¶ Wrestling Career and College Recruiting
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast . This is , as always , your host , mike Bono . I have a great guest for us today , but I do have to get these two new sponsors to the show in here , and that is Buddy's Beard Care . Buddy's Beard Care provides premium men's grooming products at an affordable price .
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You definitely want to check them out Once again , bono 10 . Now that I got all that out of the way , I can finally introduce my guest . He's coming to us . He is a former uh high school wrestler and I believe he did a little bit in college too as well . Jordan tag joins the show .
Jordan , thanks for joining man yeah , thanks for having me hey , not a problem at all , you know , know , first and foremost , I mean you have quite the accomplished wrestling career in high school at Winter Springs in Florida . For most people who don't know where that is championships and three regional championships . Take us back .
And how do you , how do you get into wrestling at a young age and what is it like being successful as as a high school wrestler ?
Man ? That's a good question . So , um , I actually grew up playing baseball . Um , I played baseball from about the age of four to about freshman year of high school . You know , I wasn't wasn't the best at baseball . I actually have a twin brother and he was good at baseball .
So I was always kind of living in a shadow , um , trying to like live up to his success in the sport and , um , kind of wanted to find my own thing . And I had a buddy who , um , he actually did like bodybuilding and stuff and he actually told me he wanted to do wrestling in the winter .
And I played some baseball in the fall and , you know , wasn't really enjoying it and I was like , you know , let's try something new , tried wrestling .
You know , first day just fell in love with the sport , loved everything about it , couldn't stop thinking about it , couldn't stop talking about it with my buddies and actually , you know , started to do pretty well in practices and then pretty well in competitions . My freshman year I was on JV but I ended up going undefeated until the state JV state tournament .
So found success very early in the sport and , you know , kind of ran with it and said , you know , goodbye to baseball .
So yeah , that's . That's interesting because , you know , I , I would think somebody would have to get into it at a very young age to be successful , and at least at the high school level and beyond . Uh , I don't know a lot about wrestling . Uh , I know enough .
I mean , I'm a huge combat sports fan , but wrestling has always been that one sport , at least at the high school level and beyond . Uh , I don't know a lot about wrestling . Uh , I know enough . I mean , I'm a huge combat sports fan , but wrestling has always been that one sport that has kind of like , I can't grasp it at all . I watched the UFC .
I understand when the guys are on the ground and what they're doing with the grappling , and , but I , I , I , you , I . You sounds like you started pretty much in high school , right when you got into , got into wrestling , correct ?
yeah , yeah , and you're absolutely right . I mean , most people start at a very young age and it's kind of hard to start in high school and you're already at a disadvantage to a lot of people that have wrestled their whole life .
But , um , you know , sometimes we have good coaches and you have the right athletic abilities you never know , someone can catch on pretty quick . So I think I was just kind of lucky to be in the right place right time and kind of found the sport that I was chosen to do for the rest of my life .
So did people always get you and your twin brother confused like hey , aren't you supposed to be at wrestling practice ?
and vice versa maybe no , we're actually , uh , we're frater , so we don't really look like twins . People can tell we're brothers , but no , luckily no . Sometimes I wish so , so we could talk about classes and stuff like that .
But I was never able to do that , Never able to have that fun with a twin and switch places and mess with people no , not really . I wish I had a brother . I got . I have two older sisters , so there was there was no switching places with anything , so that didn't work out for me either .
But going back to your wrestling , you know , walk us through a little bit of your college recruiting process . I mean , you initially attended I believe it was Coker college and before going to Notre Dame college you know why Coker at first and then why the transfer to NDC ?
Yeah , so , um , I don't know , in high school I I didn't . Really I didn't do bad . Obviously I don't think I did bad in high school , but I didn't do as great as I should have done . Um , my , like you said , I I won districts and regionals three times , so I was a three-time state qualifier .
Sophomore year probably shouldn't have been there , but I got there Junior year I was actually ranked third in the state and ended up
¶ College Athletics and Olympic Aspirations
kind of choking at states and went one and two for two years in a row . So getting to my senior year I was like you know , I need to actually do something to actually get recruited to college . You know , later in that season I was having a really good year . The coach from college reached out to me .
You know he was the only real NCAA Division II coach that reached out to me and I didn't really know much about the . You know the scene . But I was fully interested right away . So you know , I took the visit , loved the people there , could see myself fitting in and end up taking second at States . It was my first time placing at States .
