Rising Featherweight Matt “The Paperboy” Tullos (1-0) Looking to Stay Undefeated at CES XXXVI

Matt “The Paperboy” Tullos (1-0) returns to the cage on Friday, June 10th, 2016 for CES XXXVI: Felix vs. Sanders at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

After building an impressive undefeated amateur career with seven victorious performances for Combat Zone, Extreme Cage Combat and Cage Titans – which included winning the 145-pound Amateur Title – Tullos made his professional debut by defeating fellow rookie Shah Bachok (0-1) with a first round Rear-Naked Choke submission at CES XXXIII: Soukhamthath vs. Nordby in March 2016.

A brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and active CrossFit coach in Norwood, Massachusetts, Tullos looks to remain undefeated when he faces Merab Dvalishvili (1-2) as the third match on the CES XXXVI card, already featuring Matt “The Mangler” Bessette (18-7), Carlos “The Cannon” Candelario (3-0) and Luis “Rockstar” Felix (14-9).

While finishing his training camp for Dvalishvili and CES XXXVI, the twenty-three year old Tullos took the time to speak about martial arts, effort versus results and his team at Connors Mixed Martial Arts Academy.

ON CHOOSING PATH OF MARTIAL ARTS

I went to martial arts because it’s a real challenge; real-life at it’s finest. You face a challenge and you have to overcome that challenge – or you let that challenge take control of you.

Over anything else, it’s also just cooler. It’s so much cooler to be able to say, “Oh, I’m a mixed martial artist” than saying, “Oh, I’m rock climber” or chef or whatever. I’ve always loved the sport, and I like to do things that not everybody can do. So if somebody tells me I can’t do something, then I’m definitely going to attempt to do that.

That’s what this was for me.

My whole life, I was never able to stick to any sports. I would start the sport – baseball, soccer – and I just couldn’t click with it; it wasn’t for me. When I started training in jiu-jitsu and kickboxing and mixed martial arts, I think everybody doubted me and thought that I would never stick to it.

So that was very motivating – to prove those people wrong.

Now I’m at the point where I’m not really worried about proving anybody wrong. Now I just enjoy what I do; I love what I do. It gives me the opportunity to inspire others and to really express myself in the freest form.

I don’t really have any restrictions. I just go out there and I get to put my skills on display for everybody to see.

ON PERSONAL GROWTH FROM MARTIAL ARTS

It’s changed my life completely. It steered me away from a bad lifestyle, and it’s made me appreciate things more. The great thing about martial arts is I get to train and be friends with people from different walks of life – from millionaires to high school kids to janitors. So it really puts life in perspective.

I can’t really say I have a bad day when I get to wake up every day and do what I want and love to do, when I know there are people out there struggling with real problems. It’s just made me more grateful.

To me, it’s never really been about, “Oh, I’m a brown belt. I’m a black belt.” To me, it’s just fun. I get to hang out with my friends and I just happen to be good at it.

It’s an opportunity for me to make a decent living and a happy living; something that I’m going to enjoy doing. It’s just really put life in perspective for me.

Money isn’t everything; money won’t ever be everything. I get to do what I want to do, and I’m happy with that.

ON TEAM ASPECT

Martial arts is definitely a team sport. A lot of people think, “Oh, it’s just two guys fighting in a cage; it’s not a team sport.” But without your team, you wouldn’t be prepared. Without your team, you wouldn’t have the skills. And without that team, you wouldn’t have that support behind you. For me, that’s huge.

So when I walk in and I hear all my friends and my family cheering me on – I know no matter what happens, they support me win, lose, draw, whatever. At the end of the night, they’re all still going to love me; they’re all still going to be my friends. And if not, those are the people I don’t want in my life.

Martial arts is definitely a team sport. Without your team, it would be impossible to succeed. And you see it with these guys that come out as independent fighters – they’re not successful. You’re not going to have a successful run in this game without a strong team, without a likeminded team.

For my team: we challenge ourselves. We’re not so much focused on getting that victory; we’re looking at it as a challenge.

As an opportunity to level-up; to really test ourselves. There’s no real point in doing this if you’re not going to test your abilities against somebody who’s going to challenge you. I could go in and fight a bunch of Joe Schmo’s and maybe get a shot at the UFC – but I wouldn’t last long, because I wouldn’t be prepared for that even bigger challenge.

These guys are here to test you, challenge you and get you ready.

ON PROCESS VERSUS RESULTS

If you’re not so much focused on the victory like, “I need to win” – you don’t need to win. If you lose, your life doesn’t end. You wake up the next day, you put on your work boots and you go back to your normal life.

People put so much pressure on what is basically a glorified sparring match. You’re going in there against somebody who’s going to do things to you that people try to do to you all the time. I think it’s very rare somebody’s going to go in there and do something that I’ve never seen.

And if they do, then I’d be like, “Oh man, that’s cool. I got to start implementing that into my game.”

Yeah, I’m going to be upset if I lost, because I’m putting so much time and effort and preparation and hard work into this. But if I go out there and I put it all out there and I know that’s the best performance I’m going to give – then win, lose, draw I’m going to be happy. I’ll walk away and just come back another day. It’s not a big deal.

There’s much worse things in life that people have to worry about. And my biggest worry is whether or not I’m going to win a fifteen-minute glorified sparring match. I think you should celebrate either way; you put in all the work. The work was all done before the fight.

The fight isn’t the work; the fight is the moment of expression.

So if you did everything you possibly could to get ready and you lost? Yeah, go out and celebrate. Have a good time, enjoy yourself. Because you earned it; you deserve it. Some people are too hard on themselves. Beating yourself up is definitely not the way to go. You’ll probably be a little upset, but look at the big picture: this is a small step.

This isn’t something that is going to ruin the rest of your life. If anything, it’s just going to make you that much better.

ON CES MMA XXXVI

I’m excited. I put in a lot of work for this; I’m more than prepared, no matter where the fight goes. I think a lot of people look at me and think, “This kid’s a great grappler.” But I’ve been kickboxing and boxing and doing striking as long as I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu.

I’m excited. This will be the first time in a while where I haven’t had a long layoff. So I’m excited to go out there and feel loose, relaxed and express myself as much as possible.

My prediction on what’s going to happen in the fight: I will get the takedown. I’m not stupid; I’m not going to try to be Anderson Silva when I’m not Anderson Silva.

My game plan is always as simple as it gets: punch somebody in the face, take them down and I play to my strengths. And my strengths are I’m a better grappler than most of these guys.

I predict me winning. Doesn’t matter what round. Take the guy down and submit him.

THANK YOU

I have to thank my coaches: John Connors, Paul Lopez, Mike Campanella. Without my coaches and my team at Connors MMA, I wouldn’t be doing this; I wouldn’t be here.

I don’t know where I’d be in life, but I probably wouldn’t be in as good of a position as I am right now.