By the time you’re at your desk Monday morning, Trevor Ragin has already been to the gym.
By the time you’re at your desk Monday morning, Trevor Ragin has already been to the gym. Clocking in at 147 lbs, the 24-year-old Henrico native is already a state-champion MMA fighter with his eyes set on bigger things.
Ragin’s love of mixed martial arts fighting, specifically kickboxing and Muay Thai, started way back in high school. He remembered playing MMA video games on PS2, and getting in a few school yard scraps.
“This definitely [kept] me out of trouble since I got to do what I like to do in a sanctioned area,” he said about his early days fighting and training at a gym just up the street from his house.
“I was always doing athletic stuff. I was always into watching boxing and MMA fighting,” he said. His brother used to bring home MMA DVDs which helped fuel his interest.
He didn’t start training specifically for fighting until about four years ago, with that first year spent learning the ropes. But before long he was in the ring fighting for titles and winning.
His first fight was against another rookie. It took place at his local gym, Combat Sports Center Richmond, and though he said he won the fight, he admits he didn’t do it in a technical way, but rather “he just went in there and brawled and blacked out.”
I kept joking with him about what inspires him to get hit in the face for a hobby and he laughs.
“It’s one of the best feelings in the world,” he said. “You’re training as hard as you can for something.” He said, stressing the actual fights, which usually only last a few minutes in real time, feel like hours while he’s kicking, dodging, blocking and… getting hit in the face.
While training hasn’t stopped for Ragin, he’s ramped up his recent routine in anticipation of a fight this weekend where he’ll spar for a new, higher level title – the Eastern Regional Championship through the World Kickboxing Association, USA.
He’ll travel to Manhattan for this fight where he’ll be pitted against Justin Muslija, a New Jersey native, for the Welterweight North Eastern Championship belt at the Combat at the Capitale 38 event.
Ragin said he doesn’t get nervous ahead of fights, but he does feed off the energy. He hopes a win there will help him reach his goal of going pro in 2017 – that’s the televised fights with Joe Rogan emceeing.
For those of you interested in following in Ragin’s footsteps, he’s got some advice:
“It all starts here at the gym,” he said. “You don’t have to be in shape to start. It takes time, of course, to get into the routine but literally anybody can do it.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ll leave the ‘getting hit in the face’ to Ragin.
