For Romero, Wilson, different backgrounds, same goal: winning

Mixed martial arts cages don’t actually have corners, but bear with us here.

In one corner, here’s a storied Atrisco Heritage athlete who was a two-time state heavyweight wrestling champion and a Journal All-Metro defensive lineman.

In the other: a U.S. Navy veteran with a master’s degree in exercise science who’s in pursuit of his doctorate.

Their life histories and their fighting backgrounds scarcely could be more different. Yet here they are, James Romero and Dahlen Wilson, scheduled to fight the main event of Saturday’s FightWorld 38 MMA card at Revel ABQ.

Romero, 28, the former Jaguar, will enter the cage with a 3-0 MMA pro record. It’s a small sample, but thus far he’s been every bit as dominant as he was on the mat at Atrisco Heritage — winning all three fight by stoppage, two by submission, one by strikes, in an elapsed time of 6 minutes, 49 seconds.

In his most recent fight, Romero sprung a huge upset in defeating college wrestling All-American Jake Woolley by first-round submission (anaconda choke) on an LFA card Dec. 6.

Losing his first amateur fight in August 2021, Romero said in a phone interview, was the eye-opener he needed to shed more weight — though he’d already lost some 50 pounds from his wrestling days — and train with more focus and discipline.

Romero wrestled while as heavy as 263 pounds. Saturday’s fight will be contested at the 185-pound middleweight limit.

“I’ve always been a pretty bad-ass dude, blah blah, but it doesn’t matter how bad-ass you are,” he said. “I’ve always been potential this, potential that, but it’s nothing if you don’t live up to it.

“So, really, just these last few years I’ve been putting in the work, diet, lifestyle outside (the gym).”

In contrast, Wilson, 35, has an 8-4 pro MMA record that he says barely scratches the surface of his combat-sports experience.

“Long story short, I was in Toledo, Ohio for most of my life,” he said. “I came to the military from there, and while I was in the military I was doing a lot of combat sports. I was doing kickboxing and Pankration and jiujitsu and all that stuff.”

That clear edge in experience, Wilson said, is something he believes will work to his benefit on Saturday.

“I do feel it’s important,” he said, “because I’ve been in these trenches for a minute. There’s things I’ve done that are not on my (tapology.com listing) that you really have to dive deep to know about. … I come from a different era.”

Romero’s advantage might be in that he has far more information on Wilson than vice versa.

“Tough, good cardio,” he said of Wilson. “He’s always down for a fight. He’s fought some tough dudes in the past, early in his career. … He’s good. He’s game. He’ll come ready.

“But I just think for my goals and where I want to be, it’s a good fight for me. I’m ready to show the world again what I’ve been working on … I have confidence in myself and my training and my training partners.”

Romero and Wilson train at rival gyms in Albuquerque, landing at those — Wilson at Jackson-Wink, Romero at FIT-NHB — by starkly different routes.

After his career at Atrisco Heritage, Romero wrestled at the University of Missouri and at Adams State in Alamosa, Colorado. He then came home and, though he lifted weights regularly, wasn’t competing.

Romero was working as a server at a restaurant when a patron, having observed his USA Wrestling tattoo and his muscular build, said, “Hey, where’d you wrestle?”

That person turned out to be Jonathan Judy, the wrestling coach at FIT-NHB and a promoter of the FightWorld series.

“We started talking, and (Judy) said, ‘Hey, come to the gym,’” Romero said. “… It kind of all started from there. I’ve been at FIT ever since.”

Wilson, meanwhile, is a recruited athlete.

He was living, training and competing in Pensacola, Florida, he said, when he received an email from someone saying they were from Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque.

Initially skeptical, Wilson nonetheless responded.

“Sure enough … I got a video call from (J-W coach) Jeffrey Chavez.”

Wilson told Chavez his plan had been to move his training base to Colorado. Chavez told him, ‘Dude, we think we can really help you if you come out here.’ So that’s what I did.”

That they train at rival gyms, both men said, adds a bit of spice to their fight. They agree, however, that their gym affiliations won’t mean a thing once they enter the cage on Saturday.

During his wrestling career, Romero said, he sometimes went to Jackson-Wink to roll with J-W fighters like Juan Adams, Bart Lujan and Cody East.

“I know and respect all those guys,” he said. “… It’s a rivalry, obviously, and FIT’s my spot. Those are my people, and I’ll put it on for them, for sure.

“It’s not like hate, but it’s a cool little rivalry.”

Wilson, for his part, has been in Albuquerque and at Jackson-Wink for less than three years. He said he agrees with Romero that the rivalry probably means more to the coaches than to the fighters.

“We’re here to do our thing,” he said. “We’re not worried about win streaks for the gym or anything. We’re trying to build ourselves up, and our teammates.”

On Saturday, with their rival coaches in their respective “corners,” the former Jaguar and the former sailor will establish their own personal rivalry.