Athletes
Steve Garcia Simply Wants It More
UFC Lightweight Steve Garcia's Passion For Competition Drives Him To Reach New Heights Every Time He Steps In The Octagon.
The October 19 post on Instagram says everything about who Steve Garcia is. He’s in full mount in an amateur bout, mouthpiece bared as he fires away on a tattooed opponent trying to defend himself. That’s the obvious part, considering that he’s a professional mixed martial artist about to fight for the 20th time as a pro Saturday night against Melquizael Costa.
But back then, he was 17 years old, baby face and all, and fighting an amateur bout against a 28-year-old, one who had 20 pounds on him, no less.
“My dad had to sign a waiver for me to fight this guy,” laughed Garcia, who won the bout.
On the surface, you may surmise that fighting was just in his DNA, that he was destined to one day make a living doing this in the UFC.
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That wasn’t the case. In fact, Garcia was considering a life in the Marine Corps.
“My dad told me, ‘If you want to live in my house, you got to have a job or you got to go to school,’” recalled Garcia, who said that for his dad, training was okay, but not fighting as a career path.
Steve Garcia TKOs Chase Hooper In RD 1 | UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Allen
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Steve Garcia TKOs Chase Hooper In RD 1 | UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Allen
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“I was like, all right, I'll join the Marine Corps,” said Garcia, who at least wanted to win an amateur title and defend it once before enlisting. His father agreed. He got his title, but the last fight didn’t happen because his opponent withdrew. He changed gym, had trouble getting fights, but eventually secured one.
“I finished him in a minute, and then I looked at my dad and he says, ‘Well, let's take another one. Let's see where it goes.’ And then I won another one, and another one, and then I had 14 amateur MMA fights, and I won 'em all.”
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Garcia laughs, because by this time, dad was all-in on his son’s fighting career, and here he is, 31 years old and about to fight in the UFC for the sixth time. He’s a father now, himself, and he still instills those old school lessons he learned into his kids, because, hey, it’s a tough world out there and many have forgotten what it’s like to be tough. Garcia gets daily reminders every time he walks into the gym, but despite the rigors of the grind, he tries to appreciate where he’s been thus far.
“You don't want to get too comfortable, but yeah, especially after a hard win,” he said. “I thank God every second because man, what we do, it's crazy. But after we're all done and a hundred pounds is lifted off my shoulders, I can sit back at the dinner table and just breathe, just thank God I don't have to train for a moment. I don't have to worry or stress prior to a fight. Until the next one, obviously.”
For Garcia, the next one was supposed to be in August against Sean Woodson before an injury forced the Albuquerque native from the bout. Then the Costa fight was scheduled for last week before an illness forced a move forward to Saturday night. That’s the fight life, and while it’s been frustrating to not be able to follow up back-to-back knockout wins over Chase Hooper and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke sooner, Garcia stays focused, knowing that despite having other options outside of fighting, this is the only place he wants to be.
“Once you develop a passion for something, you don't mind the bad,” he said. “You don't mind those things. Don't get me wrong, the weight cutting sucks, and so does sometimes missing holidays and birthdays and stuff like that because you're training. But when you’re an athlete, you're a competitor and we just want to win. And how bad do you want to win? At that point, when you put so much time and effort into it, you want to be paid back.”
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Payday comes Saturday, literally with a paycheck, and figuratively when he gets to do what he loves to do and then secure a win for his efforts. Garcia has been chasing that feeling for more than half his life, and he’s not satisfied yet.
“There's no other feeling like this,” he said. “And when you come out on top, man, that's your life. That's how you make it. And then the rest of the world gets to see it, and there's not a moment like that. And if you have a good team behind you, the camaraderie that you develop with your team, they're like a second family to you. We're all trying to get better. We're all trying to help each other achieve our goals, and to get to go to the gym and help them do what they want to do while they're helping you at the same time is a good feeling, too. So when you win, it feels like everybody else wins around you.”
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