By Josh Rizzo
ROBINSON TWP, Pa. -- Mark Cherico felt sick about it, but he told the Ultimate Fighting Championship representatives he couldn't fight in early August.
Cherico, a 31-year-old native of Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood,felt his chances of reaching the UFC had evaporated. His agent, Jason House, had heard rumblings in May UFC President Dana White was starting the Tuesday Night Contender Series on Fight Pass, which is UFC's pay-per-view service.
UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby proposed an Aug. 8 fight for Cherico in Las Vegas.
Cherico just knew he couldn't do it.
During a TKO win last December, Cherico herniated his C6 vertebrae. Then he aggravated his C5 vertebrae in April and wasn’t training much. Cherico started a job as a fitter/operator with People's Natural Gas and was trying to rest his neck.
“I told him my neck wasn’t going to be ready and I thought that was going to be it,” Cherico said. “I figured I turned them down. That’s it. My career’s over at that point now. I wasn’t going to dwell on it.”
Cherico bugged House to restart the conversation once he found out UFC was returning to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh in September for a full fight card.
Instead, a deal was struck to move back his appearance on the contender series.
“In passing, my manager’s asking if I’ll fight on the contender’s series, if they give me a couple extra weeks,” Cherico said. “Sean was all for it. Now here we are.”
Cherico will take on Mike Santiago Aug. 22 in a lightweight bout in Las Vegas. Santiago, the No. 1 ranked lightweight in Indiana, is 18-9 and has won his last nine fights.
White, who is the UFC's President, offers fighters who impress him on the contender's show contracts with the company.
Through the first three weeks of the series five fighters -- featherweight Kurt Holobaugh, bantamweight Boston Salmon, bantamweight Sean O’Malley, light heavyweight Karl Roberson and middleweight Geoffrey Neal -- were offered deals. All fighters are paid $5,000 to show up and another $5,000 if they are victorious, according to MMAfighting.com.
Once Cherico, who is 11-1 and the top-ranked lightweight in Pennsylvania, his already hectic schedule was amplified. In addition to working for People's Gas, Cherico owns Cherico Martial Arts & Fitness Academy in Robinson Township, where he trains.
“He makes every moment counts when it comes to training,” said Mark's wife, Nicole. "Even when he sits down to eat, he’s doing something. He’ll sit down and it’ll be something from the gym. He'll say I have to contact someone because he's still running the gym too. That's on the side-burner. There's no back-burner. Everything is spread out equally. I have to force him to go to bed."
Making the pinnacle of a combat sport requires dedication plus finding a way a way to impress the gatekeepers. Flamboyant boxing promoters have long held the fortunes of fighters in a fragile grasp. Being prevented from being broken required the right look, personality and drawing power. Many people have their hands out during a fighter’s climb to the top.
Politics are much simpler with the UFC, mixed martial arts’ top brand.
You want to ascend the ladder,there is one leering, bald man to impress. White spews profanities as punctuation. Many MMA legends -- Georges St-Pierre, Demetrious Johnson and most recently Jon Jones -- have locked horns with White over a multitude of issues, ranging from money to promotion.
White isn’t afraid to cut down fighters through social media or via the press. But White is a legend himself. He guided UFC from being accused of being “human cock-fighting” in its early days during the early 1990's to being transformed into a company which sold to WME-IMG for $4 billion in August 2016.
Cherico has a perfect position to audition to reach the top. Getting a contract is the dream. But not getting one isn’t going to shatter his reality.
“I have a good job.I have a good gym and I have a great family life,” said Cherico, who is the top-ranked lightweight in Pennsylvania. “I’m going to go in there and have fun. If how I fight doesn’t appease to (White)and I don’t get the contract, it’s not meant to be. I’m going to go out there and give it my all. I can live with that. If I know I go there and put on my best performance I’m able to that night and it doesn’t work out I can live that.”
"I like it, it’s fun. We call it ditch life. I like the ditch life.”
-MMA fighter Mark Cherico on working a fitter/operator at People's Natural gas
Cherico, who fights with the moniker “The Pride of Bloomfield”, has fought professionally since 2012. His only loss came via submission Nov. 26, 2014 against Brian Kelleher. Kelleher ended up climbing the ladder and is now a UFC fighter.
Being willing to fight started early for Cherico. As a freshman, Cherico was forced into an involuntary exit from Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School.
He ended up finishing high school at Career Connections Charter School in Lawrenceville.
