Jeff Monson

Early life

Monson was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he also grew up for most of his childhood. He attended Timberline High School and continued on as a Division I wrestler at Oregon State University and at the University of Illinois and was a Pac-10 champion for Oregon. He also competed at senior level at USA Wrestling events for a number of years.

Monson received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he was the assistant coach of the wrestling team.

He worked as a mental health professional for five years, both in a crisis evaluation role for Cascade Mental Health in Lewis County, Washington, as well as a child and family counselor. However, having major success in Abu Dhabi and other MMA shows, he decided to leave the mental health profession to devote himself full-time to mixed martial arts.

Martial arts background and nickname

Monson is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and a two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Champion. He is an MMA fighter and has also had three professional boxing bouts. His boxing record is two wins and one draw.

Monson is considered to be one of the world's top submission grapplers. He is a multiple event winner at NAGA, Grapplers Quest and FILA, among other submission tournaments. He is nicknamed "The Snowman" for his performance at the 1999 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championship. The Brazilian fighters at the tournament gave him the nickname because he came in as an unknown, but beat four Brazilians in a row to win the 88–98 kilogram weight class. As he went along in the tournament and continued to beat his opponents, they said he was like a snowball (white, compact, rolling and getting bigger and stronger as the tournament went on).

Ultimate Fighting Championship

After 14 straight victories, Monson was signed by the UFC

At UFC 57, Monson submitted Branden Lee Hinkle by north–south choke in the first round. At UFC 59, he fought Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Marcio Cruz (ADCC veteran and longtime rival). Monson won by decision after three rounds. At UFC 61, Monson fought another Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in Anthony Perosh, whom Monson defeated by TKO in the first round.

On November 18, 2006 at UFC 65, Monson fought Tim Sylvia for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. He lost a five-round decision and would later ask to be released from his UFC contract in the hopes of facing then-PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko at a BodogFIGHT scheduled for March 2007. However, negotiations fell through and the match did not happen during that time.

PRIDE

At the main event of PRIDE 34, on April 8, 2007, Monson defeated Kazuyuki Fujita via rear-naked choke submission at 6:37 of the opening round.

Post-UFC

His next fight was scheduled to be against Chris Guillen on August 17, 2007 for the Global Fighting Championships' Heavyweight Championship, but the event was canceled after four of the eight scheduled bouts were removed from the card. Monson lost against Pedro Rizzo at Art of War 3, which was held on September 1, 2007. During the bout, Monson displayed a much improved level of striking, and kept the fight standing virtually the entire time.

On September 7, 2007, Monson won a total of two matches in the FILA World Championship in Turkey, defeating France's Zoro Piere and England's Tom Blackledge by submission. Monson was awarded the 275-pound gold medal when his final opponent Ramon Diaz suffered an injury and was forced to bow out.

Monson defeated former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez in the main event of the Mixed Fighting Alliance "There Will Be Blood" event on December 13, 2008. He avenged a loss to Rodriguez from almost seven years prior.

On March 21, 2009, Jeff won a controversial decision against Roy Nelson on Roy Jones Jr.'s hybrid boxing/MMA card "March Badness." He then beat Sergej Maslobojev on a Cage Wars card on March 29, 2009. Jeff immediately went to Japan and defeated top Russian Heavyweight Sergei Kharitonov on April 5, 2009 at Dream 8, giving him three wins in two weeks.

On September 12, 2009 at Bitetti Combat MMA 4, Monson had his seven-fight win streak snapped, losing in a rematch with Pedro Rizzo by unanimous decision.

At 5150 Combat League/Xtreme Fighting League: New Years Revolution, Monson defeated John Brown by split decision on January 16, 2010.

On March 13, 2010, Monson fought in France at 100% Fight II and defeated Francisco Nonato by submission (guillotine choke) in the first round. He lost to Travis Wiuff in a split decision at XKL Evolution 2 on April 24, 2010. On May 14, 2010, he lost in Abu Dhabi to Shamil Abdurahimov by majority decision at the Abu Dhabi Fighting Championship in the Quarter Finals of the 2010 Openweight Grand Prix.

Monson defeated Bira Lima at Impact FC 1 in Australia on July 10, 2010 by unanimous decision.

Monson faced Jason Guida on August 21, 2010 at an event called "Fight Time 1". He defeated Jason Guida at 3:04 in the second round by a guillotine choke submission.

His next fight was scheduled to be against Neil Wain at "KnuckleUp: Kings of the North," but Neil Wain pulled out of the fight due to injuries. Stepping in to replace Wain was the very man who took him out of the fight, Dave Keeley. Monson defeated Keeley by submission (north–south choke) in the first round.

