Teacher Trains to Fight Professionally

Peter Parker is Spiderman, Bruce Wayne is Batman and Victor Phan is, well he's still Victor Phan.

Phan is a script writing teacher at Fullerton College by day, and an amateur mixed martial arts fighter by night.

He was raised locally, in Orange County, and received his Bachelors degree from California State University Fullerton in film, in 2006.

It was in college where his passion for MMA was born.

He attributes an Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view fight, between Bj Penn and Jens Pulver as the event that motivated him to get started in the sport.

Phan started training in Muay Thai, wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu five years ago, on his own, and enlisted the help of former Shooto Champion Erik Paulson two years ago.

He trains with Paulson at Combat Submission Wrestling in Fullerton, at a rigorous pace.

"I train on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and then I condition Monday, Wednesday and Friday," Phan said. "I'm on a seven day, two hour a day schedule."

The two hours of conditioning consist of running and light weights. The training is broken down into a first hour including stretching, rolling drills and submission wrestling sparring, and the second hour is nothing but striking.

While he prefers to utilize his Muay Thai training by standing and using his knees and fists, he recognized early on that being able to finish a fight on the ground was important.

He credits Paulson for rounding out his game by bringing his submission and wrestling skills to a higher level.

The experience has already paid off in the ring.

"My last MMA fight I won in a minute and 20 seconds by submission, a knee bar actually," Phan said.

A new interest in MMA was not the only thing Phan recieved in college. He also had a daughter, Shay.

He had to make many sacrifices to raise his daughter and graduate from college.

Now that he's a teacher and training to become a professional fighter, he's had to make even more sacrifices, sacrifices he says are worth it.

"At the end of the day when you go home and see that smile, you don't care," Phan said.

Phan also says he's drawn certain aspects from his teaching and used them in fighting.

He credits going over lessons in front of students for preparing him for the pressure of fighting in front of a gym full of fans.

For Phan, the biggest obstacle is getting his name out there and finding more fights.

He knows the keys to success will involve finding a manager to deal with publicity and scheduling appropriate matches.

Until he can figure that out, he plans to stay focused on training.

"The most important aspect is just for me to keep on fighting and not to worry too much about the business aspect, because you can get lost in that," Phan said.

Phan's next fight is on Sunday Nov. 9. Details can be found at Torturechamberproductions.com