“I got asked to leave, which is like getting expelled, but not getting expelled,” Cherico said. “(Why he wasn't welcome) stupid stuff. Fights and dumb shit... I did CCAC (Community College of Allegheny County) and stuff like that, but I never cared much for school."
Meeting his wife, Nicole, who is also a Bloomfield native, in 2002, helped settle him down. They got married and have a 5-year-old daughter, Aubree.
“He was wilder than he is now,” Nicole Cherico said. “Typical boy, getting into fights and doing stupid stuff. We veered away from that. We were ok with renting a movie, eating food and laying around.”
Staying in the community was important to both of them, and they own a home in Bloomfield, but they recently decided to move to the suburbs. Bloomfield, which is .702 square miles in size, was a tight-knit community they enjoyed growing up in. But they've seen changes in the neighborhood.
“Knowing everyone and all the little old Italian ladies always out on there porch after dinner, sitting out enjoying the sun or washing the house down or tending to the garden,” said Mark Cherico about he remembers things. “You don’t see that stuff anymore. Now,you see 8-10 hipsters living in a flipping two-bedroom apartment. It’s different.It's not the same."
Both feel when the moving trucks come, there will be some trepidation.
“It’s going to be so hard,” Nicole Cherico said. “I’m going to be devastated when we move out.”
Mark was sitting around when he decided to train to fight. He was working at a Market District Giant Eagle in Shady Side as a prep cook after starting as a barista.
Culinary arts school was next on his list when he decided to start fighting in 2006.
Cherico was sitting on the porch when he saw his now business partner, Mike Colamarino, walking by with an MMA duffle bag.
Cherico asked if he trained people. Despite Cherico having no formal training, he was eager to learn.
“He said, 'I’ll do it today, in your garage,'” Cherico said. “We went out back to the garage and hit pads and I loved it. We did that for two weeks straight everyday after work. I was hooked.”
Eventually, Colamarino sent Cherico to Baldwin, a suburb just south of Pittsburgh, to train with professional fighter Donnie Kaecher.
That meant Cherico needed a car.
One of his dad’s friends, Louie Hildebrand, offered to sell him a 1992 Honda Accord for $1,000.
The ride, which had 156,000 miles on it, was cheaper than he bargained for.
“The first payment was $100 and the next month I gave him another $100 and he said 'OK, you're paid,'" Cherico said. “It was supposed to be $1,000. He said ‘I wanted to see if you were going to stay the course and pay your obligation.’”
From there, Cherico rose into a solid all-around fighter. He was undefeated as an amateur before turning pro in 2012. Striking coach Robert Meese, who UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt's uncle, brought his system into Cherico’s gym around four years ago. He got comfortable and never left.
Meese, who was a successful amateur boxer, helped guide Cherico’s improvement.
“The biggest improvement I can see is he can change levels better, see better holes,” Meese said. “He can see different angles where he can take the fight at and where he can be more aggressive at with his fighting. Also, where his poise is, he has confidence in his standup. Before, he didn’t have confidence. Now, it’s more easier to go with his style.”
Cherico has won four straight fights, including Dec. 17, 2016 TKO over Antonio Castillo Jr. at a Pinnacle FC event.
During his professional career, Cherico has five submission wins and three via knockout.
“He’s consistent,” Meese said. “He has the will to win, the will to fight. This was his dream for a long time to get into the UFC. Now, he’s been invited to the contender and wants to showcase what he has."
During the week, in addition to owning the gym, Cherico stays busy by digging ditches as a fitter operator.
That’s how he refers to his work at People’s Gas.
"You get to dig ditches and I’m on an operations maintenance crew,” Cherico said. “We search for leaks and we get our Sheetz early in the morning and we have to repair a leak on whatever street. We go locate the leek, dig it up, find the pipe, wrap and remove that section of pipe, bury it and call it a day. I'm moving to a construction crew in a couple of weeks, which is service tie ins and stuff like that. I like it, it’s fun. We call it ditch life. I like the ditch life.”
Loving the ditch live gives Cherico little to stress about.
With his work schedule and family, he feels fulfilled already.
But there is a chance, despite initially turning down the world’s biggest promotion no, he could leave Las Vegas with more fights ahead of him.
Either way, he plans on having fun during his trip out west. His wife approves of his plans to enjoy the Vegas strip after. So, he doesn't have to worry about getting in trouble.
All he has to do is his job.
This opportunity may not present itself again.
“Above all else, I want to get the contract,” Cherico said. “I’m going there to get a contract. I’m going in there to put in the best fight I possibly can.”