“I did not begin competing in MMA for anything less than the world title.” — Jeff Emil Haddad
Jeff Emil “Shredder” Haddad — a professional mixed martial artist from Old Saybrook, Connecticut — is also an Occupational Therapist, a youth wrestling club and high school coach, a multi-instrumentalist and science enthusiast. Haddad gained attention as a Connecticut State Champion wrestler during high school and continued his dominance at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts while earning his Master’s of Occupational Therapy.
The lone grandson of Emil Haddad — famed jazz musician and trumpet master — Haddad has competed in several amateur martial arts tournaments while compiling a stellar overall 4–0 professional mixed martial arts record under Reality Fighting — billed as “the East Coast’s premier Mixed Martial Arts event”.
In September 2007, Haddad made his professional debut with a majority decision over Ethan Kean (1–7) at the Douglas N. Everett Arena in Concord, New Hampshire. The card also featured close friend and Featherweight training partner Matt “The Mangler” Bessette (14–6), who earned a third-round submission win over Chris Correira (2–2).
In February 2011, Haddad bested current teammate Johnny “Mr. Nice Guy” Lopez (4–3) with a second-round doctor stoppage at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. The professional debut for Lopez was also the Mohegan Sun debut for both fighters and featured current Ultimate Fighting Championship Lightweight Joe Proctor (11–3) with a second-round submission win over Eric Fama (1–2).
In October 2011, Haddad earned the Bantamweight Championship Belt as well as NortheastMMA.net’s KO of the Year award after his devastating third-round head-kick knockout over fellow contender John “The Convict” McLaughlin — handing McLaughlin the only loss to mark his overall 5–1 record. The Mohegan Sun Casino card also featured Bessette and Proctor earn NortheastMMA.net’s Fight of The Year award, as well.
“What I want to know is how does a fighter make weight at 135 pounds when he has 140 pounds of balls?!” — We Want Fights
In September 2012, Haddad earned his fourth professional mixed martial arts victory with his Unanimous Decision win over short-notice participant Johnny “Cupcakes” Campbell (11–6). Again at Mohegan Sun Casino, the card was another to feature Bessette earn a Unanimous Decision win over Aniss Alhajjajy (8–6).
After being stripped of his belt as a result of inactivity due to surgeries and rehabilitation stemming from bilateral, anterior and posterior labral shoulder repair, Haddad is scheduled to face Walter Smith-Cotito (3–2) on June 19th, 2015 at Mohegan Sun — his first professional fight after the forced nearly three-year layoff.
In between training and working full-time, Haddad took the time to speak about wrestling, discipline, self-confidence and the future of MMA.
JEFF EMIL “SHREDDER” HADDAD
- 4–0 professional mixed martial artist (Bantamweight)
- Reality Fighting Bantamweight Champion (2011)
- 3x High School All-State wrestler
- Connecticut State Champion wrestler
- Connecticut State Champion wrestling coach
- Nationally Ranked NCAA D-II wrestler (7th)
- Longest win streak in American International College Wrestling season (28 matches)
- College Wrestling MVP
- 1–0 in Muay Thai
- 3x NAGA East Coast Grappling Championship — Advanced No-Gi (2nd)
ON UPCOMING FIGHT (06/19/15)
I feel the best I’ve ever felt; more mature than I was previous because of my deal with injuries, having to have a real-time job. Just getting older, having a girlfriend — all the things that come into play when you’re growing up have helped me become a better fighter, a better person and a smarter individual when it comes to training.
ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST AND FIFTH FIGHT
I would say the difference between now and then — other than being more mature — is being more of a cerebral fighter. Before, I thought about just going in there and absolutely decimating whoever I fight. I didn’t have too much thought process behind how I was going to do it. I just thought — or knew — I was going to do it.
Whereas now I know I’m going to destroy whoever I fight, but with a scientific approach to my training and with a strategy behind how I’m going to fight.
