There was a time when mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Malcolm “The Machine” Wellmaker may have been fazed by the prospect of taking on an undefeated opponent. Not anymore, he says.
“I’ve gotten more comfortable with the sport, and I understand that it’s competition with another man,” Wellmaker said. “We break down every opponent, regardless of his accolades or accomplishments, and go in with a strategy to win.”
On June 24, Wellmaker is slated to go up against Jacob Romano, a fellow bantamweight out of South Carolina with a 3-0 pro fighting streak. This will be Wellmaker’s fifth professional bout. He’s also undefeated.
“At this point, I’ve fought some very tough guys,” he said. “And so I’m ready for whatever he has.”
The Augusta native was 22 when he got involved with martial arts at Faglier’s MMA (then called Faglier’s Kempo Karate School) to help get in shape and learn self-defense.
About nine months later, Conflict MMA Promotions was scheduling a show in Augusta. Wellmaker had fallen in love with the sport by the time his coach asked him about competing.
“I took my very first kickboxing match that day,” Wellmaker recalls. “It was back in August of 2017. I won with a second round TKO. After that is when I started realizing I could actually have a career in competitive martial arts, and I started training hard and committing to it after that.”
He went on to fight in 14 amateur fights, with a 9-1 record in MMA and 3-1 in kickboxing. Wellmaker attributes his promising professional career so far to that gauntlet of matches early on.
“That’s a lot more fights than most people have as amateurs before they go pro,” he said. “But a lot of it was to develop me so that I’d be ready to compete at a higher level when I went pro.”
The fighter also credits the coaches at Faigler’s MMA. He has adopted the school’s emphasis on an athlete’s conduct, its traditional respect for martial arts, and the understanding of the arts primarily mental more than physical. He even calls the gym’s founder, Jason Siegler Sr., “Pops.”
“A lot of things that my gym in particular prioritizes are, I feel, what impacted me as a man,” he said. “The relationship I have with my teammates is so close; they’re literally family to me.”
Dieting and weight cutting — the process of losing weight to make the right weight class for a competition—represent the most challenging and frustrating aspects of competitive fighting, said Wellmaker. But he also feels the discipline the training entails has matured him and deepened his motivation and work ethic.
“I really just love how much the sport helped me develop outside of the cage,” he said. “It really changed my life.”
Wellmaker encourages anyone to go into the sport, but also to be mindful of what one hopes to get out of it, and the level of commitment it demands.
“Be consistent and dedicated and surround yourself with the right people,” he said. “If you have consistency and hard work, and the right people around you, you 100% can be successful in this sport.”
Malcolm “The Machine” Wellmaker will take on Jacob Romano on Saturday, June 24, at the James Brown Arena. For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/ConflictFights.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
