Jul. 19—After winning a pair of state wrestling titles for Saint John in 2017 and 2018, Jacob Lagoa saw his wrestling career get upended.
One year it was an injury, the next by the coronavirus pandemic.
Since that time, he’s been looking for a bit of redemption.
The sport of mixed martial arts is where he has found it.
MMA is a sport which combines wrestling along with the skills used in boxing and jiu-jitsu.
It’s most commonly seen today with Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC).
Lagoa, along with recent Edgewood graduate and state wrestling placer Kyle Vencill, will all make their MMA debuts Saturday during the BCM Promotions Saturday night at SPIRE Academy.
Jefferson graduate Connor Cleveland (2-0) will be in the main event, going against Akil Brazier (3-1).
“I’m excited to kind of be representing the hometown with a promotion holding an event close to Jefferson,” said Cleveland, who was selected the Ashtabula County Football Player of the Year in 2011.
“Grateful to BCM Promotions for putting me up as their main event and I plan on going in there and making my hometown and my gym of Gracie Orwell at SPIRE proud using some of the home-field advantage I expect to have there on Saturday.”
For Lagoa, it’s always been something he’s wanted to do, although he did not envision it happening this soon.
Coming out of Lakeside High School, he was considered one of the top pound-for-pound prospects entering the college ranks and seemed bound for a Division I program.
Things never quite worked out the way he had hoped, though. So instead of pushing for an NCAA title, he began focusing on MMA, something he’d been dreaming of for quite a while.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I was going to do it,” he said. “Just like how successful I was with wrestling, when I accomplished the things I did at high school, that’s what made me decide to go to college and wrestle, then get into it. Now, I’m all into it, just a little earlier than I expected to be.”
Aside from wrestling, Lagoa said he has been involved with jiu-jitsu and boxing for a number of years, even before he wrestled.
He won jiu-jitsu tournaments in Las Vegas and Phoenix this past year, and is now excited about making his debut back home.
“Ever since I’ve graduated, I’ve just been training and training, getting ready for this moment,” he said. “I’m excited to be back to competing and it will be great to be back home to do it.”
Vencill’s story is somewhat similar. He also is planning to attend college to wrestle, but has long had an interest in MMA.
“I’ve watched UFC since I was little and I found it interesting even before I started wrestling,” he said.
The sport of MMA involves striking and winning by bringing an opponent to submission.
But for Vencill, it’s much of what he likes about being on the mat that attracts him to the sport.
“You get in a cage and it’s a fight,” Vencill said. “You start on your feet, you strike at each other, if someone takes someone down, then you go for submission.
“The way I look at it, it’s an all-out fight and you have to defend yourself. Once they close that cage, it’s just you and the other guy. I like that, I have that same feeling about wrestling. It’s just me and the other guy. I don’t have teammates, I don’t have anything to worry about except what I’m doing.”
Vencill said wrestling has given him a great base to work with and that he has been working a lot on the striking and other skills involved.
Lagoa and Vencill will compete in two of about 12-15 fights, according to Cody Lewis, who coaches the Jefferson wrestling team and has been involved with MMA for several years.
Lewis is the owner of Gracie Orwell at SPIRE, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA gym, currently located on the SPIRE campus.
Fights will consist of three three-minute rounds and all be done by amateurs.
The doors will open at 5 p.m., with the first fight set to start at 7.
SPIRE,Jacob Lagoa,Kyle Vencill,Gracie Orwell,mixed martial arts
