(Video courtesy YouTube/HDNetFights)

If you didn’t believe us when we told you that Tim Sylvia is a part-time cop in Illinois, maybe the ride-along video above will convince you. 

Notice that the department made Big Tim shave off his goatee and those trademark mutton chops — not because they have a dress code, just because they thought he looked ridiculous. Rumor has it they eventually made him stop wearing his Powerhouse World Promotions heavyweight strap while on duty, too.

The former UFC heavyweight champ’s worries that nobody would recognize him were soon squashed.

"I”ve been recognized a few times pulling guys over," he explains. "Some guys when I pull up and ask for their license, registration, insurance, they’re like, ‘Are you Tim Sylvia?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘That’s cool, man. I just got pulled over by Tim Sylvia,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, be safe, slow down and have a good day.’"


I’m not sure if he mentioned this in the psychological portion of his entrance exam, but it seems that Sylvia is still holding a grudge over tasting Andrei Arlovski‘s "pee pee pee" and the fact that a proposed rematch with Wes Simms was rejected last year by the Ohio Athletic Commission.

"There’s a couple fighters out there I’d like to put the cuffs on and throw them in the back of the squad car, Wes Simms being one of them and Andrei Arlovski being the other," Sylvia says. "If I had to choose either one, I’d probably choose Arlovski over Wes. It’d be really fun if he resisted."

When asked whether or not he has had to employ any of his MMA techniques while in uniform, "The Maine-iac says there was this one time…

"It was a noise complaint.  I went up and knocked on the door and opened the door and a big old lady answered the door. When she opened the door she started screaming in my face. I’m like, ‘Man, this lady is going to attack me and I’m going to have to suplex her off these top steps.’ I’m serious. This lady was like 260 pounds, if not bigger, and she was known as a mental lady and was always going off her meds and stuff," Sylvia recalls. "We were like, ‘Oh boy.’ I just repeated my sentence, ‘Ma’am, this is Tim Sylvia from the Milan Police Department. We had a noise complaint, could you please turn the music down and show me your ID? It went well after that. She was like, ‘I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else.’ Everything went fine after that."

What he left out was the fact that the woman thought he was Sylvia, but because he didn’t have the facial hair the UFC fighter usually sported, she figured she was mistaken. It turns out she placed a big bet on the Randy Couture fight.