For Mead senior Leister Bowling, state titles just a step on the road to UFC

The path to Leister Bowling IV’s UFC aspirations is all but charted. His footsteps are imprinted with the broken spirits he collects.

Bowling, a 175-pound senior from Mead, exudes calm and confidence the moment he steps onto the mat. He doesn’t aim just to win, the Iowa wrestling commit vies to make others lose.

He runs the score up because a pin isn’t enough. That route’s fast and easy for those on the receiving end. It’s too fast and too easy for Bowling. Why? “I work too hard to go out there and pin some kid in 10 seconds,” he said. “I like to show what I work on. … I like to dominate.”

During Friday’s semifinal match against Pueblo East’s Elijah Contreras, Bowling racked up three-point takedowns like they were nothing on the way to a 17-2 technical fall in 5:21.

The quarterfinal was a 19-4 tech fall and his CHSAA state tournament opener was a pin in 2:30. He was mad at himself for that last one because it was “too sloppy.”

“I’ve always been this way. I always like to score points,” Bowling said. “It’s very upsetting to me when I don’t get what I want because I work really hard for what I want to accomplish.”

His high school bout count is relatively low (18-3 in 21 matches entering Saturday’s final) because he takes online courses so he can travel the world to wrestle. Currently, his favorite style is Greco-Roman wrestling, a discipline in which legs cannot be used to obtain a fall and holds cannot be used below the waist.

As a junior last year, he became an All-American for his podium finish in the U-16 U.S. Greco-Roman National Championships. He joined his father and grandfather, also named Leister Bowling, as All-Americans.

For Bowling IV, big whoop. He didn’t win. Even listing his accomplishments, which includes a qualifying spot for the U-20 U.S. World Team this August, the tone in his voice is nonchalant. “I’m definitely not satisfied. I haven’t won anything yet,” he said, despite being the defending state champion in Class 4A at 175 pounds.

His ambitions go way further than the mat. While a wrestling stint at Iowa will serve as a means, the end is a career in the UFC.

That dream comes with a stipulation from his dad, Leister Bowling III, who has coached some of the biggest names in UFC: T.J. Dillashaw, Georges St-Pierre and Cat Zingano, among others.

“I’ve always told him I wouldn’t really help him fight until he got done wrestling in college,” Bowling III said. “If you can make it through a college wrestling grind, then you can fight. Not all these fighters would be able to make it as a college wrestler.”

The younger Bowling is just fine with that. Especially going to a program as prestigious as Iowa, where, again, the only feasible goal for him is to win individual and team national titles.

The connections are strong, too. Legacy Fighting Alliance (an MMA promotion company that often feeds into UFC) president Sven Bean is a close friend of Bowling’s dad. Bean has been a staple in the family’s lives since before Bowling was born, showing up at dinner parties and engaging in constant conversation.

Bean, who resides in Colorado, attends the CHSAA tournament every year. It was just in a bit of a different capacity this time around. The interest he’s taken in Bowling had Bean down on the floor with a camera, capturing the senior’s path to another state final for a potential video later on.

“If he’s really going to go down this path, I just want to document it and also show him support,” Bean told The Denver Post. “I’ve been watching him since he was a kid. … If after his college career he makes that transition, we’ll have this footage, and that will be cool.”

So if everything goes right, he stays healthy and still wants to make the jump after his time at Iowa, then what?

“The moment he says, ‘This is what I want to do,’ then there’s a plan to make that happen,” Bean said.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.