Despite being only 23-years old, Michael Aswell enters his Dana White Contender Series fight with a maturity not often seen by fighters of any age. Not only is he composed in the cage, but his outlook on fighting and the process is wise beyond his years. While some might point to the fact that he has had nearly a dozen and a half fights aready, Aswell himself attributes it to something else.
“The maturity for me has more to do with the first coach I ever had. I was trained by coach Saul Soliz – one of the OG veterans of the game,” Aswell said of the late great coach. “A lot of what I learned was old school.”
Known to many as the Godfather of Texas MMA, Soliz grew to fame by training many of the big names in the sport. From Tito Ortiz to Ricco Rodriguez and from Cris Cyborg to Rampage Jackson – so many greats cut their teeth with Soliz in their corner. Being around that presence when he was in his formative years really helped Aswell to grow into the fighter he is today.
“Back in the day, there was none of this flashy stuff – just a hard-nosed grind type of work,” he said. “I feel like it kind of pulled me to a more mature state. Learning how to fight through adversity and not get broken as much as you’re getting broken in every practice.”
The chance encounter with Soliz’s gym was a blessing in disguise. Having had one of his usual physical outlets taken away from him, he looked to find a new spot and found precisely what he needed.
“I was just an all-around athlete. I never knew I wanted to fight specifically. I did all the sports – football, baseball, basketball. You name it and I pretty much played it all. But there was one year where I wasn’t really playing football, there was a requirement about age or weight where I really couldn’t play. I had a dead year of just kind of nothing and I’m just active, so I have to be doing something,” he recalled. “The girls who cheered for my football team were doing jiu jitsu at the time at coach Saul Soliz’s gym. I went over there and tried my first class. I remember getting choked out like four or five times by purple belts.”
But it was more than just the competition that kept Aswell there. Aswell recalls a time, having been training for a while, where Soliz voiced his confidence in his abilities. That not only helped push him into this career, but sticks with him even to this day.
“If you know coach Saul, he didn’t play any games. If he told you something, that’s really what he believed,” Aswell said. “[He] kind of pulled me aside in his office and told me that he sees something special in me and that I could be great – he could make me a champion if I keep putting in the work.”
Aswell looks to take the next big step in achieving the goals of his late coach this Tuesday on Week 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series. When he takes on Bogdan Grad, I’m sure his coach will be looking down proudly on him.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:29.
