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By MARY CHVATAL
UNK Communications

Championship banners and All-American honors have long defined the University of Nebraska at Kearney wrestling program.

The Lopers have claimed five NCAA Division II team titles and finished as national runner-up six times while producing more than 180 All-Americans and 26 individual champions across the NAIA and DII levels.

That tradition of success has shaped a culture built on hard work, toughness, discipline and an unrelenting drive to compete. For some former UNK wrestlers, those qualities became the foundation for a new kind of fight.

As mixed martial arts gained momentum in the 2000s, another pipeline started to develop. Joe Ellenberger was among the first to make the transition from the wrestling mat to the MMA cage, opening the door for several more prominent names to follow.

Lopers like Ellenberger, Kamaru Usman, Raufeon Stots, Richie Miranda and TJ Hepburn formed a lineage that continues to extend UNK wrestling’s competitive legacy far beyond Kearney.

Joe Ellenberger was a two-time All-American and captain on the 2007-08 UNK team that captured the program’s first national championship.
The Trailblazer

An Omaha native, Ellenberger laid the foundation for UNK wrestlers looking to compete in MMA.

He arrived on campus in 2003, with a fight already under his belt. His older brother, Jake, was heavily involved in the sport and convinced him to try it out.

Ellenberger’s first fight was against a four-time state wrestling champion from Omaha Skutt. Within the first 30 seconds, he was hooked.

“MMA and wrestling are extremely similar mentality-wise,” Ellenberger said. “Just the grind you have to go through and a balanced lifestyle, especially in college, translated almost exactly the same.”

During his five years at UNK, Ellenberger was a two-time All-American and captain on the 2007-08 team that captured the program’s first national championship. Because the NCAA didn’t have any rules prohibiting it, he continued to compete in MMA while wrestling for the Lopers.

Ellenberger graduated in 2008 but didn’t participate in the commencement ceremony because he had a fight in Council Bluffs, Iowa, that evening. He remained involved with the UNK wrestling program as a graduate assistant, allowing him to continue working with Usman and other Lopers.

“I feel like I kind of showed the later guys that stuff like this can be done,” Ellenberger said. “I really convinced Usman to get into MMA because the disciplines are similar. He’d always say, ‘Fighting is for dumb guys who can’t wrestle.’ But look at him now.”

The camaraderie and competition at UNK enhanced Ellenberger’s growth in MMA, too.

“Being on the same team and being together sharpens everybody,” he said. “When it comes to kickboxing and boxing workouts, they were kind of refreshing in wrestling season for the mind, and I think that helped us all.”

Ellenberger continued to train, with hopes of reaching the UFC. However, in summer 2009, he was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow disease that halted his career. Doctors told him he would no longer be able to participate in a contact sport.

“It was a rough few months,” he recalled. “The UFC called that November, and I had to turn it down because of this disease.”

Beating the odds, Ellenberger managed the disease well and was given the all-clear to start training again. His career took off from there. Nicknamed “Excalibur,” Ellenberger competed in Victory Fighting Championship and Titan Fighting Championship events before making his UFC debut in June 2014.

“That fight was a culmination of my MMA and wrestling careers all in one,” Ellenberger said. “I got knocked down early and was faced with adversity, then I just bit down and won.”

Ellenberger later learned he sustained a detached retina in his right eye during the fight. He competed one more time in the UFC – a December 2014 match in Phoenix, Arizona – then decided it was time to retire.

“I had two little girls by that time,” he said. “My dreams were no longer my top priority, and I wanted to watch my little girls grow.”

Even after stepping away from the cage, Ellenberger’s influence continued to ripple through the UNK wrestling program, passed along from one group of teammates to the next.

“The guys who shared teams with the same guys I did offered the institutional knowledge I was able to pass down,” he said. “They implemented it with other guys, as we’ve heard of now, and I think that’s kind of cool to see full circle.”

