© Marc Wickert
www.knucklepit.com
2006

IFL Silverback fighter Ben Uker is busy doing some work at the computer in his capacity as a mortgage rep for Wells Fargo, when the phone rings for an interview with knucklepit.com.

Born in Osage, Iowa, Ben is presently in Bettendorf, Iowa, where he's trained with Team Miletich for the past six years, after switching from pure wrestling to incorporating the discipline into his MMA game.

"I wrestled at one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States – the University of Iowa, and we (Iowa Hawkeyes) won five national titles. So wrestling was very dominant. When I finished college there, I still needed to compete in something, and the only option in wrestling was to go for the Olympics or things of that nature," says Uker.

"I was kinda looking for something besides just wrestling, and I found MMA. I loved the jiu jitsu part of it, the boxing, kickboxing… I thought, 'Man, this is something I want to do.' I just wanted to compete, so that was one of the main reasons I got into MMA."

Today, not only is wrestling big in Iowa, but MMA has also been welcomed with open arms. When the Iowa-based Silverbacks compete locally, there is always an enormous Quad-City support group in attendance to cheer 'their' team home. And the wrestling fraternity also appears to like their sport being such a major element in mixed martial arts.

"As far as the high school and college level go, wrestling has always been big in Iowa for anybody who lives here: It is extremely huge. In the last two years, MMA has just been growing and growing, and we're starting to find that a lot of people who have been involved in wrestling in the last sixty years are starting to watch the MMA because they like the same kind of action and aggressiveness; it transitions well."

Read the full article on Knucklepit.com.