It's hard to miss current Bellator MMA competitor Jake Hager when he walks into a room. Listed at 6'7 and 254 pounds, Hager has always cut an imposing figure. Growing up in the football and amateur wrestling crazed state of Oklahoma, Hager naturally gravitated to and excelled at both. Heading into his second professional bout with Bellator on Saturday, May 11, 2019, Hager hasn’t been able to help but marvel at the path his career has taken him.

His natural gifts and determination carried him through a standout football career in high school, a spot on the Oklahoma Sooners football and wrestling teams and ultimately a stellar career in professional wrestling. Since 2018, he has turned his attention full-time to the sport of mixed martial arts and it is just one more endeavor he has become a star at. All of it began back in Perry, Oklahoma.

“I started playing flag football really early, probably around 10-years-old when the YMCA got it started,” Hager said. “Of course, I didn’t start playing tackle football until fifth grade. I had started wrestling much earlier than that.”

Growing up in a small town, Hager was thrust into the all-too-familiar spot of having to play ironman football for much of his career. His size and athletic ability made him a natural for spots at tight end and on the offensive and defensive line, and the transitions between both sports were beneficial to him.

“Football is like seven seconds of controlled explosiveness and wrestling is like seven minutes of constant push and pull. Both require a lot of hand fighting and quick feet, especially on the o-line and the d-line. Both require you to have good use of your body for leverage.”

Hager jumped at and accepted a full scholarship to play on the defensive line for the Sooners. It was an offer that Hager jumped at the chance for. He would serve as a backup his freshman and looked ready to take his place among the all-time Sooner defensive greats as a sophomore. However, it was at this point that fate intervened.

“We were just off the Rose Bowl victory in 2002 when the head wrestling coach called me up at home on winter break,” Hager said. “He told me that their heavyweight was ineligible and they didn’t have anyone else. He wanted to see if I wanted to come and help the team out and I jumped at it.”

The choice proved to be the right one for Hager as he earned All-American honors as a senior and set the school record for the most pins in a season with 30. While not having a clear path as to what to do next, Hager graduated with his degree in finance but again, fate had other plans.

“Before I graduated my senior year, the WWE came and talked to me,” Hager said. “They told me that they thought I had a chance to make it in professional wrestling. They told me to finish up and get my degree, but if I wanted a chance, they would give me every opportunity they could.”

Hager, under the ring name of Jack Swagger, would become a champion multiple times over during a career that lasted over a decade in the WWE. While it took him a little time to adapt to the “entertainment” side of the sports world, Hager proved to be a natural on the physical side of it.

“The technique involved in pro wrestling was a similar technique to amateur wrestling,” explained Hager. “If you’ve got good footwork and you can move, that helps you out a lot. I really had to focus on the character aspect about it. It really took me about two and a half years until I was comfortable in my own skin where I could flip a switch and go out there and be that character.”

Right now, the sky is the limit with Hager. Signed to Bellator MMA, one of the largest mixed martial arts promotions in the world, he is in a great position to achieve great heights in the sport. No matter what he does though, Hager will never forget the lessons that first became ingrained upon him way back on the football fields of Oklahoma.

“I think the best thing I learned from football, and from wrestling, is how to get better,” he said. “I was never the most athletic guy, I was never the strongest, I was never the fastest – but I learned how to be coached and make myself work at it. I think just learning that brutal honesty is something that I will always be thankful to those sports for. You can apply almost every lesson you learn to make you successful and apply them to life.”