ON SHIRZAD AHMADI
Shirzad saved my life literally, man. He stepped into my life at a time where, even though I had great parents and they did everything they could possibly to make me successful, I was still quite rebellious and had a lot of energy. And he stepped into my life and showed not only interest but believed in me and introduced me to the sport of wrestling. He would take me everywhere possible to wrestle. Or sometimes I was wrestling in high school, driving up to Springfield to go to college practice and then I was going to Enfield to go to a club practice.
By the time I got home I was exhausted, I wasn’t able to get myself into trouble. I was an energetic person, I was never lacking motivation. But he gave me passion, he gave me direction. He gave me a passion to channel my energy towards.
He has a champion mindset, I think right now he’s a eighteen-time World Medalist and a nine-time world champ and a eighteen or twenty-time National Champ.
I got to see how he trains and the people he hangs out with. It’s incredible, the guy’s like sixty-five years old now, and he still trains two times a day, eats healthy. He’s just a phenom.
ON INDIVIDUALISTIC SPORTS AS A LIFESTYLE RATHER THAN A HOBBY
I think the key or the unique thing about individual sports that make them more of a lifestyle, more than football or something … It’s almost like in life: no one’s going to do anything for you but yourself. I mean, obviously there’s a support-system hopefully for you. Ultimately the only person who’s going to achieve a personal goal is you. That’s kind of the same thing with fighting.
In football, people depend on another to pick up your slack or… There’s no one to depend on or pick up your slack. I think that’s what draws me to the individual sports: I love the idea of being fully accountable for my failures and my success. It also embodies some of the team approach with training with a team and those kinds of things but ultimately you get what you put in.
You can win a football game and not put in a ton of work because everyone might carry your weight — there’s no way you’re going to win a fight if you don’t put in a ton of work because no one’s there to carry your weight but yourself.
Today I was going over strategy with Matt Bessette. He needs me there every day to work and perform, and all of the things you would expect from a teammate, you have to do. In that aspect, we are 100% a team and a family. I use him for motivation on days I may lack it and vice versa. And even when I don’t have a fight coming up, I still need to show up and train because he’s relying on me to perform.
ON MEDICAL DRAWBACKS v. ATHLETIC GOALS
I think the key is knowing each individual and what their goals are. If someone’s in martial arts to simply enjoy self-defense or enjoy the workout, then I would make sure they are not injuring their body beyond repair or beyond what’s necessary. Where someone like me, I have to ask that person or ask myself: am I willing to deal with the potential life-long effects of this hard training? Is it worth it to me? Is my passion worth these injuries? Will I get personal lifetime satisfaction?
Really it’s a matter of knowing who you’re dealing with and making sure that the taxing efforts on the body are worth the rewards to them. Some people it’s not. Some people, dealing with surgeries is not worth it to them. But you look at someone like Dan Gable — he’s had two or three or four hip surgeries and I don’t know how many knee surgeries.
Or someone like Jeremy Libiszewski who’s had five knee surgeries and they come back and they’re older gentlemen. So clearly it’s worth it to them. It’s just a matter of knowing your population and knowing how much this means to them.
ON COACH JEREMY LIBISZEWSKI AND FIGHTING ARTS ACADEMY
I got involved with FAA through Nick Newell (12–1) and Abi Mestre (1–0–1). I was looking to join an MMA gym during college wrestling. I just reached out to a couple people and asked people’s advice on where to go and it just seemed like FAA was the right fit for me.
Then I joined and from then on out it was 100% the right fit.
I highly prefer people who are brutally honest and expect perfection at all times, and that’s exactly what Jeremy is. He told me what he believed my potential was and he expected that I would operate and train at that level and if I didn’t operate and train at that level, I’m sure he would’ve let me know. That was really the key to there.
I liked the hardcore intensity of FAA. And now that I’m at Underdog Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and cross-train at FAA, I get the balance of the finesse world and more of the traditional martial arts, in a sense. Russell Leak is a Jeet Kune Do instructor first, but also an MMA coach. Then I get to train at FAA and get more of the aggressive Thai-style and no-gi style. So I think it’s a blend of everything.
ON ADMIRED FIGHTERS
I really admire someone like Urijah Faber who’s been a pioneer of the lighter weights and is business-savvy. I have my hand in a lot of different things; my job, and hobbies and business interests so I really admire that about him. And I like his style.
