To be able to fight in the premier mixed martial arts promotion on Earth is a rare and special accomplishment, and to have one being a Eureka High School graduate is even more special. Garrett Armfield, a class of 2015 graduate is starting to make his name in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a bantamweight fighter.
Armfield is two and one in the UFC with two straight wins in recent months. Last August, during a UFC Fight Night Event in Singapore, he defeated Japanese fighter Toshiomi Kazama via first-round knockout, and in January, he defeated UFC veteran Brad “Superman” Katona via unanimous decision, as the featured prelim for UFC 297.
For Armfield however, this has been a long time coming. He started training karate at Eureka-based USA Martial Arts at four and continued from there. He participated in boxing, and in high school, he wrestled for Eureka. At 18, he started fighting amateur MMA and attended Missouri State University, where he trained at Springfield Fight Club.
From there, he finished his amateur career and became a professional fighter. He had three professional fights, before moving to Florida to train at the famed MMA gym Kill Cliff Fight Club, where a multitude of UFC stars train, including local product and Northwest High School graduate Michael Chandler. Most recently, Armfield relocated back to the Midwest and now trains in Kansas City.
Throughout his career, Armfield has competed for other promotions like St. Louis-based Shamrock FC and Legacy Fighting Alliance before the UFC. Although MMA is a tough profession to crack, Armfield has always known this was his true calling.
“ I just knew that I loved this and I wanted to do it,” Armfield said. “I always saw it as like a future career for me, but financially, it became an actual career. I just always trained and worked and I still graduated with my degree and I have a degree in Healthcare Administration but I knew that it didn’t matter, I just wanted to fight.”
On the side, Armfield works as a bartender at night and has also picked up real estate as another side hustle. Now sporting a ten-and-three record, with a whopping eight first-round finishes, Armfield is waiting on the UFC to decide his next step.
“I just kind of just do whatever the UFC tells me to do,” Armfield said. “They say sit, I sit, they say fight this guy, I fight that guy.”
His one request is that he only fights in front of live audiences, instead of the UFC Apex, which is a fight venue in Las Vegas notorious for its sterile atmosphere. He prefers lively crowds at destination events and has been able to travel to fight in Toronto and Singapore, the latter of the two being his all-time favorite fight.
“I would say the Singapore one was my favorite because I got the first-round knockout and that was a more fun experience because the crowd was just more supportive,” Armfield said.
After fighting in multiple promotions, and grinding his way to the top, Armfield is now 27 and entering the prime of his career in the UFC, with the opportunity to ascend the ranks even more. Even after moving all across the country for his career, Armfield still is an Eurekan at heart.
“La Finca Coffee is freaking great, and Poor Richard’s Wings have always been the best,” Armfield said.
