So what does it take these days to generate over 220,000 views for a single Youtube video? Well, you can be a European TV host and lose your lunch with cameras rolling, maybe throw the name “Snookie” in the clip title and hop on the Jersey Shore TV show bandwagon, or … you can take a far more difficult path to internet stardom, as Tiger Schulmann fighter Nick Pace did, by delivering one of the top 10 knockouts in Mixed Martial Arts for 2009. (Pace KO video below)

Pace (135lb / 2-0), from Staten Island, arrived with flare last June on the under card of the Bellator Fighting Championships Welterweight tournament final in Uncasville, CT. He beat down Collin Tebo early in the first round with a flying knee (shades of Jose Aldo) and a finishing right hand to his limp opponent that would make Dan Henderson proud. It was the finish of the night, the second best highlight of the Bellator season 1 series – after Toby Imada’s acrobatic triangle choke – and put MMA insiders on notice to the talent and flash of the 22 year old teammate of Bellator Welterweight champ Lyman Good.

“He (Tebo) was talking crap. After weigh-in he looked me in the eye and said ‘make sure you get a good night sleep you are going to need it.’ He was saying he was Division-1 wrestler, so I took him down … and he said he was a K1 kick-boxer, so I knocked him out with the knee.” The video-game ready right knee brought the casino crowd to it’s feet with a chorus of “oooohs” and then Pace brought on the “ahhhhs” with a brutal right hand to the skull of the flat-on-his-back opponent.

“My mother said ‘why did you have to hit him afterwards’ and I said, would you rather it to be me down there.”

A night to remember in the Pace family and for a fighter who has known this would be his life since he was in grade school.

“When I was 10 years old, I knew the second I started, I told my father – this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a Sensei. That was my main goal, to be a Sensei, an instructor. My goal is still to be a Sensei and I am really close to that now. I have my own students now, which is awesome. Now my goal is to be champion of the world.”

It was an unconventional career choice for the kid from Staten Island whose dad drives a truck delivering milk in Manhattan and mom is a hospital worker.

“My mom and dad are behind me 100%. They say, if I am going to do it, do it 100% - don’t slack.”

After the Tebo fight last June, Pace took some time off to manage personal issues but is now full steam ahead with his career and ready to take off in 2010. He is fighting February 19^th at the Ring of Combat against Lennox Chance in Atlantic City, NJ but also has one eye cautiously looking ahead to larger opportunities. Bellator Fighting Championships has extended the option for Pace to fight in the season three tournament, starting in August, which will include the 135lb weight class. Pace also indicated his manager at Tiger Schulman is actively talking with Strikforce about future opportunities. However, Pace stressed his immediate plate is quite full; he is the full-time head instructor at the Bay Ridge Brooklyn Tiger Schulmann school and must get past Chance at ROC 28.

“I take every fight really seriously. There is no video on him (Chance) so I am going to feel him out. I am going to stand with him, whatever happens happens, if I want to take him down, which I probably will, I want to take him down and ground and pound him.”

With his MMA career on the brink of bigger things, Pace vows to stay humble each step of the way. Yet, when pressed to comment on the stars of his division, namely former WEC champ Miguel Torres, he indicated he is taking notes on the big boys.

“What they have on me is experience. I see Miguel Torres and he is a badass. When I am watching him fight, I am watching how I would fight him/them. Torres is awesome, but when he is backing up, he is swinging wild. His stand-up isn’t so sharp. When I watch the WEC, I watch because this is my livelihood and need to see what the competition is out there doing.

Talking UFC, Pace added this nugget on New Jersey’s Frankie Edgar who is fighting MMA legend BJ Penn at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi … “Maybe Edgar is the guy to tear up BJ Penn, I give him a chance.”

It is a fun time for Pace. He has a wicked highlight reel with his famous flying right knee, a school full of eager students, and the potential for a fight filled docket in 2010. There are no guarantees in MMA, but however things turn out Nick Pace is pursuing his dream and knows he is doing exactly what he should be doing.

“The first time I stepped in the cage, it is an unbelievable feeling, you hear the cage lock behind you and it’s you and the other guy. I speak for all fighters, and before a fight you get butterflies, but the second you start moving – boom – you are in the zone and that goes away and it is just you and the other guy.”

By John Moody (Founder/Editor)