Mike Russow Talks About His Day Job

As Mike Russow has been preparing for his UFC on Fox 2 fight against Jon Olav Einemo, he's also been juggling the responsibilities of his real job as a Chicago police officer. In an interview with ESPN.com, Russow discusses how he balances his fighting life with his other life, which includes a new wife and baby.

"Life has been pretty hectic to balance everything," Russow says. "I really have to be very strict with my schedule. There's no going out. It's basically sleep, get up, eat, train until 11, then weights or sprints. After that, I go to work from 5 PM until 1 AM."

It's a lot to juggle and Russow does sometimes envy fighters who can devote 100% of their time to training without worrying about their other job. But, he doesn't take his responsibilities at home lightly so he does what he has to do to keep fighting in the UFC:

"I've been fighting since I was 27. Sure, I'm a little jealous of the guys who can train full-time," Russow adds. "And if it ever came to be that I could take a leave from the CPD to train full-time -- and they were OK with it -- I would. But I've got a wife, a kid and a mortgage. We need the insurance. I can't take a chance like that."

Russow does see a distinct advantage that he has in fighting because of what he does for a living: he can stay calm in stressful situations.

"I'm very happy being a cop," Russow says. "Mentally, it helps me out a lot because in the job you can't panic. The punch you don't see could knock you out. It's kind of like that in police work. You could be driving around and all of a sudden you see something and you have to react. You have to keep your wits about you."

This skill undoubtedly helped him in his surprising knock-out victory over Todd Duffee where Russow says he broke his hand in the first round but just stayed calm and continued to fight. Russow does feel he is facing his biggest fight so far on Saturday, when he faces Einemo and his very strong jiu-jitsu background. But, he's looking forward to fighting in front of his home crowd:

"This is the biggest fight of my career, without a doubt," said Russow, 35. "I'm pumped I finally get to do it in front of my hometown on national television. I'm in the best shape of my life, and I'm ready."

And, in case you were still holding out hope that Russow was the MMA fighter who stopped an attempted mugging last December, giving the perpetrator a pretty spectacular beat down as additional punishment, he says it wasn't him.

"Yeah, I got that a lot," Russow laughs. "But no, that wasn't me. But I would've arrested the guy, though."