Beau Samaniego tracks his wild journey from high school janitor to stable hand to the cusp of MMA's biggest shows
Like many professional MMA fighters, Beau Samaniego was exposed to traditional martial arts at an early age. However, Samaniego's journey didn't quite have the same linear path as many of his contemporaries.
"I grew up wrestling for the Harvey Twisters, but I didn't stick it out," Samaniego said. "I started when I was like 5 years old, and I only went until I was 11."
After competing for the famed wrestling club in his early years, Samaniego would pick the sport back up in high school, but he didn't exactly prove a natural.
"I wasn't even good in high school," Samaniego said. "I had bad grades and I was like, all right, but I wasn't like a good wrestler in high school or anything like that. I was good enough to make a college team, I guess, so I started going there, and then they kicked me off the team because I was smoking weed, basically."
After his failed college try, Samaniego settled back home in Harvey, Ill. He admits it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.
"I came home from school and then went back to hanging out with my other old friends," Samaniego recalled. "Then I started getting in trouble because I was back in Harvey and the crowd I was hanging out with wasn't good. Also I was, like, depressed because I felt like I f-cked up my whole life.
"Like, I went to school. I think I had a big opportunity, you know? I mean, I spent my own money to pay for a semester of school. I didn't have good grades, and I got kicked off. The wrestling team was like the only thing I really cared about."
With his wrestling career done, Samaniego realized it was time to enter the workforce. What followed wasn't exactly a pleasant path.
"I was working as a janitor at Thornton High School, which is the high school I went to, so I was like, 'This is f-cking embarrassing. This is not fun,'" Samaniego recalled. "So then I quit that, and then I went and worked at a polyurethane factory for a little bit. I was doing that, then I quit that.
"Then I was working at a farm cleaning up horsesh-t, and that lasted for about three years, actually. That was probably my most consistent, stable job, and then, I don't know, I just was like, 'I'm done.' I was just done with it."
During that frustrating stint as a janitor, though, a seed had been planted. Occasionally, Samaniego would drop into the high school's wrestling practice and see a few familiar faces from his time with the Harvey Twisters putting in work on the mats.
"I'd be on my janitor run, and I'd go pop into practice, like, 'What are these guys doing,' you know?" Samaniego recalled. "Watching them practice, watching them practice, and then they're like, 'Beau, why don't you start wrestling again? Get back on the mat.' I was like, 'F-ck it,' so I would go in my janitor clothes. I would finish my run and then go wrestle with these guys. I literally was there for like a year-and-a-half at the school.
"I ended up quitting, worked at the farm, but then I would still come from the farm all the way to the high school to wrestle with these guys, like as they graduated high school pretty much, and then that's how they ended up getting on the Gilbert Grappling team and all that stuff, too."
With no real plan in place, Samaniego turned to the one thing that kept grabbing his attention: combat sports. Utilizing his wrestling base and a bit of jiu-jitsu he had picked up along the way, as well, Samaniego decided to turn to fighting, working with the crew at Gilbert Grappling. He went undefeated in a full year as an amateur and then made the move to the pro ranks.
"I feel like I just kind of jumped into it because I was getting into trouble and stuff," Samaniego said. "This is going to sound bad, but I was worried that I was going to end up doing something stupid in the world and then end up in jail, maybe, or just not on the right path. I don't know. That was like, five years ago, and I just was having a real bad day, and I just never looked back on it, basically. I just committed my whole life to it, pretty much."
The move has worked out just fine, so far. At 4-1 early in his career, Samaniego scored an impressive TKO win over former CFFC bantamweight title challenger DeAndre Anderson in July. The featherweight now returns to action at Friday's CFFC 114, where he takes on Lance Lawrence (6-3) in the co-main event of a card that streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from MIssissippi's Horseshoe Tunica Hotel & Casino.
Samaniego isn't downplaying his opponent, but as a primary training partner of current CFFC featherweight champion Jose Perez, he also knows his own capabilities.
"I think Lance is tough, but I don't know – Jose he keeps telling me being tough isn't enough, and I really am buying into that," Samaniego said. "I just think I have more skills now than I did when I first started. Fighting professionally, I feel like I just grew ever since I lost to James Lyons. Honestly, I've been like a totally different fighter. I feel like that really helped me grow. Taking that loss helped me grow a lot."
Along with Perez, Samaniego seems to be making his way steadily to the sport's highest level, and Friday offers a chance to make another statement. What once seemed like just something to do has suddenly become a true passion, and with a former Dana White's Contender Series fighter on the other side of the cage, Samaniego is ready to make a major move.
"I feel like I'm definitely at that level right now," Samaniego said. "I mean, me and Jose, we go out and practice, and we're always going at it. I know he's at that level, so I just feel like I have more proving to do. You know, he's proved it. Now it's my turn to prove that I am at that level, so that's all I'm looking to do.
"Lance Lawrence, he was there before, like he was on the Contender Series, so he's been seeing the big lights. I feel like if I beat him, then I kind of take his shine away, and that's just the nature of the game."
