July 19 – After winning two state wrestling titles for Saint John in 2017 and 2018, Jacob Lagoa saw his wrestling career turn around.
One year it was an injury, the next due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since then, he’s been looking for a little redemption.
The sport of mixed martial arts is where he found it.
MMA is a sport that combines wrestling with the skills of boxing and jiu-jitsu.
It is most commonly seen today in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC).
Lagoa, along with recent Edgewood graduate and state wrestling placer Kyle Vencill, will make their MMA debut on Saturday during BCM Promotions Saturday night at SPIRE Academy.
Jefferson graduate Connor Cleveland (2-0) will be in the main event, facing Akil Brazier (3-1).
“I’m excited to represent the hometown with a promotion holding an event near Jefferson,” said Cleveland, who was named the 2011 Ashtabula County Football Player of the Year.
“Thankful to BCM Promotions for putting me in as their main event and I plan on going out there and making my hometown and my Gracie Orwell gym at SPIRE proud, using some of the home field advantage I hope to have there on Saturday.
For Lagoa it was always something he wanted to do, although he didn’t imagine it would happen so soon.
Coming out of Lakeside High School, he was considered one of the top pound-for-pound prospects entering the college ranks and seemed destined for a Division I program.
Things never worked out as he expected. So instead of fighting for the NCAA title, he started focusing on MMA, something he had dreamed of for some time.
“Ever since I was a kid, I was going to do this,” he said. “Just like I had success in wrestling, when I accomplished the things I did in high school, that’s what made me decide to go to college and wrestle, and then get into it. sooner than I expected.”
In addition to wrestling, Lagoa said he has been practicing jiu-jitsu and boxing for several years, even before fighting.
He won jiu-jitsu tournaments in Las Vegas and Phoenix last year and is now excited to make his home debut.
“Since I graduated, I’ve just been training and training, preparing for this moment,” he said. “I’m excited to be back competing and it will be great to come home to do so.”
Vencil’s story is somewhat similar. He also plans to go to college to fight, but has long been interested in MMA.
“I’ve been watching the UFC since I was little and I found it interesting before I even started fighting,” he said.
The sport of MMA involves striking and winning, submitting the opponent.
But for Vencill, it’s a lot of what he enjoys about being on the mat that draws him to the sport.
“You get in a cage and it’s a fight,” Vencill said. “You start standing up, hit each other, if someone knocks someone down, you go for the submission.
“In my opinion, it’s an all-out fight and you have to defend yourself. After they close the cage, it’s just you and the other guy. and the other guy I have no teammates, I have nothing to worry about except what I’m doing.”
Vencill said that wrestling has given him a great foundation to work from and that he has been working hard on his striking and other skills involved.
Lagoa and Vencill will compete in two of approximately 12 to 15 fights, according to Cody Lewis, who coaches the Jefferson wrestling team and has been involved in MMA for several years.
Lewis owns Gracie Orwell at SPIRE, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA gym currently located on the SPIRE campus.
The fights will consist of three three-minute rounds and all will be done by amateurs.
Gates will open at 5pm, with the first fight scheduled to start at 7pm.