So you know that's probably why I didn't get as many books as I . I thought I should have , um , but yeah , and then . So that's kind of how I got to cook the college I was . That was the only really offer I got .
You know I was glad to to have taken it and you know I took that , took that offer , was there for two years and then ended up going to Notre Dame yeah , uh , I , I get that , uh , as a swimmer myself , uh , back in high school and uh , into college .
Um , you know , I , I was like you , uh , regionals , I was there , districts . I just couldn't grasp to get to that , that next level at states .
And you know , I did have , just based off of my times , I had a lot of d1 offers my junior year and decided , you know , instead of saying you know what I have d1 offers , I probably should forego my senior football season and just focus on swimming .
Well , I didn't do that and I hurt my shoulder senior year of football and lost my senior year of swimming because of it , the rehab and everything like that .
But bethany college kept their scholarship for me , uh , so , uh , that is why you know I basically I chose bethany colleges because every every other school d1 , d2 and a lot of d3s colleges just we can't take a chance on a swimmer with a bum shoulder and a rehab shoulder . I was like I get it , but it doesn't make it any less frustrating for me .
But , yeah , you know that . I can understand . You know the co-courier at first .
You know you got that offer , you want to , you want to accept it , to be able to go , and you know , do the sport that you're clearly passionate about I know just hearing you talk about it you're passionate about the sport of wrestling , um , which I get , cause I'm I'm still super passionate about , uh , swimming with the Olympics coming up . Do you ?
Do you get to watch any of the the wrestling events ? Is that's still a summer ?
Yeah , it's in the summer , yeah , um , yeah . I love watching wrestling at the Olympic level . Um , actually , when I was I was younger when I first got into wrestling it was around 2012 . So that was around the time that .
I don't know if you know Jordan Burroughs , but he was going through the Olympics and he actually won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games . So that was so cool to see and as a young guy , I was like , you know , that's where I aspire to be , so he was actually my first like idol to look into in the end of the sport .
So definitely love watching the Olympics and wrestling and other sports as well too .
yeah , well , I mean , I'm , I'm huge . I watched the world trials for swimming uh , the people making it to the Olympics . My wife doesn't quite understand it still and it's like well , you married a swimmer . I love the sport .
I swam the time I was 8 through college , so I had a chance at 2012 trials , re-injured my shoulder and that was all she wrote , but you know it was . I still watch it . I love watching the sport . It's one of those . I think both of the sports that we did kind of don't get the rep that they should . You don't see a lot of swimming on ESPN .
You don't see a lot of wrestling on ESPN or any of the other sports sites . Why do you think that is ?
I don't know . That's a good question , but I will say that I think that those are two of the hardest sports that you can do . For sure , for anyone that's ever tried to swim especially , I mean one thing , to swim competitively , but just as a workout versus , you know , doing it for leisure you'll know that it's a different type of workout .
It's very difficult to do and I mean I think anyone that's wrestled ever could say the same thing . I mean , wrestling is so , so difficult to do , um , and I I mean I think anyone that's wrestled ever would say the same thing . I mean , wrestling is so , so difficult to do , um , so taxing on your body and it's a lot more tiring .
People think , um , so I think it's . It's similar in that , in those two ways , like they're both very difficult , people don't realize how difficult they are , um , how physically demanding the sports are .
But I don't know , I guess they're just not as exciting as some of these other sports , um , which is okay , because at the end of the day it's it's more gritty and it's more like the people that are successful in those sports . Uh , they just do it because they want to be good at the sport .
It's not for recognition or fame or fortune or anything like that . So absolutely .
I , I , I get that , you , I get that . You know a hundred percent , especially about the taxing part . About it People don't understand . Like swimming , you're using muscles you don't even know you have .
I'm sure it's the same thing with wrestling .
Yeah , and you know , there was one little bit of joy I got out of . Uh , it was my sophomore year at Bethany College . I've told the story on here a couple of times , but for the new listeners on here and for you , I'm going to tell it again .
But one of my buddies was a football player there and he would always rag on me about being a swimmer and that my sport wasn't tough . I didn't . There was no contact . You know , yada , yada , anybody can do it . I said , all right , alright . Well then , fine , come back with me and let's do a workout , me and you . I just did it . I'll do it again .
Let's get back in . I'll get back in the pool and see if you can make it through a workout . He's like alright , so we go in and we get through the warm up . And he looked at me and he's like oh man , that was , that was intense . I was intense . I was like that's , that's the warmup , bro , that's the get us ready for what we're about to do .
