Zach Long and Justice Lamperez Meet at Welterweight at Synergy FC 33

Synergy FC 33 comes to Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS, and one of the pro bouts on the card is a welterweight matchup between Zach Long and Justice Lamperez. Both men sat down with MMA Futures ahead of the event, and both had plenty to say about how they got here.

A short-notice call

Long, who fights out of Ignite MMA in Gladstone and calls Lone Jack, MO home, comes in at 5-4 as a pro after a 6-5 amateur run. He told MMA Futures he took this bout on roughly two and a half weeks' notice. That is why he is up at 170 pounds: there was not enough time to get down to 155. He plans to head back to 155 afterward, and he said the cut has actually gotten easier with age.

He did not sound bothered by the late change or by how anyone sizes up the matchup.

"Call me the underdog. I'm gonna go out there and get it done either way."

This is also his Synergy debut. He was booked with the promotion last year but withdrew over a knee scare. He mentioned that Zach Cummings is both his coach and a familiar figure around Synergy.

Back from the knee

Long is 36 and has been in MMA since 2010. He told MMA Futures he started on a karate-studio team back in the early Kansas City days, when the local scene was a different world. His nickname, The Bully, goes back to his time at Glory MMA, where training partner Grant Dawson started calling him that in sparring. An announcer later used it at one of his amateur walkouts, and it stuck.

The harder part of his story is the knee. He said he fought hurt for two or three years, and that surgery made a huge difference. He came close to stepping away from the sport, but the wrestlers he coaches at Lone Jack brought him back.

"Maybe it's time for me to lead from the front."

He talked about the way he grew up, and how that shows up in the gym. Camp partners this time around included Brant Moore, Gage Young and John O'Brien, among others.

"Be blue collar about it if you want to be good."

As for why he keeps coming back after all these years, he kept it short: "It just gets in your blood."

Justice Lamperez has been through harder

Lamperez trains at Gladiators Academy and comes from Lafayette, LA. He enters at 10-18 as a pro, with a 7-5 amateur record before that. By his own count this is roughly his 35th fight.

He is a Marine Corps veteran who served two combat tours, in Afghanistan in 2013 and Iraq in 2015, and he started fighting right after he got out. That background shapes how he thinks about a night like this one.

"No matter what's gonna happen, I've been through something harder."

He put it even more plainly when talking about his time overseas: "Being pinned down in this firefight was way tougher than this situation that I'm in."

Lamperez has been boxing since he was 12 or 13, and there are Golden Gloves boxers in his family. He trains under UFC veteran Tim Credeur in Louisiana. He is 33 and told MMA Futures he sees himself coaching in a few years.

How they plan to fight

Lamperez is not shy about his style. He told MMA Futures he promises a fast pace and has no interest in point fighting. He jokingly described himself as a specialist in the unglamorous side of the sport, and said his favorite weapon is the teep.

"It's not pretty… but it'll get the job done."

He faced Ray Hayes at Synergy FC 26 earlier this year and said the lesson he took from that night was to keep the pressure on once he hurts someone. He also had a simple way of framing the urgency he wants to bring: "It's only one round."

Long, for his part, talked about compartmentalizing and keeping his mind on the work in front of him, and said fans should expect a Zach Long kind of fight. With one man pushing pace on purpose and the other stepping in on short notice after years of grinding back from injury, this welterweight bout gives Memorial Hall two fighters with long roads behind them and a clear idea of who they are.