Neal makes sure UFC foes are well-done
Austin native in restaurant by day, while taking to fight game at night.
Geoff Neal likes his steak medium rare. “If you get it well-done,” he said, “don’t talk to me.”
Lately, the grill time for medium rare steaks lasts about the same time as opponents in his other job: Not long at all.
Neal, who was born in Austin, works as a waiter/bartender at a Texas Roadhouse in Dallas to help support his three-month-old daughter and girlfriend while he strives to make a name for himself as a UFC fighter.
“He doesn’t say much,” said his trainer, Sayif Saud. “He does it with his actions. I tell him all the time that (the Octagon) is his home. It’s where he belongs. He has all the talent to be a champion.”
Neal, 27, made his UFC debut on Sunday night in Austin and rocked the Erwin Center with a first-round stoppage of veteran Brian Camozzi. He isn’t fighting for kicks, by the way. He’s fighting to survive. Longtime MMA reporters told me cage-side that the UFC provides a per diem of about $125 a day for its competitors leading up to a fight.
Some use the money to take in the sights of the city they’re visiting. Others just stick the cash
in the bank.
Neal used his to pay the rent.
“I’m still trying to be a full-time fighter,” he said. “I struggle to make ends meet.”
He’s thankful for the $500 he got for his Austin weekend. “I was at the tail end of my bank account,” he said. “I probably have $50 in the bank right now.”
That was before he received a $20,000 purse and a $3,500 Reebok bonus for taking out Camozzi with a rear-naked choke up against the fence.
His is a story of dogged determination. The former Copperas Cove football player graduated in the same class as future Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III. Like thousands of other young boys in Texas, he dreamed of one day playing in the NFL.
Unlike RGIII, Neal’s journey didn’t lead to a lucrative career in tackle football. He did enroll at Texas Lutheran in Seguin, but things didn’t go as planned and the linebacker left after one season.
“I didn’t like the program,” he said. “I was around a whole bunch of people who weren’t motivated like I was. I wanted to be around winners.”
He had thought about competing in MMA for many years and took up training eight years ago while living in Killeen. Saud, the owner/trainer at Fortis MMA in Dallas, had watched Neal, who has a 9-2 MMA record, take his first professional loss in his hometown back in 2012. Saud was looking for talent and saw something in the way Neal competed — with a relentlessness and a hunger that’s required at this level.
“I told Geoff he should move up to Dallas and train with me,” said Saud, a former MMA fighter who captured four national judo titles and competed in MMA before an injury cut his career short. He has worked with respected teachers in the sport like trainer Greg Jackson and strike coach Chris Winkeljohn. Three of his stable of 40 fighters competed in Austin alongside Neal on Sunday.
Moving to Dallas three years ago to work with someone of Saud’s caliber was a huge break for Neal.
The biggest came last July, though.
With Saud in his corner, Neal dispatched Bilal Williams in the first round of a Legacy Fighting Alliance event in Dallas. He was at the Roadhouse eight days later when his cell phone rang. It was Saud.
“Geoff, what are you doing?”
“I’m getting ready to work a double.”
“No, you’re not. We’re heading to Las Vegas to fight on Contender.” “When is the fight?” “In three days.” “OK.” “And Geoff ... you need to knock this guy out in the first round. They have to notice you.”
UFC president Dana White’s UFC Contender Series 3 was awarding a three-fight contract to the two fighters who stood out among several competitors. Neal not only was fighting on short notice but also was facing a bigger guy. His opponent, 6-1, 185-pound middleweight Chase Waldon, was two inches taller and 15 pounds heavier.
Neal didn’t work that shift but he worked Waldon, knocking him out in the first round. Just like Williams before, Waldon succumbed to Neal’s thunderous punching power. They don’t call him Handz of Steel — yes, with a Z — for nothing. He earned $10,000 for the win and the opportunity to fight on the sport’s biggest stage.
“This is the continuation of his story,” Saud said. “It says something about the man he is.”
And in case you’re wondering, Neal is on the restaurant schedule for Friday.