And so the sheer joy I have just watching him limp around . I think I just lost Jordan . Yeah , I think I just lost Jordan . Awesome , all right , now that we got Jordan back here with the wonderful world of technology , and I always say technology is great when it works . But , yep , glad you were able to get back on .
But let's go right back into this here . You know talking to us about your time at NDC as a wrestler . I believe you were wrestling there when the pandemic hit and you lost out on the second half of your 2019-2020 season . Is that correct ?
Obviously , if you were there through the pandemic , yeah , yeah , so we actually were able to wrestle through regionals and the story is interesting .
So we had six guys um make it to nationals . We , um , so I was one of the six , and we were literally in sioux falls , uh , south dakota , and uh , it was like the day before we were supposed to compete , they told us you know , you know , everything's still going as scheduled .
Um , we went to the venue to practice , everything was good , and then they ended up giving us , uh , like , wristbands for our family because we they said it was going to be limited , uh , attendance . Um , and that same day , all these things were like closing down , like nba announced that they were going to postpone their season .
Um , so we're seeing all this stuff on social media . And then ncaa , like , they posted something about like things being postponed or canceled . So we didn't know what was going to happen to us . And then , um , you know , a couple hours later , it was announced that the tournament could be canceled . So , um , so , yeah , we were all there , we're ready to go .
Less than 24 hours before the tournament was supposed to start , it got canceled , yeah that's Especially with your sport .
You had to be careful during the pandemic and all that fun stuff as a wrestler Right right . You can't be taking the risk on that , but that does suck for you guys , that you know . You make it all the way there and then it gets canceled because of a worldwide pandemic . But you know it . I guess it is . I hate to say , but it is what it is .
You know . At least you had that opportunity to go there and still try it . But after graduating from NBC , where did your career take you before you know , you returned to notre dame college as the assistant coach and then the head coach for the wrestling team .
So actually , uh , what I did was , um , I got my uh , undergrad , bachelor's degree in criminal justice , so I worked some security jobs . I ended up actually working for brinks , um , the money trucks , um . I did that for a good like nine months , ten months , um .
And then , uh , my buddy , hunter bray , was as the assistant coach in college and he was like , hey , do you know anyone that would want to be a ga this next coming year ? And I I remember rep replying being like I'll reach out to some people and I texted back again , was like , uh , what about me ? He's like I was hoping to say that .
So , um , so that that brought me back and , uh , you know , I always thought about coaching somewhere . I just saw it as an opportunity . You know , go back to school , get my master , master's degree and end up coaching at Notre Dame , a place I cared about very much . I thought , why not ? It was a no-brainer . That's what brought me back .
Yeah , I mean I would have loved the opportunity to be a coach my schedule now as a comedian , father , husband , podcaster , merch store day job still on top of that there's really no days off in between there to be able to coach swimming , which is a sport I love . But I always got to check Fetty's facts on this .
But you also are an amateur MMA fighter , if I'm not , if I am correct , and I always got checked Betty stats . I love him to death , but he's he's hung me out the dry a couple of times on here with some questions . But can you walk us through that ? Because I love mixed martial arts and and watching that every Saturday ?
We we know what Saturday is here in my family and that's fight night and we always sit down and watch the ufc fight nights . So what's it like being an amateur mma fighter and what's kind of the the mentality with that ? Where , where's , uh , where you see that taking you ?
yeah , so that's correct . Um , so I got into it , kind of from getting back into coaching . Actually , you know , I was back into coaching and I was like seeing these guys compete every weekend , I was like I want to compete again , so I want to do this . So , um , I had a couple buddies uh , one of my buddies , alonzo turner , and um wenz myrtle .
Uh , they , they go to a gym called revolution fighting fitness in newport . Um , so it's not too far from notre dame college , it's about 10 minute drive . Um , and I reached out to them I was like , hey , like how do you guys like the gym ? They're both like it's awesome , it's great . You know , come check it out .
So I went and , you know , checked it out , wasn't really sure if I wanted to do mma . Um , it was something I always thought of , something . I always thought I wanted to do MMA . It was something I always thought of , something I always thought I wanted to do .
It kind of dabbled when I graduated from college , so I wasn't too sure if I wanted to fully commit or not . But once I saw this gym , felt the welcome that I felt when I got to the gym , I was like , yes , if I'm going to fight MMA , I'm going to do it here . And then a couple months later , I went to my first jiu-jitsu tournament , won that .
