As he prepares to step into the competitive ring for the first time, Cortez-born Kekoa Zwicker needs none of the flashy nicknames typical of mixed martial arts fighters.
“People will go and ask me, what’s your nickname going to be,” Zwicker said. “And I just tell them my name suffices.”
His first name – representative of his Hawaiian ancestry and his family’s legacy of MMA fighting – means “warrior,” a role the 24-year-old is living up to as he travels to Phoenix this weekend to compete in Fight Club PHX, seeking to leave as a champion.
His grandfather, who aspired to be a professional boxer, took on karate and became a black belt. His mother, Elsie Zwicker, followed in his footsteps before becoming a champion in the women’s MMA flyweight class with the nickname “Sweetheart.” Zwicker remembers watching her compete from the stands when he was 10 years old.
“I’m just trying to carry on the torch,” Zwicker said. “I’ve always loved the game. I was raised in it. That’s what I’ve been around.”
Zwicker’s grandfather – who died earlier this year – tried to push Zwicker into the ring since he was a kid, inspiring him with the more disciplined values of a sometimes brutal and bloody sport.
“Before he passed, he was trying to get me to cage fight for a long time,” Zwicker said. “I just never committed on it because I didn’t have a true training camp. It was just my mom and my granddad.”
As a kid on the schoolyard, Zwicker said he used his knowledge of martial arts to defend his peers against bullying.
“That’s kind of what my granddad taught was though it is a violent sport, we’re training to defend and protect,” Zwicker said.
Some of the moves learned from watching his mom and grandfather translated into fierce wrestling matches with his cousins where the best fighter took home no medal or cup, but an adamant sense of pride.
Zwicker’s training sessions now are a bit more organized, practicing kick boxing and jiujitsu for a couple hours four days a week. But the days are sometimes training enough as he spends them working agriculture, doing manual labor full-time – another tradition he’s carrying on as a seventh-generation farmer.
“We were pretty much farmers for as back as I can think,” Zwicker said. “Farming in general keeps you in shape.”
Alongside him are Dan Hobbs and Nanna Meyer of Pueblo Seed and Food Co. The two are far more than his employers at their farm nestled in McElmo Canyon where Zwicker cares for a host of organic seed crops; they are more like family members.
“We just are so supportive of him as a young man who's got a passion,” Hobbs said. “We're trying to get that guy as fit as possible to go into the competition.”
Meyer, who used to be the dietitian for the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Team, is helping Zwicker with his meal plan to achieve his target weight class – assistance Zwicker is plenty grateful for.
“It’s a pretty light meal plan. I’m actually super glad that I got with her because what I was doing before was even less,” Zwicker said.
More than recommending his daily doses of rice and chicken and eggs, Meyer and Hobbs also understand the importance of heritage and ancestry that’s so central to Zwicker’s character.
“They understand the values that I hold because I believe in carrying on the next generation – whether it is through people or heirloom seeds, carrying on that traditional way,” Zwicker said.
In downtown Phoenix on Saturday, Zwicker will be joined by a number of supporters, both from his immediate family and friend groups, to watch him carry on an impressive legacy. Zwicker’s grandfather had a dream and – hopefully for him – a premonition.
“He told me that I have the talent to become a world champion and – God willing – that’s where I want to go,” Zwicker said. “I want to be a world champion.”
avanderveen@the-journal.com
