Matt Cain

Record: 9 – 6 – 2

Height: 184cm /6′1″

Weight: 84kg

Rank: Purple Belt Integrated MMA

Matt was born in Otahuhu in South Auckland NZ and lived there with his mum and grand parents until he was 5.  Matts family then moved to Dunedin which is in the southern area of the south island of NZ where he lived until he was 10 before moving to Melbourne, Australia. Finally he moved to sunny Queensland in 1992.

Matt always excelled in sports making representative sides in basketball, cricket, football and softball. He never really had a great interest in doing martial arts, although he definitely respected each and every martial art, even more so now.  The extent of  his martial arts as a young fella was watching Bruce Lee movies, but as for actually getting his hands dirty eh…not so much. A mate got him into watching these UFC videos for a while and we thought they were great, they had no idea about this bjj stuff but were amazed that a guy so much smaller than everyone else could beat them with such ease!! This was about 2001, so with a passion to become one of these grappling wizards he hunted down a bjj school in Norman Park; it wasn’t Gracie Jiu Jitsu but they were willing to give it a try.

Once Matt had started to prove himself in the gym, and being one of 5 Matt’s in the class, it was decided that he needed a nickname.  This is the start of the “Rolling Bear” name which now follows Matt into the cage for his fights.  One night after training, Matt and a couple of the boys sat out the front of the gym and went through some possibilities.  After about an hour of deliberating one of the boys said, “So what’s your ancestry?” Matt told them that as far back as his family has been able to trace his ancestory they are descendants of the American Indians, so using “Running Bear” as a base and combining that with the grappling the choice became obvious  and “Rolling Bear” was born.

After a couple years of training he decided that his next goal had to be an MMA fight.  Matt stepped into the ring and the result wasn’t the best (a draw), so being the guy he is he couldn’t leave it at that – He needed a win!  Since then hes fought Australias very best welterweights, mostly wins and a few losses, some great wins and some losses he says he’d rather forget.  Early in 2007 Matt decided to make the switch and train under Dan Higgins at Integrated MMA, he says that this was the best choice he could have made and only regrets not doing it sooner.  Since the move he’s reached an all new level of fighting.  Whilst not the most naturally gifted fighter he works hard at it and training at the Integrated gym under Dan Higgins coaching keeps him keen wanting to keep coming back and improving.

Matts best win was in August of 2007 when I beat a very skilled and respected fighter from Perth named Jon Valuri for the WR Australian Welterweight Title. Matt puts that win down to the training he receives and the support he get from the whole team. It’s like a family! …..it is a family!!!!

Matt made his International debut on Cage Force in Japan taking the fight on very short notice V UFC fighter Yoshiyuki Yoshida, although losing it was an experience that he’d like to have again if the opportunity arose. Matts ultimate goal would be to fight in the USA where he would love to fight in front of their vocal crowds.