When people think of Matt Schnell, a majority of people will remember the Louisiana native from the MTV reality show Caged.
Schnell (6-2) was one of the main fighters featured on the show, which aired on MTV at the beginning of 2012. While Schnell understands that he has become a known fighter from the reality show, he is trying to move past that.
Just over one year ago, Schnell was invited to come down to American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida by fellow Louisiana native Dustin Poirier. He went down there for ten days and following that visit, Schnell realized that he needed to make the move to the South Florida training team.
“I went out there [American Top Team] and I enjoyed it,” Schnell told The MMA Report. “I came back and started training and I just kind of realized that I did not have the bodies around me. The guys are great but it’s more about the numbers than anything. When I went to American Top Team, I never had to train with anybody that was over 135 pounds and it was nice to have so many bodies.”
“I just made the decision that if I was really taking this thing seriously that I was going to put myself in the position to be successful. That is what I did. I packed everything in the back of my car and I drove. That is everything we have been doing since so I am trying to give this thing a real shot and I do not want to have any excuses about anything.”
Schnell is coming off a 17 second submission win last weekend and he will now return in less than one month when he meets Elias Garcia in a flyweight bout on the preliminary card of Titan FC 33 from Mobile AeroFest in Mobile, Alabama. When it comes to breaking down his opponent, Schnell explained that Garcia is a tricky kind of fighter.
“He is a tricky guy and a good grappler,” Schnell said about Garcia. “That is something we are preparing for and he has a lot of great setups. He is a different kind of fighter because he will shoot to pull guard. He is trying to make it a grappling match and obviously, he trains at Rofusport so I have no doubts this kid can kick box as well. I am just going to go in there and fight him. See what happens. I definitely think he is a worthy opponent and it will be a good fight. I will tell you what, I can finish anybody quickly. I am a high level guy myself so I think it will be interesting.”
We all know the goal is to walk away with a victory and Schnell can see the victory coming by stoppage or by decision. After coming off a quick win last weekend, Schnell admitted that he wants to get some cage time, but if the stoppage is there, he will take it.
“I want some cage time. I want to get in there and have some experience. That was the plan with this last fight. This kid that I fought was not necessarily super high skilled. When I was approached with the fight, I knew I would have the advantage over him skill wise but he was durable and he had shown that in his career. He fought three rounds and that is what I was looking forward to in that fight. The less time that I am in there, the less time on my body but I do want the experience factor of getting in there and mixing it up a little bit and putting things together. That is how you improve fight to fight so that is what I would like. Either way, it does not matter.”