Q: How did you get into competing in MMA?
Stephen Ledbetter: Well I wrestled a lot in high school and stuff. I chose not to take my scholarship in college. I was just always looking for a competitive outlet a couple of years out of high school. I was doing wrestling tournaments and stuff but it just wasn't doing it for me anymore and I just happened to work with a guy who is a pro fighter at the Hardcore Gym. He just kind of kept the job for the health insurance and he brought his tapes in one day and showed them to me. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen and said to myself "Man, I've got to do this." I told him my wrestling background and he said "Dude, come on we love wrestlers." He brought me to the gym that week, that was about four years ago and I haven't looked back since.
Q: So you were offered scholarships out of high school but decided not to take them?
Stephen Ledbetter: Yeah, just one or two to real small private schools. I just got tired of the weight cut. I knew that going into college that it would be more of a job than a hobby. As soon as my senior year was over I was ready for it to be done. And then I eventually started to miss it a year or two down the line.
Q: What weight class were you wrestling at and how much weight were you cutting?
Stephen Ledbetter: I was wrestling at 135 lbs. In high school I was only cutting like ten to twelve but when you're weighing in two days a week, a match on Tuesday and a tournament on Saturday, it gets kind of tough. Now if I only had twelve pounds to cut it would be easy but I have quite a bit more now.
Q: Is your family supportive of your MMA career?
Stephen Ledbetter: They weren't real happy about it at first. They were like "What are you getting into," you know. What they saw were like the first couple of UFCs that were real brutal and emphasized the brutality. I was like "No, no, no. It's not like that anymore." They changed their mind after they came to my first couple of fights. They were like "Wow, this is cool." My first fight was in 2005 and The Ultimate Fighter came out and my mom got hooked on that so it didn't take long for them to change their minds. They're very, very supportive now. They just want me to do well.
Q: Are you one of these guys that's holding down a full time job and fighting and training when time permits?
Stephen Ledbetter: Yeah, well I hold down a full time job. I also coach wrestling, I'm a middle school wrestling coach and most of the time I'm a part-time student. I stay pretty busy.
Q: Is it your goal to eventually become a full time fighter?
Stephen Ledbetter: If the money's there I would love to be a full time fighter. But it's just hard, you know? You get used to a certain standard of living and a lot of times a job's just convenient, it gives you health insurance. If I was making enough money I would gladly quit my job but it's hard.
Q: If you had to describe your style of fighting, what would it be?
Stephen Ledbetter: Smothering. I have good coaches that train my butt off in everything but I'm very strong, especially at 145 lbs. I just have a smothering kind of style. Get you down, put you up against the fence, just smother with punches and elbows.
Q: How did you get hooked up with Rory Singer and the Hardcore Gym?
Stephen Ledbetter: The guy I worked with, his name was Dan Anchetta, he's actually really good friends with Rory and had trained with Rory for years. I just lucked out and it was the first gym I went to, you know, I didn't know what the Hardcore Gym was or what they were all about. Forrest Griffin and The Ultimate Fighter weren't even around yet. I just lucked out and got put with a great group of guys, a great coaching staff, you know they're starting to become recognized as some of the best coaches in the southeast. Like I said, I just lucked out. They were local, I grew up probably fifteen minutes down the road from the gym.
Q: Have you ever seen Charles Wilson fight before?
Stephen Ledbetter: When my buddy Jeff Bedard was getting ready to fight Miguel Torres in the WEC I pulled up a grainy video of them fighting but I didn't pay much attention to it. It wasn't very good quality, Charles Wilson wasn't anything like Jeff Bedard as far as style goes, and that was like seven or eight months ago so I didn't pay much attention to it. Well I went to look for that video here after I realized I was going to be fighting him and I can't find it anymore.
Q: Yeah, the only thing that I could find on him was a handheld video camera recording of him fighting in the World Combat League.
Stephen Ledbetter: Yeah, I saw that World Combat League one. Those are different rules, I couldn't really tell much. I mean, I expect him to be, you know, he's got wins by submissions, he was in that World Combat League so he obviously has decent standup. I just think he's gonna come in real unorthodox and it might take me a few minutes to adjust. He's gonna be tall, I'm sure he's gonna be using his length and throwing a lot of kicks. It makes me a little nervous that I don't know much about him or can't pull up much on him but then again I don't have many preconceived notions about him either.
Q: I talked to Charles earlier this week and he said that he trains one tenth of what a normal MMA fighter trains. Do you think that's to your advantage?
Stephen Ledbetter: Well, I mean, I don't know. I can't see that being good. People make claims and you can't believe everything that everybody says. I know I devote, when I'm not working or whatever, all my time off and all my days off are devoted to training and getting the best training I can. I feel like that's an advantage in my corner. My conditioning's gonna be good. He's not going to throw anything at me that I haven't seen before. I train with the best dudes that I possibly can. It definitely sounds like that would be to my advantage.
Q: Yeah, to me he seems like a guy that is a traditional martial arts guy who dabbles in MMA as opposed to someone like yourself who is trying to really concentrate full time on MMA.
