By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

Isaac Figueroa was in control.

He was making his mixed martial arts debut, and he was having his way with his opponent.

“I was really dominating physically,” said Figueroa, who wrestled at LaGrange High before graduating in 2003. “But I got beat in the second round, just simply because of a lack of skill. I was totally winning the match, but he got the best of me.”

The loss hurt, but it hasn’t happened since.

Figueroa has entered the cage three times since then for an MMA match, and three times he’s come away with a victory.

His next match is scheduled for Aug. 1 in Dothan, Ala. where he’ll join a handful of other fighters who train at the Thunder House in LaGrange.

Figueroa, a flight engineer for Aerotron, is a relative newcomer to the sport.

Since he left high school, he’s tried to satisfy his competitive hunger with a number of different sports, including boxing.

When he fell into MMA, it was like coming home.

“I adapted really well to it,” he said. “I love doing it. I tried to prove something to myself. I set a goal, and it’s very fulfilling to know that you’re the only one out there, you’re the only one who can win or lose.”

Winning doesn’t happen by accident.

Figueroa has natural athletic ability, but it takes a lot more than that.

The training is punishing, and as much as Figueroa would like to take the occasional day off, he knows he has to push himself to make it the gym, even if he’d rather collapse on the couch after a long day of work.

“Some days, when it’s been a long day, I could go home and be like everybody else,” he said. “But instead I’ll go the gym and stay there until 8 p.m. You just have to go do it.”

The training, he said, pays off during matches when fitness plays such a key role in determining the outcome.

In a match, he said, “you have to keep going and going. It’s all about how determined you are, what attitude you approach it with. You have to have the mentality that you’re going to stick through this.”

From his first match to his second one, Figueroa says he made major strides.

“I think I had a game plan, knew what to expect,” he said. “I was still a little nervous. I didn’t want to start out with two losses. Once I stepped in there, the training I’d done was good, and I executed everything I worked for. I stuck with the game plan, I was prepared, and I went out there and did what I do at practice.”

Figueroa is happy to see the sport starting to take a foothold in LaGrange.

Since he started training at the Thunder House, he’s noticed “a lot of new faces.”

“That’s really cool,” he said. “Tons of guys out there are scared to try it, but they should come in. It’s fun. It’s tough. It’s not a cake walk. But it’s not what people think it is. We’re not just out there beating the crap out of each other.”