Bubba Jenkins

Bubba Jenkins (born February 5, 1988) is an American mixed martial artist and former amateur wrestler.

He currently competes in the featherweight division of Professional Fighters League.

He has also notably competed for Bellator MMA, Absolute Championship Berkut and Brave Combat Federation, where he was a former champion.

As an amateur wrestler, Jenkins was a freestyle junior World Champion and an NCAA Division I champion.

Jenkins attended Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia for three years before transferring to First Colonial High School, also in Virginia Beach, as a senior.

His senior year he won a VHSL wrestling state championship and a National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) Senior National Championship.

In 2006, Jenkins committed to the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Freshman: Competing at 157 pounds, Jenkins went 23-12 during regular season.

Post-season, he placed sixth at the Big Ten Conference with 3 victories and 3 defeats.

in which he went 1–2 at the 157-pounds division.

Sophomore: Before the season started, Jenkins won a gold medal at the Junior World Championships in freestyle at 66 kilograms.

Competed at 149 pounds in college, during the season he downed the accomplished Jordan Burroughs in a close 3-2 ending match.

Went 2–2 at the Big Ten's, downing Lance Palmer twice and losing to Brent Metcalf and Josh Churella, placing fifth and going to the NCAA's where he did exceptionally well going 4-1 and becoming the runner-up.

Junior: Finished the regular season with an undefeated 22–0 record.

Went 2-0 prior to the finals at the Big Ten Championship, where he suffered an injury and was forced to forfeit and earn runner-up honors.

At the NCAA's, Jenkins was notably affected by the injury and had a tough 0–2 run at the tournament.

Redshirt: Jenkins redshirted this season because of athletic and academic issues.

Senior: When Cael Sanderson arrived as the new head coach at PSU, Jenkins didn't feel comfortable with the way of teaching of Sanderson and Sanderson felt uncomfortable with the style of Jenkins.

This caused him to transfer to Arizona State University.

In his first and only year with the Sun Devils, Jenkins captured an NCAA title by pinning previously unbeaten Nittany Lion and future World Champion and Olympic gold medalist David Taylor in the finals.

Jenkins graduated as an NCAA champion, two-time finalist and two-time All-American.

Jenkins returned for his second fight at Tachi Palace Fights 12: Second Coming on March 9, 2010 He defeated Chris Gomez via rear-naked choke in the first round.

Bubba Jenkins is managed by Daniel A. Martinez of Di-Cypher & Associates.

One week before Bubba Jenkins defeated Chris Gomez at Tachi Palace Fights 12 - Second Coming, he signed an exclusive 6-fight deal with Resurrection Fighting Alliance (RFA).

Jenkins wrestled two-time NCAA champion (2011 and 2013) Jordan Oliver in a folkstyle match on November 1–3, at the 2013 Who's Number One dual meet.

He lost the match by points (2-8).

Jenkins made his mixed martial arts debut in the Lightweight division on December 2, 2011 at Tachi Palace Fights 11: Redemption.

Jenkins defeated Josh Williams by submission TKO in the first round.

However, Dake pulled out due to an injury suffered while competing and was replaced by 2012 NCAA champion Frank Molinaro, in a folkstyle match instead.

Jenkins defeated his former teammate by points (4-2).

After 7 years of no competition, Jenkins faced highly competitive wrestler Jason Nolf in a freestyle match on October 20, as a headliner for the NLWC Event II.

He was defeated by technical fall in the first period.

On June 30, 2012, Jenkins made his promotional debut for the RFA against highly decorated amateur boxer Jesus Adame at RFA 3 - Stevenson vs. Cochrane.

Jenkins quickly slammed Adame to the ground and submitted him via Rear Naked Choke at 1:08 of the first round.

On October 31, 2012, it was announced that Jenkins joined Jon Jones' coaching staff on the seventeenth season of the UFC produced reality television show The Ultimate Fighter.

Jenkins was scheduled to wrestle against Kyle Dake in a freestyle match on December 1 at the 2013 Grapple at the Garden event.

The first episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen premiered on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 8 ET/PT on FX Networks.

On May 31, 2013, Bellator MMA announced they had signed Jenkins to a long term promotional agreement and he will make his debut in the summer.

Jenkins took on Mike Barreras at Bellator 97.

He won the fight via TKO in the second round.