Dan Hornbuckle vs. Nabil Khatib

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If you didn't know better, you could say that Nabil "The Thrill" Khatib and Dan "The Handler" Hornbuckle aren't that different. After all, both men are seasoned mixed martial arts veterans. Both are known for their bottomless gas tanks, never-say-die attitudes and fearsome ground fighting abilities and both have cool nicknames.

The similarities between the two don't end there either. Both fighters are natural crowd pleasers and family men. Both perform a torturous weight cut to make the 170-pound welterweight limit, and both have learned their share of hard lessons in the sport, tasting the bitterness of defeat much less often than the sweetness of victory.

There's one more thing they have in common. Friday, June 20 at the Max Bell Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Khatib and Hornbuckle both have their sights set on winning the Raw Combat welterweight championship belt.

For the two gladiators, that's where the similarities end and the differences between them begin to emerge.

A member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian, Hornbuckle realized fighting was in his blood at an early age. Almost as soon as he could walk, he found sports to test his warrior spirit. "I've been wrestling freestyle since I was six," he says.

Putting in endless hours on the wrestling mats, Dan developed the balance, endurance and takedown skills of a master grappler. These abilities would come in handy later, after a happy coincidence set his fighting career on a new course, into the world of mixed martial arts.

"I worked with a guy who came in with a black eye and his arm in a sling," he explains. "I asked him what he did. He told me. I lived about ten miles from where he trained and it's been a happy communion ever since."

Of course, "happy" might not be the word that Hornbuckle's training partners would use. Taking to the new sport with the same vigor as wrestling, Dan quickly developed a reputation for manhandling opponents. Soon this became known as "Dan-handling" and earned him the nickname "The Handler".

With a solid background in wrestling, and new-found submission and striking skills, the 27-year old Cherokee warrior from North Carolina has gone on to "handle" fifteen opponents, earning countless medals, belts and pieces of hardware along the way

"I've got a Madtown Throwndown 4-man tournament championship belt," he says. "I am also the Legends of Fighting 170 pound champion, the Hook N Shoot 8-man tournament 170-pound champion and the Total Fight Challenge 170-pound champion."

On Friday, June 20 in Calgary, Alberta, Hornbuckle is intent on adding the Raw Combat welterweight belt to his collection.

"It's going to be all platinum and shiny and pretty and I like shiny things so, you know, it's going to be a good combination," he explains. "Another trip to Canada for a piece of hardware against a tough opponent. You put those things together and, man, I'm super stoked about it."

It isn't just the idea of owning another belt that has him fired up. The fight against Khatib is also a chance to get back in the win column after a recent loss to Xtreme Couture fighter Mike "Quicksand" Pyle in Japan. The defeat was Hornbuckle's first in nearly two years and ended a 13-fight winning streak for "The Handler".

"Right now, it's just a personal vindication for myself," he says. "I'm coming off that loss. I'm pretty pissed off about it."

Facing the chance to redeem himself, Hornbuckle has stepped up his training. That's no easy task for a man who calls himself 'The Black Belt of Intensity'.

"I'm frustrated at myself so training camp has been more intense than the Black Belt of Intensity is used to," he explains. "I've been cross training with [WEC Champion] Miguel Torres down at the Hit Squad gym with [EliteXC Champion] Robbie Lawler, and [former UFC Champion] Matt Hughes. I've been in California for the last week, training with [Ultimate Fighter Winner] Mac Danzig, [UFC Fighter] Andy Wang and those guys."

"I kind of have to shake and bake it that way so I don't get lulled into being lackadaisical about training. I never take it easy but when you're the workhorse in the gym, then you have to change the scenery, so that's what I've been doing for the last five weeks."

Heading into the match, Hornbuckle knows he is in for a challenge but looks forward to seizing the victory and the belt. "I have to give him props on being a tough dude," he says. "He comes from a muay thai background and he's got some ground skills as well, so all over he's well rounded. It's going to look really good on my record when I beat him."

"It's nothing personal against Nabil," he continues. "It's never personal. I honestly like the guy. I got to know him a little bit when I was in Canada fighting for Hardcore [Fighting Championships] but this is for a title and I'm just going to add that to the collection that I've got. He'll be fighting for his first title and so he'll be fighting extra hard, but that will just make it even better for me. I'll have to earn what I've been working so hard for."

Just as Hornbuckle has been training hard in Illinois and California, Khatib has been preparing the match in Ottawa, where he runs the Team Bushido MMA Fitness Centre.

