Jack Swagger or Jake Hager, that is the question…explains the ripped, renowned former pro wrestling heavyweight champion, on the eve of his transition into the toughest proving ground in sport: heavyweight MMA fights getting punched in the face with 4oz gloves by 250 pound men who want to take your head off, or snap your limbs.
A long way from the long-legged spandex of the WWE, where he was a champion. Like fighting, it’s sport entertainment. But this is a little different, and he will debut alongside the greatest heavyweight of them all tomorrow night at The Forum here in Lala land.
Hager makes his neophyte bow; Fedor Emelianenko enters the cage for the last time after two decades of prominence.
“Right now it’s going to be Jake Hager, that’s what the billboard will say. But in the future I hope to fight under Jack Swagger,” explained the 36 year old who is squeezed into a sleek suit, shirt and tie. What he alludes to, of course, is the shift in persona, as well as the shift in fighting forms.
“I’m making MMA great again for pro wrestlers. I don’t know if I’m trying to confuse MMA fans who are new to me with four different names, but it’s a work in progress. I definitely want to bring that persona, charisma and character into the cage.”
Hager, a formidable College wrestler here in the United States and a very decent American Football player for the University of Oklahoma (where he graduated in finance, for the record). Not since the physical behemoth that is Brock Lesnar crossed into MMA from WWE has such a name made the great leap of faith. And there are risks.
“Oh, it’s a huge risk. A very big investment in myself and my abilities. But I think if you look at life, that’s how you accomplish the big things. In 2016 and 2017, I wasn’t in a good place. I’d been on the road for 12 years, I was drinking too much. I needed to get back to who I was. This was a way for me to better myself. Be better than my past myself. That was really important. I feel with all that’s happened in the last year and a half, I’ve already won.”
The admission that he has gone soul-searching by testing himself physically only adds to the mystique of the man. The key, perhaps, and the telling tale will be how much Dutch sparring Hager has done in training. The striking department – or being struck – is where the acid test will lie. His debut opponent is a podgy 6 ft journeyman who is 1-1 in MMA against JW Kiser. It ought to be a gentler opener.
On the hard sparring, Hager told me: “It’s a very tough thing to do because one, you don’t want to get injured. You have to be in training everyday learning. Especially someone like me, I’m very green to the sport. But it’s one of those necessary evils. It’s like social media, everyone hates it but you have to do it.”
“You have to learn how to punch and your body learns how to react. Your natural instinct when people are throwing punches at you is to back up. That just makes it more dangerous for you. You’ll get hurt that way. You’ve got to teach yourself to go forward, move your feet and move your head. I’m not going to lie, that was tough for me to learn. Hopefully I did learn it.”
What is revealing, moreover, is that Hager is hiding nothing, that he is prepared to share the journey and the pain – and the frustration, no doubt – with us.
“There’s been times in the room where we’re just doing boxing or kickboxing and I get pissed off because I’m just getting hit,” he told me. “I want to go to my double leg, but I’m not working on that that day. Luckily when I’m in the cage I will have my double leg and I can use that to go forward. You have to unlearn that. You have to really say I don’t give a fuck, let’s go. That’s why we love MMA and on Saturday we’ll find out.”
So how did Hager grow up wanting to be a fighter, a battler, a man wanting to test himself almost into middle age. “I grew up with two cousins from North Dakota who were junior national champions. They’re a lot older than me and I looked up to them as my older brothers. I had a love for it, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most athletic guy. I’m lanky and goofy. A long time ago I learned how to shut my mouth, listen to my coaches and put trust in my coaches. I learned how to get better and work on things that I’m not good at – like boxing – and get better at it without getting frustrated to where I won’t do it anymore. I learned to accept whatever happened. MMA is like anything else in life, it’s the little details that make you great at it. Baby steps, but you get better.”
WWE is different to this. This fight will be real. So will the nerves.
“The nerves with WWE performance is more the live television angles because we have time limits and have storylines we want to get through in that time. You’re going to forget a lot about the spots. But for me, I don’t know whether it’s because I’m getting paid, because in college I would get anxious, but right now I know I’m in the best shape of my life. This is the best shape I’ve ever been in, at 36 years old. There was a lot of arguments with my coaches about running, but I finally shut up and did the work. I feel like that confidence is why I’m not nervous. I don’t feel any pressure.” Hard to believe; yet amazing to hear.