Steve Oliver - World Champion – Fight Times Magazine

My good friend Billy Graham a former champion of the boxing ring and legendary motivational speaker has been a lifelong friend of the Oliver family and it was with his help this article was made possible.

Billy has kept me informed over the past several years of Steve Oliver's progression in mixed martial arts and his achievements.

Steve's grandfather trained in boxing and Steve's father Don Oliver a legend in New Zealand in weightlifting and the fitness industry was a wrestler at high school.

It was from his grandfather that Steve was introduced to the importance of hard physical training; his grandfather trained him hard in the skills and physical aspects of boxing

Don Oliver represented New Zealand at three Olympic games in weightlifting in 1960,1964 and 1968 and at three commonwealth games, twice as a competitor and once as a coach.

He was the highest placed NZ weight lifter ever at world championships.

He won Commonwealth gold and silver medals..

Steve’s father and mother opened a gym [Don Oliver’s gym] after his father finished competing and his dad’s name has been synonymous with weight training and fitness supplies since 1977.

There are two Don Oliver's gyms in New Zealand and they are located in Glen Eden in Auckland and another in Wellington. Steve manages the Auckland gym now and apart from all the specialist fitness and strength training provided he has added mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Steve's first combat sports competition came in the form of amateur wrestling while at high school in which he secured a national title.

At the same time Steve was wrestling he began weightlifting and competing in power lifting.

Steve competed in three world championships with the following results 2nd in the bench press and 3rd in the squat and dead lift as well as winning the absolute champion at Oceania

Steve was only 21 years of age and was competing in the seniors on the world stage.

His body weight was102 kg and he was bench pressing 205 kg and squatting and dead lifting 300 kg.

When he was at his strongest he could press 200kgs for 10 reps.

Steve's progression after wrestling and power lifting included boxing.

Steve had two fights in the ring for two wins prior to his dad passing away.

Steve found when he was boxing he wanted to wrestle and when he was wrestling he wanted to box.

Steve’s dad passed away in 1996 and after his passing Steve had become less interested in weight training and was looking to change his direction.

Like many mixed martial artists of today it was watching the UFC on TV that got Steve's interest in mixed martial arts and Brazilian jujitsu.

He went looking for such training and initially tried traditional jujitsu but found it was not what he was looking for.

Steve then met Lindolfo Collor .. Who was a black belt under Rickson Gracie.

Unfortunately Lindolfo moved on and that left Steve without an instructor.

He spent the next year training with his cousin Robbie Bell who was a former wrestler and then decided if he wanted to get ahead he needed to travel to the United States and train directly from Rickson.

Steve spent most of the next four years training in the United States and became tight with Rickson as well as his son Rockson Gracie.

He would train at Rickson’s house regularly along with Rockson in the garage becoming part of the inner circle of Ricksons club.

Steve become close friends with one of Ricksons inner circle students who was also a bouncer by the name of Henry Atken and ended up living at his house.

Steve graded up to blue belt under Lindolfo in New Zealand and his rank of blue belt was initially not recognized at Ricksons but before long Steve had proved himself and his blue belt status there.

After returning to New Zealand Steve’s next training port of call was Australia where he trained with Marcello Rezende at Gracie Bara in Sydney where he graded up to purple belt and later brown belt.

Steve begun his competing in Brazilian jujitsu in Auckland with a win and then took blue purple and brown belt State titles in Australia as well as a pankration world title in 2005. Steve had a very classy training partner in Mark Hunt who he describes as a legend and a real humble guy.

Prior to competing in the IBJJF world title Steve had competed at the Rickson Gracie international in the United States with the following result 3 rd place

The world titles were held at the California State University on December 15th 2007.

Steve had to fight twice and win both bouts to take the world title in his weight and grade. Steve contested the brown belt under super heavy weight category and had as his corner man one of Hicksons fighters Shane Rice.

The following is Steve's recollections of his two world title winning bouts.

The first bout his opponent come in hard and Steve caught him in a guillotine.

His opponent continued to go hard even when Steve sat back in the guillotine and eventually he tapped out giving Steve a first-round victory and progression to the final.

In the final he faced an opponent of around 6'4" in David Rothwell and Steve took him down twice with double legs and on the second takedown his opponent tried for a kimora but Steve prevented it and after that his opponent locked the guard up and Steve took him the distance winning on points.

Steve has had five amateur and four professional mixed martial arts bouts and is ready for bigger things.

He is looking at competing in Canada this year or any other major tournament.

He has had to face the disappointment of all too many last-minute fight cancellations in Australia as well as narrowly missing out on a Pride fight.

You talk to Steve and its evident he is a man who lets his abilities do the talking.

He is humble yet enthusiastic about his training and fighting.

He is less interested in the hype and details of tournaments and his opponent’s names and fight records and more interested in just competing.

Steve at age 36 is mature in his approach and has realistic expectations.

While he considers competing his most important priority he also intends to grade to black belt in the future.

Steve is a proud father of a nine-year-old daughter Hannah who is already training and competing in Brazilian jujitsu.

When he is training for fighting Steve finds that weight training with heavyweights can hinder this mobility and cause him to run out of gas.

Steve describes physical training especially in relation to combat sports as having done a full circle and many of the practices of the past such as full range of motion exercises were now back and the preference of many fighters.

Many of the old training concepts such as kettle bells were back in fashion and the advantages they provided of yesteryear were once again apparent.

Steve's fitness regime includes rolling most days of the week combined with cardio strength training swimming boxing and working out on the rowing machine.

His diet prior to a fight is made up mainly of lean meat with red meat only three times a week and plenty of fruit and vegetables.

He cuts out sugars pasta and rice.

Steve likes takedowns especially leg shoots and through training with Mark Hunt has developed commitment to his leg attacks to avoid being counted or stopped on the way in.

Steve is well aware of how good Mark can sprawl and has found himself twice knocked out under the body weight of Marks effective sprawl.

Steve has worked his body his entire life keeping it in peak condition for whatever sports he is training in at the time and knows how to train smart.

He knows how to train to achieve peak performance for whatever event he is preparing.

I thank Billy Graham for the introduction and Steve for this article and wish him every success in his future bouts.