The following appears in The Winter Issue of Mile High Sports Magazine. Get your copy here.
Elevate.
Elevate.
That was Regan Upshaw’s word for the year. Every player on the 2021 Clemson Tigers football team had to come up with one; an assignment from head coach Dabo Swinney. Ahead of each season, the coach would ask his players to mindfully choose their word; a single declaration that would set an intention, a goal, and a measurement for accountability for the season ahead. Long before the Tigers would take to the field inside Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, Swinney would gather this collection of words, print them on a giant graphic and display them for his team to see.
Of the more than 100 words Tigers players dutifully offered to their coach, Elevate was the one that meant the most to Upshaw. That was his contribution, his mantra, his vision. That single word would define his year to come.
Upshaw had arrived as a walk-on freshman in 2016, and over the six years that followed, he was there for every inch of Clemson’s meteoric rise – an ascension that saw the Tigers win six ACC Championships, advance to three CFB National Championship games, winning two. As a Tiger, he was a part of a winning culture that few college football players have ever, or will ever, know.
Across America, football coaches have been scheming up clever, kitschy, folksy motivational tactics since the dawn of the forward pass.
Some work. Some don’t. Some become a punchline at the 20-year reunion. But with a track record of winning like Swinney’s, no Tiger approached the task without serious consideration.
Upshaw certainly did not.
Elevate.
Upshaw was not a college football “star,” per se – not like his father, who was a member of the 1995 All-Pac-10 team and the No. 12 overall pick of the 1996 NFL Draft – but he could certainly hold his own in the ACC and beyond. The fact that Upshaw’s best season arrived in a Covid-shortened 2020 season, a campaign in which he logged 16 tackles, 2.5 sacks and a spot on the NSCA Strength and Conditioning All-American team, was understandable. After all, he had never played organized football until he arrived at Clemson. That didn’t stop him from becoming a solid contributor to a perennial national title contender. But, unlike some of his more notable teammates – DeShaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, Tee Higgins, Travis Etienne, Hunter Renfrow, Dexter Lawrence (just to name a few) – his football journey would come to an end following the 2021 season.
During that season, he began to ponder what was next in his athletic – or perhaps post-athletic – life. Growing up the son of an NFL player, he was noticeably and undeniably athletic. But rather than going the same route as his father, he played hockey and rugby. In fact, he was so good at rugby that he was offered a professional contract from Racing 92, a French club, directly out of high school.
He was a fan of MMA. He’d been around it a little bit; his father used jiu-jitsu and other martial arts as a way to train during his nine-year NFL career. Growing up, Upshaw liked watching the big fights on pay-per-view TV and was a fan of Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, his favorite fighter. But MMA wasn’t exactly a sport most parents encourage their kids to try, so watching was really all he ever did.
At Clemson, Upshaw and several teammates would train with a local boxing coach – “Coach Peppers” – who kept the Tigers in shape through the offseason. They’d also tune in for most UFC fights; Upshaw recalls watching Jamal Hill win a UFC title belt alongside his teammates. At that moment, he remembers thinking, “Man, I could do this!”
Football came to an end, and eventually, so did school. Armed with a degree in economics, he wasn’t playing a sport for the first time in his life. He’d always had an interest in MMA, so he started training at a local gym; he quickly began to immerse himself in both the work and the culture. Besides regular workouts and sparring sessions, he’d watch videos of the best fights and baddest fighters; he’d find YouTube shorts that broke down how the top guys were training. One day, he came across some training footage featuring some the top fighters in the game; behind them on the gym wall there was a sign that read, “Elevation Fight Team.” The workout was taking place in Colorado.
Colorado.
Elevation.
Elevate!
“That’s my word for the year!” Upshaw said to himself, connecting the kind of dots that only the universe can display so clearly. What did it mean? He was suddenly, almost inexplicably, motivated.
“I’m not someone who hesitates,” Upshaw would say later, explaining the move he was about to make. “I think that’s what makes me a good fighter; when I see a window or opportunity, I shoot.”
