Eyes on the prize

by Alex Behunin

“It was a horrible situation. I had to do weight training in my backyard or garage. For boxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu training, I had to go to two separate gyms, and we basically had to sneak into the building and board up the windows. I only had a coach and one training partner. I was going into my second UFC fight and only had minimum training, but I had to do what I had to do. It truly sucked,” UFC heavyweight fighter Yorgan De Casto said, describing what he had to go through just to train for his fight, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 was devastating for just about everyone. On top of all of the deaths and businesses shutting down, the sports world shut down. One of the sports affected was mixed martial arts.

The UFC was the first major sports league to come back on May 9, 2020, and they have been putting on MMA fights since. While that was going on, MMA gyms were closed and in some places, such as California, Canada and England, gyms are still closed. With no gyms open, fighters cannot train and cannot fight, which means fighters can’t make money.

The UFC needs regional promotions to stay alive. Regional promotions are where they snag their talent.

Joseph Nunes, a professional fighter out of Lancaster, Calif., couldn’t train throughout the pandemic. He didn’t fight for the entirety of 2020.

“It was rough not being able to fight,” Nunes said. “Obviously, I wasn’t the only fighter who wasn’t able to compete as it was a global pandemic, but that’s how I feed my family.”

A big issue in MMA is fighter pay. This includes the UFC, which is being broadcast on ESPN, and is worth $7 billion dollars, according to Forbes. Yet many UFC fighters need to work a second job to support themselves.

“I wish I could train MMA full time, but it’s not possible,” Nunes said.  “I guess if I were to move out of California and live in Alabama or somewhere like that. I work in construction full time, and then I go train afterward.”

Nunes explained what a day looks like if he has a fight booked. He tries to train twice or three times a day to make sure he is in shape and can get his weight down. He will meet his coach at the gym before his day job, at four in the morning. Nunes will get a good workout in and then go to work at 6 a.m. He gets off at 3 p.m. and then goes straight to the gym and trains until 7 or 8 p.m. 

“And then do it again the next day,” Nunes said.

Nunes said the money that he makes is not enough to live on. He, like thousands of other fighters, hopes to get signed to a major organization.

Jesse Newell, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach and ex-MMA fighter out of Ventura, Calif., retired because of the pay. He fought for a title in 2013 at BAMMA Bad Beat 10, in Commerce, Calif. He would lose the fight when his corner threw in the towel, halting the fight.

“I had a come to God moment after my fight and realized that the damage I’m putting my body through isn’t worth the money I was making,” Newell said. “I made $1,500 before paying my coaches and medical bills. In that fight, I broke my orbital bone, broke four ribs, both my hands were broken, and my nose was busted—all of that for $1,500. I knew I was done. I loved fighting, but I was done.”

Newell transitioned seamlessly into coaching, which is something he had been doing for a year prior.

“I was planning on opening my own studio to teach kickboxing and Jiu-Jitsu, but COVID screwed that up. I had a couple of buildings I was looking at and everything. Once the pandemic hit, the building owners stopped taking my calls,” Newell said. “I almost packed up and moved to another state because I was so devastated, but I’m going to wait it out.”

“I’m not promising that I’m staying in Cali, though,” Newell laughed.

UFC President Dana White wanted to continue to broadcast MMA fights for the fans, but first and foremost for the fighters, since day one of the pandemic. However, the UFC finally had to stand down at the request of ESPN which lasted for about a month.

One of the fighters featured on the pay-per-per portion of UFC 249, when the UFC returned last May was Yorgan De Castro. De Castro is a heavyweight fighter fighting out of Fall River, Mass., originally from Cape Verde.

“The UFC told my team and me that they were going to be the first sport back during the pandemic and offered me the fight,” De Castro said. “They threw out a few names, but then I asked for former NFL player Greg Hardy, and they gave him to me.”

De Castro needed to make money but admitted he was a bit hesitant fighting in a pandemic.

“Yeah, I would be lying if I wasn’t. I have a young daughter, and my parents live down the street from me. They are older. It was still early into the pandemic, so everyone was very scared. The one thing that gave me hope was the UFC is very professional,” De Castro said. “It came down to the following, I had not fought since October, so it had been seven months. I needed to make money. Fighters have to fight to make money.”

Just like Nunes, De Castro works a second job as a security guard. He does that during the day to make extra money. Before he made it to the UFC, he wasn’t making enough money just fighting.

“So, I didn’t have my security job because of COVID, and I didn’t have a fight booked – so I was itching for a fight. I needed money to provide for my family.”

When the day finally arrived for De Castro to fight, he detailed the experience of fighting with no fans and how the UFC’s COVID protocols were.

“I have fought in arenas with little to no fans before on the regional scene, so it wasn't too crazy. It was just eerie. It was strange but I was so focused on the fight that the outside stuff wasn’t too important. After all, there is another man trying to knock me out and take the food from my family, so it’s business,” De Castro said.

The fighters had to quarantine and really couldn’t leave their hotel rooms unless they were going to the gym. They had to have their masks on at all times except if they were in their own rooms. The night of the fight, they only could have two cornermen, one less than usual.

“The protocols were very strict but very professional. The UFC wasn’t lying when they said they were going to do everything right and safely,” De Castro said.

De Castro would lose that night via a unanimous decision. He would fight again five months later on UFC ‘Fight Island’ located in Abu Dhabi.