Former North Carolina State Wolfpack wrestler Max Rohskopf makes UFC debut

The pickings are slim right now, without much beyond cornhole, a few golf and NASCAR events, and Korean baseball being an option. However, the UFC has been staging mixed martial arts (MMA) events since May 9, and the organization will feature a fighter with NC State Wolfpack ties Saturday night at UFC on ESPN 11: Blaydes vs. Volkov (prelims begin at 5 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN+).

Former NC State wrestling standout Max Rohskopf (5-0 in MMA career) was a late injury replacement on the card. Despite taking the fight less than a week ago, he has actually emerged as the betting favorite against Austin Hubbard (11-4, 1-2 UFC). Rohskopf and Hubbard, who won the Legacy Fighting Alliance lightweight championship before being signed by the UFC, will be the first fight of the night around 5 p.m.

The 25-year-old Rohskopf has fought for World Fighting Federation, Final Fight Championships and Titan FC since turning pro in Feb. 2018, but is now getting his shot at the big leagues in the UFC, the unrivaled king of MMA.

Undefeated at 5-0 in his career, the lightweight (155 pounds) who now trains in Las Vegas is considered a top rising prospect in the sport. He’s ended all five professional fights in his career via submission, and only one opponent — the one he fought in his debut — has even made it to the second round.

Neither of Rohskopf’s last two fights have gone past 1:11 of the first round. One opponent that Rohskopf defeated, Omar Hussein, is 6-1 as a pro with two wins since his lone loss and moving up a weight class.

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Rohskopf wrestled for the Wolfpack from 2013-16, but originally “recruited himself to NC State” according to head coach Pat Popolizio. The coach had never heard of the Killbuck, Ohio, product before he called one day and basically told the coach he would head south to wrestle for the Wolfpack.

"Max had heard about how we runs things as a program — very disciplined and what we expect out of our athletes. … He called and I said, 'I don't even know who you are,'" Popolizio told The Wolfpacker in a 2015 interview. "He said, 'It doesn't matter. I already know your philosophy and rules, and I want to be a part of it.'"

Popolizio at the time also knew nothing of Rohskopf’s upbringing, which as he told TheBodyLockMMA.com last June, included an abusive, alcoholic father. One of Rohskopf’s first memories was his father holding him as a 5- or 6-year-old, his mother and his brothers at gunpoint, before they escaped out a second-story window.

He was an unorthodox college wrestler who began his career doing the unheard of and starting at three different weights for the Wolfpack as a true freshman. He finished the season as an undersized starter at 165 pounds. The following year, he settled into the weight class and earned the first of his two bids to the NCAA Championships.

He earned an at-large bid to the 2015 event, but then ran into the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds to fall out of the double-elimination bracket, ending a breakout 25-16 campaign. The following year, he won the ACC championship at 165 pounds, finished 16-4 and undefeated in a tough conference that included an eventual All-American, and earned the No. 5 seed at the NCAA Championships.

Rohskopf was ranked in the top 10 nationally once again the following year, but battled injuries as a senior, and soon after started his MMA career.

Ever since then, much like he did in his wrestling career, he been impressing onlookers and rapidly improving. Though he is not the first former NC State wrestler to fight professionally — the most notable is former Bellator world champion Darrion Caldwell — he is the first to make it to the UFC’s famed octagon.

However, he isn’t satisfied with just making it to the sport’s highest level. He’s there to win, and to win big.

“I was excited [to sign with the UFC], but I’m not going to really be happy until I get in there and get my first win and start accomplishing what I’ve been setting out to do, and that’s never been just to get to the UFC but to thrive in the UFC,” Roshkopf told MMA Junkie earlier this week. “Everyone was super excited. I’m just kind of like, ‘I’ve got work to do. I don’t really have time to be excited.'”