So, he shot… all the way to Colorado, a state that practically begins at one mile above sea level, a natural border that rises to nearly 15,000 feet, a place – he was quite sure – in which he could elevate.
“If I wanted to do this big, I had to go to the Mecca,” Upshaw says, dripping with sweat and standing inside Havoc MMA, a massive, gritty yet pristine, newly constructed MMA training facility in Westminster, Colo. “And that was Denver. Denver held the first UFC event. Some of the top fighters in the world train in Denver. It’s a mecca for combat sports.”
That, of course, is all true. Denver did host the first-ever UFC event. And ever since, fighters, both aspiring and accomplished, have chosen the Centennial State to live and train. For a state known for 300 days of sunshine, far too many Subarus and the Champagne powder that skiers and snowboarders travel across the globe to carve up every winter, Colorado has produced and sharpened some of the toughest fighters the sport has ever seen.
It’s hard to say if Rorion Gracie and Art Davie, the co-creators of UFC 1, which took place inside a half-full McNichols Arena on November 12, 1993, could have ever imagined what has become of their sport and UFC, a powerhouse that was valued at $12 billion in 2025. Though UFC 1 was promoted as a 16-man, winner-take-all fighting tournament, only 12 people called and only eight would eventually become the first participants in the Ultimate Fighting Challenge. Royce Gracie, who specialized in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was the last man standing in Denver that night, winning the event’s $50,000 grand prize.
More importantly, Gracie was suddenly revered, and without even knowing it at the time, had inspired athletes of all types to take up a new sport – mixed martial arts.
Whether or not the location of UFC 1 was, or is, the reason Colorado has become an MMA hotbed is debatable; more likely, it’s a combination of the elevation and culture. And from there, fighters simply attract fighters.
“The Elevation Fight Team” – the one that caught the attention of Upshaw in South Carolina – is a “vast collection of coaching and fighting talent spread out across the greater Denver area.” The names of its coaches – Cody Donovan, Christian Allen, Vinnie Lopez, Justin Houghton, Eliot Marshall and Peter Straub – and fighters – Cory Sandhagen, Neil Magny, Justin Gaethje and Curtis Blaydes – is a Who’s Who list within the modern sport.
Gaethje wrestled at the University of Northern Colorado before finding UFC stardom. Sandhagen was a basketball player at Smoky Hill High School before attending the University of Colorado and eventually ascending to the No. 4 bantamweight ranking in the UFC.
But the list of former fighters with Colorado ties was even longer and equally distinguished. UFC Hall-of-Famer Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone attended Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs, gave bull riding a go, and then went on to an 11-year stint in the UFC. Greeley’s Shane Carwin earned an engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines before his MMA career, one that yielded a belt that designated him as the UFC Heavyweight champion. Denver’s Duane “Bang” Ludwig recorded the fastest knockout (just :06!) in the UFC after his win against Jonathan Goulet at UFC Fight Night 3. Benson Henderson, from Colorado Springs, became a UFC Lightweight champion, and is widely considered the greatest lightweight of all time. Chris Camozzi, who moved to Colorado so he could play rugby at Fort Lewis College, eventually took up MMA and starred on the 11th season of “The Ultimate
Fighter.” Brendan Schaub played football at Overland High School and then for the CU Buffs before becoming an MMA Heavyweight and podcast star.
The list went on and on – all of them calling Colorado home in some form or fashion.
The best part, however, was that when he arrived, Upshaw began to train with and learn from these fighters and coaches – not via YouTube, but in person. For a sport that’s based on one man knocking out another, the way to the top is filled with respect, friendships and shared tricks of the trade. In Colorado, accomplished mixed martial artists were happy to spar, grapple or simply answer Upshaw’s questions.
In fact, Havoc MMA, where Upshaw now trains, was built by fighters – most of which had no financial interest in the facility. One minute they were painting or laying down mats, the next they were sparring.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was Upshaw’s new home – a “Mecca” that’s been cultivated one fighter at a time since that wild November night inside McNichols Arena.
