"The Big Cat"

Clifford Starks, born 4/25/1981/ Pomona, California. Originally from Cali -have lived in Arizona most of my life my parents moved here when I was 6 years old. I started in athletics at a young age (around 15) because I wanted to get some of my weight off. I weighed about 260 and was very unhealthy and over weight, so I wanted to make a change.

My first sport of choice was wrestling, which taught me about discipline and proper work ethic. The weight began to shed and soon enough I was wrestling for Mountain Pointe High School at 215 lbs.

I enjoyed my years wrestling there and even won a state championship! After that I transferred to Mesa Community College for a couple of years but missed the thrill that wrestling bought, so I transferred to Arizona State University to join the wrestling team. I had a blast there! I placed in the PAC-10 at heavyweight and had a couple of matches in nationals even though I weighed about 205 at the time.

I also became a regular wrestling partner of Cain Velasquez as an ASU wrestling affiliate. After graduating in 2005 I began to pursue Personal Training which I enjoyed thoroughly. Teaching others how to get in shape and maintain it became my passion, but I still felt that something was missing. That's when I thought to attempt to pursue MMA. I saw that a lot of wrestlers were doing well in it so I decided why not give it a try.

I started participating in  MMA in 2009. I was doing well early on and decided I could enjoy this for a living, but I still felt I need to take my training more serious because I wanted to get to the highest level the UFC. I heard about ACS and knew that they were known for getting people to that next level and I decided to I start training with ACS around May 2010. They have improved my overall game and have helped me in  my Muay Thai, kickboxing, and BBJ. At first I  consider myself a wrestler, but now I feel like a well rounded fighter.

Making the switch was defiantly a positive thing and I made my UFC debut on Oct 29th 2011. ACS prepped me very well for my debut and I ended up winning 30-27 on all three judges score cards on a very solid opponent. I am currently 8-0 and just want to keep improving in my skill sets.
 I am very gratefully to have a solid team and isport by my side!