Blake "Bengala" Bowman "Life is going to keep happening whether your ready for it or not"

Promoted To Frontpage From Fanposts By Kelvin Hunt

via www.bocamma.com

After the Ultimate Fighter Season 6 ended Blake Bowman made the biggest and most important decision of his life. He left everything he was comfortable and used to in Georgia and moved to a totally new environment in Coconut Creek, FL. "I looked at it this way, I could either be a guy who was on the Ultimate Fighter and was funny or I can prove to people that I had what it took. I decided to sell what I couldn’t pack and move down to ATT. People say to me sometimes I’m not as fun as I used to be. It is because I am more centered now. I have a lot of talent people haven’t seen yet."

Blake saw training and fighting as an opportunity to get away from his girlfriend. "During the Ultimate Fighter show I was getting a lot of e-mails saying that I didn’t deserve to be on the sold a ticket to watch an MMA fight, much less get inside of a cage." Unbeknownst to the "haters" Bowman had a successful run as an amateur, compiling a record of 4-3. Bowman continues, "Just because of a bad performance on a television show everyone thinks that I am not a real fighter." On Bowman’s MySpace page he writes Cole Miller is a real fighter. Bowman says, "I put that up there as a backhanded jab to everyone out there. I like to make fun of people that make fun of me without them knowing it. I have also been called a coattail riding leach and other things. People that have nothing better to do and are not willing to make sacrifices to take their career to the next level or even have a career."

On Bowman’s MySpace it says (jokingly) I will never be a real fighter I couldn’t wear all the tribal tattoos. I asked him does this mean you are going to get a tribal tattoo now? (Laughs) "Aw Man! I don’t know. (Laughs) I don’t know if I will ever be that good of a fighter. I don’t look that good with a shaved head, my goatee it kind of grows in but it is splotchy. I don’t know if I can wear the uniform."

Not many people outside of Boca MMA know this; Bowman actually helps manage amateur fighters that train at Boca. I asked Blake about it and he said exuberantly "Micah Miller and I have a really put together a good stable of young fighters. We try to keep them busy, so I travel a lot with them. Within the last year I went to tons of small amateurs shows throughout the Southeast. I have driven from South Florida to Middle Tennessee four different times. I have been lucky enough to make the sacrifices so this can be my life. I like watching these new guys fight; it reminds me of when I was coming up. Part of the joke about Cole is that I have cornered almost all of his fights. I had a love for this sport way before I even wanted to fight. When I first started to fight I wasn’t serious about being a fighter. Training and helping these young guys out has rekindled my passion for MMA." 

Blake goes on not missing a beat. "We have three guys that are looking to make pro debuts: Steve Montgomery, who is a 6’4 skinny kid out of South Carolina. I saw a lot of myself in him and I took him under my wing. He is 6-0 as an amateur and he is only 19 years old. I see a lot of potential in this kid. Jeremy Wilson who fights at 135 pounds but can easily make 125. He is a former Navy guy moved to South Florida looking to make a career in MMA. Because Florida doesn’t allow amateur fights these guys came to us wanting more amateur experience. So me, Micah and Cole all had connections with promoters in the Southeast to help put these guys on shows. Since then we just kind of rolled with it and built a stable of about 8 guys. All these guys are mowing people because their training partners are UFC and WEC veterans. They are getting great training and the results are showing it. It really makes me proud to see these guys hands being raised outside the cage." I asked Blake if managing fighters would be a route he would want to take. Blake responded "Not at the same time. I wouldn’t be able to dedicate myself completely. Although that is an avenue I would like to pursue in the future."

Blake has this happy go lucky attitude when you talk to him. He is always smiling always cracking jokes, yet when doing research to interview him I found writings and posts from him that said he is not a naturally happy person. I found this fascinating and wanted to pick his brain on the topic. "If someone needs help I try to be there for them as much as I can, I will joke with them or talk them through a difficult situation. One thing I am good at is making people laugh. As far as being a happy person, I don’t think being happy is inherent. It’s not like not being happy is a bad thing, I just don’t think I am at the place where I can sit down and say I am happy with this. So I am always working harder and making sacrifices so I can go to places like Japan or train my young guys and watch them be successful. I have never felt at any point that this is exactly what I want and I don’t want to change anything about this. People confuse me saying that I am not a happy person, with me saying that I am an unhappy person. I don’t feel that a person is required to be one or the other at all times. I live off experience, maybe I don’t understand what happy is. The experience of doing different things makes me happy. A lot of people misconstrue that and think I’m depressed or something but that is not the case. There are a lot of people out there that need to feel happy and laugh everyday. If I can provide those people some joy and happiness in their day and I don’t, I think that it is a real slander on me as a person."

It is not unusual to come across a fighter with an odd nickname. Blake Bowman has two. "I got the nickname Bengala from the godfather of American Top Team. I was training and a friend of mine Eric Castile has these shirts that have the Bengal on them. It’s a black shirt with some white stripes that says the Bengal on them. So he started calling me Bengala, which does not mean Bengal in Portuguese. It’s not even a real Portuguese word. It’s slang for gangly long appendages. It also has another meaning, a dirtier meaning about a certain appendage being long and gangly. So whenever JZ and other guys heard Liberio call me Bengala they thought it was hilarious and it stuck. The name Blizake is because I am gizzanster. (Laughs) It’s a play on the fact that I come from just dirt and grime. I just embrace it, I grew up in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere. People used to say man the guy is just well spoken, hillbilly gangster. He’s Blizzake man. It just stuck. I grew up watching my family do what it took to get by and make a better life for themselves. I watched my mom pull herself out of a trailer into a really nice house. She instilled that hard working never quit attitude in me. I really embrace that more then ever now. I was embarrassed and wanted to conceal the fact that I was from this shithole town. I really embrace the face that I came from that to better myself. I always felt that I was running away from that part of my life but now I realize I have been running to greater things."