was deserving. Jerry Bohlander was a wrestler from California who joined the Lions Den and knew Pete Williams very well. He was a clean cut 20 year old kid who wasnt the biggest but had alot of fight in him.

In 1995 Jerry debuted in the MMA world. He fought at a circuit level show and defeated Phil Benedict in his pro debut via arm bar. I doubt anyone has ever seen this fight. I havent.

Jerry's next fight however would be a pretty famous one in the early UFC days.

At UFC 8 the theme was David vs Goliath. Every fight was supposed to have a 100 pound weight difference. Jerry all 200 (around 198) pounds of him was facing the 340+pound Scott Ferrozzo in the first round of the tournament. It was both of their UFC debut's. The fight started with Jerry and Ferrozzo clinching with Jerrys back to the fence. Ferrozzo was wearing a 1 piece wrestling suit. Jerry started choking him with the neck lines. Ferrozzo got out though and hit Jerry some more, Ferrozzo around the 9 minute mark tried a hip toss and Jerry in a great move spun around, landed in north south, gave Ferrozzo a big knee to the head and then sunk in the guillotine.

In the next round Jerry was set to face Gary Goodridge who had just damn near killed Paul Herrera. I remember being at this fight being worried for Jerry. Jerrry gave a great account of himself, especially again giving up weight. He made it a fight and tried to take Goodridge down however Gary was able to mostly sprawl Jerry's shots and evetually landed a solid loud shot to a downed Bohlander that forced Big John to step in. Bohlander's first loss, he is know 2-1 and has already fought 2 tough heavyweights.

Later that year (1996) Jerry entered in the Super Brawl inagural tournament and beat 2 unknowns with a combined 1-3 record via 2 rear naked chokes to win the tournament.

Jerry then goes back to UFC and fights Fabio Urgel and wins a 15 minute unanimous decision. This was the emphamise UFC that had Mark Coleman win a tournament via forfeit.

Jerry is 5-1 and considered the best fighter under 200 pounds on a UFC payroll. Funny thing is (and I dont know for sure) theres alot of speculation as to whether Jerry weighed over 200 pounds in some of his 200 pound fights.

Either way, at UFC 12 for the first time there was a Light Weight tournament. Bohlander beat Rainy Martinez and Nick Sanzo in a combined 2:09 seconds. Both by chokes. Bohlanders record is 7-1 and he has not lost to a man under 200 pounds. He can clinch with you , stand with you, shoot, submit you, and he is explosive.

It is know 1997 and Jerry Bohlander signs to fight the undefeated Murilo Bustamante at Pentagon Combat. Bustamante comes out trying to take Bohlander down and Jerry stays up against the fence. Finally Murilo gets a side trip takedown and Jerry stands up instantly. They clinch some more and Murilo gets on top of Jerry and is ineffective. Jerry is able to reverse, get up and score a takedown. He starts battling Murilo (who was great off his back) for positioning, he is able to land a HUGE headbut and nice body shot. Then Murilo postures Jerrys head up and delivers one of the sickest up kicks you will ever see. Jerrys body does a 360 mid air and he is out when he hits the ground.

Bustamante wins upkick in 5 minutes of good action. Bohlanders record is 7-2. He has just lost his first fight vs a great fighter.

TO start 1998 Jerry fought at WPK 2 (Pankration) and got back on the winning track with an armbar. He then decided to go back to the UFC.

At UFC 16 he is facing Kevin Jackson, (like Wolf has pointed out) he was without a doubt the most accomplished wrestler of MMA history, then and know. Bohander even said he was honored to fight a gold medalist and it was the proudest moment of his career. Jackson is coming off his embarrassing submission to Frank Shamrock. UFC tells Bohlander to fight Jackson then cancels and gives the fight to Fabian Urgel, then that fell apart and called Bohlander back and offered him the fight. Jerry hadnt trained in 2 weeks.He took it.

Jerry and Jackson remained standing early surprising those who thought it would be instant wrestling. But then the wrestling came.And Kevin Jackson was able to get a takedown. It looked like a mistake pretty quick. Jackson got some shots on Jerry and cut him up but Jerry was active from the bottom. Jackson still bloodies Jerry up. Going for alot of arm bars. Big John stood em up and they were trading pretty evenly when about 8 minutes in Jackson gets a takedown and is active. They are rolling around the ring kind of and after 10 minutes Jerry is able to catch an arm and lay a good armbar on Kevin Jackson.

Big John runs in and stops the fight. Jerry lets go and Jackson is pissed. He hadnt tapped. Still Jerry would have messed his arm up worse probably but Jackson is still visibly holding his arm. In the best after fight blow up in UFC History at the time Jackson cusses out Big Johns and stomps out of the cage. It was his last fight ever in the UFC, for a Jackson debuted in MMA with a win over John Lober and retired 4-2 with his only 2 losses coming vs Frank Shamrock and Bohlander. Bohlander is 9-2

He is 4-0 in UFC fights under 200 pounds and 5-1 in UFC fights. He is set to face Vitor Belfort at UFC 18 but Belfort falls out. What happens next is perhaps the most lucrative replacement fight ever in UFC history. They match Bohlander vs Ortiz because they had wrestled in high school and figured Mezger had beaten Tito in an entertaining fight. Bohlander is a 5-1 favorite and Tito weighs 218 in a 200 under fight.

Controls the fight more or less. Bloodies up Bohlander and is winning the wrestling for the most part. Tito wins the initial round (old screwy system). Tito also wins the First Overtime and the Lions Den corner is nervous telling Jerry he needs to do something big. Big John stops the fight with 20 seconds left and Ortiz has his first victory vs the Lions Den and decides to shoot toy guns at them.

It is Bohlander's first loss in a 200 pound and under weight class fight in the UFC. He is 4-1 in the weight class 5-2 overall and never fights in the UFC again. He would win at King of the Cage vs Brian Foster and then lose Romie Aram in 2001 and then 9-11 happened.

It changed Bohlander's life and he decided to join law enforcement. He turned down every offer that was made, he came back and won 1 fight in 2004 and hasnt fought since. In 2005 he shot and killed a man that was running at him with a knife. He was one of the best fighters under 200 pounds in MMA at the time he fought and retired with a what might have been record of 11 wins and 4 losses.

Fought 2 ATG's in Bustamante and Ortiz (puke) and a good fighters in Kevin Jackson and Ferrozzo. 0-2 vs ATGs 2-1 vs good fighters. Had very underrated submissions IMO. Great fighter (not ATG but in his time he was one of the best).

I loved Jerry! He was one of my favorite fighters. He just had a great sense of patience, that you don't see in guys his age.

agree Andrew for a 20 to 22 year old kid, he seemed to always look calm and collected, whether he was beating Ferrozzo or losing to Tito. He was a very fun fighter to watch and a very underrated one from the early era

Fuck ya finally got other comp to work can load stuff

Here it is folks if you havent seen it check it out, Jerry vs Ferrozzo 150 pound weight differential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rJh3-D0kFY

and here is Bohlander vs Bustmamte the former UFC champion. Watch the upkick its nasty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nV8lOb4n80