Victor Irwin was a two-time state champion while wrestling for Brewer High School and an All-American in the sport at Eastern Maine Community College.
He’ll get a chance to add to that combat sports resume on Sept. 10 when he fights Nick Shea for the New England Fights MMA amateur light heavyweight championship as part of NEF 25 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
“I’ve thought a lot about this fight, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what I say,” said the 21-year-old Irwin. “It matters what I do, and come Sept. 10 you’re gonna see some serious doing.”
The Irwin-Shea bout was announced this week after Ryan Glover vacated the title because the responsibilities of his new job requires considerable travel up and down the East Coast, leaving insufficient time to train.
Irwin won the 2012 Class A individual wrestling state championship at 195 pounds by pinning Christian Coons of Windham in the third round to avenge a loss a week earlier in the Eastern Maine finals.
That summer he was a member of Team Maine for the annual Maine-Nebraska Friendship Series and became the first Pine Tree State wrestler to go undefeated (5-0) against Cornhusker State competition since the event began in the mid-1980s.
Irwin moved up to 220 pounds as a senior the next year and capped off an undefeated season against in-state competition by defeating reigning champion Josh Andrews of Massabesic High School in Waterboro in the championship match at the state meet.
He finished fifth in his weight class at the 2013 New England championships.
Irwin went on to attend EMCC, and when he learned the school did not have a wrestling program he helped create one.
As a freshman in 2014, Irwin achieved All-American status with his seventh-place finish in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association Championships at Allen, Texas.
More recently he has joined the MMA ranks, training out of Young’s MMA in Bangor.
Irwin has won his first two amateur fights, most recently a first-round knockout of Tracey Schryba at NEF 23 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in mid-May.
Shea, who fights out of First Class MMA in Topsham, also is 2-0, with both wins coming in 2015 when he was nominated for the NEF “Rookie of the Year” award.
“It’s an honor to fight someone from Young’s MMA,” said Shea. “I believe this will be my biggest test in the cage to date.”