And then they're like , hey , let's , let's get you a fight . And I was like , all right , let's do it . So , um , you know , a year and a half later right now I'm three and one as an amateur . I'm actually fighting for a title next weekend . Um , so , so excited , looking forward to that .
That's awesome . I mean , we've had , you know , in regards to MMA , we've had quite a few combat fighters on here on the show . We love the sport of boxing , mma wrestling now with you on here . Do you think , as a former college wrestler , has that been the best thing for you as you learn the fighting game Especially ?
Obviously you know the ground game , I would imagine . But has being that collegiate wrestler helped you be quicker in learning MMA , or what are your thoughts on that ?
Yeah , I think so . I think a big part of it is knowing how to kind of grind and get better in a sport and put your all and do something to get you to the point where you're ready to compete . I think you know , being a collegiate wrestler , you know , you already know you're competing at the highest level , second to the Olympic level , in the sport .
So just having that experience and knowing , hey , like you know you've worked for the past five years you know competing at that level in a sport that's very similar to MMA , you know the transition wasn't too difficult and the mental transition as well . It's helped because I'm just looking at it as another sport .
You know I'm not doing it to take any aggression out or anything like that , it's just another sport and it's something that , um , you know they say they call it a martial art for good reason , and um , it's just , you know , building a craft and making yourself into , you know , the best martial artist
¶ Mixed Martial Arts Training and Fighting
as possible . I think wrestling is a great foundation for that . So I think definitely wrestling at the collegiate level has helped build that foundation and put me in a position where I'm able to be successful in the sport of MMA .
Now the gym you're in . Is that a ? Is that jujitsu that you're now learning ? I guess I would say you know in , uh , the gym , or is it just kind of like all facets of MMA at that gym ?
All facets . So we have , um , a handful of different coaches . We have , uh , Tim Stafford he's our boxing coach , and then , uh , we have George Comer he's our jujitsu and MMA coach , and then we have two Muay Thai coaches and we have other boxing coaches .
So we have all these different facets and then we all we kind of learn them all differently and then George kind of puts them all together for us . So it's a great gym because you can kind of do one thing or the other . If you want to just do boxing , you can do that . If you want to just do more , you can do that .
Or if you want to be an MMA fighter and do everything , you can do that as well . So , um , so yeah , if that answers your questions , kind of everything .
Yeah , that definitely does . I mean I know a lot of these gyms can be specific to one discipline .
Um and-jitsu seems to be the running topic Because , you know , as a teenager I got my black belt in taekwondo and every Wednesday was sparring day for the longest time and then all of a sudden , for about a month straight , they brought in this guy who taught us a little bit of jiu-jitsu with it too as well .
So you know , having that one discipline and then trying to learn another one , that was almost completely different than what I was . Taekwondo is more of a defensive style of fighting and not the aggressor . And now jiu-jitsu we were having to become the aggressor . It was just a lot to learn .
But , like you said , it's it's an art form , it's they call it martial arts for a reason and you know it's a lot of discipline involved and , as a young teenager trying to keep that discipline , that was definitely hard . You know , 13 , 14 , 15 years old thinking they know everything as it is .
It's definitely great to see someone that's passionate about the sport of combat sports , like I am too as well . Like I said , we've had a lot of combat fighters on here . What title are you fighting for , when is it and where can we watch it ?
if we can't , it's for the Maiden Men fighting promotion . It's next Saturday , july 13th , and it's at the Neo Sports Plan , which is where the Revolution Fight and Fitness Gym is at . It will be streamed on Combatsportsnowcom , and , yeah , so it'll be streamed , and you can buy tickets as well . It's in U-Pit .
so , yeah , looking forward to it , absolutely looking forward to it . I'll definitely check that out on the stream and I'll be rooting for you . It's a title fight . Can't not root for you . You fight for the title three and one already . That's . That's awesome to hear .
One quick thing before we get into this kind of final segment here , with NDC being closed now , I you have . Have you found it then ? The new opportunity in coaching , or is it more ? Just , you know , we're focusing on mma and working towards being a pro in mma , or what's . What's the new job ?
or , if you have one , tell us about it yeah , so I'm taking this time to more focus on mma . Um , you know I love my time coaching and , um , you know , I'm definitely glad I got that experience . The way I see it is , I'm still kind of young enough to really pursue my dreams in MMA .