But for style, I love Dominick Cruz, I love Demetrious Johnson, I love T.J. Dillashaw. The things I like about all three of those fighters is obviously they’re great, but they string together transitions so well. In my opinion, those three are pound-for-pound the most skilled, technical fighters in the world.
I believe the key to success in MMA isn’t just being a great striker and a great wrestler and a great jiu-jitsu player — but knowing how to put it all together at the right time and transition smoothly between those things. I think that’s absolutely key. It’s just like playing music.
It’s just like playing music: the most incredible musicians are the ones who transition seamlessly between the different chord structures and solos that they’re playing.
ON BRUCE LEE
I must’ve been four years old when I was introduced to him. I was always into martial arts, and at that time I didn’t know much about him. I just thought he was the coolest guy in the movies. As I got older, man — he’s clearly the father of mixed martial arts. Even though today if he got in the cage with the skill he had back then, he wouldn’t last. But if you took him and his mindset to today — he’d probably be the greatest fighter of all-time.
Jeet Kune Do is truly mixed martial arts; it’s taking the best of what all martial arts have and putting it into one system that isn’t a system.
ON HOSTING BELLATOR MMA EVENT
We had some of Bellator’s biggest names come in: we had Royce Gracie; we had Aaron Pico — one of the top prospects in MMA right now, currently a world champ wrestler. We also had Brennan Ward who’s from Connecticut, and a bunch of other top UFC guys. Tito Ortiz, who came in and did a motivational seminar, spoke to the kids.
The reason we did that was to not only inspire the kids and give them something to reward all of their hard work, but to show them that their hard work can pay off.
I coach high school wrestling, and I try to motivate my guys all the time. But sometimes it takes someone else to find that unique kid, or that kid who has fallen to deaf ears and not getting what he needs out of practice. Or he’s not maximizing his potential.
It’s always good to have people outside of your circle.
The hard work ethic, the belief in yourself, the sacrifice: all those things are also preached by those who’ve done those things, highly successful and the guys watch on TV. It was a huge moment for the kids and I think it changed their outlook on wrestling and training and hopefully even life; that was the biggest goal.
ON WINNING THE BELT — THE LEAD-UP, THE HEAD-KICK, THE AFTERMATH
The training for the title fight was extremely hard. I had to break myself every day in the room to achieve my goals. Then stepping in the cage was unique because I was fighting someone I knew fairly well and had went to high school with and had wrestled on and off with. It was a tough fight: I had broken three bones in my face and I broke my right foot all in the first round. It was that challenge to achieve your potential in the hardest of circumstances.
In the fight, I didn’t give up on myself; I knew the whole time that he would have to finish me to win, and there was something in me saying there was no way he could finish me. Every time he landed a punch, I could shake it off.
I kept seeing a similar pattern on his response to any of my feints and I knew that the appropriate response when he would respond to my feints was to throw that left stepping-in high kick, because he would always dip off to his right and try to throw a lead hook and an overhand. I just threw that, and it landed.
It changed not only my life but it changed my confidence in myself, because I had worked so hard for such a serious goal and I was an underdog going into the fight. It showed me that hard, smart work pays off. Those who are willing to sacrifice, willing to endure the hardest of times will be rewarded for their hard work.
ON CUTTING WEIGHT
I was 156 pounds lifting this off-season, then my diet … I just make sure I’m counting my carbs, I’m counting my calories, I’m counting my protein. I’m counting everything I’m putting in my body and I have goals for what I need to weigh every day and at the end of each week. And you just make sure that you’re achieving those goal-weights as you go. I’m watching my calories, I’m counting all the micro and macro-nutrients and that’s really all there is to it.
The weight cut is definitely half the battle. Dieting and all that takes extreme discipline. The more scientific you are, the more time-consuming it is, so it takes that much more effort. If you really want to be good at it, it has to be something that you pay a lot of attention to. Just understanding the diet is hard, then the diet and the cutting of the weight is difficult in itself.
For those who don’t understand: I simply cannot describe it well enough. They’ll never be able to understand it until they do it.
