Dewey Cooper (Pictures) has always been that hard luck type of fighter. Sure he's surrounded by his Kobra Girls and rappers whenever he enters the ring for combat, but he's never quite caught on in the fight game as a premiere fighter.

Much of that frustrating fact might have a lot to do with how many times he's been on the losing end of supremely close fights. It's simple math: a fighter can't become a star if he can't win the close ones.

But Cooper has gotten past those heartbreaking losses to make peace with himself, knowing in his heart that he should have had his hand raised on several occasions.

The Las Vegas veteran has been one of the featured fighters on the American K-1 circuit and has built an impressive unbeaten professional boxing record. Cooper insists he'll live out his dream of capturing K-1 gold, but for now he's decided to jump ship and dip his braided hair into the realm of mixed martial arts.

"I'm still doing kickboxing/K-1, but right now it's MMA," Cooper told Sherdog.com. "I got a boxing match on August 9 at the Hard Rock in Vegas, but I'll never give up on my K-1 career. That's what I'm all about. MMA is the new hot thing and people have been telling me to do it for so long so I decided to give it a shot. I'll fight at least once regardless more win, lose or draw and we'll take it from there. But I'm going to do all three: MMA, boxing and kickboxing."

It's been long rumored that "The Black Kobra" was going to eventually start fighting in MMA bouts and tonight the rumors will all become reality. Inside the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino, Cooper will finally lock horns with an opponent not wearing those huge, pillowy boxing gloves and instead trade them in for the fingerless MMA-style gloves.

Cooper debuts on the Palace Fighting Championship card in Lemoore, Calif. and he is more than thrilled at the notion of doing what many consider "real fighting."

"I've been wanting to do MMA for a while and now I finally have my chance to do it," he said. "I've been training very hard and we'll see what happens. I'm not going to be over-elated if I knock him out in the first round and I also won't be all depressed if I get submitted early. This is the fight game, a man's sport, and I've been through this too many times before. I know what it's all about."

And knowing what it's all about is going through last-minute opponent changes and hassles at the weigh-ins. Cooper made the light heavyweight limit, but his late-replacement opponent, Adam Smith (Pictures), failed to do so. After a second weigh-in, Cooper decided to end the fuss and elected to fight Smith, who was switched from original opponent Paul Mince (Pictures).

"I weighed in at the light heavyweight limit of 205 pounds but my opponent weighed in at 214," a somewhat irritated Kobra stated. "He dropped back down to about 211 and I said let's fight anyway. He's a big body builder-type dude who allegedly comes from a boxing background. I think he'll just try and take me down and use his size against me but I hope he tries to go toe-to-toe with me."

The casual notion is that Smith -- or anybody fighting Cooper in MMA -- will immediately try to take the expert striker to the canvas. While Cooper has been training his butt off in every aspect of MMA, particularly on the ground, it would seem logical that he's still probably going to be a fish out of water.

"I think I'm pretty good on the ground now," he admitted. "I know how to defend and escape submissions. I know not to leave my arm out there too far, or keep my neck all the way out. I think I've done it enough now where I know when someone's trying to sucker me into a submission. I've been training with so many good MMA fighters and they've taught me so much over these past few months where I think I can defend myself if I get taken down. I've been with guys like Trevor Prangley (Pictures), Phil Baroni (Pictures), Mike Whitehead (Pictures); those guys and I'm more than ready for whatever (Smith) brings."

Still, Cooper does admit that it was tough to abruptly change from training primarily in stand-up striking to learning takedown defense and submissions; but he's comfortable now.

"The hardest or most frustrating thing transitioning into MMA was learning the clinches," he said. "It's totally different than the standard Muay Thai clinch where you grab the head. In MMA training, I kept grabbing the head but all they had to do was lower themselves and grab my waist and take me down. It took me a long time to finally understand takedown defense. I'm so used to throwing my combos and once someone gets inside, I'll just do the Muay Thai clinch and throw the knees. With MMA, it's not that easy when someone closes the gap because all they got to do clinch and take me down."

In a matter of hours, the fight world will know exactly what Cooper will bring to the table in his MMA debut. He's already been through it all: championships, highlight-reel knockouts, dramatic actions and highway robberies. Cooper's been there, done that. But now he at least gets to do it all over again in a new sport.