Athletes
Zachary Reese isn’t leaving Shiner, Texas, population 2,069.
Oh, he’ll make the occasional trip to Thailand, or regular two-hour trips each week to Houston and San Antonio to get the work he needs to compete at a high level in the UFC middleweight division, but leaving Shiner? Not happening.
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“I definitely thought about getting a place somewhere, and that's a big reason why we do the Thailand trips,” said Reese, who makes his third UFC start this weekend against Jose Daniel Medina. “That was my fourth time going to Thailand, and these last three fights, I'll go out there for between a month and six weeks and do the majority of my camp out there. So I would definitely want to train around, but, at the end of the day, Shiner is home. My parents live here, my wife's parents live here, and we definitely want to put our kids in school here.”
So on the road he goes to make sure he’s keeping up with the rest of the 185-pound killers in the UFC.
“I know I'm going to not be home, unfortunately, but it's just what it is,” he said. “I don't mind traveling. It is the same thing working in the oil field. I wouldn't see my wife for two months or a month here and there. So it's just a sacrifice. And there's a great quote I kind of live by, it says, ‘Boys do what they want, men do what they must.’ And you have to pick your sacrifice - sacrifice regret or time away from the family.”
Having just turned 30, Reese is still young enough to chase his dreams in the midst of a hectic schedule, while old enough to have figured a lot of things out that many haven’t. And while being away from his wife and two young daughters, aged two years and four months old, isn’t easy, neither is being a prizefighter, and he embraces the idea of being comfortable with being uncomfortable.
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“I came to the realization a while back of just trying to always push my comfort zone, and I think that's why I've grown a lot as a fighter,” Reese said. “And don't get me wrong, Thailand is fun. Me and my wife always talk about it. She's like, ‘That's a vacation.’ No, it's a business trip. (Laughs) I have two little girls, so I don't like being away from them, either. But yeah, I’m just always pushing my comfort zone and I'm always focused on being a better fighter. I trained as hard for my amateur fights as I do for my UFC fights. I always trained super hard, I never underestimated my opponents, and I never really focused on my opponents. It's always just focusing on getting better.”
The proof is in the reality that his third UFC fight is just his ninth as a professional. It’s not easy getting this far with less than 10 fights, but here he is. Just don’t call him an overnight success, or a finished product, because his debut loss to Cody Brundage showed him that there was still work to do, and his 20 second knockout of Julian Marquez six months later doesn’t mean he’s as good as he’s going to get.
Zachary Reese Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Borralho
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Zachary Reese Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Borralho
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“Dropping my UFC debut in Austin an hour and 20 minutes from my house, I had so many friends and family there, and it was devastating, honestly,” he said. “But we get up and get back on the horse man, and that's what I did, and I knew that wasn't even close to the best showing I could have. And with that last fight, winning it in 20 seconds and then getting a bonus, it really is worth it, because when you're fighting on the regional scene, it's a complete grind. In reality, you're fighting for free. The purse has never even covered the training camp. So I had a day job still, but I worked in the oil field, so I would work a month, two months, the longest time it was three months straight. So I'd go work three months straight and then I would save up enough money to take two to four months off and then try to knock out a fight or two. So yeah, it feels amazing now to really be living the full-time lifestyle, and it takes a lot of pressure off of me.”
Also taking the pressure off is his bride, Meloni. She keeps everything together with their two girls in Shiner while Reese gets 14 miles a gallon driving around Texas to train. And this isn’t a new thing to her. They’ve been together since they were 17 years old, and if you wondered if she was as all-in for this fighting thing as he was, consider that at 20, she tattooed Reese’s nickname, “Savage” on his leg.
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“We went to Hobby Lobby, we bought ink for calligraphy, and we put a needle in a pencil,” Reese laughs. “It was a fantastic idea. (Laughs) And then I didn't think it would stay, but yeah, here we are, all these years later, and it's still there.”
That must be love.
“She's amazing,” Reese said. “She puts up with me, and just being together so long, the ups, the downs, the lefts and the rights, and she can even hold pads pretty well. It's our little secret. But yeah, she's a great woman, for sure.”
And she’s a Shiner girl, so for Reese, that’s all he needs. Yeah, fighting in Vegas is nice, and seeing Thailand fills a need for him, too, but again, he’s not leaving his hometown.
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“There's definitely pros and there's definitely cons, but it is just so much quieter,” he said. “Everyone here is friendly. We have one stoplight in the whole town. The whole school is kindergarten through 12th grade, and there were 48 kids in my graduating class. So it's a great little town. I feel like it's kind of a throwback to maybe what Americana was maybe 50 years ago. You drive by, everyone waves, everyone's nice, everyone's respectful and quiet. And yeah, even driving to Houston, man, I don't know if I could live there or live there permanently just because of the amount of people and traffic. I can't deal with traffic.”
Who can? And that’s really not a price Reese wants to pay now. He’s happy with Shiner, happy with the grind that it takes to be a UFC fighter, and happy that people are realizing that he’s a heck of a fighter that’s only going to get better.
“I'm prepared for whatever comes,” he said. “But my style is going to resonate with fans. I was a fan before I was a fighter, and I'm always looking to go out there and finish guys. I don't think about fighting for points. I don't think about winning rounds. I don't think, oh, it's a close round, let me get a takedown to win the round. I'm constantly looking for finishes, and that's how I've always thought about fighting. It's how I've trained and, yeah, it's been working good.”
UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Borralho took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 24, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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