Joseph Henle (nicknamed "Leonidas") is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the middleweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2009, Henle fought in California based promotions. Henle is also set to be a competitor in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's eleventh season of The Ultimate Fighter in 2010.
Leonidas trained in Tae Kwon Do from an early age, to defend himself against bullies. Henle earned his black belt in just 5 years and was a champion in his state. After attending California Lutheran University, Henle looked for a new training camp and joined Team Freedom and helped Karo Parisyan with training for future fights. He also started to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Leonidas then trained his Boxing at Knuckleheadz Boxing in Ventura California with Joseph Janik AKA Hoss, his MMA at Big John McCarthy's Ultimate Training Acadamey in Valencia, and his Jiu Jitsu was Fabio Leopoldo at Gracie Mourmbi.
Henle started his Pro MMA career in 2009 in his home state of California. His debut professional mixed martial arts fight was against Frank Pizzirulli in July 2009. Henle was able to win via rear naked choke at 1:30 of the first round.
Henle's second fight was against Robert Barros (7-1) and he was victorious via unanimous decision.
Before signing with UFC, Henle fought EliteXC alumni Mark Kempthorne and won via arm-triangle choke.
The Ultimate Fighter 11 In March 2010, Henle was announced as part of the upcoming eleventh season of The Ultimate Fighter
After TUF, Joseph fought future TUF participant Colin Hart to a draw. Henle then defeated Sean O'Connell at ZARMMA in Utah. Leonidas then rattled off 3 more victories in local promotions and was then picked up by Mark Pavlick the president of Maximum Fighting Championships.
Leonidas then KO'd future TUF Nations participant Luke Harris in the opening round in their fight in August 2012.
Leonidas then fought Elvis Mutapcic for the MFC middle weight title but lost due to a TKO due to a torn MCL and Broken hand.
Leonidas then broke his hand vs miguel cosio in a comeback fight requiring 2 surgeries to put a plate in his hand and then to take it out.
Leonidas will now face Ronald Labraton Jr for BammaUSA in his comeback fight.