So , you know , I'm kind of going to run with that for now , see what I can make of it and see if I can go pro sometime soon . So currently I don't , I'm not really looking for another coaching job . I'm open to the , to the opportunities that are there , um , but in the meantime I'm just , you know , doing other things .
I actually work for , like a company company here locally . So that's what I've been doing , um , just to make money in the meantime . But yeah , so I'm just really focusing on mma , right ?
now . That's great and I tell everyone follow your dreams . You know , nobody wakes up and decides there's no career path to be a comedian like I am . You know , like there's . That's . It's not at career day at school , mma fighter . That's not at career day at school .
You have to have the passion and the desire to want to do that and I kudos to you for for following your dreams . I always support people that are do that and I kudos to you for for following your dreams . I always support people that are doing that . That's great . I root for you .
I hope to see you as a pro one day , uh , hopefully in the UFC , the Mecca of MMA . Uh , looking forward to the following the career there for you and see how it goes . But , jordan , I do got to get this last segment in here as we are running down near the end of the episode .
Um , and for the current listeners out there , we haven't had to do it in a while because we've uh been doing a little bit more round tables . But that is the fast 55 , five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast , johnny fitty , falcone and jordan . These have nothing to do with what we've been talking about for the duration of this show .
They're kind of rapid fire , but you can elaborate if you feel you need to . So if you're ready and you know Fitty , you know how these questions can be . So if you're ready , let's get rolling . Yeah , let's do it . All right , all right . Question number one Better boy band group , backstreet Boys or NSYNC ? Nsync , all right , all right .
Question number two who do you think was a more popular WWF wrestler , hulk Hogan or Stone Cold , steve Austin ?
That's tough , that's a tough one . I'm going to go with Stone Cold . Steve Austin , that's tough , that's a tough one . I'm going to go with Stone Cold .
Yeah , I'd have to . Yeah , I can't argue that point . That's a toss-up coin , but definitely got to go Stone Cold on that one . Question number three what's better food , taco Bell or Chipotle Chipotle ? Yeah , that's just . That was , I think after the WWE question we had to give you an easy one there . Easy one , yeah , okay .
Question number four which is a worse activity ? Hiking or kayaking ?
Probably hiking . I mean , I just like being on the water . I don't know , I think water is a little bit more peaceful . Hiking you can kind of do anywhere . It depends on the scenery , I guess .
Yeah , that's a tough one for me . I'd have to go kayaking . I don't kayak enough to actually , you know , say that hiking's worth it . That's fair . Question number five Best time to work out in the day is In the morning . Alright , I feel like Johnny really took it easy there and you're there for the fast 35 .
He gave you one tough one , uh , and I'm actually surprised there's been a running theme . Johnny gets stuck on like a certain type of question when he's writing these out and it's been a lot of animal questions lately , like . So that's why I was like I don't know where , but I don't know if we're switching it up now .
I , but those are all him , uh , and he sends those to me the day like an hour before I'm about to record a show and I think a lot of them is . He wants to see if he can make the comedian laugh okay and it's , but these questions are random .
It's a nice , fun , light way to kind of end the show here , but I do give every guest this opportunity at the end of the show . Jordan , if there's anything you want to get out , whether it's for your fight next upcoming weekend or anything like that , or even if it's just a good message , I'm going to give you about a minute and the floor is yours .
All right . No , I just want to give a shout out to my coaches Tim Stafford , george Comer you guys are awesome . Shout out to all my teammates at Revolution Fight and Fitness . Shout out to my friends and family that have been supporting me in this journey that I'm kind of delving into now , um , and then you know , buy the pay-per-view main men promotions .
It'll be on combat sports now . Uh , next saturday , july 13th , um , going for that uh lightweight title and let's get it .
Absolutely , I'm so pumped for this . I will definitely be checking you out . Uh , Saturday , July the 13th , um combat sports , usually the combat sportscom .
Uh , either combat sports or combat sports . Now , I believe it's combat sports .
Now combat sports . Now I will double check and that will be in the description of this episode so everyone can easily find it coming up next Saturday , jordan , this was a lot of fun . Thank you for coming on .
We really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to sit and talk with us here on ride home rants and , as always , if you enjoyed the show , be a friend , tell a friend . If you didn't tell them anyways , they might like it just because you didn't . That's going to do it for me and I will see y'all next week .