Stephen Ledbetter: Yeah, I belong to a respected gym. I go to Atlanta a couple of days a week with a bunch of fighters who are signed with different organizations and stuff. A lot of just get together and beat on each other a couple of days a week, help each other out, and improve each other's game. I couldn't ask for better training partners, couldn't ask for better coaches, couldn't ask for anything in my training to be better. I just try to make the most of it, you know?
Q: Have you ever fought a guy like Charles before, someone who has a lot of flashy kung fu and a traditional martial arts background?
Stephen Ledbetter: I haven't. I've fought some guys that were unorthodox strikers as an amateur but I definitely think he's going to bring something new to the table. There's a couple of guys at the gym that have a bit of like a Tae Kwon Do background and they like to throw weird kicks and stuff. I don't know, that stuff doesn't work for a lot of people, you know?
Q: Right, when I talked to him he said the only techniques that he weeds out are those that are illegal and that he will still throw his jump kicks and his flashy kicks and things like that. Is there anything that you have to do to prepare for someone like that?
Stephen Ledbetter: It's hard to prepare for someone like that, you know what I mean? This guy is a bit of a wild card. I can ask for those guys to throw that stuff at me but I never know what he's gonna do when we get into the cage. I have a gameplan in mind for him to try to eliminate some of that stuff. Let him keep his distance and don't let him go to town on me with crazy kicks.
Q: You fought in the WEC against Jeff Curran. Was that fight a one-off deal or do you have an open invitation to come back or what's the deal there?
Stephen Ledbetter: I have a four fight contract with them but it's kind of a one-sided contract. They can ask me to come back whenever they want and if I don't perform they can cancel at any time. That's sort of typical with the UFC and WEC. I'm supposed to be fighting there again hopefully soon. But they've just signed so many guys here lately that the cards fill up pretty quickly. Rory talks to them quite a bit, they still do want me back, but they just want me to stay busy in the meantime.
Q: Are you excited about fighting in your backyard for the RFL?
Stephen Ledbetter: I am excited. My first fight ever, my first amateur fight was in Macon. I had another fight down there as an amateur. It's a great city, the crowds are a lot of fun, they get into everything and I kind of feel like I'm bringing it back home.
Q: Are there going to be a lot of Stephen Ledbetter supporters there?
Stephen Ledbetter: Yeah, I think so. It's still about a two hour drive for us but I've got a lot of friends from Macon and my family and all my friends who saw me fight in the WEC and have seen me fight locally, they're all excited to come down and watch me. I think there will be a lot of people there and I think the show's gonna do real well.
Q: Do you feel that fighting in your backyard gives you a mental advantage or is it more of a pressure situation for you?
Stephen Ledbetter: It's kind of a double edged sword. You want to perform in front of your crowd but then again you know everybody's behind you. I've fought for titles in front of my hometown before and yeah, you feel a little bit more pressure but you can also feed off that. I'd rather be in my backyard than his backyard.
Q: What's a typical day of training like for you?
Stephen Ledbetter: Well, it depends on if I'm working or not. When I'm not working a typical day of training is wake up, run, and lift weights. Then I'll go to Atlanta and train with some guys out there, a couple of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belts and stuff. If I do ground or do standup with them down there, then I do the opposite at Hardcore Gym when I come back in the evening time. When I am working, I work during the day and then I'll just come to Hardcore and train for two solid hours that night, do about thirty minutes of cardio, and get my weightlifting in then. I get about three or four hours a day, minimum.
Q: Do you have a favorite move?
Stephen Ledbetter: Yeah, but you don't want to give it away. My roommate, Brian Bowles, he put his favorite move on the WEC website and as soon as he got in position to do that move, before he could even attempt it, the dude's corner was screaming "Watch out for that choke! Watch out for that choke!" He was like "Man, who put that on my website?" and I was like "You did."
Q: Do you have any heroes or mentors?
Stephen Ledbetter: I love my mother, I look up to her a lot. She did a good job raising me and my brothers by herself. My buddy Kyle Maynard, he's overcome a lot of his obstacles in his life. I think real highly of him. I love my coaches, I look up to them. Adam and Rory Singer, that's about it. I don't hold too many people on a pedestal or anything.
Q: Now tell me about your relationship with Kyle Maynard. He's the wrestler with no arms or legs, right?
Stephen Ledbetter: Yeah, he was born with something called congenital amputee. He comes up to our once a week, on Mondays and I usually seem him at least once a week in Atlanta also. He went to a high school down the road. I just got to know Kyle over the last couple of years. He's just amazing, you know? He drives around, he gets around just like everybody else, he types seventy words a minute, he's a hell of a wrestler, he's fun to get down there and grapple with. Anything where you think "There's no way Kyle can do that," Kyle does it and does it well. His handwriting is better than mine. If you don't see it for yourself, you don't think there's any way. Like, how the hell does he drive? How does he do this? How does he do that? But he makes it work and he does it well. I know he's going to be starting up his own gym pretty soon and I wish nothing but the best for him. I think so highly of the guy, he's a real nice guy, down to earth. I can't say enough about him.
Q: Anybody you want to thank give a shout out to?
Stephen Ledbetter: I'd like to thank the Hardcore Gym, Adam and Rory Singer, all the guys I train with here in Atlanta, Jeff Bedard, and the RFL for giving me this opportunity.