Catching Up With The Psycho
I wasn’t expecting much when I walked into Memphis Judo and Jiu-Jitsu last July. They didn’t have MMA as part of their name, all I saw was a women’s kickboxing class, and it was a Sunday afternoon. No one was going to be training on a Sunday.
The guys walked me past the class and into the back of the gym where the real work was done, a giant warehouse several times the size of the front. Brian “The Law” Hall and Chase Mann were finishing up wrestling practice on the enormous mat, while heavyweight Jacob “The Psycho” Noe was shadowboxing, hitting the bag, flipping the tire, pushing himself with no one around.
After Jacob finished, we talked for a bit about being an athlete, how a car accident ended his football dream. His eyes lit up when talking about his daughters and fiancée. I took note when he mentioned Rampage and some other guys leaving the area to pursue their dream out West, what a scary thought that had been at the time. I wondered if he’d do the same.
Over the past year, I’ve enjoyed following Jacob’s career. I went to his Bellator fight this January and watched the others on Spike TV, Jacob going 3-1 in the organization. I wasn’t that surprised when I saw he was doing camp in Vegas, and thought it was pretty awesome that it was with John Wood, my old friend and training partner, who is the head coach and owner of Syndicate MMA. I’d already planned a trip to Syndicate and hoped I’d have a chance to catch up with Jacob.
When I got to Syndicate, Jacob was finishing up no gi bjj class. There was no time to talk though because pro training was about to begin. Later that night it was strength conditioning and another class. During the week, I spent at least twenty hours in that place and Jacob was there every minute of it, training his ass off. I got the impression he’s not about to waste any time. He’s away from his family. He’s at camp for one purpose.
During the next few days, I gave him a few nice breaks by being his practice dummy for a few rounds of rolling and light sparring. He was throwing about 60% at me, hard enough for me to know I didn’t want to be hit by him.
Before I returned to LA, Jacob and I talked about the camp at Syndicate, why he did it, how difficult it was to leave, and how it’s working out. It comes down to some of the things he said in that first video. He was born a fighter, it’s what he is, what he’ll always be. He’s doing whatever he needs to do in order to be successful.
Jacob has a huge fight in front of him this Wednesday with King Mo on Bellator 97. There’s been a lot of talk going on about this one, but I don’t care about any of that, I just want to see them fight. I’m in Albuquerque for the week and am very excited that I’ll be attending. Be sure to check it out on Spike TV.
Click here for the first interview.
