SARATOGA SPRINGS — Born and raised in Saratoga Springs, Brandon Polcare has either wrestled or fought competitively since he was 6 years old.
Polcare, 30, will step into the cage to collide with Andre “The Finisher” Belcarris in Saturday’s Kaged Kombat Championship for rights to the Bantamweight Title.
At 5-foot-7-inches and 135 pounds, Polcare hasn’t fought in actual competition in over a year— since November 10, 2012. His Kaged Kombat scheduled bout on April 20 of this year against Jahloni Kum was cancelled. In addition to the difficulty of finding people in the same weight class, Polcare’s busy sales schedule in the spring and summer at New Country Toyota attributed to the gap between fights.
“It’s not something I wanted to half-heartedly get into,” Polcare said. “MMA is a sport where your heart has to be fully into it.”
Compared to Polcare’s one career fight, Belcarris has 11 (7-3).
In that first and only fight, Polcare took down Tony Bonanno in a catchweight matchup that lasted two rounds. On that same day, Belcarris lost to Jacob Smith in a three-round unanimous decision.
Although Polcare wasn’t able to fully see Belcarris on that day, while waiting in the “backstage more or less,” he has since scouted his opponent and feels he knows his game plan. In one of the fights Polcare watched, in Kingston a couple weeks ago, Belcarris knocked his opponent out in four seconds with a head kick.
“I’ve pretty much seen what I need to see on him,” Polcare said. “He’s basically a kick boxer. He’s going to want to keep standing. He’s a strong kid, but he can’t really wrestle and his ground game is kind of suspect too, so I’m looking to taking him into the pool where he can’t swim.”
Aside from taking Belcarris from his comfortable upright position and making him play on his back, Polcare’s other gameplan is to go into the fight with an underdog mindset for that extra motivation.
Being affiliated with Spa City Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on and off for the last five years, Polcare has since upgraded his skills from a more two-dimensional style to a complete fighter.
Adding onto his jiu-jitsu training and wrestling background, Polcare now has a workout regimen with Saratoga Boxing’s Tyrone Jackson, making him more comfortable in the standup position and with his hands. Although he boxed in 2009, training with Jackson for the last few months three to four times a week, has made him that much more confident.
But his roots will always be in the sport he started when he was a kid—wrestling
“I think wrestling is the most important instrument of mixed martial arts,” Polcare said. “It can dictate where the fight goes. [Belcarris] may be more comfortable in the cage, but that’s not going to help him stop takedowns. Wrestling is always going to be my biggest strength. That’s my bread and butter.”
The three-time Section II finalist wrestled at Saratoga Springs High School from 1998-2001, totaling 116 wins.
“I’ve wrestled since I was 6 years old,” Polcare said. “I’m going on 30 now, so I’ve competed a ton. It’s just kind of a different stage and being able to throw punches. Even through high school I had a real aggressive style. If I was allowed to throw punches in wrestling, I would have. It’s just a less restricting form of wrestling.”
That aggressive style was in part culminated by the competitive household he grew up in with his twin brother, Brendan, and his younger brother, Brad, who will be at the fight along with his parents and girlfriend of three years, Melissa Gilligan.
“We had a very, very competitive household growing up, so I have to compete,” Polcare said. “If I’m not trying to compete or challenging myself or setting goals physically—I don’t want to be one of those guys sitting around having a pint after work. I’d rather go to the gym, lift weights, go spar or go wrestle, and the window that I have to compete is getting smaller by the day, so I want to take advantage while I can still do it.”
Also, when he trains he often thinks of his grandfather, who passed away when he was in 10th grade and loved to watch him and his brothers compete.
“Every single morning I get up I know I’m getting better and better,” Polcare said. “I’m embracing the grind and it’s just making me sharper mentally and physically. It’s just making me a better person…I’m gonna smash this kid on Saturday and see how it goes. Maybe one title defense before I go pro and then I can look back and say I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. Then I’ll hang up the gloves and I’ll just be a working man like the rest of the world.”
Tickets are still available for the Kaged Kombat Fighting Championships at the Saratoga Springs City Center. The event starts Saturday at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m.