ON UNDERDOG v. FAVORITE
I don’t have a preference on being the favorite or the underdog when it comes to the numbers. I just like high-energy crowds and I like the big stage.
If someone says, “You’re fighting so-and-so and he’s favored to beat you” — that’s fine.
As long as I have a big crowd that is ready to be rowdy, that’s what I like.
ON PRE-FIGHT ATMOSPHERE
I don’t get nervous at all until the Commission comes in the back and tells me to warm up. The day of the fight, maybe it’s a little uneasy if someone were to press me on it. I keep it light, I stay with my training partners, I try to stay jovial and goofy and surround myself with familiar faces.
I like to see all the people before the fight that’ve come to support me, to collect all the positive energy. And just keep it light and jovial all the way until the Commission calls into the back and I’m ready to fight. I don’t want to tire myself thinking about the fight or anything like that.
ON GAME PLAN v. REACTION
That’s what you train: to make both of them mutually inclusive where they are one in the same. Ideally, your reaction is your game plan.
ON KILL OR BE KILLED MENTALITY
I believe in that 100%. People might find it inappropriate or off-putting, but without a doubt you have to go in there with absolutely the worst intentions. Because if he goes in there to literally try to kill you, and you go in there simply just to win, more than likely his head-space is going to be far more intense and overwhelming and could potentially smother yours.
I go in with the absolute worst intentions and it’s no disrespect to anybody I fight, it’s no disrespect to any person who thinks it’s inappropriate but we’re dealing with a combat sport, we’re dealing with hyper-aggressive and hyper-confident people.
The only way to snuff them out and defeat them is to go in there with the absolute worst intentions — and that’s what I go in there with.
ON MMA MISCONCEPTIONS
I don’t think MMA is as misconstrued as it used to be. I think there’s definitely a huge change as it’s becoming more mainstream. I think simply ignorance to the sport — not in a negative way, just people simply don’t know either the fighters, or they don’t know the rules or they don’t understand the techniques. So they form an opinion that’s not grounded in anything substantial.
ON TRAINING
If you’re on the level of the UFC, it’s a full-time, eight-hour a day job. For me, I get to train six days a week, and I get anywhere from three-five hours in a day. And that three-five hours does not account for any video work or diet preparation, food prep — all that kind of stuff. That is simply gym time.
ON DEVELOPMENT DURING RECOVERY
I think the biggest thing is I’m coaching young guys who are new to competition. To see their fears, to see their struggles kind of normalized competition for me. Everyone has fear of losing, and everyone has difficulties during training. And I’m coaching these guys through these struggles knowing I might have these struggles soon when my training camp starts.
So it was just really an eye-opening experience where not only did I have to teach these kids, but I have to apply the same principles to myself that I was applying to them.
Sacrifice has never been an issue. I think the biggest thing that was plaguing any of my young guys was nerves before a fight. Or questioning how successful they were going to be. I think that’s a natural thing for everyone. Coming into this fight, I’ve tried to make sure I suppress any of that because it’s simply just a fight at the end of the day. Thousands of people are doing it every weekend. It’s not going out to war.
Really, it’s not that crazy to think about when you realize it’s so common. For me, it was just a matter of — okay, this isn’t as crazy as it may seem to other people. And that will take the stress of the competition off my mind.
ON WRESTLING
Of all the aspects that come into fighting, wrestling controls transitions. If there’s a good striker, I can take him out of his element; if he’s a good grappler, I can prevent him from taking me down. So that aspect from an application standpoint is very important.
It’s the mindset you develop as a college wrestler. I’ve competed on other circuits as well; the grind of wrestling, the mindset of wrestling, the absolute misery you go through for eight months during a wrestling season. Cutting weight, making weight two times a week for six months.
All the parts that are so awful in wrestling lend themselves very well into pruning the right mind and body for MMA.
ON REALITY FIGHTING
I was a college wrestler and I watched UFC since I was in eighth grade — 1999 was when I think I saw my first one, maybe ’98 in seventh grade when I stumbled across it. And I had always thought about it, was always scrapping. And college wrestling, I was a sophomore and over the years I was coming across grapplers and boxers when I was training.
