Profile: Amateur Fighter Matt Metts

One of the fighters on this weekend's Kentucky Fighting Challenge card in Lexington, KY is Matt Metts who will be making his amateur MMA debut. Thanks to FightTicker.com member Lee Jacobs (aka Leebo Jakes) I had the chance to get some questions to Metts about how he feels about making his amateur debut and what he has been doing to get ready for the fight.

(From L to R - Reaction Founder/Owner Rob Nickerson, Matt Metts, Lane Hensley)

Metts fights out of Reaction MMA in Lexington, KY. He began training under Reaction MMA owner and fighter Rob Nickerson just over a year ago and said that his inspiration to start training came from his athletic background. Metts grew up playing various sports and after playing college football at a D-2 school in Owensboro, Kentucky, Metts moved back to Lexington and met Nickerson through a flag football league. He started his training in boxing and eventually moved to BJJ and now trains in wrestling and kickboxing as well, to round out his MMA training.

In addition to his rigorous training schedule, Metts works for Sinister Angel Cages, a cage rental company recently acquired by Nickerson. He helps Nickerson set up cages at various regional events. Metts counts Nickerson as his biggest influence in becoming an MMA fighter, and spoke very highly of all of his training partners at Reaction MMA, including Nickerson and Julio Gallegos.

“It’s [Reaction MMA] a fairly new gym and has a lot of young up and coming talent. I’m really thankful to have the quality of training partners that I do including the more seasoned guys like Julio Gallegos and Rob Nickerson. I’m really excited to watch Rob compete again and watch Julio continue to do his thing. I can’t say enough about what Rob has done for me as a fighter. He has taught me everything I know and I would be the person or fighter I am today without him being a good mentor and instructor”

Metts went on to say:

“I’m just trying to be focused in general. I have done all the training and hard work needed in the gym. I plan on using whatever it takes in this fight to get the job done. I have been pretty excited [about making his mma debut] the last couple weeks and I’m ready to go. I’m not exactly sure who my opponent is [at the time of the interview] but I think that I am well prepared and have been trained by the best in the region so I feel good, whoever it is. I would really like to win this fight for the KYFC and then move into other organizations and try to make my mark on the sport.

Like many fighters, Metts is also a fan of the sport and named Urijah Faber as his favorite fighter because of “the way he goes about things and [that] he is a really cool, down to earth guy.” Like myself, Metts is a fan of Faber’s exciting fighting style.

Wrapping things up, Metts had the following “thank yous”:

“I’d like to thank all the guys that have helped me train and prepare at the gym. I’d like to thank my sponsors RBP Diesel Performance and Lexani out of California. Also a big thanks to Luana Massage and Josh Tarnofsky and Lee Jacobs."

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Best of luck to Metts in his debut. Lee Jacobs will be at the show to get the results on all the fights and report on the action after the event.

Also, Rob Nickerson was kind enough to let me into Reaction one day to do a full profile of the gym and in-depth interview with him. The profile, with pics, is coming soon.