MISSOULA — Justin Harbison is slated to put Missoula MMA on a big stage this coming Friday for Cage Fury Fighting Championships, a regional mixed martial arts promotion that will host the event in Tampa, Florida.
"I'm excited. I've put so much time in over these past four years since I got out of college towards my MMA goal to be where I'm at right now," Harbison told MTN Sports. "Two, three fights away from the UFC and not just having to go through the (Dana White's) Contender Series, but knocking straight on the door for a UFC contract."
But the kicker? Harbison's fight, along with the rest of the card, will be streamed on UFC Fight Pass, the streaming platform for the world's largest, and most popular, MMA promotion. Harbison, who is 1-0 as a pro fighter, will take on Anthony Guarascio (2-0) of Largo, Florida, with the fight slated to take place at the Florida State Fairgrounds.
It's a big moment for the Missoula native to show what he's made of.
"We do a lot of visualization. Visualize everything. Put myself in that position," Harbison said. "I put myself even in the worst positions of a loss, of trying to get myself to feel like what it's like to lose. I envision every way that this guy can beat me, so I know it's like that he's not going to get to those positions to beat me.
"There's something about going in there with another person and just testing your will against them and proving that you're just the better human being. Like, I trained harder, I worked harder than you, and imposing that will is what really stood tall in my head for this is what I'm supposed to be doing."
The 28-year-old Missoula Sentinel High grad, who fights at heavyweight, trained in MMA early on in life, but decided to focus on wrestling in middle school and high school.
From there, he went on to have a decorated All-American wrestling career at the University of Providence where he was a four-time NAIA national qualifier before returning to Missoula after college to pursue MMA full time, where he's been with Missoula Kickboxing, formerly known as the Dogpound Fight Team.
"He's able to feed his strikes into takedowns, whereas a lot of traditional wrestlers, they might be thrown off because you're in a more upright position compared to a wrestling match, or a lot lower to the ground, and he's done a great job blending the two," said Missoula Kickboxing head coach Conall Powers, a fellow Sentinel grad.
With a decorated background in collegiate athletics, Harbison already holds an advantage in knowing how to step up in big moments.
"I've competed at a very high level," Harbison said. "I've competed at the national tournament for college, and that's a very high level. That's technically higher than the regional scene I'm going to go out and compete on right now for the UFC on UFC Fight Pass in this card down in Tampa. So it's like I've competed at that level to where it's a lot of this doesn't faze me, of nervousness for the level. It's like, I'm just excited to go out there and compete and do what I love to do."
Fighting at heavyweight has been bumpy for Harbison, with talent scarce at that weight class in Montana and nationally, and multiple opponents of his dropping out of fights over the past two years, preventing him from earning fighting experience as much as he'd like. Not to mention, finding training partners his size to give him good looks is equally as challenging.
But with the wrestling and ground experience, Harbison has grown leaps and bounds in the striking game over the years to round out his skillset despite the obstacles.
"My goal in my life right now is to be in the UFC," Harbison said. "So every fight camp that I've gotten and I've got a dropout, I don't look at it as something to detour myself. I look at it as eight weeks that I got better.
"So it's like each time, I just didn't get that shiny little toy, the prize of going in in the cage. I'm still training and still getting better, and I know my end goal, and I'm not stopping until I reach that goal."
"He's a great athlete and he's a great student. He's willing to ask questions, and he's very attentive," Powers added. "When he shows up to the room, you know, a lot of people that show up, they just kind of go through the motions. Harbison shows up and he wants to get things done."
Harbison blistered his way to a 2-0 record as an amateur and needed to go pro to find competition. He also recently switched management companies to First Round Management in order to find new opportunities.
All three of his wins have come by knockout.
So Friday night the opportunity is big for the Montanan with a wide audience, as he looks to get closer to his ultimate goal while also representing the Treasure State.
"I want to put Montana on the map for MMA, and I want to be from a Montana gym and represent Montana the whole way," Harbison said. "That's what means the most to me."
