Wisconsin Life

upbeat music

Felipe

Can I come in too?

Princesa

Yeah.

Angela

Princesa clearly relishes playtime with her father, Felipe. It's very different from how she sees him playing at the gym.

energetic music

Angela

Felipe Martinez Donis is an undefeated mixed martial arts fighter.

Felipe

Six and O amateur. I just found out today I'm the number one in Wisconsin.

Angela

Those who know him wonder how such a gentle soul does so well in a fighting sport.

Felipe

A lot of people do ask me that. They don't picture me being a different person in the cage, you know.

audience cheering

Angela

The cage represents freedom for Felipe, who fled desperate circumstances in Guatemala.

Felipe

My flag up there, you know, for everyone to look at it. I am a citizen of this country now, but like, looking at the Guatemalan flag, it just reminds me of where I am from.

Angela

His family had to escape the destruction of a hurricane. It just left us with nothing. And my dad took a great risk. Thousands were displaced by the hurricane and flooding that struck Guatemala five weeks after Katrina. At Felipe's family farm, it destroyed the crops that Felipe's father had gone into debt to plant. My dad had to borrow a lot of money. He wasn't able to pay that back, so they were, it was actually people looking for my dad. Fearing for his life, he crossed Mexico by bus and by foot.

Felipe

It took him about two to three months.

Angela

At the border, he asked for refugee status. The judge granted him an asylum. This is my dad. When Felipe was 15, his father sent for him. He is a great man. I could never be able to pay him everything that he's done for us. But it wasn't easy moving to Arcadia in snowy Wisconsin.

Felipe

We came in the middle of the winter around February. February 12th, and it was just snowing like crazy. No friends because anywhere you go, you had to speak the language. And my dad said, okay, you guys came here for a reason. You guys came here to better yourselves.

Angela

Which Felipe did by throwing himself into all kinds of school activities, especially wrestling. I didn't know a single thing about what the sport even was and the coaches were very helpful. At the time, Felipe was also wrestling with learning a new language. Go to the legs, how to go to the head. And then, when he said go to the head, I'd go to the legs. As I was learning English, I was learning wrestling. I had to get uncomfortable and get out of my zone. I was always asking for help. If you're afraid to ask for help, then you're not gonna get anywhere. And that's what I've learned. It's still that support from others that drives Felipe to succeed. Oh, yeah.

Felipe

I mean, teammates, my God. But everyone that I work with here is out to make me better every day that I come through. Just to feel your hand being raised after everything you've done, you've worked through. All the work that you put in with your coaches and your teammates, and to get that reward of all that work that you put in. It's cool to me.

upbeat music