Brian Ebersole
Brian Ebersole
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Brian Ebersole

Brian Keith Ebersole (born November 27, 1980) is an American retired mixed martial artist who competed in the UFC's Welterweight division, and holds a record of 5–3 with the organization. In addition to the UFC, Ebersole has competed in Shooto, Strikeforce, the San Jose Razorclaws of the IFL and King of the Cage. Ebersole retired after having 71 professional MMA fights between 2000 and 2016.

Ebersole grew up in Bradley, Illinois. His grandfather started the Bradley-Bourbonnais Youth Wrestling Club in Illinois which served as Ebersole's introduction to amateur wrestling. He began wrestling when he was in kindergarten, was a standout wrestler in middle and high school and earned academic and athletic scholarships to Eastern Illinois University (EIU). He started training with Matt Hughes off and on during his time at EIU, which served as his introduction to mixed martial arts.

In November 2000 Ebersole was arrested following a fight with a Southern Illinois University hockey player. Although the charges were later dropped, Ebersole lost his wrestling scholarship as a result and dropped out of college soon after. Ebersole was a great student, but lost motivation to continue with his education as he could no longer wrestle, leaving with a year's worth of classes not finished. After leaving EIU Ebersole worked on a pig farm before eventually moving to California to train at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) with Jon Fitch and Bob Cook.

Ebersole is proud of the fact that he calls the world his home, traveling across the globe for his training camps. He trains at Tiger Muay Thai In Phuket as he is the Head Coach and also trains at ESS performance In Melbourne, Australia.

Ebersole is known among MMA fans for his odd manscaping habits, having his chest hair groomed into designs such as arrows, stars, and even the Tapout logo at UFC 140.

Ebersole is currently the head wrestling coach at his alma mater, Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School.[citation needed]

In 2006, Ebersole was living in California, he worked in construction and was also working part-time as a bartender as well as fighting professionally. He claims that the inability to maintain fighting as a full-time profession affected his performances in the cage. In September of that year he took a fight against Shannon Ritch, winning the fight by submission. But the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) claimed that he and Ritch had worked the fight, and that despite dominating the bout, Ebersole had helped keep Ritch in the fight for longer than he otherwise would have been able to. The CSAC overturned his victory to a no contest and suspended Ebersole. Because of this and the lack of overall MMA opportunities for Ebersole in the US, he decided to pick up and move to Australia, where he had an impressive run on the regional circuit, running up a record of 12 wins and 3 losses over five years.

In 2007, Ebersole was on a trip in the United States to say goodbye to friends and family before setting up permanent residence in Australia. While there he decided to take a short notice fight for the IFL against Alex Schoenauer. Not only did he lose the fight via split decision, but he failed his post-fight drug test for marijuana. Ebersole claimed he had eaten marijuana brownies before taking the fight, and didn't have time to make sure they cleared his system. This resulted in his second suspension by the CSAC, and reinforced his belief in the necessity of his move to Australia to further his fighting career.

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