Athletes
At this point in his decade-long career as a fighter, Chepe Mariscal has seen it all. And he’s fine with that, along with all the annoyances that often constitute “all.”
“I just got used to saying yes, no matter what,” said Mariscal. “Even when I was an amateur, I said yes to guys that were the day of because my fighter didn't show up or something. So I've seen a lot of the ups and downs and the crazy things, and this is the fight game, man. You have to look at it as it’s back in the day in the gladiator times. They had more gladiators in the dungeons to just throw out if the other one broke a leg or got his leg chopped off.”
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Or got eaten by a lion.
“Exactly,” he laughs. “Sometimes you got to get put in the lions’ den, but I'm just a gamer for the game. That's all I do, so I might as well just be ready and on call.”
Mariscal was ready when the UFC called him for a fight with Dan Ige last month, but we all know what happened next, as Ige became everyone’s favorite fighter as he stepped up to battle Diego Lopes on a few hours’ notice at UFC 303. Now it was time for Denver’s Mariscal to hope someone would throw their name into the mix to fight him.
Damon Jackson was that guy, and on Saturday, the two will meet at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. It’s the kind of matchup all true fight fans want to see, and if you’re wondering if these are two kindred spirits, realize that Jackson will face Mariscal even after the “Machine Gun” came in overweight on Friday.
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It’s the fight game, things happen, and the bottom line is that everyone will still see two veterans scrap in the UFC Fight Night co-main event. In fact, in speaking to Mariscal for this story, I asked him the same question I asked Jackson a while back.
Would he be comfortable jumping into a time machine and fighting in the first UFC event in 1993? Would he fit in with the no rules, no weight classes, no rounds, (almost) anything goes?
“For sure, dude,” Mariscal laughs. “And that's the thing; growing up, I was a natural fighter. I was like, oh, okay, to make friends you have to beat up all these other guys and everybody thinks you're cool and you're the toughest guy in the group. And I don't know why, but at the age of nine, I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. And that's when UFC had bare knuckle guys and gis, so what the hell was I thinking at that age? (Laughs) But yeah, obviously I was into it, and I'm in it for all of it.”
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How hardcore was young Mr. Mariscal?
“I used to go and peek in the windows of the bars when I couldn't afford the pay-per-view,” he recalls. “I did whatever I could.”
As you would expect, this didn’t go over too well at home.
“I told everyone, this is not for money or fame, this is for warrior stuff. I want to live and die as a warrior. Then they started talking about seeing a specialist and stuff like that.”
Mariscal wouldn’t be deterred, though, even as he made his way through the regional scene and seemed to get stuck there, unable to get that phone call that would put him where he belonged. And as he turned 30, he even went to that specialist.
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“What's funny is I did end up going to see a therapist, because I've been fighting forever, and then I was losing,” he said. “I was like, what the f**k? I should be a killer. But I was just fighting with chaos, nothing in control. So then I started seeing a therapist and started talking to my coaches and telling them, okay, this is how I work, this is what I like. And I've told them, if you tell me how to win, I will win. I will do it. That's how I was trained when I was a kid. So I was like, okay, if I listen to the right instructions, I'm going to win every time.”
Over an 11-month period, starting in 2022, Mariscal snapped a 1-3 stint with three consecutive wins. Then that call he had been waiting for finally happened. But getting the call and proving he belonged are two different things.
Three UFC wins over Trevor Peek, Jack Jenkins and Morgan Charriere later, it’s safe to say that the 31-year-old native of Cicero, Illinois belongs. Looks like he was right all along.
“I wanted to get in this fight game to make money, be known as a warrior and be an example to all the other fighters that if there's a dream out there and you're willing to chase it, you'll do anything for it.”
UFC Fight Night: Tybura vs Spivac 2 took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 10, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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