"We're just moving locations," he says. "We're opening up in about a week and a half and I'm training for a fight, and the renovations are going slow, back and forth. It's a lot, so I'm busy right now."

While his American opponent intends to add the Raw Combat belt to an already impressive collection, Khatib is looking to earn the first championship trophy of his career.

"I wouldn't mind coming home with a belt and opening up a new school in the city," he explains. "I'll put it up on the wall, absolutely."

Winning the belt would be an impressive accomplishment for the Ontario-born fighter who, at 38 years old, is giving up over a decade to his opponent. But does the Canadian think that will make a difference in the fight?

"That's not a question you should ask an older gentleman," he says. "It's like when my kids say something wrong and you slap them. If he says something that isn't very nice, I'll slap him."

Like Hornbuckle, Khatib discovered martial arts when he was young. But while "The Handler" got an early start on combat sports, Khatib didn't start training until much later in life, when he discovered Japanese jiu-jitsu at the age of 25.

"I've always loved martial arts since I was a kid, back in the whole Bruce Lee era," he explains, "but like a lot of kids, I didn't get things sorted out until after I was a teenager."

"I got my third degree black belt in Japanese jiu-jitsu," he continues. "A friend of mine was doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu and he said there was a club in Montreal where it was a good place to train. I thought I knew jiu-jitsu, but I went and on the ground I was getting submitted by white belts left right and centre. I did a lot of grappling, but not as detailed as BJJ."

"I trained with [Brazilian National Champion] Wagney Fabiano for about a month," he says, "and then there was a switch. Wagney left and [World Bronze Medalist] Fabio Holanda showed up fresh from Brazil. I've been training with him ever since and my jiu-jitsu has gotten a thousand times better. Now I'm a purple belt."

In addition to his sharpened grappling skills, Khatib has developed a well-rounded fighting game by adding striking arts to his arsenal. "I've done a lot of kickboxing and now it's been about three years since I transitioned into MMA," he says.

For his first match, Nabil took on another Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter; Sebastien Poirier from nearby Montreal.

"It was actually a lot of fun," he recalls. "It was in a ring. I had a lot of my students come up from Ottawa to Montreal to come check it out and the crowd was loud. Fortunately, I fought a guy who was also a beginner so I didn't get thrown to the wolves right away."

Winning by TKO, Khatib went on a year-long unbeaten streak, taking out four more opponents by submission or TKO. "It was interesting," he says. "I'm actually traditionally more of a stand-up fighter. Everyone tells me I hit so hard and I want so bad to knock somebody out but I end up winning all my fights on the ground."

In October of 2006, Khatib took on Montreal fighter Fritz "Animal" Paul, losing by way of a controversial decision.

"I say I won that fight, but the judges say different," he says. "He was a bit more aggressive in the stand-up but I was pretty equal with him. I got him down on the ground almost every time. I held top position more times than he did. I had him in the guard for a couple minutes and he couldn't do anything to me there. On top position I controlled him. I went for submissons. I ground and pounded him. I even had a cross body position and I was throwing knees, but the referee stood us up."

Eight months later, Khatib would not allow the judges to deny him another victory, as he took out Dan "Torture" Chambers with a first-round choke hold. The win earned him a shot against UFC veteran Solomon Hutcherson in Hardcore Championship Fighting.

Unfortunately for "The Thrill", Hutcherson proved to be too much for him that night in July of 2007. "He broke my arm," Khatib says plainly. "He threw a roundhouse kick and I blocked it and I felt a pain in m arm but I kept fighting."

With one arm broken, Khatib found himself unable to stop his opponent's ground and pound attack. "He was a very good wrestler," Nabil explains. "He put me on my back and he was throwing elbows. I was blocking with my forearm and it was just getting worse and worse. I couldn't stop the attack anymore so I had to stop the fight."

While the loss marked the second blemish on his career, the fight showed fans just how much heart Khatib brought to the cage. "My elbow was in two completely different sections," he says, "but it was a good fight."

After taking time off to let his arm heal, Nabil returned to fight again in February of 2008, facing Brazilian striking sensation Lucas Rota, a student of UFC champion Anderson Silva.

"That was my last fight at 185-pounds," he recalls. "He's the one who punched me down to 170. The guy hits like a tank. I realized after that fight that I needed to drop weight, and that's why I went all skinny on everyone and went to welterweight."

Despite the striking power of the Brazilian, Khatib managed to out-wrestle his opponent en route to earning a unanimous decision. "Rota was very tough but I had his number on the ground," he says. "I pounded him for pretty much the whole 15-minutes of the fight."

