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Jake Hager Balances Careers In MMA, Pro Wrestling

Posted: Oct 29th 2020 By: Jay Reddick

Jake Hager spent his coronavirus summer in a way few others did: Competing in one sport and preparing for another, all while working out with a movie star.

The Tampa resident is a regular in All Elite Wrestling, which has maintained weekly shows in Jacksonville throughout the spring and summer. But he has also been training for mixed martial arts, staying in fighting shape and waiting for his next bout in Bellator MMA.

“For myself, I get to be a two-sport athlete, live out a dream, and take advantage of this small window to maximize the potential of both [sports],” Hager said. “It’s a win-win.”

That preparation pays off Thursday when Hager faces fellow MMA heavyweight Brandon Calton at Bellator 250 (8 p.m., CBSSN).

Hager, formerly known as Jack Swagger, has been a mainstay on the pro-wrestling scene for well over a decade, including two WWE title reigns — and he has been a major player in AEW since it debuted last fall on TNT.

The 38-year-old’s MMA career has been a more recent phenomenon. He didn’t enter the cage for his first professional fight until January 2019. Now he’s 2-0 with one no-contest and ready to enter the Bellator cage for the first time in more than a year.

“I had a fight in April that was postponed, so I’ve just tried to stay ready and wait for the call all summer,” Hager told the Sentinel on Monday, just after taking his mandated prefight COVID-19 screening. “We just signed at the beginning of October, so I’m glad I was prepared.”

Training was difficult for all athletes this summer, with so many gyms and facilities closed because of the pandemic. But Hager had a connection: “Guardians of the Galaxy” star Dave Bautista, a former WWE champ.

“[He] has a gym at his house and he invited me over for a few weeks,” Hager said. “The gym is huge with plenty of space. Everything was really safe.”

Hager later had a home gym installed in his own garage.

Hager said some of his best MMA training sessions this year have been in an AEW ring. The promotion’s weekly shows have taken place under an outdoor canopy at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, and Hager said the summer heat provided an extra boost.

“It’s been a real silver lining for my training,” Hager said. “A match I had with Jon Moxley [which aired April 15] was the hardest workout of any kind I’ve had this year — 30 minutes of rolling around and beating each other up in the heat. Holy cow, that was a new level of being drained.”

Hager said fighting and wrestling require similar training, as you might expect, but different skills are required.

“For MMA, there’s so much pushing and pulling of muscles,” Hager said. “It’s more demanding, because if your lungs run out of air, you’re just out of luck. Wrestling is also really tiring … but at least you can rest for a few seconds.”

Hager entered professional wrestling straight out of college after an All-American amateur wrestling season at the University of Oklahoma. He understood the physicality of it, but the theatrics of it took a while to master.

“Where I really get tired is some of the character stuff — yelling at the audience and your opponents,” Hager said. “I grew up enjoying wrestling for Kurt Angle’s counters and Rey Mysterio’s reversals, but soon I learned that entertainment is everything.”

Hager said AEW and its owner, Tony Khan, have been eager to accommodate his training schedule and even promote his MMA career as part of his wrestling character. He’s portrayed as the muscle behind the Inner Circle faction, led by veteran bad guy Chris Jericho.

“AEW understands how to grow the company, and how to use every part of your life and personality to entertain the audience,” Hager said. “Tony realizes that me fighting in Bellator is good for the company.”

AEW and Bellator are the No. 2 U.S. companies in two different sports, both trying to claw their way past the establishment of WWE and UFC. But that status plays right into Hager’s mindset.

“Competition makes everyone better,” Hager said Monday, in what sounded like a mission statement for his employers as well as himself. “I attack everything as an underdog.”