Tommy BirchDes Moines Register
Nate Mohr stands in a hallway at Iowa Methodist Medical Center on a May afternoon wearing blue hospital scrubs. A surgical resident for UnityPoint Health of Des Moines, Mohr is scheduled to perform a thoracotomy in about 20 minutes.
“I’ve done it plenty of times,” Mohr says.
The operation is done to get a glimpse into his patient’s lungs. It’s supposed to take about an hour. Mohr is filling in today. He is cool, calm, collected and ready to go as he waits to head over to the operating room.
“I don’t get too nervous for it,” Mohr said.
This is exactly what Mohr wants to be doing. It's why he gave up his lucrative career as an Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor. Mohr used to make a living hurting people in perhaps the most violent sport in the world. Now his vocation is healing people and, in some cases, saving their lives.
“I’ve known him for so long,” said Joe Schlotterer, a former training partner. “It's crazy for me to think that he may be the only fighter in the UFC that’s ever done that.”
Nate Mohr gets his start in UFC
Mohr, 40, was always interested in going into the medical field. But his fighting career quickly and unexpectedly took off. Mohr, a former wrestler at North Scott High School in Eldridge, loved working out and even trained with the Northern Iowa wrestling team several days a week while he majored in biology.
Mohr was working construction to help pay for his schooling but was bored and looking for something else to do when his dad's friend, Dick Schneider, invited him to help at Miletich Fighting Systems, a mixed martial arts training organization in Bettendorf. The camp was run by Davenport native and UFC welterweight champion Pat Miletich. Mohr, a master at takedowns as a high school wrestler, was brought in to work on those with some of the guys.
“I’d do those and then they’d split up,” Mohr said. “That’s where I met all the guys, the powerhouses for UFC.”
Mohr was so impressive that Miletich asked him to stay a week and start taking some of the camp’s beginner classes. Mohr was intrigued and started kickboxing, boxing and jujutsu. He started with beginner’s sparring but was determined to get better. So Mohr sneaked into an advanced sparring session. Miletich caught Mohr but let him spar if he cleaned up afterward.
“You can have a lot of talent but if you don’t have that drive to push, push and push," you’re not going to succeed, said Russ O'Connell, who trained with Mohr. “That’s what he had.”
Mohr, who also fought as a Golden Gloves boxer, worked with some of the sport’s biggest names, including Matt Hughes, Robbie Lawler and Jeremy Horn. After about eight months of training, he made his mixed martial arts debut on Aug. 15, 2003. Mohr faced off against Cain Rizzo at the Extreme Challenge 52 and won by second-round submission. He quickly compiled a 7-3 record and impressed Monte Cox, a well-known MMA manager and promoter who had been working with Mohr. Cox thought Mohr had a bright future and should make the jump to UFC.
“He was fighting guys out of the UFC that ended up being UFC stars,” Cox said.
In early 2007, he registered Mohr for his first UFC fight. It was against Kurt Pellegrino at UFC Fight Night 9 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Mohr lost via Achilles lock submission, but he won his next bout, picking up a unanimous win over Luke Caudillo at UFC Fight Night 50 on June 12, 2007.
“What I saw was a young kid that was really good and he had good trainers, and had he stayed with it, he probably would have been top 10,” Cox said. “He could have been as high as top 10 in the world.”
Nate Mohr trades in fighting people for fixing people
Mohr was on the fast track to stardom and success. He even had a fight lined up with MMA star Jeremy Stephens.
Mohr was near the top of the UFC world, competing on some of the sport’s biggest stages and making good money. He was even recorded to be a part of a video game.
But then injuries took a toll. A broken hand cost him his fight against Stephens. Then he sustained a knee injury that led to reconstructive surgery.
Mohr was told he wouldn't fight again, but he vowed to come back. He returned for four more fights but was never the same. His final UFC fight came on Jan. 17, 2009. He lost to Dennis Silver. Mohr continued taking on other fights outside of UFC, but he knew the end was near. When he started fighting, Mohr had given himself a deadline of four years.
When he reached that mark, the timing to get out seemed right. Mohr wasn't enjoying it as much as he used to. Plus his thoughts had started veering back to his other passion: medicine. Mohr had always wanted to get into the profession but figured he was getting too old and too much time had passed. But when the surgeon who operated on Mohr’s knee encouraged him to give it a try, Mohr became more interested.
“I told him I was finishing my contract first,” Mohr said.
Upon completion of that obligation, Mohr moved back home to the Quad Cities to live with his mom. He studied for the MCAT and retook some college courses so he could get into medical school. Mohr had always been adamant that he never fought for money but instead for his passion for the sport. He kept the money he made from UFC tucked away and got jobs driving tractors and doing personal training to pay for medical school.
“There’s people taking fights because they’ve got to make their next rent check or something,” Mohr said. “I was like, ‘I’m not doing that.’”
Mohr attended Chicago Medical School. Fighting, Mohr jokes, was easier for him than the grind of school. He felt like he had to study harder than anyone else, he said. Mohr graduated in 2018 and got an internship at Iowa Methodist. He’s now completing his five-year surgical residency.
“The people that we work with, the doctors who are training to be surgeons, they come from a lot of backgrounds, and I’m used to working with people who do have a lot of different experiences in life,” said Iowa Methodist trauma surgeon Dr. Richard Sidwell. “Dr. Mohr, he is unique. He is the first who has the UFC fighting background.”
Sidwell believes that experience helps Mohr, since many of the challenges he faces in the operating room are similar to things he’s dealt with in sports. Mohr has had to fight through adversity and pivot when things don’t go well. But he’s also coachable. They’re all traits he had in the UFC ring.
“He knows how to do that,” Sidwell said. “He knows how to handle those situations.”
Mohr's new job doesn't have the fame or fanfare of the last one. But it's gratifying for Mohr to have a positive impact on his patients. He said in several instances, patients were minutes away from dying, but Mohr helped keep them alive. The reward comes days later when he sees them back on their feet.
"Fortunately those don't come very often," Mohr said.
Despite all the rewards of his new job, the conversation inevitably swings back to his previous career. Mohr has the cauliflower ears of an experienced wrestler, which frequently starts a conversation with the people he meets.
A few people, including a security guard at the hospital, have recognized him from his fighting days. Mohr said some of his old buddies will ask him what he’s up to now. It can be difficult to explain his transformation.
“I had this guy who took over our promotions and was trying to find me sponsors ... he’s like, ‘What are you doing now?’” Mohr recalled. “I just told him, 'I work with knives,' instead of trying to explain this.”
Schlotterer, the former training partner, said Mohr’s hard work and attention to detail, which made him a successful fighter, will make him a successful surgeon.
“He was very, very clean and fun to watch,” he said. “So I know as a surgeon he’s going to want every t crossed, every i dotted. That’s just who he is.”
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.
