For Ian Brofsky, training is a way of life, fighting is a passion, and learning is a steady, evenly-paced endeavor. In short, he wants to turn pro, but at 19, he’s in no hurry, and says he has a lot to learn.
With a 2-1 amateur record, the Milford, Pa. resident and BJJ purple belt faces his biggest challenge to date in the experienced and dangerous Dave Spadell Jr., (5-4). The two meet in a welterweight bout at CageFight 10 on Feb. 10 in Wilkes-Barre.
Here’s what I said of Ian’s debut fight at CageFight 8: “Ian looked very comfortable in the cage, and submitted (John) Balazinski by head and arm choke, at 1:07 of round one.” His second fight, against Isaiah Sackey-El, didn’t go so well, and he lost by unanimous decision. “I cut 12 pounds the night before the fight,” he said recently. But Brofsky bounced back quickly, earning a unanimous decision over Jason LaPage at CageFight 9 in November.
Of his fights so far, he said, “I just try to learn from each one and get better each time.” Helping him in that regard is his father, Harry Brofsky, a lifelong martial artist and BJJ brown belt. The elder Brofsky, along with Jim Terry, a Saulo Ribeiro black belt, run Tri-State MMA. Brofsky also gets stand-up training from his father, and his father’s first sensei, Ralph Mitchell.
When asked about Spadell, Brofsky said, “I think he’s a good fighter; he’s not afraid to exchange (but) I think I have what it takes to beat him. … In the last two fights, I was kind of disappointed. I feel I’m way better than I’ve shown. … I feel I’m really going to catch my flow in this fight. I feel I’m pretty well-rounded and I can take it where it needs to go.”
When he’s not training, Brofsky said he likes to do what any other 19-year-old does: relax and hang out with friends. He agrees with the adage, “don’t take your work home with you,” preferring not to think about training when he’s not doing it. “I try to keep it real separate,” he said.
And possibly, it’s this balance that Brofsky has achieved in his career so far that will keep him going for a long time to come.
“I’m not in any rush; I feel I’m progressing at a good pace,” he said. He added that he doesn’t train “to be famous,” but agrees that it’s a fringe benefit that comes with winning. To Brofsky, it’s the journey rather than the end that is important. “If I lost every fight for the rest of my life, I’d still train,” he said.
Brofsky on CageFight: “I love it, they are completely professional. They really try to make good match-ups. Maury (Nehme, who along with Jonathan Kernis and Chris Coyne, promote CageFight) always treats me awesome.”
