Jayden Blake’s self-confidence was way down. The Greensburg Salem graduate’s weight was on the rise and he needed a change.
Blake, 19, turned to mixed martial arts three years ago to try and fix some of his problems. Blake, who is 5-foot-7 and topped out at 265 pounds when he was at his heaviest, found what he was looking for. Blake weighed in at 145 pounds Saturday night at Sunny Days Arena in North Versailles and collected his second amateur MMA win at the 247 Fighting Championships event.
Blake submitted Chase D’Angelo via guillotine choke in the third round of a featherweight bout.
“I grew up overweight a lot of my life,” Blake said. “I’ve never really played sports and at the time I was really depressed. This sounds weird, but I was looking for a way to hurt myself and benefit myself.”
When Blake decided to use combat sports to get into shape, he chose to start with kickboxing. From there Blake, who trains at High Ground Jiu Jitsu, started to pick up other skills.
Striking didn’t come naturally to him, but he feels it has developed thanks to the confidence he has in his ground game. Blake also noticed as soon as he started training, the weight started to quickly drop off.
“It built my confidence immediately,” Blake said. “When I started losing weight, I started seeing the results of my training almost immediately. I’m a natural at jiu jitsu. Striking didn’t come to me as naturally, but I put in so much work.”
Blake trains six days a week. D’Angelo gave Blake a good test. D’Angelo opened up a nasty cut above Blake’s eye with some stiff strikes.
In the first round, D’Angelo slammed Blake to the canvas to attempt to get out of an armbar. Blake felt like D’Angelo was well prepared for the fight.
“I planned to use my strikes to get to my wrestling, but he came out with a good tie clinch,” Blake said. “I lost my first fight because of that. He must’ve watched the tape and learned, but it worked out.”
Blake improved to 2-1 in his MMA career with both wins coming by submission. He would like to try and compete in the advanced amateur division.
“It was fantastic,” Blake said. “From the moment I walked in here, I had so much excitement to be able to be one of the first fights in this venue to be a part of Pittsburgh MMA history. I wanted to give this crowd a great show.”
Josh Rizzo is a freelance writer.
