Making the walk to the cage for his mixed martial arts debut at 20 years old, Dylan Langlands was surprised how peaceful he felt. Through his introduction, he was loose and smiling. 

But seconds into the fight, the sport gave Langlands every reason to believe he had made a terrible mistake when a heavy punch dropped him and nearly put his lights out.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going out [in] 10 seconds,’” Langlands recalled. “‘There’s no way I’ll be able to go back to that gym and have respect.’” 

He popped up to his feet on wobbly legs before succumbing to a takedown moments later. Again, he found his way up and lasted through the round.  

Rather than sprinting to the center again after the one-minute break, Langlands marched forward patiently with his hands hovering by his chin. When he saw an opening, he blitzed his opponent with a flurry of punches that didn’t stop until the referee waved it off.

When Langlands is not competing or training, he balances a combat sports career with a full-time academic and social schedule. He is a senior German major at the University of Oregon and a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He said he performs best academically while in the midst of a training camp. 

“I really like that schedule of having, like, ‘Alright, do homework, I go grind at the gym, and then I come back and do more homework,’” Langlands said.

“Because it’s so intense, it really has him focused,” his mother, Monica Langlands, said of his MMA career. “You become a different person when you take on this role.” 

1-0, MMA 

Langlands was first drawn to MMA in middle school when he, his father and his brother would watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which remains the most prominent MMA promotion. His mother opposed his desire to start training and even pulled him out of football shortly after he started due to safety concerns. He played lacrosse through high school and earned a scholarship to Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. 

He began training in boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and after his freshman year at Merrimack, he dropped lacrosse, transferred to UO and started training at Art of War, an MMA gym in Eugene, to become an amateur fighter.

“He’s every coach’s dream,” said Kobb Thongsai, Langlands’ coach. “From day one, he came in and I knew he was gonna be something.”

Ten months after his debut, Langlands had his second MMA fight on March 2, 2019 in Portland. The Roseland Theater’s speakers played “Infamous” by Mobb Deep as he strolled into the cage. People in the crowd jeered and heckled him while Langlands’ father, Keith, who had flown in to watch, sat quietly beside them. “Go, son,” he shouted.   

This time, Langlands left the cage virtually untouched, securing a choke less than 90 seconds into the first round. He earned the fastest submission of 2019 under the banner of the Full Contact Fighting Federation, the longest-running amateur MMA promotion in the world, according to NorthwestFightScene.  

2-0, MMA 

Soon after his second MMA bout, Langlands began training for a Muay Thai fight on May 18, 2019 in Tacoma, Washington, as “icing on the cake” for his striking — punches, kicks, elbows, knees and more. Muay Thai, or Thai boxing, is a style of striking that incorporates close-range holds. 

Langlands was behind on the scorecards heading into the third round, but he picked his opponent apart with quick but methodical punches before knocking him out. Langlands said when he went to the locker room, his opponent was already there, “slumped” in a chair. 

“He stands up and, like almost collapses, and so we put him in the corner, and he wasn’t responsive,” Langlands said. “His eyes really started rolling back, and then he started twitching and then he started seizing.” 

After Langlands’ teammate noticed the opponent was choking on his tongue and pulled it out of his mouth, Langlands said he ran to find the promoter and doctor on site. They gave him a shot of adrenaline, he said, before putting him in a neck brace and, taking him to a hospital.  

His opponent ended up recovering, but Thongsai said when Langlands flew to Phoenix, Arizona, nine months later for his most recent Muay Thai fight at Road to Greatness, the promoters were on high alert.  

“They realized how dangerous he was,” Thongsai said, “and they realized that there’s a reason why I brought him.”  

Dylan Langlands via third-round knockout. 

Langlands had a number of new factors to consider when accepting the bout in Phoenix — it was a championship fight, it would be his first fight scheduled for five rounds and his opponent, Shamik Hayes, had more experience and was a multi-state champion, Thongsai said. Also, Langlands and Thongsai said they both agreed to tell the promoters that he‘d previously competed in two Muay Thai fights, rather than just one, to boost their odds of facing a tougher challenge. 

“A lot of amateur fighters pad their records,” Thongsai said, “and I told Dylan, I go, ‘You could be 15-0, 20-0, but you’re fighting guys that never fought before or are from these small towns. It’s not going to get us nowhere. It’s the strength of opponents you fight and when you fight these strong opponents, it makes — you know, it opens up opportunities for bigger promotions when you turn pro.”

Thongsai said he currently trains fighters with 9-0 records that never fight outside of Oregon or, in some cases, Lane County. “A lot of people avoid fighting big names,” he said. “Me and Dylan embrace it.” 

Road to Greatness 

On Feb. 22, in Phoenix, the opening bell sounded and Hayes began trying to bully him around the ring — launching knees up and around to Langlands’ midsection and kicking his body. 

This carried on to a lesser degree into the second round, but the third was close; Langlands was dropped within three seconds before springing immediately back to his feet and pressuring forward. By the fourth, Langlands was landing nearly every punch he threw. He said he surprised himself with his own cardio heading into the fifth round.

“My coach was like, ‘Dude, he doesn’t want to be in here,’” he said, “and I peeked around his shoulder and saw Shamik in his corner, and he looked damaged.” 

“He hit him with everything,” Thongsai said, reflecting on the fifth round, “The kid wouldn’t go.” But an accidental kick to the groin by Langlands resulted in Hayes taking 50 seconds to rest.  

Langlands still controlled the round and swarmed Hayes with punches whenever he tried to get close. With less than 10 seconds left in the fight, both fighters threw kicks to the other’s midsections at the same time, but only Langlands slipped and fell.   

For the first time in his career, Langlands went the full distance in a fight. He and Hayes both held their hands high as they awaited the judges’ scorecards. 

“The fight turned when it was really close,” Thongsai said. “It came down to the final round, with one person making a fatal mistake.” 

Shamik Hayes via unanimous decision  

After watching the fight “probably 20 times,” Langlands said he accepts the defeat and wants to improve his skills at close range. He said one of his biggest gripes with the outcome is that besides his leg, he was “not really hurt” after the fight, saying, “I feel like if I lost a belt, I should be hurting. I know he’s hurting.”

Thongsai, who felt the fight should have been scored a draw, took some blame for the result. “All we kept telling him was to go forward, go forward, and he just listened,” he said. 

Still, Thongsai said many people who viewed the fight felt Langlands won and, given how quickly Langlands excelled over just two Muay Thai fights, Thongsai is glad that his fighter experienced a defeat that he can learn from. “Even though he lost this fight, he’s gotten stronger. Physically, mentally, spiritually, he’s gotten wiser,” he said. 

After watching him fight in person for the second time, Langlands’ father said he was “pleasantly surprised” at how his son handled his first loss.  

“Although he was upset, he was in more of an analytical position after he had lost, thinking about what he could have done differently in the fight,” he said. “I think he’s just grown more and more as a person, just a stronger, tougher mentally individual.”

Langlands has his sights set on a professional MMA career but said when he trains currently, he doesn’t tell himself that he wants to be a UFC champion. Rather, he said he thinks, “I’m learning today; let’s see what I learn.” 

As someone who has operated a gym and trained fighters for over two decades, Thongsai said, “I heard it all. I heard the guys that come in and talk about, ‘I’m gonna be a UFC champion within two years, coach,’ blah blah blah, just constantly talking and talking. I’ve never heard Dylan say anything.”  

“We don’t understand where he grew up or how he grew up or where did he get this mentality from,” Thongsai said. “He’s a ancient warrior in a modern world, that’s what we call him.”