Middleweight champ Donovan Beard credits move to Genesis Jiu-Jitsu for improved skills, spirit ahead of CFFC 119

CFFC middleweight champion Donovan Beard was expecting to defend his title for the first time this past November, but a series of late opponent changes ultimately resulted in a scrapped appearance at CFFC 115.

"The Highlight Reel" admits he was frustrated at the time but realizes now it may have actually been a blessing in disguise.

"Looking at it in hindsight, it's probably best that I didn't fight because I wasn't in the right frame of mind like I am right now," Beard said. "Everything's been on the up and up since I moved and changed gyms and everything."

Beard had long trained at a gym in his hometown of Hot Springs, Arkansas, but an unfortunate incident resulted in the dissolution of that relationship. Beard briefly lost his temper during a training session after an incidental clash of heads left him badly bleeding. When he went into the gym's bathroom to get a good view of the wound in the mirror, anger got the best of him, and he punched a hole in the wall.

It's an act Beard said he instantly regretted.

"After that, I was just in such an emotional state that I really wasn't talking to nobody because of how embarrassed I was at myself that I acted that way," Beard said. "I ain't done nothing like that since I was a teenager playing video games. You would have thought somebody would have grown up by now and not do stuff like that, but dammit, you know, stuff happens. 

"I got a call from my head coach who owns the building telling me how disappointed he is, how mad he is, how I shouldn't have done that, and I apologized profusely and assured him that I wouldn't do nothing like that. I just acted out of emotion, and it wasn't nothing out of spite or anything like that, and he basically told me that this is grounds for termination. I was already training my clients there, so I couldn't do that anymore either."

With his training future uncertain, not to mention his employment, Beard turned to his family in the Dallas area to begin a new path.

"I call my mom one day and was like, 'Hey, you got any extra room in your place?'" Beard recalled. "She does, and she told me to come on up, and I've been staying with her for a few months and been training at Genesis Jiu-Jitsu, and everything's been great ever since."

Training alongside longtime friends Kris Vereen and Malik Lewis and under the tutelage of Albert Hughes and Mark De La Rosa, Beard even donned a gi for the first time and was recently awarded his blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

"We weren't doing anything in a gi at my old gym ever, and grappling in the gi is a whole new thing to me, and it still is because I'm learning all types of new things on a regular basis from all types of the top-level athletes and black belts," Beard said. "I'm just totally grateful for that promotion and the gym and the people in the gym, and everything's just been going great since I've been there, honestly."

Beard (7-2) finally steps back in the cage at Thursday's CFFC 119, where he puts his belt on the line against Florida's own Greg Ellis (7-4) in the night's main event, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa.

It's Beard's first appearance since his frustrating call-up to Dana White's Contender Series, where he admits the buzz surrounding Bo Nickal caused his own concentration to fail when it mattered most.

"He did what he was supposed to do," Beard said. "He got the win and got the exposure and everything else, but I'm just like, 'Man, I'll fight that dude. Give me another chance right now. I'm not letting that slide.'

"That was the only person that ever beat me, hands down – beat me without a judge – and I didn't like that too much. Not only because he beat me, because I beat myself. Before I walked in there, I had all these doubts from all these people who I thought were my friends and family and teammates and everything else, and I'm trying to overcome their way of thinking and override it with my way of thinking, but it was that one moment where I had let that negative energy into my mind, and that's what caused me to lose."

Thursday's headliner gives Beard a chance to put that all behind, and he's excited to do exactly that. With an impressive victory, perhaps another crack at Dana White's Contender Series will come his way this summer, but Beard isn't worried about those details at the moment. Right now, everything seems to be moving in the right direction, and he's anxious to continue the path.

"Well, I definitely plan on staying in Dallas to work on my craft and my martial arts skills at Genesis Jiu-Jitsu as long as they'll have me," Beard said. "We're going to get these wins and maybe go back to the Contender Series or maybe we have a short-notice fight in the UFC. Whatever is in the plan, I'm going to make sure I'm going to do everything I can to accomplish those goals."