Meet... Jonathan Brookins

Jonathan Brookins 25, was born and raised in Portland Oregon where he grew up with his sister and 3 brothers. From a very early age he had a love for WWF (now WWE) and all things wrestling, however by age 10 it had slowly fizzled out. Four years later he was cut from the Century High School basketball team, the only sport he had any real interest in at the time. Having no other extra curricular activities, Jonathan would hangout with friends in the hallways after school, not exactly being a productive student. One day the wrestling coach approached him and said if he was going to be at school he might as well wrestle. Four years later Jonathan held the title of Oregon State Champion. “Making it to State was always pretty incredible because it was everything that you worked for. Its one thing to be best in the county but to make it to the State Tournament, to actually be the best in the whole state always seemed like a pretty big accomplishment”

Jonathan continued to wrestle up until junior year in college when he decided to move to Ocala, Florida to be with his family. A few weeks after moving he started hearing of a large mixed martial arts following in the city and became immediately interested. One day he met the owner of an MMA gym who invited him to go and check it out. With the wrestling background on his side, Jonathan found that he took to the newer fighting style with ease. The gym’s newest fighter began training in March and was approached with a wild card entry into a professional MMA fight in June. Jonathan knocked out his opponent in the first 17 seconds. “From then on, I just thought I would be a fighter.” Now holding a record of 11-3 and almost always excelling in every sport he tries, Jonathan has built up a fierce confidence that only gets stronger with every new experience. “Fighting has brought to my life a love for new activities and a love to better myself.”

One activity that has recently had a large impact on the fighter is rock climbing. Jonathan was in high school when he first tried out climbing in a bouldering gym. After not having any real interest in the sport, it wasn’t until about 14 months ago that he gave it a second thought. “It was way more challenging than I ever could have thought. As a kid I couldn’t grasp it but as I was older I could really see where the challenge and the fun of it was, and I’m just super in love with it. The improvement you get from that activity is crazy.”

Along with girlfriend Sophia Roe and best friend Misha Villanueva, he tries to climb at least 2-3 times a week, preferring top-roping to bouldering. “I like top-roping the best, but I have yet to fully embrace that world. I’m still very much a rookie. Really, really just gotta stress how rookie I am.” Before a fight Jonathan adds a bit more intensity to his workout, but for the most part everything remains the same as his day-to-day routine. Six days a week, his wakeup time is between 5-6 a.m. when he begins an 8-mile run. A short rest (including a lot of snacking) later, he heads up to Gracie Barra where he trains for about 3-4 hours. “The perfect day would be to end it with some rock climbing or yoga. That would be the perfect training day.” Future plans for the fighter include learning to surf, snowboard, sliding down slides, doing summersaults and one day opening his own gym.

You can catch Jonathan on Season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter, premiering September 15th on SpikeTV.