Champion Sylvia no longer bullied Ellsworth High grad addresses alma mater

ELLSWORTH – It’s not surprising the reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titlist was involved in a lot of fights as a kid.

It is, however, when that same champion was usually the one getting the daylights beaten out of him… Especially when he is 6-foot-8 and weighs 252 pounds.

Tim Sylvia could have been the prototypical 98-pound weakling with the nerdy outcast-turns-hero story if not for the fact that he was short and about 110 pounds heavier.

“I was a geek. Did you see the picture out there?,” the Ellsworth High School alumnus said, referring to his class picture in the main lobby. “I really wasn’t tall and even though they introduced me today as pudgy, I think the term he was looking for was fat.

“My senior year, I was really awkward. I’d grown four inches over the summer and actually had to have a doctor’s note to allow me more time to get back and forth to class because I was so slow. I wasn’t just picked on, I was beat up. I even had to go to the hospital one time.”

Sylvia returned to his alma mater Friday morning, no longer the 5-9, 209-pound dork who was repeatedly tormented by bullies. Instead of staring at the ground and clutching a bookbag while trying to lose himself in a crowd, Sylvia stared straight ahead, held a championship belt, and stood out from the crowd.

Of course, when you’re as big as Sylvia and you’re wearing a black, ornate championship belt weighing about 30 ounces and sporting a giant, circular gold emblem flanked by two smaller ones, it’s hard not to.

The 1992 Ellsworth graduate was back to deliver a short, but emphatic message to the current crop of students at the school: Set your goals high and then go after them.

“I got a little teary-eyed being back here,” Sylvia admitted after the morning assembly. “A lot of this [success] has to do with the teachers here.”

The Eastbrook native delivered a short motivational speech to the 500 students in the Ellsworth gym, then “defeated” teacher and coach Brian Higgins – decked out in blue boxing shorts; a red, white and blue American flag shirt, sweatband, black socks, high tops and a Prince tennis racket carrying case worn as a championship belt – in a mock fight. Afterward, Sylvia was presented with a T-shirt by Ellsworth wrestling captains Brian Cobb and Matt Burns.

It was an apt gesture, considering the credit Sylvia gives his experience on the wrestling team for his success.

“I have a good wrestling background, which helps me with takedown defenses,” he said. “The objective of a grappler is to take the striker out of his game and take him down the mat and out of his element. It’s like breaking an opponent down in wrestling.”

Although he had training in martial arts, Sylvia said wrestling and the boxing experience he received through a PAL program after high school helped the most. When asked what he advice he’d give a teenager wanting to follow in his footsteps, he didn’t hesitate.

“If you’re in high school, start wrestling and boxing, definitely,” he said. “Martial arts don’t really help. There isn’t a thing I use from karate.”

The 5-to-1 underdog won the UFC heavyweight title by knocking out Ricco Rodriguez in the first round of a March 3 fight in Atlantic City, N.J. His record is 2-0 since joining the UFC and 17-0 in his pro career. He has won 10 straight fights via knockout and 13 overall. Sylvia earned $40,000 for his title fight knockout victory.

His next fight is a June 6 title defense in Las Vegas. This is the culmination of four years of training, fighting, traveling and planning to get into the UFC. His current contract calls for two more fights. Afterward, he hopes to sign a million-dollar pact with UFC.

Sylvia is single and now lives in Quad Cities, Iowa. He plans to continue his UFC career as long as possible. Afterward?

“I want to get into acting eventually,” he said. “If that doesn’t work out, pro wrestling… which is acting too.”