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Mercenary set
to attack
Moghaddam, a former football player at Newport Harbor
and OCC, is a pro fighter
competing in main event Friday at UCI.
Many people call Nick Moghaddam, "The
Mercenary." He got the nickname a couple
years ago after taking a mixed martial arts fight on a day's notice
simply
because he wanted the money.
Moghaddam, a former Newport Harbor High
and Orange Coast College football player, wasn't really ready. He
was a bit out of shape and had a hamstring problem. But he still
won.
Moghaddam admits he wasn't prepared to
fight. Yet, it seems as if whenever there has been a fight he has
always been game.
He certainly won't back down Friday night.
Moghaddam is in the main event, 205
pounds, going up against Ricardo "Pantcho"
Feliciano in the Lords of Socal at UC Irvine's Bren Event Center.
Moghaddam, who has a 5-3 record, knows
he's ready this time, and he should be as
Feliciano is undefeated at 3-0.
"This is a pretty good fight for me,"
Moghaddam said Tuesday after a workout at L.A. Boxing in Costa Mesa.
"It's a pretty credible opponent. He's undefeated,
but he hasn't fought anybody like me yet."
Moghaddam is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown
belt. Feliciano is a black belt.
But Moghaddam still enters with great
confidence. Part of that comes from his
ability to have cut weight at least a week before going up against
Pantcho.
Six weeks ago, Moghaddam ballooned to 247
pounds because he dealt with another
hamstring problem that kept him from running or training. He says he
became
chubby last month, but quickly lost the fat when he received the OK
to train.
Bouncing back from a setback or overcoming
adversity isn't foreign to Moghaddam.
When his dreams for the NFL ended in 2005,
he thought he had found his calling
as an MMA fighter. But he was humbled after losing his first two pro
fights.
His mentor, renowned fighter Allan Goes,
also cut him down.
"You know what," Goes told Moghaddam.
"Maybe fighting is not for you."
"That just stuck with me," Moghaddam said.
"I'm a competitive person. I don't
like being told I'm not good at something. I wanted to prove myself
and I wanted
to prove it to myself."
Moghaddam took a year and a half off from
pro competition. When he came back he
reeled off four straight wins.
"The first win was like bliss," he said.
"It was an unexplainable feeling when
they raised my hand. I was just so happy I didn't even know what to
say. It was
like the same feeling as winning [the CIF Southern Section Division
VI
championship in football] only better because I did it by myself."
Moghaddam didn't really expect to become a
pro fighter, yet it somehow seemed to
come natural for him. He trained in martial arts as a child, and
learned from
his father, who was skilled in taekwondo and judo. He also wrestled
with his
twin brother, Chris, who competed in wrestling at Newport Harbor.
Moghaddam chose to play football in high
school, as a defensive lineman. After
graduating from Newport Harbor in 2000, he played at Orange Coast
College.
After two years with the Pirates, he earned a scholarship to play at
East
Carolina. He played there one year and left to make a run at the
NFL.
A shoulder injury prevented that
intention. He was up to 287 pounds while
playing his final year of college football.
Without football and while dealing with
the injury, he lost 50 pounds. He also,
admittedly, lost direction in his life. Moghaddam said he didn't
have a father figure since high school when his parents
divorced.
However, by chance, he met Goes at a local
Flame Broiler.
Moghaddam did a double take when he first saw Goes because he
recognized him
from the video game, "Pride," he played.
Moghaddam has been learning from him ever
since. Goes invited him to train with
him.
"The first day I came, he whooped my ass,"
said Moghaddam, who is a
trainer/instructor at L.A. Boxing in Aliso Viejo. "From then on I
was stuck
really. He intrigued me."
In addition to losing his first two
fights, Moghaddam also dealt with another
challenge last year. He tore a pectoral muscle. It took six months
to recover.
But now he's ready.
The Mercenary wants to deliver Pantcho his
first loss on Friday night. |
