‘Honey Bear’ Heun to take part in World Series of Fighting
Professional mixed-martial arts fighter Jake Heun of Anchorage will return to the octagon Saturday for the first time in almost a year.
He won’t be rusty, though.
The 26-year-old former University of Hawaii football player is in the best shape of his life after a grueling two-month training camp in preparation for his debut with the World Series of Fighting, which will be televised on NBC.
Alaska’s ‘Honey Bear’ will face Kendrick ‘Big Problem’ Miree of Georgia in a light heavyweight preliminary bout on the WSOF 11 card in Daytona Beach, Fla.
“I’m feeling good,” he told me. “I put in a long camp because I haven’t had a fight in a long time. I’ve been [in Florida] for the past eight weeks. Camp went really well. I’m just excited to finally fight so I can drink some beer and be a regular person again.”
Heun, of Palmer High fame, has won five of his first eight pro MMA fights.
He has prepared for this fight by cleaning up his ground game and working on his ju-jitsu skills. Last time out he lost by submission. He doesn’t want to get caught again.
Miree has a background in wrestling and has won three of his five fights via an arm bar, forcing his opponent into submission.
Heun is a standup striker who prefers to exchange blows. At the same time, though, he’s not one dimensional either.
“If the striking stuff doesn’t go my direction, there are other routes I can take,” he said. “I’d prefer to stand up and throw kicks and punches and to end it real quick.
“People don’t pay to watch guys wrestle. People want to see blood, man.”
Heun talks like he fights – straightforward. He doesn’t hide from who he is, or what he does for a living.
He fights, and he has to have confidence he will win.
“You don’t want to overlook your opponent but at the same time if confidence is an issue you’re probably in the wrong game,” he said with a laugh. “There are other, safer things for you to do if you want to doubt yourself a little bit. This is definitely not one of them.”