Fight Core

It was well worth driving 7 hours to Wendover to see Jake Paul defeat Lee Doss in the 2nd round of the Gladiator Challenge Championship.

Due to a crash on I-80 West, the drive from Salt Lake to Wendover ended up taking us about seven hours instead of two. We tried 3 different routes. The 1st two were closed by the Highway Patrol and the last one (Lehi) was too backed up. After three hours of driving, three different attempts and one monsoon, we ended up back at my house, right where we started.

Amazingly after everything we’d been through, all four of the passengers were still willing to try and get to Wendover to support our team! So we loaded back up into the car and headed back down I-80 West. Me and my trusty partner Yamasaki in the front seat and my friends Cade and Britt in the back seat. We were off and runnin for about 20 minutes before we hit the backed up traffic from the truck crash and then it was hours of sitting.

To pass the time we discussed black jack strategies and our most tramatic childhood movies. At one point Yamasaki and I decided to shut the car off and push it down the highway in neutral, “not because we have to, because we want to” as Yamasaki said. When traffic would come to a complete stop we would all get out and socialize with the rest of the stranded travelers.

Once we got through Tooele the freeway opened up and we were pushing the Honda Civic to the max. We arrived at the fights with just enough time to hit the bathroom, warm up Jake and go on.

The fight was the shortest part of the trip. Jake went out, pressed Lee to the cage, took him down and landed punches and elbows. Lee had a couple of submission attempts which Jake fought off as he continued to strike on the ground. Round two – Jake went out, had a couple of stand up exchanges and scored a nice low takedown. He then passed the guard, mounted and hammered away. Dave Seljested put a stop to the fight and raised the hand of the new Welter Weight Champion!

After the fight we celebrated with all of our friends and teammates and then Yamasaki snuck away to play some 21. After making a little scratch at the tables we headed up to our room and crashed at about 4am. This was one of the top 5 best weekends of my life!