Earning the victory over Rota put Khatib in the cage with another UFC veteran; Illinois fighter Gideon Ray, who he faced in March of this year.

"That was by far the most fun fight I've ever had," he says. "We went three rounds. We touched gloves halfway through the third round because we were both really giving it back and forth."

"It was probably the most stand up I've done in all my fights, but I did take him to the ground," he adds, "I held him in the cross body position. I passed his guard. He was able to get out of dangerous positions when he needed to, but that's mainly how I won that fight."

Now, with a record of 8-2, "The Thrill" is looking to take another step up the ranks with a win over Hornbuckle, whose record stands at 15-2 since his first fight in February of 2006.

"I've studied him. He's a very dangerous opponent," Khatib admits. "He's very long. He's got some reach on me. I don't have a problem with the reach, but I do have a problem with the length on the ground."

"He's got long legs, and he's probably much more flexible than I am. I have to watch for his submission attempts," he explains. "His triangle chokes look tight, but I think I can control him on the ground. I work with a lot of long guys and I work with the best grapplers in Canada with Fabio Holanda and some of the guys who train under him are very long and very stretchy. They've given me everything they've had and I think I've done pretty well. I tend not to give my arms too much or my legs too much. I'm also probably much stronger than him physically."

Khatib's strength comes from more than just his training. It also comes from a strict diet that allows him to make the welterweight limit of 170-pounds, even though he normally weighs much more.

"I'm 170 pounds when I want to be," he says, "but usually I'm about 200 pounds. Cutting to 170 is very hard but it is do-able."

So how does he do it?

"I cut off my left leg," he says with a smile. "I just have to eat right. I don't eat after 6pm. I cut my carbs down to two or three times a week and I only eat brown carbs; whole wheat products and that kind of thing. And no fat, no sugar, nothing deep-fried. Sugar is a big thing for me. I love my sweets, but you have to cut that out. Then drink tons of water and the weight starts to drop. I cut about 15 pounds on the two or three days before the weigh in."

Like Khatib, Hornbuckle also cuts an incredible amount of weight to make the welterweight limit, and steps on the scale looking like a combination between a bodybuilder and a triathlete but he's just as well known for his take-no-prisoners style of fighting, and that's another area where the two fighters are very different. While Khatib is a self-admitted "slow starter", Hornbuckle leaps across the ring from the opening bell, as if the first few moments of the fight were actually the last few moments, and he's badly down on points. Both fighters see the difference in their strategy playing right into their hands.

"My first five fights were like that," Khatib says. "Guys attack me like crazy and I end up taking them to the ground. I remember with Lukas Rota, he hit me and I fell but I caught his ankle, swung around and took his back and got him to the ground. He hit me so hard, I was pretty much done but I got him down. With training, it becomes natural after a while."

Naturally, Hornbuckle disagrees. "That's really not going to work out well for Nabil," he says. "He's expecting a three-round war, like he's going to lose the first round and then come back in the second and third round. You can't expect a second and third round. There is no second and third round. There's the first five minutes out of the gate where you have to set the pace and that's going to be the pace that, no matter where you train, the first five minutes where I set the pace, everywhere I go from coast to coast, that has been very hard for opponents to handle."

"I'll tell my opponents what I'm going to do," he explains. "I'm going to come out of the gate, right at you then I'm going to beat your face in. How are you going to pull of your game plan when my fist is in your face? You can't train for that and if it does get out of the first round. Oh my God. Do you think my cardio isn't going to be there? You'll be recovering from the ass-whooping you just took for five minutes thinking 'I wish i'd trained for something like this' but it's a little late in the game by then."

If Khatib has any advantage, Hornbuckle says, it will be the home town crowd. But "The Handler" has a plan to turn even that against the Canadian fighter.

"I know that's going to be his advantage, and that's going to feed his energy," he says, "but as I attack him, the crowd is going to go 'oh, sh*t, what's happening to our hometown boy'? That's going to affect his morale. When that crowd starts going 'Oh! Oooo! Oh no! Stop the fight'. That's what he hears as I'm beating him up. I'm sorry, but thats how it's going to go. This is my first time to Calgary, so get ready to cheer your boy on. He's going to need all the support he can get because it's going to be a loss."

Of course, Nabil doesn't see it that way. "I'm taking home the belt," he says. "I have a hard head and nothing is going to stop me from finishing the fight."