Bartling goes through his fight prep at the UFC APEX with Nunes, who thinks it’s a very good matchup because of Bartling’s wrestling experience. The Team Nunes heavyweight echoes his coach’s sentiments, acknowledging Pauga’s quick finishes, but fully confident that he’ll be able to get the fight to the ground and find a finish.
Now it’s Pauga’s turn to go through his fight prep, where he draws rave reviews from Pena for his movement and speed. She explains she wants Pauga to be sure to cover up because of Bartling’s big right hand while fully expecting him to wrestle.
She speaks one-on-one with Pauga, explaining that while he’s a Muay Thai stylist primarily, Bartling will be looking to catch any kicks he throws and turn them into takedowns, reminding him to be quick with them if he’s going to use them in their fight.
“He’s a good wrestler, but that’s all he does,” Pauga says of Bartling. “I can win any type of way. I can knock him out. I can submit him. I’m just going to neutralize the one thing he’s trying to do, and let my game open up.”
Two days before the fight, Bartling explains that his family is in the hog business, building a bond with Perez, whose family is in a similar line of work.
Bartling’s home video footage comes from Unadilla, NE and kicks off with the TUF 30 heavyweight cruising down a gravel back road in the small farm town that sits roughly 30 miles east of Lincoln.
“I think the population sign is 294,” says Bartling, who explains that he grew up on a family farm where they have 3,500 sows, extolling the virtues of growing up on the farm before tracing his athletic journey to The Ultimate Fighter.
“I started wrestling when I was five and I just fell in love with it,” he says, as the video shows him going through a strength and conditioning routine. “I wrestled into high school, I won a state title, and I started MMA before I went away to college.
“In my first fight, I fell in love with it,” he adds, before arriving home to a surprise meal and gifts from his girlfriend, Payton, whom he credits with keeping everything together for him.
Bartling shifts to speaking about his older brother, Dylan, and how they hunt game, showing off a wall of trophy bucks, before getting into a story that instantly makes him start to choke up.
“On April 26 of 2020, we were going to go hunting that evening, and I was gonna use my brother’s gun, and it had jammed,” he begins. “We took it back to my dad’s place, and I was in the garage, and I rested it on my foot because I didn’t want to scratch up the barrel of the gun.
“And the gun went off, into my right foot,” he continues, with a close up of his foot appearing on the screen. “It was a huge unknown at the time — they were super-worried about infection. I didn’t lose my foot, but when you have time to think on stuff like that, that’s when I decided that I was really going to commit myself to becoming a fighter.”
Bartling explains that he’s 6-0 as highlights from his victories on the regional circuit roll.
“I’m excited to compete against the best in the country,” he adds. “Considering what I’ve been through in life, I know I can win this competition.”
The teams file into the UFC APEX for the first weigh-in of the season. Bartling gets on the scale first, fully clothed, coming in at 245 pounds. Pauga follows suit, weighing in at 241.5, making the fight official.
Chandler Cole of Team Nunes suggests that a lot of people are sleeping on Bartling, calling him a dark horse in the heavyweight competition and the guy that no one is going to see coming.
Bobby Maximus shares his thoughts on the pairing, giving the edge to his teammate Pauga because of the diversity of skills he brings to the cage.
