He’s a vicious striker and ground-and-pound beast with a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a background in karate and Japanese Jujitsu and an 8-1 record as an amateur, and in his four pro bouts he’s KO’d or TKO’d some of the toughest fighters around. His name is Jeff Lentz. And he’s unstoppable.
At Ring of Combat 25, Lentz needed only two minutes to send the dangerous Eddie Fyvie into dreamland – and just a week before that Lentz was taking out top 145-pounder Steve DeAngelis. Terminators aren’t built as resilient, and if the New Jersey fight circuit was oblivious to his presence before, they’re certainly aware of him now.
Nine years at Ocean County Martial Arts Studio has made the Forked River native tough, and two years within Rob Guarino’s Rhino Fight Team crucible plus Carmine Zocchi’s jiu-jitsu instruction has refined that toughness into a dangerous competitor. How did the 20-year-old lightweight come to mixed martial arts?
“I like individual sports,” says Lentz. “Something about individual sports got me hooked. I like wrestling but was never good at it. I was at [Ocean County Martial Arts Studio] doing karate tournaments and amateur kickboxing matches, and I got into grappling a little bit. One day my coach and his friend from a Tae Kwon Do school told me they were going to watch an amateur MMA event. They told me the rules and I was like, ‘Wow, that sounds like the coolest thing ever. Let me go try that.’ It was Joe Diamond’s ‘Cage of Vengeance’, and I got in touch with him through the Internet and he put me on the fight card. I won my first fight that night and kept going from there.”
As a pro, Lentz has defeated longtime veterans Jay Isip and Fyvie in Ring of Combat, and Gold Team Fighters representative Maciej Linke and Team Pellegrino star DeAngelis at Extreme Challenge. DeAngelis was Lentz’s lone visit to the featherweight class – a trip he’s ore than capable of, but prefers not to make. What prompted him to turn pro?
“I rely on my coach, Rob Guarino,” he says. “When I was about to turn 20-years-old, I turned to my coach and said, ‘When can I start making money? When can I start fighting pro?’ I was taking tough fights as an amateur and I didn’t think there was going to be much of a difference. Actually, I thought the pro rules were going to help me a lot. In my karate style, we use a lot of elbows and a lot of knees – kind of like Muay Thai. I love to throw head-kicks, I liked the pro rules better, and I was just waiting for Rob to okay me.”
His toughest opponent thus far?
“I’m not going to take anything away from anybody,” he says. “Jay Isip had a good takedown, and he held me down and controlled me for the beginning of that fight. I knew I was going to catch him, it was just a matter of when. Maciej Linke, I didn’t know too much about him. I was real nervous because I knew he was a black belt in judo, a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Macaco, I knew he was going to be a tough guy who had a bunch of fights in Poland. That kind of ended quick so I really didn’t get to tell. But I’ll tell you right now Steve DeAngelis has one of the hardest chins of anyone I’ve ever fought. Steve DeAngelis is a warrior. He’s a tough guy. Eddie Fyvie, I was expecting more out of him. I would say Steve DeAngelis is the toughest fight I’ve had. I trained with him before and I knew it was going to be tough.”
Lentz is scheduled to face Matt McManmon at ROC 26 on September 11th, but before that he’ll step into the ring overseas for a kickboxing match on a “US vs. Romania” card in that Eastern European country. What is Lentz’s ultimate goal?
“The ultimate goal is to make as much money as possible but to be the best wouldn’t hurt,” he says. “Right now I’m just trying to move up. Whoever will take me, I’ll go there. Just trying to move up in the ranks here.”
Not only has Lentz succeeded in moving up, he’s seemed unstoppable doing it