Kamaru Usman was a three-time All-American and two-time national finalist at UNK. He capped his collegiate career with a national title at 174 pounds.
The Champ

Originally from Nigeria, Usman spent his freshman season at William Penn University in Iowa before transferring to UNK, where he was a three-time All-American and two-time national finalist.

“When I got to UNK, I realized it was a place where you either sink or swim,” he said. “It’s a small school with the opportunity to make the best of it, and I feel like it was a place that turned a young boy like me into a man. It was the perfect environment for guys like myself who had big ambitions and were willing to match that with work ethic.”

During his first season on campus, the Lopers won the 2008 national championship and Usman finished third individually. He won 89 matches over the next two seasons, taking second nationally as a junior and capping his collegiate career with a national title at 174 pounds.

The NWCA Division II Hall of Famer trained alongside the Ellenberger brothers, who inspired him to pursue the MMA path.

“MMA was kind of something I feared,” Usman said. “It’s a wild card that isn’t as controlled as wrestling. But I had teammates and friends like Joe who participated and showed me that I could have the bravery to get out there and give it a shot.”

Usman also had the opportunity to work with other successful UFC fighters, including Rashad Evans. He made his professional MMA debut in November 2012 and was later selected to participate in “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality TV show and competition produced by UFC. After winning the Season 21 finale in July 2015, he earned a contract with UFC.

The “Nigerian Nightmare” was victorious in his first eight UFC appearances, leading to a welterweight title fight against Tyron Woodley in March 2019. Usman won that bout by unanimous decision and successfully defended the belt five times over the next 2 1/2 years before falling to Leon Edwards in August 2022.

More than a decade and a half since his last match as a Loper, he’s still relying on the same mindset.

“The mentality from UNK has really helped with the MMA,” said Usman, who has a professional record of 21-4. “It carried over and kind of aided me in how to approach my potential fights in the MMA.”

Now at the tail end of his fighting career, Usman is considering putting his family studies degree to practice.

“I’ve been thinking about ultimately turning the page to a new chapter of my life,” he said. “I’ve always kind of had a business mentality, but I’m thinking about putting the family studies courses from UNK to use as a marriage counselor.”

For now, he’ll continue to train with the goal of becoming a world champion in the UFC once again.

Raufeon Stots won back-to-back Division II national championships at 149 pounds and helped the Lopers claim team titles in 2012 and 2013.
The Evolution

A Houston native, Stots didn’t start wrestling until his junior year of high school. He was a two-time national qualifier at Labette Community College in Kansas before transferring to Kearney.

“UNK is a special college atmosphere,” he said. “It’s just an all-encompassing place to learn work ethic and attitude. It’s the influence and success from all the guys who came before you who are doing what you could see yourself doing one day.”

After a medical redshirt, Stots won back-to-back Division II national championships at 149 pounds and helped the Lopers claim team titles in 2012 and 2013. He had 64 total victories over the two seasons.

The introduction to MMA was part of his training.

“Josh Smith, one of my roommates, was doing MMA, along with some of my junior college teammates,” he explained. “I was surrounded by people either watching or competing in it, so I decided to get involved with an MMA gym in Kearney.”

Photo by Jose Peñuela/PFL

Stots started boxing and jiu-jitsu while wrestling at UNK. When his collegiate career ended, he decided to enter a few MMA fights.

“I tried it out and just fell in love with it,” the Division II Wrestling Hall of Famer said.

Stots made his professional debut in May 2015 and compiled a 12-1 record before he was signed by Bellator MMA. He won his first five Bellator fights, then defeated Juan Archuleta in April 2022 for the interim bantamweight championship – a title he held for the next year.

Still active in the Professional Fighters League, Stots has an overall professional record of 21-3.

“While I’m still fighting, I’ve ventured into other things,” he said. “I’m a father and a husband now, and I’ve started a few businesses that I can focus on more long-term.”

The building blocks provided by UNK wrestling now apply to other aspects of life.

