If you ask just about anyone to the biggest stage in MMA, they have stories of seedy regional scene events in wild locations. Some big names got their starts fighting in crudely put together cages in parking lots or strip clubs. For UFC Vegas 85’s Jamal Pogues, he remembers getting his start in a not so clean venue.
“One of my fights, I’m going to basically say it was a chicken coop. Back in the warm up area we had to wear shoes because they put the mats on basically dirt. There were horses and chickens back there,” Pogues recalls. “You could walk two feet and touch a horse.”
Pogues remembers preparing for that fight, they he eventually won, but not really being comfortable warming up to the extent that he likes. A lot of that was due to the cleanliness.
“It smells like shit back there and you got your Nike shoes on,” he said. “In the back you’re hitting pads and you don’t even go to the ground for grappling.”
Even though he’s made his way to much bigger and much better things, part of him misses the early days of his career. That’s not to say that he wishes he was still in that chicken coop throwing down, but he does miss that feeling.
“But those back yard fights are crazy, violent, it smells. You got family and friends running in the back – you’re like ‘dude, just leave me alone. Let me focus. I’m scared as shit. I don’t need you come back here saying you got this,” Pogues described. “But the funniest is, I miss those times. Everyone might say that, but I miss those times because your family and friends were there. You knew that you sold 30-40 tickets… you’d see them in the crowd. I think it was more stressful then than it is now.”
And part of his love for that time, was the ability to dream. Some of that dream has been realized with getting to fight in some of the most storied arenas. No matter how big and how special those are, he’ll never forget those roots.
“Those are good times. Those are some crazy good times because all you do is think about being at the big arenas one day with the UFC or Bellator or something like that – having your name on the ceiling where everyone can see it,” he said. “It’s kind of cool to be sitting back in the locker room at the O2 Arena or, one day, T-Mobile [Arena] and stuff like that. But man, these back yard fights – that’s where we all start from.”
Pogues will step into a proper cage this Saturday at UFC Vegas 85. He’ll face Thomas Peterson as part of the ESPN+ preliminary card, which starts at 4pm EST.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 22:57.
