'The best day of my life': Former UFC fighter Justin Jaynes makes dream come true in Montana
It’s not very often in MMA both fighters win, but that was the rare case in a recent bout in Billings, Mont.
Justin Jaynes wasn’t the announced winner on Sept. 21, though he walked away one.
That night at a Fusion Fight League event, Jaynes faced off with longtime MMA super fan Bryan Chapel, who “finished” the UFC veteran midway through Round 2.
Chapel is a 46-year-old man with an intellectual disability who has become a pillar of his local Montana community. He works as a bagger at an Albertsons grocery store. A chance encounter between Jaynes and Chapel couldn’t have come at a more coincidental time.
“It was kind of a weird thing,” Jaynes told MMA Junkie on Friday. “I was at home, just like any normal night. I’m watching Netflix just like anybody else would be. I came across the movie called ‘Peanut Butter Falcon.’ It has Shia Labeouf in it. It’s a really good. This kid who has Down syndrome runs away from a hospital that he’s staying at, and he comes across Shia Labeouf, who is kind of like a vigilante. They end up becoming buddies. The guy is like, ‘It’s my dream to become a professional wrestler.’ Shia Labeouf essentially trains him. In the movie, he has his first wrestling match and it’s the greatest thing ever. Now, mind you five days later, I meet Bryan.”
Chapel’s dream has long been to compete against a UFC athlete, so when the two met at an afterparty for an event Jaynes was commentating, the wheels were put in motion.
“I go to get paid, and I meet Bryan,” Jaynes said. “Bryan and I are talking about how he wants to fight and he trains and this and that. It’s his dream to fight a UFC fighter and someone who’s been in the UFC, not just a fighter. He said specifically a UFC fight.
“The promoter, Terrill (Bracken), he’s like, ‘Well, you know he fights in the UFC?’ He’s like, ‘We should fight sometime.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, we should do it.’ Terrill’s got this crooked look on his face. Bryan walks away, and I’m like, ‘Terrill, this is something we can really put together.'”
Incase u missed my fight last weekend pic.twitter.com/poYn2w7lHM
— Justin Jaynes (@JustinJaynesMMA) September 25, 2024
For as long as he can remember, Jaynes has aspired to be a WWE wrestler, though his biggest athletic successes came during his five-fight stretch in the UFC. The opportunity to take bumps and sell judo throws (which he did emphatically during one sequence in the fight) while making someone’s life better was too much to turn down.
Chapel defeated Jaynes early in the second round with strikes and jumped with joy, both hands pumping to the sky, after the stoppage came. Jaynes had a flash back, as the elation-filled celebration played out, to an event with much different circumstances – but all the same feelings.
“I experienced the greatest moment of my life when I knocked Frank Camacho out,” Jaynes said. “When Bryan gets up and the referee jumps in and waves his hands and Bryan starts jumping up in the air and throwing his hands up in the air, I can relate to that moment. If anybody ever has the chance to give somebody that moment, help them do that.
“… My UFC career didn’t go how I thought it was going to go. It didn’t go how I wanted it to go. I felt like I was put in unfortunate circumstances. But I did have the opportunity. If there’s anything positive I can do to help people feel how I felt on June 20, 2020. That’s what my main goal is now.”
Image via Fusion Fight League
That night, the goal was certainly achieved by Jaynes, who said he was approached in the back by a tearful Chapel after the match.
“I went back in the dressing room, he’s crying in the back,” Jaynes said. “He comes up to me and he puts his arms around me. He’s like, ‘I’m so sorry I had to beat you up so bad, but this was the best day of my life.'”
That’s how Jaynes knew while Chapel was declared the winner – the true result was a double victory.
“That’s worth his weight in gold to me, man.”