Chase “Mannimal” Mann has never lost in a professional fight, and his weightlifting background is a major reason why.
The undefeated American boxer weighs around 185 pounds and once squatted, benched and deadlifted a total of 1,820 pounds in a single match. These numbers aren't just impressive on paper. They're felt inside the ring, a power that makes opponents think twice before taking action.
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Mann returns to the global stage of ONE Championship and will unleash this immense power once again in a welterweight MMA clash with undefeated Turkish talent Dzhabir Dzhabrailov on Prime Video’s ONE Fight Night 42, live in prime time in the United States on Friday, April 10.
It all started not with his mistake, but with what happened next: a chance encounter at a local gym that changed his entire life.
Just out of trouble and ready to lift
When Mann was 19, he was desperately looking for something positive. The Arkansas native had followed a wayward path, spending the first few months in rehab, so he was looking for a new direction in life.
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MMA has always been his dream, but he hasn't overcome the anxiety of losing in public – a fear that has dogged him since his teenage years.
Mann's daughter had just been born, so he needed guidance, and soon. Finally he found it in an unexpected place:
“I went to a local gym, and the day I went to that gym, there was a weightlifting competition going on. Everyone was like a scary giant, looking intimidating, using smelling salts and going crazy. So, it was cool to see that. I'd never seen that before.”
What happened a few days later changed everything. While he was doing bench presses at the gym, a stranger came up to him and gave him some advice.
That stranger was Logan Chapman, whose personal best in powerlifting (squat, bench press, and deadlift) totaled 2,397.5 pounds. He was also described by “Mannimal” as the strongest man who ever lived in Arkansas.
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Chapman gave Mann more pearls of wisdom, and the mentorship system was born:
“He said, 'Hey man, I think if you do this, you can bench more.' He showed me something, and sure enough, I benched more. He told me I had potential in this area, and we worked on it together.
“At the time, I was just getting out of trouble. So, I needed something positive and, like I said, I wasn't mentally ready to get myself into MMA.”
The kid who can't stop breaking records
Within three months, Mann was competing. He placed first in the junior division at 181 pounds. Just a few months later, in his second meet, the Arkansas native improved his squat personal best from 565 pounds to 617.3 pounds. This is a national record.
Since then, as always, there has been an obsession with “Mannimal.”
He told onefc.com:
“Within six months, I was obsessed with it, like I am with anything I'm doing. I had to give it my all. I think it was a form of ADHD. Either give it your all or not at all.”
Over the next two to three years, Mann broke records on the platform. State records fell first. The national record followed closely behind. He even competed in four more weightlifting competitions in the weight class over 200 pounds, placing first in three of them.
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The game itself motivates him the most. The same mindset that carried him through his early football years translated perfectly into the loneliness on the platform. Mann felt the pressure, which motivated him to achieve greater success.
He said:
“You're going to step up to the weight. First of all, you can't fake it. You can't talk into thin air. No words. All you can do is what you can do, or you can't do it.”
But beyond documenting and showcasing his strength, lifting weights gave Mann something more lasting.
Standing alone under an overloaded barbell will either break you or create something unshakable within you. For the Arkansas native, it built the latter.
The 29-year-old reflected:
“Walking, getting under the bar, it's you and that weight, one wrong move and you can break both knees. Anything can go wrong. So, yeah, I would say it helped me gain confidence in myself.”
The power that never leaves
Weightlifting continued for three years. In his final meet, Mann locked in at 1,820 pounds: squatting 700 pounds, benching 450 pounds, and deadlifting 670 pounds.
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However, the binge drinking that comes with it—enough to be hungover a few nights a week and still lift weights the next morning—is a compromise that MMA will never tolerate.
When the troubled youngster finally walked through the doors of Walnut Ridge's LC and found the confidence to tackle MMA, he immediately knew he had to change his ways:
“I'm a fighter, man. I was born for this. I haven't had a drink since I discovered MMA. I don't know the last time I had a drink. Like, I'm content. I don't even go out. I'm calm.”
But the strength — the foundational, bone-deep strength built through years of lifting barbells and breaking records in small gyms in Arkansas — never went away. It just found a new home.
Mann brings that same brute strength to his wrestling, striking and BJJ training. He's perfected his arsenal in every department, and when skill alone wasn't enough, that raw strength helped him overcome obstacles.
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He said:
“Every little bit of powerlifting helps me. Whenever I train with someone new, no matter who it is, the first thing they say is: 'Oh my god, how are you so strong?'
“I just love it, man. Weightlifting gave me something. I wanted to be the strongest, and it helped me gain that belief, which has translated seamlessly to MMA.”
Mann parlayed that run into a 6-0 professional MMA record and earned opportunities on the global stage. At ONE Fight Night 39 in January this year, he continued his undefeated record by defeating Isi “Doxz” Fitikefu with a first-round TKO.
The strength built up in the gym at Arkansas remains the cornerstone of everything he does inside the squared circle: pressure, grappling and denying movement or control to anyone who walks past him.
At ONE Fight Night 42, Zabralov will be the next to discover just how deep that foundation runs.
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