“UNK wrestling and MMA taught me how to fall in love with the journey, as opposed to accolades and big moments,” Stots said. “You’re forced to almost in whatever you do.”

Photo by Alvaro Martinez/PFL
TJ Hepburn won 118 matches during his time at UNK and was twice named RMAC Wrestler of the Year. The three-time All-American won a national title at 157 pounds.
The Grind

A three-time high school state champion in Connecticut, Hepburn was a national runner-up for Colby Community College in Kansas. He transferred to UNK in 2009 with three years of eligibility remaining, looking to make an impact for those loaded Loper teams.

“The guys I practiced with were all good training partners,” Hepburn said. “It was all about pressure in those practices – pressure that taught me how to adapt and intensity to compete.”

Hepburn won 118 matches during his time at UNK and was twice named RMAC Wrestler of the Year. The three-time Division II All-American finished third nationally at 157 pounds as a redshirt sophomore and second at 149 pounds as a redshirt junior. He capped his collegiate career with a national title at 157 pounds in 2012, helping the team secure its second championship.

Hepburn had already competed in a couple amateur MMA fights, so he formed a close connection with Ellenberger, who was an assistant coach for UNK wrestling at the time. It was easy for him to see the similarities between the two sports.

“A lot of wrestlers become great MMA fighters because of the discipline,” Hepburn said. “I’ve been around a lot of other sports, but I’ve never seen anything like the intensity that comes with wrestling and MMA. It’s like your brain and body want to quit, but you push yourself so it won’t.”

Also a Division II Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee, Hepburn jumped straight into MMA after his collegiate career ended. He won his first match by knockout during an event in Kearney and signed a professional contract with Resurrection Fighting Alliance right after that.

Nicknamed “Carnivore,” the lightweight competed in a total of seven professional fights, going 5-2. His final match was in October 2015 during a Bellator event back in Connecticut.

“I had a lot more gas in the tank,” he said, “but the time and commitment of having a family, as well as a few injuries I experienced, just made it hard.”

A certified game warden, Hepburn currently lives in Connecticut, where he runs a youth wrestling gym and serves as head wrestling coach for his alma mater, Ledyard High School.

Richie Miranda is the current lightweight champion in the Legacy Fighting Alliance.
The Future

Born and raised in Santa Ana, California, Miranda was a two-time All-American at Santa Ana College before transferring to UNK in 2015.

He competed for the Lopers for two seasons, wrestling primarily at 165 pounds. As he completed his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political science, he joined Kearney Combat Sports and started training in MMA.

“I saw everything with Kamaru Usman going into MMA and UFC, then Romero Cotton getting signed to Bellator,” Miranda said. “The connections with them, as well as the support system from coaches and other past wrestlers, made it really easy to get started.”

A purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Miranda started competing in amateur MMA fights while still attending UNK. He moved back to California in 2019, but returned to Nebraska a couple years later for his professional debut – a Round 1 victory over Jordan Timbal during Kearney Cage Wars 6.

Currently competing for Legacy Fighting Alliance, “El Machete” has a 12-1 professional record. He won the lightweight championship in April 2025, defeating Richie Lewis by KO/TKO during a title fight in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and successfully defended the belt during his last match in August.

The LFA champ still relies on the tactics built at UNK.

“The level of tiredness in a fight is exactly how I felt when I was wrestling at UNK,” Miranda said. “The pushing, pulling, grind and mental toughness that UNK taught me are always helpful in fights.”

While these are just a handful of UNK wrestlers who have stepped into MMA, the pipeline continues to expand. Former Lopers remain involved in the sport as fighters, coaches and mentors, while current wrestlers quietly explore the same path.

What began nearly 20 years ago has grown into an extension of the program’s identity – proof that the habits forged in Kearney translate far beyond the mat. The championships, All-American honors and banners tell one story. The fighters who carry those lessons into new arenas tell another.

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