Bio
Name: Brad Imes
Born: Springfield, MO
Birthdate: 3/16/1977
Hometown: Columbia, MO / Maryville, MO
Training out of: Bettendorf, IA
Team: MFS Elite
Record: 13-4
Height: 6'7"
Weight: 265lbs
Brad Imes was born March 16, 1977 to Carolyn Imes at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, MO. The family moved around a bit before Brad’s mother remarried and settled in Maryville, MO in 1983. Brad was raised by his step-dad Harold Gooding, who encouraged him to take an interest in sports, particularly wrestling, at the age of five. In a small town, kids that play sports tend to play every sport, and Brad was no exception. His youth was a series of sports seasons linked together by wrestling, football, baseball, basketball, soccer, track and golf.
Brad’s mother divorced in 1990 and the family moved to Columbia, MO. His cousins had always referred to Brad as a city boy because he lived in Maryville, a bustling town of 9,000 people. However, even that metropolis didn’t prepare him for the change of pace that a town of 75,000 would bring. Even though Columbia would be considered a small town to many, it may as well have been New York City to a kid who never had a house key cause the house never needed to be locked. In spite of this, Brad made friends quick and continued his pursuit of excellence on the mat and the playing field.
Fate can be cruel, however, and Brad; who as a child had always been the biggest, strongest, and fastest of his age; found that all his classmates were becoming men, while he remained a boy. He still participated in football and wrestling in high school, but undersized and underdeveloped, never made a splash in high school athletics.
After graduating high school in 1995 at the modest size of 5’10” and 165 lbs, Brad hit a rather impressive growth spurt. Growing 7 inches over the next year and putting on 60 lbs, he decided to walk on the football team at the University of Missouri as a sophomore in the fall of 1996. Brad spent that entire year on the scout team, but also in the weight room and the dining hall. Come the next fall, he had put on about another inch of height and another 65 lbs. Brad would remain on the scout team for the next two years, but his senior year would earn a full scholarship and a spot at second team offensive tackle. He played that year on special teams and in a back-up roll on the offensive line for an unremarkable 4-7 Tiger team in the fall of 1999.
Despite his lack of playing time in college, Brad impressed scouts at NFL tryouts with his strength, size and athleticism. However, draft day came and went with calls from NFL teams saying they would love to bring him into camp, but needed to see more film before making a commitment. After graduating with a degree in agricultural economics, Brad took a job as a strength and conditioning coach under Donnie Sommer at his alma mater, Mizzou. Coaching is a cruel job, however, and after another unsuccessful season the entire coaching staff was let go, strength coach included.
With this, Brad took off for Iowa’s fields of opportunity to play for the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena Football League in the spring of 2001. He made little to no money, but had a great time and put together some game film in hopes of getting on with a team in the NFL. Once again, the NFL didn’t come calling, so Brad packed up his things, bid farewell to Iowa and headed to Fort Worth, TX and TCU in the fall of 2001. Brad’s former strength coach and boss Donnie Sommer had taken the head job at TCU and had invited Brad to join him as an assistant.
Brad spent a year in Texas and loved every minute of it, however, couldn’t make ends meet on a modest coaches salary, so once again was off. He spent a year back in Missouri working for a friend's mortgage company before taking a job in Roseville, CA as GM of a plant nursery. This was when Brad decided working for someone else was not going to work for him and after being ‘laid off,’ decided to turn his attention back to sports. A friend who had fought in Japan told him the Japanese ‘love big, white guys,’ and he could make a killing as a fighter. Brad began training with Carlos Garcia at Sacramento Brazilian Ju Jitsu in Sacramento, CA in August of 2004, and 9 months later found himself on The Ultimate Fighter 2 reality show.
The first week of the show, Brad thought he had really bitten off more than he could chew, as he got abused by nearly every other heavyweight on the show. However, true to form, he stuck with it and on November 5, 2005, would find himself in the finals against Rashad Evans after a submission win over Rob MacDonald and a split-decision victory over Seth Petruzelli. Brad would lose a hard-fought split decision to Rashad in the finals, and tragically would lose his mother to a heart attack the next evening in Las Vegas.
Brad always considered his family blessed; that his mother, who nearly died of a heart attack 25 years earlier, was able to be with all her children at the time of her passing. She continues to be an inspiration to Brad and he commemorated her with a tattoo of a cross and her initials over his heart.
Brad now trains in Bettendorf, IA with Miletich Fighting Systems and Pat Miletich. He has a very close relationship with his brothers and sisters, as well as his step-dad, who remained an important part of Brad’s life, even after his divorce from his mother.
In the summer, you’re likely to find Brad at the Lake of the Ozarks with family and friends, or taking in a Royals game at the ‘K’ in Kansas City. In the fall, he enjoys watching the Missouri Tigers Football team and the KC Chiefs. You also may find him sitting in a tree stand not seeing any deer, then driving his truck home see a monster buck run across the road. Winters are consumed with more football and the occasional trip out into the field to hunt for quail and pheasant. The spring is reserved for hunting turkeys and building up false hope for a Royals’ pennant run. If you don’t see him there, just look for him in a cage or a ring. He’ll be the one with his hand raised.