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State trooper headlining USA vs Canada super fight

A New York State trooper will shed his batch and lace up his gi as the USA representative in an annual super fight

BUFFALO, NY-- It's fairly easy to be over-confident in the world of mixed martial arts if you have a collection of awards to your name.

That's why Joe Indelicato felt pretty confident 11 years ago, as he was training through the police academy, and was approached by one of his mentors to spar.

"In the academy, I beat someone who was 275, and I was 175 pounds, so it gave me a false sense of security," said Indelicato, who'd had previous experience with wrestling and boxing. "There was an instructor there who was an actual fighter, so he asked me to get together on mornings, and we sparred, and I realized I wasn't really good at anything. I was really horrible."

As he describes that first spar, there's a humbled grin he can't seem to shake.

"This 145 pounder treated me like I was a 5-year old child," he laughed.

Suddenly, Indelicato had a new teacher, a new drive to train and get even better. It's a far stretch from where he is today, running his own jiu jitsu gym and coaching Police Defensive Tactics instructors from 11 agencies across Western New York.

"Now what I do is what he did for me," said Indelicato.

The new training style for the New York state police academy is more MMA-oriented, more functional, Indelicato said. "There are legitimate martial arts out there, but they don't work on the side of the road. So those were exposed in the 90's, and that's really what police trained before."

Along with self defense, there's a secondary benefit Indelicato found in his training: a calmness, a sense of humility, the ability to manage high pressure situations both on the mat and on the street.

But all of that represents Joe Indelicato in his work uniform with the New York State Police.

On Saturday, May 26th, he's putting on the other uniform he's earned over the past 11 years.

It's the gi that represents his national jiu jitsu championship, his silver medal in the 2014 Pan American games; it's the gi he'll wear to Buffalo RiverWorks, as the headline fighter in this year's annual Jiu Jitsu super fight, pitting USA vs Canada.

Indelicato already has his game plan, but he's not talking any trash.

Well, not really.

"I actually have some good friends that own gyms right over the border, and they actually help me out, to tell you the truth, so I feel bad busting on them for this, they take care of me," Indelicato laughed.

The fight will culminate a day-long outdoor tournament featuring some of Western New York's up-and-coming mixed martial artists, from 9:00am-6:00pm.

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