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Riche ‘Vas” Vaculik has always been a surfer. Always. Living on the beaches of Maroubra all he wanted to do was big wave surfing full time with his fellow Bra Boys.
The problem was he proved to be good at fighting, extremely good actually.
Now after a stint in The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show and fresh off a win against Roldan Sangcha-an, he is looking forward to opening the UFC Fight Night card in Sydney on November 8 in Australia’s biggest MMA event of the year.
A long time boxing fan, Vas began training Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Bruno Pana and Alex Parates in order to keep fit when he wasn’t surfing. In 2006 he had his first MMA fight against Michael Mortimer in Queensland, coming away with a win.
At this point Richie regarded himself as a surfer who fought and trained as a hobby, however it was an eight-second destruction of Ross McCloud in his third fight which really opened his eyes, making him realise he could go a long way in fighting if he wanted to.
A tough loss to the more experienced Gustavo Falciroli was the only blip on his otherwise stellar record when the UFC came calling. His first fight was against Justin Scoggins in a performance he says was affected by “UFC jitters” and “bad luck”.
Watching the fight it is apparent there is a legitimate case for grievance as referee Steve Perceval stepped in to stop the contest as Richie was improving his position. Vas however, does not dwell on the issue and puts it down to “a good learning experience”.
He definitely learned something though, and in his next fight Richie took a dominant decision over the then undefeated Sancha-an. Richie is now keen to build on that win and develop a win streak under the UFC banner.
His next fight is a tussle against the highly regarded Irishman Neil Seery in two week’s time. Choosing to remain in Sydney for this training camp Richie has been training MMA with TP Gym, wrestling with Cabra PCYC Wrestling, striking with Kick Tactics and strength and conditioning. He’s is very aware of the necessity of reaching out to experts in all forms of fighting and is grateful he has such a high level of training partners and coaches in the Sydney area.
On the subject of Seery, Richie describes him as an “exciting fighter” and is looking forward to locking horns. Vas is not known for going to the final bell and a match-up between these two fighters looks to be a strong possibility for Fight of the Night.
Away from the cage Richie has been busy filming the third series of his reality TV show The Crew, featuring himself and two friends. Also check out the trailer for his documentary feature Fighting Fear, which has been approved for usage in schools by the NSW Education board.
Despite these diversions, however, attention is firmly focussed on the date with Neil Seery.
Australia will be watching as Richie takes centre stage in under two weeks and are looking forward to him pulling out the win.
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