Gabe Uhrit ended his amateur mixed martial arts career before turning professional with a victory in Pittsburgh on June 29.
He defeated Noah Kiszka, of Frederick, Maryland, by split decision at 247 FC: Brawl in Burg 22.
“He's definitely one of the toughest opponents I've ever faced,” Uhrit said. “I overcame a tough fight. My right eye was pretty swollen after the first round. But yeah, I controlled the fight in all three rounds and I think I got the win. Of course, it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted the finish, but I was lucky to get the decision win.”
Uhrit said he believed he had received an inadvertent headbutt in the first round that had injured his eye, but he overcame it to win by split decision.
He finished his amateur career with an 8-0 record, and his next goal is to turn professional.
“You can fight as many times as you want as an amateur, and then when you're ready to go pro, you can go pro,” he said. “Some guys who go pro aren't qualified to go pro. I wanted to fight as many amateur fights as I could, and fight the best guys, so then I'll know I'm ready. I think now is the time, so I'll be making my debut in Fort Wayne in September.”
Uritt said he plans to make his pro debut at the Art of Scrap in Fort Wayne on Sept. 14 against an opponent that has yet to be determined.
Uhritt is fighting in the 145-pound featherweight division and said he has to lose a lot of water weight before weigh-in day, which he said is common in the sport.
Uhritt, 23, graduated from Lewis Cass High School in 2020. He was part of an athletic senior class. The football team won the Hoosier Conference and district championships and finished the regular season ranked first in Class 2A. Football was Uhritt's favorite sport in high school. He was named Player of the Year by the Kokomo Tribune and the Logansport Pharos Tribune.
He didn't wrestle in high school because he played basketball. He was interested in boxing in high school, but was too busy with three sports. In his senior year of basketball, the Kings went 13-10, but injuries to two of the team's best players, Eulitt and Joey Humphrey, hurt the Kings' chances of winning the district championship.
The IHSAA canceled the 2020 basketball tournament before regionals and canceled the baseball season entirely because of the pandemic. The Kings were scheduled to start nine seniors in baseball, six of whom had been starters since their freshman year. As a team, they went 16-8 as a freshman, 21-4 as a sophomore and won a district championship, and 19-6 as a junior and won the Hoosier Conference championship. As seniors, they would have given Greg Marchand, who remains Cass' baseball coach and athletic director, his best chance to win a state title in his 41st season.
“I still think about it a lot,” Urit said. “I was on a boat with some mates a few weeks ago and we were just talking about the season, how it was going and how good we were.”
Uritt added that all the sports he played growing up at Lewis Cass have helped him in his MMA career.
“There's so much you can do in mixed martial arts and so many ways to move your body,” he says. “Throwing a baseball is a lot like throwing a punch in a certain way. There's so much misdirection on the football field, and so much more that I think I can bring into my game as a fighter.”
Yurit said that even though his main interest is mixed martial arts (MMA), he is not done with school yet. He has a few more semesters to complete a degree in Exercise Science at IUK for his mother, Jeannie, and he also works part-time for his brother, Alec, at BW Fusion in Clymers.
But he said he is fully committed to his MMA career.
“I'd like to do three or four fights a year, which will take a few years, but my goal is to be in a bigger organization within a few years of going pro,” he said. “If I can get four or five finishes, 4-0 or 5-0, then a bigger organization will come calling. That's the goal.”
Uritt began his mixed martial arts career immediately after graduating from high school, found a gym in Indianapolis the following winter and has been involved in martial arts ever since.
“I just pieced it all together. I found a gym, went in and immediately knew, yeah, this is what I'm meant to do,” he said. “I've never been more sure about anything. The first time I went in I was like, yeah, this is it, this is what I want to do.”
Yurit is currently training at Gala Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Kokomo, and he began training with American Top Team in Indianapolis.
“I first had him coach me four years ago and when I played in Pennsylvania, the coaches from Kokomo couldn't make it, so he put me in his corner,” he said, “so it was pretty cool to meet him again and have him in my corner.”
With his strength, athleticism and the experience he has gained from the sport, Yurit has set his sights on big things in MMA.
“UFC is my goal and I'm going to get there,” he said. “I feel like it'll happen within the next few years.”