Monson defeated Sergey Shemetov at the inaugural Israel Fighting Championship event on November 9. After the fight, he said he wanted to drop down to the Light Heavyweight division for his next fight and his friend, Ricco Rodriguez, who later won his fight in the main event, said he wanted to fight Monson in the International Fighting Championships (IFC) at Light Heavyweight.

In 2011, Monson defeated Lee Mein on January 7 and Tony Lopez on April 1 in a five-round decision.

Monson's next fight was against Maro Perak where he won a three-round decision.

Monson said that after he fought in April and May, he hoped the UFC would want him back, but this time he would like to fight in the Light Heavyweight division.

Monson stepped in for injured Shane del Rosario to face prospect Daniel Cormier on the June 18 Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum card in Dallas, Texas, and lost via fight via unanimous decision.

Monson defeated Paul Taylor in Birmingham, England at the Sprawl n Brawl promotion on October 9, 2011.

Monson fought Fedor Emelianenko at M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Monson on November 20, 2011 in Moscow, Russia and lost by unanimous decision.

Monson was unbeaten in his four fights after the loss against Fedor, and in June 2012 signed a four-fight deal with the Super Fight League in India. Monson was originally announced to fight at SFL 4 on September 29 against former UFC fighter Todd Duffee but after the event was pushed back twice the SFL decided to change the structure of their shows, with weekly events replacing monthly events. Duffee and SFL agreed on his departure in September and he is currently fighting in the UFC. Following this news, the fight was canceled.

From June 2013 to April 2014, Monson would go 1–6 in seven fights, defeating Denis Komkin, and losing to notable fighters such as Oleksiy Oliynyk, Satoshi Ishii, and Mike Hayes. After a loss to up-and-comer Chaban Ka, Monson defeated Kevin Brooks via north-south choke at Fight Time 20 on August 29, 2014.

Monson faced Dmitry Titkov on September 5, 2014 at Fight Star: Saransk vs. Penza. He lost the fight by cut TKO, after a cut opened up on Monson.

Monson then faced Mikhail Shein at Fight Star: The Battle of the Sura 2. He won the fight via rear-naked choke in the second round.

Monson faced Ivan Shtyrkov on 6th May, the promoter and him decided to do an exhibition match due to Monson having an injury that would have forced him out of a legitimate MMA match. When the match started it quickly became clear that Shtyrkov was treating it as a real fight and shortly after dropping Monson with a straight right finished him with an armbar on his injured arm.

Politics

Monson is an anarcho-communist and outspoken voice of the radical left. He presently hosts a multi-platform (TV/social media) political and social commentary program on RT called, "Monson TV."

In 2015, Monson sought Russian citizenship, citing that he felt "Russian in spirit."

In April 2016, Monson expressed his desire to join the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in a video appeal to the party and praised socialism as "the only way as a human species that we’re going to survive." Soon after, he was invited to meet Communist Party of the Russian Federation leader Gennady Zyuganov in his office in the State Duma, where they discussed the future of communism in Russia and globally. Monson later led a procession across Red Square into Lenin's Mausoleum together with Zyuganov dedicated to the anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's birth. He was appointed as a special representative for international cooperation by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation's Sport Club in June 2016.

Monson was also the subject of a party political advertisement released in the run-up to the 2016 State Duma Elections.

In an interview, Monson expressed his political views as follows: "I am an anarchist, someone who would like to do away with all class hierarchy in society and the institutions that promote this inequality." Monson has received sponsorship from AK Press and has several anarchist symbols and Communist images tattooed on his body.

In solidarity, Monson is also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies).

On September 11, 2016, Monson announced on Twitter that he had become a citizen of the Luhansk People's Republic to support local people who suffered in the War in Ukraine. He was made an honorary citizen of the Republic of Abkhazia in October 2016 for "supporting nations striving for self-determination."

Personal life

Monson has two children from his first marriage, Michaela and Josh. He has a daughter, Willow, from his second marriage. Monson met his second wife on a flight after his fight with Roy Nelson. She was a flight attendant working his flight.

On January 14, 2009, Monson was charged with First Degree Malicious Mischief for vandalizing the Washington State Capitol by spray-painting "an anarchy symbol, a peace symbol and the words 'no poverty' and 'no war'" on the large columns at the front of the building.

A warrant was issued by a Thurston County Superior Court Judge after photographs of Monson committing the crime were printed in ESPN magazine.

On July 29, 2009, Monson pleaded guilty to malicious mischief and entered an Alford plea for graffiti.

In October 2009, he was sentenced to 90 days of work release and ordered to pay $21,894 in restitution. The fine has since accrued interest and now amounts to $24,749.80. As of January 2011, he had only paid $421 of his court-ordered restitution.

Mixed Martial Arts

Submission Grappling

Amateur Wrestling