Jared_Shamar_Bailey

Jared and Shamar Bailey

Shamar and Jared Bailey were inseparable as children. “All we had was each other,” Jared told us. The Bailey boys were home-schooled for most of their lives and were moved around often by their father. The constant uprooting and isolation due to home-schooling made it hard to socialize so the boys looked for other ways to express themselves. Their father introduced Shamar and Jared to wrestling when they were six and five, respectively.

Wrestling became their outlet for expression even though they could not compete at public schools. The Baileys often competed in open wrestling tournaments via the AAU and even converted their garage to a training facility by laying down mats and competing against each other. Jared told CageCraze.com that “…we had wars in the garage. We would go at it sometimes until blood was drawn.”

Jared will be taking the first step towards following Shamar by making his MMA debut over the weekend. Jared currently lives and trains in Indianapolis, Indiana, but will be fighting out-of-state this weekend in an amateur fight at 185-lbs. The younger of the Bailey brothers trains twice a day at American Top Team in Indianapolis in addition to the conditioning he does while working as a personal trainer. Although he has a background in wrestling, Jared trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Carlos Diaz at ATT and also works hard on his striking with an old boxing coach of Shamar’s. Jared has his second fight lined up in Illinois with XFO on September 3rd against Alensio Nelson, but is not looking past his opponent this weekend.

“I’m not taking any opponent for granted. I do not know anything about my opponent and that is what makes him dangerous,” said Jared. “Tool sharpening” is the purpose of the fight this weekend, according to Jared. Although his older brother was a cast-mate on the thirteenth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and is an active UFC fighter, Jared does not want to get a free ride in his MMA career. Jared is adamant about “working his way up” and said, “I want to give myself a chance to develop.”

Jared admits that “The UFC is at the top” of the MMA world and that he eventually wants to get a shot as a middleweight on “The Ultimate Fighter” but knows he will have to pay his dues. “Every man has to be able to commit to something, to have something to fight for,” declared Jared. Jared certainly shares genes with a great athlete, but Shamar Bailey told us that his little brother “is a better athlete than I am. He is very determined and has a lot of drive, he has a God-given talent.” CageCraze.com would like to thank Jared and Shamar for their time and we would like to wish Jared good luck in his debut this weekend and his upcoming fight in Illinois.

 

Note: As the first-ever “Featured Fighter” on CageCraze.com, Shamar Bailey is a shining example of the importance of supporting local MMA fighters. Please click here to watch a video of Shamar back before he became a UFC star.

 

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