Mike Whitehead

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 The Ultimate Fighter and UFC
4 IFL, Affliction and Strikeforce
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Mike Whitehead (born June 29, 1981) is an American professional mixed martial artist and former castmember of The Ultimate Fighter 2.

He stands 6 ft. 1 in. (185 cm) tall and fights in the light heavyweight division (205 lbs.).

Whitehead is a veteran of the UFC, IFL and Affliction. He is currently signed to fight for Strikeforce.

Early Career

Mike Whitehead made his professional mixed martial arts debut on March 10, 2001 for the Gladiators Vale Tudo promotion. He defeated Kim Bower in his debut via TKO.

Over a year later, in April of 2002, Whitehead entered a 16-man heavyweight tournament put on my the SuperBrawl promotion. The event was scheduled over two events held one day apart. Whitehead faced Tim Sylvia in the opening round and was stopped with punches at the 3:46 mark of round 1.

Whitehead was allowed back in the tournament as an alternate after Wesley "Cabbage" Correira was injured after his quarter final victory over Travis Wiuff. Whitehead faced off against Ben Rothwell in the semi finals and picked up a unanimous decision win to move into the finals.

In the final, Whitehead faced Tim Sylvia in a rematch and was dropped and stopped again - this time by a knee and punches at the 2:38 mark of round 1.

Having nearly another year off from competition, Whitehead returned to action at a HOOKnSHOOT event in March of 2003. Whitehead was defeated for the third time in his career by Alex Paz via split decision after two rounds.

Whitehead's long lay-off between fights continued as he went without for 15 months before returning to action with a neck crank submission win over Karl Knothe at an Extreme Challenge event.

Whitehead rolled off two more victories before entering a one-night four man heavyweight tournament held by World Extreme Cagefighting to crown their heavyweight champion. Whitehead defeated Terroll Dees in the opening round via neck crank. In the finals however, he faced aggressive up and comer, Brandon Vera and was stopped midway through the second round.

Whitehead rebounded from the loss with three straight victories which included, UFC veteran Aaron Brink and the most prolific MMA competitor in the world, Travis Fulton.

The Ultimate Fighter and UFC

In 2005, Whitehead earned a spot as one 8 heavyweight competitors on The Ultimate Fighter 2.

Heading into the tournament/TV show, Whitehead was considered one of the favorites to take out the tournament. He was first pick by coach, Matt Hughes and was matched up against the perceived weakest member of Rich Franklin's team, Rashad Evans. Whitehead did not look comfortable in the bout and was eliminated from the competition when the judges' unanimously awarded the fight for Evans.

Following the end of the show, Whitehead dropped to the light heavyweight division and was given a shot in the UFC against fellow TUF 2 competitor, Keith Jardine at UFC 57. Whitehead looked better than he did on the show but faded in the contest and lost another unanimous decision.

Whitehead left the UFC following the defeat.

IFL, Affliction and Strikeforce

Just over a month after his UFC departure, Whitehead got back into action taking a kimura submission win over Robert Beraun at a Rage in the Cage event.

By the end of September, 2006, Whitehead had picked up another five victories with four of the five coming by way of first round submission.

In November of 2006, Whitehead made his debut for the International Fight League. He faced former MMA superstar, Mark Kerr in his debut and defeated the fallen star by TKO in just 2:40 of round 1.

A month later, Whitehead picked up his eighth successive victory when he scored a unanimous decision win over Krzysztof Soszynski.

Whitehead kicked off 2007 with stoppage wins over Wojtek Kaszowski and Vernon White in the IFL.

After the White victory, Whitehead left the IFL and picked up three victories on the smaller shows before signining with clothing company turned mixed martial arts promoter, Affliction. He made his Affliction debut at Affliction: Banned against former UFC title challenger, Renato "Babalu" Sobral. Whitehead was outworked by Babalu en route to unanimous decision loss.

Three months later, Whitehead scored a first round guillotine choke submission win over Leo Pla at an M-1 Challenge event.

Whitehead will next return at Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields where he will face former UFC heavyweight champion, Kevin Randleman on the main card.