Jake's path to getting in MMA part 3. Aged eighteen years old. Some years ago. Düsseldorf, Germany. (Off Camera)
In the last few months since the boxing gym was now known as an MMA and boxing gym, Jake had been working hard with a few students he's teaching. Things have been going well in the gym, having it's first-ever MMA gym in Germany. It opened doors to a lot of new students, wanting to come in and achieve the dream Jake had himself, being MMA fighters and being MMA world champions.
Even female students joined in, to be future MMA champions themselves and it opened doors to countries nearby to Switzerland and Austria too which many students did come from either one of those countries just to be here, training with Jake to accomplish their dreams, just like Jake was going to.
It's been open for the last six months and Jake was learning new things himself, being in the advanced class of MMA and boxing as he was getting better at striking, but still needed more work with doing striking, according to his trainers. He was hard at work, even doing a session for the kids as well. Today, it was the beginners class of MMA he was teaching for adults. He did a beginners kids class earlier.
Teaching them to do takedowns and how to defend from them as well, although they had to make sure they were doing some form of martial arts as well as MMA before they can even start to be MMA fighters. Jake after two hours of training the students stopped the lesson as it was always two hours a day with students he teaches.
Little does Jake know that there were American MMA fighters in the gym today, nodding their head each time they were impressed on Jake being a teacher. They have seen him in training as well like the other day, seeing if there were any German fighters willing to be in the MMA business already. The boxing and Jake's assistant coach spoke to the American MMA fighters about Jake's intention to be a fighter.
As the students left the gym, Jake takes the time to clean the mats with a mop and some sponges for the wall mats as he scrubbed them down, along with the assist of a boxing coach and both cleaned thoroughly, making sure the germs were completely removed since fighters do sweat on the mats and the wall mats. As they were done, as soon as Jake was about to head to the locker room to get himself changed, he heard a voice.
Trainer: “Hey Jake, come over here for a minute.”
It was another trainer in the gym as Jake wasn't able to start his MMA dream yet because he was the only person in the gym who could teach students, well there was a lot more trainers now who do MMA training as Jake does. Jake ran over towards the trainer and looks at the other two guys who were clearly scouting for European MMA fighters apart from United Kingdom ones. He speaks.
Jake Raab: “What's up? Why are these two guys been here for the last few weeks?”
Trainer: “Because they are scouting talent here.”
American MMA fighter 1: “To help you German guys get into the sport. You've seen what we've done with UK MMA world, haven't you?”
Jake Raab: “Of course, Jarold, a lot of great MMA fighters have come from there.”
American MMA fighter 2: “Well, we are going to do the same with you Germans as well. We've seen how well you've been training since you started here, you're fantastic and even leading you to teach students how to fight as well.”
Jake Raab: “I've always wanted to be an MMA fighter since I was seven years old when I saw it on television for the first time and funny enough, it was when Jarold fought against Max. No wonder why you guys have respect for each other, you changed the landscape of the MMA world.”
Jarold: “Indeed we did and it's good to hear how much of an inspiration we are to you, especially if it got you interested in the sport because of our fight.”
At this point, Jake doesn't know where this was going. His parents always supported everything Jake wanted to do in his life. He even had girls being attracted to him, but Jake always turned them down, not because he didn't want a relationship, but because he was too busy wanting to be an MMA fighter. Jake shook a bit, flipping his lips in and out with his mouth.
Max: “I know you were held back on making it in the MMA business because of teaching students here and we respect you for that, however, we've been here the last two weeks and we've already been impressed what we've seen from you in training and as a teacher. We feel that although you still need work with striking, you might be ready to be taking your MMA career to the amateur ranks.”
Jarold: “He's not wrong, you have what it takes. You have so much passion for the sport like you really want to be successful and be a star we know you can be. We'll work on getting you better with striking, that's not a problem, but your wrestling is the best we've seen here.”
Max: “You're difficult to take down and your takedowns are deadly, very hard slams that we can hear from right where we are. You were born to be an MMA champion. You were born to be an MMA fighter. I feel you can be a huge success for Germany. I looked at other students too, but we feel you're the readiest, despite some minor improvements you need to make.”
Jake Raab: “What are you guys trying to say?”
Trainer: “They are offering you to join their amateur MMA organisation for upcoming stars like yourself to go up against the top fighters. The staff had a meeting about it last week if we should allow you to chase your dreams. We agree to allow you to do so, especially as I said, we got more MMA trainers here now.”
Jarold: “And we're helping this school to get more professional MMA teachers to teach them advanced stuff that even you never knew about and could benefit your skills. What do you say, Jake? Up for the challenge of slowly creeping towards your goal of being a professional MMA fighter?”
Jake went away as he needed to shower and change as he pointed his finger at Jarold and Max, the heroes they were when they were MMA fighters and famous for being champions as he goes in the locker room and gets himself a shower. He then removed his gym training clothes to change into his regular clothes, while at the same time, giving himself time to think of the options laid out for him.
He walks out, smiling towards Jarold and Max as he walks up to them, with a bag over his shoulder and he says this.
Jake Raab: “It's always been a dream for me to be the first German MMA fighter to make it in the business. Seeing you have so much confidence and faith in me to succeed and if it's alright with my trainers.”
Trainer: “Which it is.”
Jake Raab: “I'll take you guys up on that offer. Do I get your contact details or anything like that?”
Max: “Indeed you do, here's a card with our number on it, although I wrote the card with the international number code so it'll be easier for you to dial-up. Whenever you're ready, give us a call and we'll get you a few matches or two in the amateur ranks. We'll arrange to get a few amateur MMA fights in Germany as well. We hope to see you there very soon and welcome to the amateur MMA fighting business.”
Jake Raab: “Thank you.”
These two were always an inspiration for Jake as Jarold and Max got Jake fascinated being the first two guys who were in the main event of an MMA PPV and got a ton of money for it as they both leave the gym facility and the trainer pats Jake's back and said this.
Trainer: “You made a wise decision to go and seek your dreams. We hope it's a start to others getting in MMA too. They saw your rival who they also thought was ready as well but needs to work on his takedown defence.”
Jake Raab: “Declan?”
Trainer: “Yeah so there's a chance you'll be fighting him in your first MMA amateur match. I wish you all the best of luck.”
Jake nodded as he places the card in his jeans pocket as he picks the bag up and places it over his shoulder before he heads back to his home, telling his parents the news of what happened and the job he got offered to do. Both his mum and dad hugged Jake before Jake ate dinner and then watched some TV in his bedroom before turning it off to head straight off to sleep two hours later.
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Respected rivals deserve to face me Jake's camera (On Camera)
“That's exactly what the title says when it comes to this match with Fenris and Ben Jordan, the only opponents apart from my tag partner I have respect for. It's not because they are great opponents to face, but they also don't trash my family. Which is a big problem I have as so should everyone, but nobody sees any issue with that. If I sunk down to that level of me trashing their family members, I'd get blasted for it and crucified. You know damn well you'd have a problem with it if your family members are trashed by anyone, including myself. If you don't then you don't give a shit about them, apart from yourselves.
Moving on, I have respect for Mark Cross, despite him having a bit of a squabble with my cousin in SCU. I always said to you, I never agreed with what Markus did with you over there, although he's moved on from you now, the fact is, I respect what you've done in SCU and ignore those assholes who say SCU are minor competition to SCW. I'll be honest, SCU is on par with SCW right now in terms of ratings and they show it because of you, the female SCU and GRIME champions and Markus himself.
You are a threat to Ben Jordan and can do something that nobody has done since Ben became champion and doing the one thing only Markus has done in SCW on that roster, winning the title as well as winning the tournament. I know you might worry I'm not reliable to team with you, but you're the most trustworthy partner I've ever teamed with. I know nothing wrong will happen between us or you stabbing me in the back so I can rely on you to work with me and get the job done.
Fact is, I'm not going to trash Ben or Fenris today because they don't deserve to be trashed with how hard working they are as wrestlers and their connection to being a team together is far stronger than it is with me and Mark Cross. Ben's a great champion who's actually done more than promoting the belt on twitter, unlike some who can't be bothered to promote themselves on camera backstage. He's also a skilled champion as well as evidence I saw with his skills against me in the ring.
I'm not feeling bad for the loss, you were better than me and I've only said that to a few people in my time as a wrestler here. I have to congratulate you and thank you for the compliments you've made about me. Ben's a great friend and opened up to Markus when nobody was willing to do so. I want you to know just because you beat me at the Supershow, just because you're teaming with Fenris, doesn't mean you'll win again because you got Mark to worry about now and Mark deserves a title shot against you. I'm looking forward to you both facing each other because it's a great competition to see two guys from different brands facing each other for the SCW title
Just as great as my idea of Fenris and I facing each other in a match that only I being the only other guy in SCW that has experienced and got skills of, MMA match. Of course, I still accept the match and it's still on, I wanted to make things different because I feel the MMA fans got robbed of us fighting against each other. I always wondered why Fenris and Jake Raab fight never happened and only I could make that history with you, showing the likes of Caleb Storms and the entire SCW world what MMA fights are like.
Because you know damn well, our MMA fight is going to be nothing like what you've done with Caleb Storms, not even close because Caleb compared to me has no experience with MMA. I do and that's all I want with you. You're a world-class wrestler, everyone knows that when you've fought everyone who's good at wrestling, but you've never had an MMA match with someone who's got the same experience as you.
I'm going on a bit in advance, but that's how excited I am to face you. I know a lot of people have a problem accepting open challenges, but not my fault if nobody else in this sport has the balls to step up because they rather wait when nobody waits for any opportunity, you take them for granted. I rather have that respect than being a pussy to not take them and wait for them like everyone else. Maybe you guys should've stepped up instead.
The point is we know you and Ben will work together to do everything to beat me and Mark, but that's not going to happen by a long shot as we'll do everything we can by working together and beating the top team everyone would fear if anyone were to face the team of Ben and Fenris. We'll do anything in the rules to beat you both for the three count. See you guys tomorrow night and may the top team win.”
