Forging 'Warverine': Logan Paxton took a cross-country path to UFC opportunity

Sometimes the most efficient path to the top isn't a straight line. Logan Paxton has encountered his fair share of adversity. The unfortunate timing of events has slowed his progress. But he's stronger from the bumps in the road – one that has led him to Dana White's Contender Series on Tuesday. As Paxton (10-1) stepped on the scale Monday in front of a small group of reporters, he hit the mark: 155 on the nose. He exhaled. Arguably, the hardest part was done. Making weight isn't an easy feat for the average fighter, but for Paxton, the number on the beam represents more than just a few weeks of dieting. Paxton wrestled growing up and eventually parlayed that into a collegiate stint at Sacramento City College, and then a Division I run at North Dakota State University. At his bulkiest, Paxton said he weighed 230 pounds. Around the time of his collegiate transfer, Paxton got a little work in with Nate Diaz. The seeds were planted for an MMA career. "I literally just showed up to the gym, and it happened to be a sparring day, and Nate was there, I think he was getting ready for a fight," Paxton recently told MMA Junkie. "I knew of Nate Diaz, but I didn't know too much, and they were like, 'Well, we got this big college wrestler, you want to go some rounds with Nate?' I was like, 'Do I?' So, I hop in the ring, and I will say he took it easy on me, obviously, but we went five rounds. Five rounds. My very first time, just boxing, headgear, big gloves, girdles, all that stuff. I think it's pretty cool. I feel like that was the day I decided this is for me. Because afterwards Nate was like, 'Dude, you got potential, and this is your first time ever.' He gave me some good uplifting words, and I was like, 'All right, once I'm done wrestling Division I, I'm coming back here, and I'm gonna fight for you guys.' They were like, we'd love to have you; we need some good wrestlers. So that was always in the back of my mind." Years later, Paxton took Diaz up on his offer. Once a random body brought in for wrestling purposes, Paxton became a member of the squad, the family, the army. He was faced with a hard reality, however. He was definitely not a heavyweight. "I was like, 'Get the fuck out of here, guys. I literally weigh like 220 or 215. I'm a beefcake,'" Paxton laughed. "I was like, 'Losing 60 pounds? There's no way.' But now, fast forward six years, here we are. I took their word for it, because they're the guys. When I was training with Nate, he'd just fought (Conor) McGregor, was on a huge high, fought Anthony Pettis, who's now actually my manager (which is crazy), and a few other guys. He was the dude, so I was like, 'OK, I'll trust your words, man.' I slowly started making my way down, dieting hard, and then I had my first professional fight at 170 pounds. I guess they were kind of right." Paxton kept racking up win after win. He was pretty damn good at the whole fighting thing – but that doesn't mean it has come easily. Two months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in America, Paxton suffered a devastating injury that would forever give him new perspective on competition and life. "Two months prior to the shutdown, I actually tore my ACL completely, tore my meniscus, and was out of training," Paxton said. "I'd just won my pro fight two months prior, and I was riding that high. I tore my ACL in a training accident, literally nothing crazy. It was just some live rounds. I got in a weird leg entanglement, turned to kick out like a mule kick, and everything just crunched, popped." Despite the financial means it took, Paxton sought the most trusted expert available to repair his injury. Dr. Neal ElAttrache had just repaired Conor McGregor's knee, and Paxton enlisted his services to do the same for him. "Unfortunately, COVID hit and shut everything down," Paxton said. "I had to go back home. Everything was shut down; I couldn't do my rehab. So that postponed my recovery a little bit. Took me a whole extra year, maybe six months longer than it should have, to get back to training. But I knew with this hiccup I had to propel my career." Iron sharpens iron, and as hard as it was to say goodbye to the Diaz Brothers, Paxton relocated to Colorado to train with his favorite fighter, Justin Gaethje. He hasn't looked back since – though he has looked "up." An avid hiker, Paxton has fully assimilated into the elevation training. "Dana White, Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby, they want to see me go out there and hurt this guy," Paxton said. "If I do that, and I'm exciting, and I call my shot on the mic, I'm gonna get signed. So I think more than ever this moment demands that out of the fighters who go into that pit. It's kind of a different expectation than even in the UFC, because in the UFC you can grind out a decision and still get paid, still win, still be on the roster. But we're being put in a special place, where I think my style, my mental fortitude to go deep in fights, I don't break, I think that's gonna pay huge dividends in rising to the occasion of the Contender Series. Paxton, 31, fights returning DWCS fighter Cristian Perez (14-2) in a lightweight battle at Meta APEX. The winner, should they look impressive, will walk home with a UFC contract. From California to North Dakota to Florida to Denver, Paxton hopes to make Nevada a meaningful location in his career progression. "Dana White, Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby, they want to see me go out there and hurt this guy," Paxton said. "If I do that, and I'm exciting, and I call my shot on the mic, I'm gonna get signed. So I think more than ever this moment demands that out of the fighters who go into that pit. It's kind of a different expectation than even in the UFC. Because in the UFC you can grind out a decision and still get paid, still win, still be on the roster. But we're being put in a special place, where I think my style, my mental fortitude to go deep in fights – I don't break. I think that's gonna pay huge dividends in rising to the occasion of the Contender Series." This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Forging 'Warverine': Logan Paxton took a cross-country path to UFC opportunity