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[Sakara=Excitement]

After Mark Coleman loss, UFC 110's Stephan Bonnar no longer a dream interpreter | MMAjunkie.com

You could say UFC light heavyweight Stephan Bonnar (11-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC) has woken up and smelled the coffee.

In his most recent fight, the original "Ultimate Fighter" alumnus was paired with Mark Coleman at UFC 100 after "The Hammer's" disastrous debut at UFC 93. Many thought it would be a walk in the park for Bonnar.

Prior to the July 11 fight, Bonnar had a dream that he was going to knock the former UFC heavyweight champion out with a spinning back kick.

Bonnar, who next faces Krzystzof Soszynski at UFC 110 on Feb. 21, became consumed by the need to land that kick. He would make it happen. He would find the opportunity and bam — glory.

Despite carrying the nickname "The American Psycho," Bonnar is no more a crackpot than most MMA fighters. But until then, he rarely would dream about fighting, much less his opponent.

"That's why I took it so seriously," Bonnar told MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) on Wednesday. "It's lik, 'Ah! God sent me a message! I'm going to take Coleman out with a spinning back kick.'"

Instead, Coleman did what he does best and smothered Bonnar's superior striking with patented ground-and-pound. Bonnar threw the kick in the second round but missed, and suddenly, he was on the canvas, where he spent most of the fight's remainder.

The old dog showed the young buck a thing or two.

"If [the kick] would have landed, everyone would have said how great I was, but it didn't, and I get a bunch of [expletive] for it," Bonnar said. "That's how it is."

Now, he lets his coaches dream about the fight and follows their lead.

"I'm putting it more in their hands," Bonnar said. "Whereas in the past it's been more in my hands."

Bonnar, a Las Vegas transplant, continues to work with jiu-jitsu coach Sergio Pena and has linked up with Muay Thai sanctuary One Kick's Gym. He joins Frank Mir, Gray Maynard, Jay Hieron and Phil Baroni at Phillipe Sports Institute (or PSI, run by former World's Strongest Man competitor Mark Phillipe) for grueling weight-training sessions.

He insists he hasn't joined Mir in packing on 30 pounds worth of muscle, as recent reports have described. But he's getting stronger, and the trio of gyms is a good fit.

"I can't put on too much weight," Bonnar said. "I put on a little. They make you lift. It's hardcore. It's been a couple months going through hell getting ready for it."

Although it's been almost seven years since he crossed a continent to fight, Bonnar is not worried about acclimating to time halfway around the world.

"I think a lot of people like to make it more than it is," he said. "The first day of training you feel like [expletive], but then it gets better, so you've going to just work it out of you."

Nor is he particularly worried about Soszynski, who most recently lost a unanimous decision to Brandon Vera at UFC 102.

"He really looks like a fighter," Bonnar said. "If my grandma were to see him, she'd take one look at him and say, 'Geez, this tattoo-covered, ugly baboon must be one of those cage fighters.' Bald. Covered in tattoos. Kind of looks like Shrek."

Asked about the Canadian Sosynski's submission prowess — prior to knocking out jiu-jitsu ace Andre Gusmao, Soszynski submitted Shane Primm and Brian Stann with two consecutive kimuras — Bonnar scoffs.

"Oh, please," he said. "Submitted Brian Stann, white belt? Who else did he submit? Another white belt? He ain't going to catch me in a kimura. Are you kidding me?

"I'm still going to do my homework, but I'm not too worried about him catching me. Don't get me wrong; I'm not disrespecting his ground abilities. But I know my abilities and people I've been rolling with. I'll be good."

In other words, if Soszynski thinks he's going to beat Bonnar, dream on.

"You'd think I'd know everything by now," Bonnar said of his recent fighting lessons. "But training's really good. I like where I'm at now."

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Yeeeeesh, you think Bonnar'd be a little less confident/arrogant considering how far down Coleman stuffed that humble pie at 100, not to mention how badly he got ragdoll'd by Mr. Jones and that his last win was in 2007!!!

Polish Experiment is a pretty tough task and has such power and toughness, I think Bonnar may just want to be a little bit more worried considering how he tends to get tossed around ALOT in fights against truly physical opponents.

He's almost barely even a gatekeeper at this point IMO, because he's still a technically proficient and smart fighter, but doesn't seem to really apply himself to his fights, he seems flat alot and really doesn't seem to have the athleticism or killer instinct to really make anything of himself in the LHW division, other than living off his name. I mean how many bad losses can Bonnar take before Dana finally realises that his whole "TUF Finale debt" to Stephan can only go sooooo far.

[willpunisher]

he should really sign up with Strikeforce.
he is nothing at the LHW at ufc really. He can't hang with the big dogs.
i thought he would kill Coleman.. but shit..

[The8thPlague]

yeah I wanna give Bonnar the benefit of the doubt, but he's mostly just a name now for "the guy that had that great fight with Forrest Griffin"(but then hasn't really done shit afterwords).

Plus I'm a fan of Sosynski's, so I'm rooting for him all the way.

[hot_rod1886]

I really believe he has reached his ceiling point as a fighter and will not grow and evolve anymore then he already has. I mean the rematch he had with Forrest shows how far both fighters had evolved and Forrest had evolved to much greater heights then his opponent Stephan Bonnar. Therefore I do not see him making much of a splash against the majority of the light heavyweight contenders in the UFC.

[The Sensational One]

I think Stephen is gonna come with something to prove, i know his opponent is a tough one but i like Stephen in this. I expect to see a much beter Bonnar this fight and im calling it right now Bonnar by 2nd round tko/ko, but if im wrong and he does lose then i do agree it might be time to head to strikeforce or hang up the gloves.

[Goremire]

I'll always support Bonnar. I'm supporting him against Soszynski in his upcoming fight, and I'll support him in the fight after that. Fuck it, I'd support him in a rematch against Machida. Yes, I'm aware that believing that makes me a moron, and yes, I'm comfortable with it.

Having said that, a really quick way to stop endearing yourself to what few fans you have remaining is to start talking this level of smack when your're 2-3 from your last 5(with your two wins being against Mark Nicholls and Eric Schaefer.) Soszynski is a big, bad man, and continues Bonnar's trend of being smaller and less athletic than his opponents.

When you've lost two in a row you can't afford to be talking shit. Bonnar needs a win and he doesn't wanna give Soz anymore motivation than he already needs.

[Y2JUBAE]

"If [the kick] would have landed, everyone would have said how great I was, but it didn't, and I get a bunch of [expletive] for it," Bonnar said. "That's how it is."

I mean, if he was as great as he thought he was, the kick would have landed. I like Bonnar, he just seems like the same fighter he was when he fought Forrest the first time... Just not getting better.

[U shut ur FACE]

Not really sure why he would obsess about a stupid fucking kick because he had a dream; especially when you're facing a strong wrestler and because... I dunno you're in an actual fight and dreams really don't mean anything? Well, I guess I wouldn't bare any sort of symbolic guidance on it considering I was going to get into a cage and someone was looking to hurt me... I think he actually thought Coleman would be out of shape and he would be able to do some flashy move that would look great on a highlight reel to end the fight... Unfortunately, Coleman trained and now you're left with another loss while he's fighting Randy Couture, but hey, you ALMOST landed that kick.