I asked how I could go about getting a fight and someone put me in touch with Kipp Kollar.
Kipp and I hit it off, and Matt Bessette was with me and we just went down to Kipp’s house and trained in his basement.
I took a fight like a month later. Then it was all history from there. It just was the next evolution for me. I knew that after that fight, MMA was going to be the next step in my athletic and competitive career.
ON MARTIAL ARTS
That’s all there is to it. The more and more success you have as a fighter, the more confident you are in your abilities. The less and less of an ego you have when it comes to trying to prove something. You may have an ego now because you’re so confident in your Self and what you do. But there’s no insecure part of you that needs to test yourself against someone who’s not training full-time, who doesn’t understand what you’re doing.
You’ve kind of elevated yourself to a place where the average person who might want to go out and scrap is simply not worth your time. You’ve gone above and beyond what they understand and know.
It’s not even equal footing: as you become more and more proficient at something, you have less and less desire to prove. Because it becomes more and more apparent in your professional world.
ON SUPPORT SYSTEM
It’s been hard for my mom in general. It’s not the path she would’ve chosen for competition. But she’s more supportive than I can ask for. She knows that it gives me satisfaction, it gives me direction. It molded a successful man. So she understands this is part of the sacrifice it takes to be a successful person.
And for my girlfriend, her initial understanding of it was not as thorough as it is now. She trains now, and she sees every day how hard we train. And she trains hard now, too. So she gets how hard practices are. She eats, sleeps and breathes this with me and understands what it takes. She wants nothing but success for me, as well.
The sacrifices her and I have to make in our relationship for this to be successful is worth it to her and I because we know that it’s going to benefit us later on down the road.
She knows that the more sacrifices we make, the higher chance of winning I have and the lower chance of injury I have.
ON THE FUTURE OF MMA AND YOUTH
It ties very much into the prevention of fights. The more and more these kids become confident in themselves and in their abilities, the less and less likely they are to fight; the more confident and successful they’ll be because they believe in themselves. They know they’re capable of hard work and they’re capable of achieving things even when it seems insurmountable.
For females, I really believe in MMA. There’s a epidemic of rape and female oppression. This is the perfect way for females to raise their stock and be able to defend themselves and make it less and less likely for male predators to prey on them. If she can truly defend herself and truly execute the appropriate strikes, her likelihood of being assaulted has decreased incredibly.
I think there’s a huge spot for adult females; I think there’s a huge spot for males. I think there’s a huge spot for kids.
I truly believe that this is one of the greatest avenues to build a safe, confident individual.
ON “SHREDDER” NICKNAME
I didn’t choose that name. My first fight, they called me Shredder joking around, because I always said I was going to go shred on guitar because I play guitar. I was kind of an intense person … I don’t know.
Kipp Kollar and Joe Cuff said it, and Matt Bessette was like, “You know what? Jeff’s the Shredder.” And I was fighting the name forever, and when I came back for this fight, Matt was like, “You’re the Shredder, there’s no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.”
Now I’m the Shredder, no matter what I say.
ON EQUATABLE ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
I don’t know how much I would say what music fits it as much I would say it can work with any style of music. It’s really through the ears of whoever is experiencing it. It can look like classical ballet or it can look like the heaviest, chaotic brutal metal. There’s no limit to what I think it can remind you of. Fighting is like music: it speaks all languages.
It’s a universal language: everyone understands music, and everyone understands fighting.
I would like to thank my brother, sister, mother, stepfather, training partners at Underdog BJJ & Fighting Arts Academy; my coaches at Underdog BJJ Matt Bessette, Rafael Quinones, Russell Leak; my coaches at Fighting Arts Academy Jeremy Libiszewski, Scott Labrie and my strength and conditioning coach Jared Yager. I would also like to thank my sponsors Bristol Gladiators Wrestling, Luigi’s Restaurant, Cutting Edge Chiropractic and Bryan Hall with Baddass Incorporated for making my shirts!
Written By: Matteo Urella / June 2015
Photography:
