"Thats What The F***'s Up"

Jacob Defranco seemed very confident. A lot more confident then you would think he should be entering his first MMA fight. Standing in his corner, wasting little movement, he waited for his opponent to join him inside the cage.

This wasn't the first time he had seen his opponent. Moments before the show started, Defranco entered an upstairs room accompanied by his buddies, looking to put a face to the name. "Which one of you is Jesse Belvin?" he asked the room of potential fighters. A wirey kid with a buzzed head held up his hand. Defranco apparently didn't see much in him and his crew walked away giggling and confident.

Defranco could smell a knockout. He even announced it on his Facebook.

Jesse Belvin came out next. The muscles in his face were tensed up like you would expect from someone who was about to get into a fight. His previously mentioned frame was now shirtless for the general public to view, exposing all of his tattoos which nearly consume his entire left arm. He looked like someone who should be crowd surfing at a Coheed and Cambria concert, not in a cage fight.

But that’s where they both found themselves. Locked in a cage where the only thing they knew about each other was their names. Within moments they were introduced and prepped for battle.

Jacob Defranco was certain he was going to get a knockout and his first win. It only took Jesse Belvin 1 minute and 22 seconds to ruin those aspirations.




“I wanted to showcase my striking first; because I was like 99% sure the guy wouldn’t be able to stop my wrestling. Only reason for my nerves was because of trying new boxing techniques and angles.” Jesse said. He had recently started training with a boxing specific coach, Rudy Garza, and was anxious enough to employ his new skill set that he jumped at the first opportunity to do so. Even if that meant doing it on a weeks notice and in a heavier weight class.

When the day of his 2nd career fight came, Jesse found himself in a torture rack of nervousness. Taking a fight on 5 days notice didn’t give him much time to sit and think about what exactly he had agreed to do. But with only a few hours till he had to be at the venue, he found himself stressing over his recent decision. It had finally dawned on him that he was fighting in a heavier weight class, against an independently trained fighter who no one knew anything about, and he had 5 days to train for it. “I felt way more sick [this time],” Jesse said comparing his feelings to those he had for his first fight.

Saturday morning he woke up with a life time MMA record of 2-0. Any nervousness he had felt the day before had been regulated to a passing sentiment. His hand ached so bad that he felt like he might’ve broken something. This isn’t surprising after you realize that he finished the fight by repeatedly punching the kid square in the head, like he was trying to rack up video game combo points, and didn’t stop until he was told to get up. It was that act of relentless violence that I haven’t stopped thinking about 48 hours later. As a spectator, it was simply awesome to watch. As Jesse’s brother, it was one of the more frightening things I’ve eve seen. I’ve always known Jesse to have a temper, but this was different then any of his verbal posturing I had ever experienced. This wasn’t Jesse walking in the mall saying, ‘I would beat his ass.’ This was him ACTUALLY beating someone’s ass.

Since I left Gladiator MMA (the venue of the fight), every time I have thought about his fight, I find myself thinking the same thing: Where the fuck did that even come from? “Prison fights.” He responded over a text message. “Attacking a guard. I saw a video once and I try and act like I’m fighting for my escape.”

Well that’s a good explanation of how you pin someone down and schedule them for an appointment with a dentist, but how does one flip that switch from being nervous wreck to channeling a the actions of a violent criminal?

“When I went in for the takedown I didn’t have a care in the world. The goal was to see if my hands had improved with Rudy’s help and they did.”

It took Jesse Belvin almost exactly six months between matches. After his first match, he found himself questioning his motivation to go through the type of conditioning required to perform how he expects himself to perform. After Friday night, Jesse vowed to not let so much time get in between his fights.

He has now set himself a goal for continuing with MMA. Ultimately, he wants to qualify as a professional, but that will come after he pads his record and maybe adds a belt to his collection. “My goal is to win one more fight, then fight for #1 contendership. Then at 4-0 I would like to challenge for the Featherweight or Bantamweight belt”

As I was wrapping up my interview with him, I felt compelled to ask him again about his pre match interaction Jacob Defranco and his buddies. “[when]I raised my hand and they were snickering and shit… it motivated me…” he said.

“I love being motivated.”