A word of warning to office workers everywhere: The next time you feel the urge to curse the geeky-looking IT guy you think caused your laptop to crash, breathe deeply and avoid the smart-alecky comment.
The Mister Peepers-looking guy could be another harmless nerd, but, then again, he could also be Joe Lauzon.
Lauzon is the baby-faced one-time network administrator who looks like he’s still in junior high but fights like he’s the toughest guy on the block.
Which, in most cases, it turns out he is.
Lauzon, 23, is a UFC lightweight good enough that the division’s champion, B.J. Penn, called him “phenomenal” and invited Lauzon from Massachusetts to train with him in Hilo, Hawaii.
He faces Kenny Florian in the main event of Ultimate Fight Night 13 on Wednesday in suburban Denver, an important bout that will push the winner closer to a shot at the title in perhaps the UFC’s most stacked division.
“We’ve got so many great 155s, it’s hard to say who’s next (to meet the winner of the May 24 title bout between Penn and Sean Sherk at UFC 84 in Las Vegas),” UFC president Dana White said. “But this is a huge fight for both of these guys, because a win will be so significant.”
Less than two years ago, Lauzon was content with a full-time career as the guy in charge of maintaining a 130-computer network for Charles River Analytics in Cambridge, Mass., while training for his fighting career part time.
And while he was preparing for what was then the biggest bout of his career, against former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver at UFC 63 in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2006, Lauzon was insisting he didn’t want to become a full-time fighter and that he’d lose interest in fighting if it became a job.
After a 47-second knockout over the veteran Pulver and a successful run on “The Ultimate Fighter 5,” Lauzon rethought his decision.
His fuzzy, youthful looks belies a rugged and fierce competitor.
“The only part of him that isn’t really athletic is his face,” said WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber, who trained with Lauzon in Hawaii at Penn’s camp. “He’s really a strong guy. He can go and go and he’s very athletic. You look at his face and you might think, ‘Ah, this is just another guy,’ but if you get in there with him, you find out he’s got a lot of substance to him (as a fighter).”
Lauzon quit the IT job after his success on “The Ultimate Fighter,” taking up Penn’s offer to train him. But Lauzon didn’t give up his passion for technology just because he became a full-time fighter.