The first documented use of the term “mixed martial arts” can be found in a review of UFC 1 by television critic Howard Rosenberg in 1993. It’s doubtful that even Rosenberg had any idea that the disciplines of football, hockey and rugby would factor into the skill set of one of the fight game’s true up-and-comers some 30 years later.
They do for Regan Upshaw.
“I’ve definitely made some noise behind the scenes in Colorado,” Upshaw says.
Though largely working in the shadows – for now, anyway – Upshaw’s sports background is no stranger to bright lights and big hits. Playing college football in the SEC is as big and bright as it gets. Add to the fact that Upshaw was a part of a Clemson program that competed for a national title on college football’s grandest stage – three times – and, with all due respect to Dana White, there isn’t an arena that can intimidate this well-kept Colorado secret.
“The scene excites me. I’m a performer and I’m a showman,” he says. “I think [my college football background] gives me the biggest edge. Bring out the cameras, bring out the lights, bring out the stars in the building, make it as big as possible… I love the moment. Turn it up!
College football at the championship level is “a pressure cooker. And that can either make or break you,” Upshaw explains. “I almost feel like this is round two.”
As a fighter, he was raw when he arrived in Colorado. But his athletic ability and toughness was easily spotted.
“When Regan landed in class, he was throwing some funky punches. But I saw a level of athleticism,” says Rich Morquecho, formerly with the Elevation Fight Team and currently the curator of Havoc MMA and Upshaw’s coach. “I had another coach who came up to me and he was like, ‘Hey bro, that guy’s pretty good. You should pay attention to him.’
“I think what really connected me with him, though, was his personality and character. Big smile. Good kid. I was like, ‘Oh, I can mess with that.’ And honestly, I just helped him out little by little — and the next thing you know, we did a kickboxing fight.”
Upshaw did very well in the fight. Morquecho wasn’t overly impressed – or worried – about his fighter’s technique. That stuff could be taught. What caught his attention, however, was Upshaw’s willingness to fight while he was tired, his ability to listen and adjust within a fight, his competitive spirit.
“After that first fight, I was like, ‘There’s something here with this kid. He’s special,” Morquecho says. “After the second or third fight,
I thought if he really gets after it, that’s the UFC Middleweight champion of the world… I’m not trying to make this sound like – I’m just going to be honest with you – I ain’t never seen this before and I’ve been in the room with some of the world’s best. I’ve never seen that before. I’ve never seen anybody be able to generate that much force, technique and drive. I’ve never seen anybody with those eyes. He’s got a big heart. He’s got the recipe.
“It’s just a matter of time before the world knows who Regan Upshaw is… Only a matter of time. I promise you, bro.”
His coach is unapologetically bullish, but Upshaw understands that there’s still plenty of work to do before ascending to the same kind of spotlight he performed under at Clemson.
“I could get away with a lot of physical attributes at this level, making the jump – training with amateurs to training with high-level pros – it’s just the chess match. It’s tactical,” says Upshaw. “Physical attributes can be nullified if someone truly understands the game. Now, if you’ve got physical attributes and you understand the game? Ooh, now we’re talking special.”
As much as he loved being part of teams – and he considers himself on one with Havoc MMA – what he truly loves about MMA is its simplicity – “You get knocked out, or you knock somebody out,” he says – and the direct reciprocity it provides.
“I can look myself in the mirror and say, ‘I’m gonna get what I get if I go in there and perform. I deserve what I earn. And if I don’t perform? Hey, you don’t deserve it.”
It won’t be long before he – and anyone who follows the fight game – will find out exactly what he’s able to earn within the sport of MMA. Morquecho plans to book at least one or two more amateur fights in the months to come, and believes Upshaw can turn pro early in 2026. There’s no guarantee, but there’s no doubt either.
“I don’t put anybody on a pedestal. I’m champ in my mind,” says Upshaw. “And when it’s my time to show that to the world, there’s nothing that changes. The only thing that changes is the number of cameras there.”
Morquecho firmly believes his prodigy we be fighting in the UFC as soon as 2027.
“Then,” Upshaw says, “we will all see what I’ve been cooking up.”