Air Force NCO Becomes a UFC Star with Leah Letson

In the military, you're given a uniform and instructed on how to do things and when to do them. But what happens when the cadence fades, and you're no longer wearing that uniform? I'm Kp and I started this podcast to fill that silence with direction and to provide overall support for my beloved military family. Welcome to the Morning formation. This episode is powered by act now education, go to www.actnoweducation.com for free, comprehensive educational resources and opportunities for active duty, veterans, military spouses, and children.

I'd say mental aspects of fighting that I needed to work on, I struggle really bad with anxiety. So much so that I started working with sports psychologists because I knew I needed to work on it. And not only did I know, but my coaches were telling me hey, you're getting really worked up in practice for things that you shouldn't be that worried about. Because if I would make one mistake, I was super hard on myself right.

Warriors fall in, it's time for formation. Today I'm joined with an Air National Guard service member who also happens to be a retired professional mixed martial arts fighter. Now our guest today has been training in some form of martial arts since she could walk and spend some time on the Ultimate Fighter 28 For Team Whitaker in 2018. Since then, she did some additional professional fights, and then took some time off to take care of her physical and mental health. And today, we're very fortunate to get to know her a little bit better. So I'd like to welcome Leah Letson to the morning cremation podcast. Leah, thank you for giving us this opportunity today.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

The honor is all mine. I really appreciate it. I know you're extremely busy. And you got a lot going on. I saw recently that you got married, right?

Yes, back in May. So

Coheangratulations. Well, that was last year. Wow. Okay, so. So yeah. So congratulations on that. And I was following you on on Instagram. And I see that you got a lot going on in your own personal life. So even though you're technically retired, I know that you're currently still serving in the Air National Guard as well. So speaking of that, would you mind talking to us about your time in the military? What made you decide to join the Air National Guard? And what is your job?

So I ended up joining in 2012. I always kind of liked the idea of serving my country. But I also knew I wanted to go to school and get my bachelor's degree. So the Air National Guard was kind of like the perfect fit for me because it allowed me to be a part of the military. And then once I got back from basic training in tech, school, and all that I could continue going to school and have my civilian career as well as a military career. So it's kind of like the perfect balance of both military and civilian. And also my grandpa served in the army, the Marines and the Navy. So I figured I'd just completed by joining the Air Force. So my first career was a command and control battle management operator. And the way I like to explain that is it's similar to air traffic control, what aircraft air traffic control takes planes off and lands them we did all the air to air and air to ground combat stuff in between. So when we were deployed, we controlled all the airspace in the Middle East. And then now, I just two years ago, I'm cross trained into metals technology. So now I am a machinist and a welder and metal fabricator. Basically anything with metal, we do it and we can make it so that's what I do now.

Wow. So I have a little bit of experience with the the metallics that you're talking about. When I transitioned out of the military, I worked for this small company called Rolls Royce. I don't know if you've heard of them.

Yeah.

So yeah, and I worked in the aeronautics side of it.

And I had to learn about heat treat, night Aletsch, all those different things and the importance of like metal and basically its process and going through it so, so I can identify you with on that. And that's very fascinating that you worked pretty much as a tactical air traffic controller. That's what it sounds like your job was when you were deployed. Is that correct?

Kind of Yeah. So I also I'm widely supported the, the tactical air traffic controllers, basically, in the weapons directors is what they're really called. By making sure that the radar picture was clear for all of them and then identifying aircraft in the airspace and basically provided a supporting role for all the weapons directors over there.

It's a very important, very intense job that you had over there. And what? What type of deployments did you go on?

They were six months deployments. So it wasn't. It's not like the army where they do nine month deployments or anything, so it wasn't too bad, but six months is still a long time to be away from family and friends.

Yeah, no doubt about it. See, back in my day, I sound like an old geezer. Now. We were doing at one point 15 months. And I did just shy of 12 months when I went to Iraq in 2004. So yeah, I would say that six month mark is kind of the point of break where you're like, I'm ready to go home. Yeah. So Yeah. But yeah, it's fascinating. And from my understanding, you have trained martial arts in some form, since you were like five years old. Is that correct?

That is correct. Yeah. I started in karate when I was five. Like, just after I turned five. I think it was like, the day after my fifth birthday. And so I've been doing karate, and then I did taekwondo starting at age 11. So I did Karate and Taekwondo. Growing up, and when I was in college, I joined cardio kickboxing, I was kind of looking for a new martial art to start. And I fell in love with cardio kickboxing, and then the instructors for that on their own MMA gym. And so they invited me to come try Jiu Jitsu. And they saw that I was really talented and had a really strong work ethic. So they are like, hey, when you get back from basic training, we're gonna see if we can get you a fight. And so they did. And I fell in love with it.

Yeah, did you did you find it difficult to transition from a standing martial art to a ground martial art? Because I know a lot of times, it seems to be easier for for folks who have a grappling background jujitsu wrestling, to get into boxing, it seems that the footwork is easier for them to to catch on to quicker did you find that difficult? Of a, I guess, different style of fighting?

Um, yes, and no, I'd say I took to jujitsu pretty well, it was the wrestling part that took me a little bit longer to figure it out. Because once I was on the ground, the grappling part and like the strength and the balance and all that and like controlling people that kind of came naturally to me, but it was the transition of striking to groundwork that I struggled with a lot. And that's actually how I ended up losing my pro debut was through wrestling. So because I knew that was my weakness. And that's why I lost the fight. I was like, bound and determined to work on my wrestling. And so I worked on it for a year straight. And then wrestling eventually became one of my strengths, because that's how hard I worked on it.

I love how it's such a science. And I love how, you know, training with others really becomes a family environment. I've trained, trained in multiple gyms and I can tell you that I've maintained contact with folks that I've trained with over the years or done competitions with over the years and there's nothing like it. As far as being part of that, that experience in that group and having that skill set.

It helps in so many different ways. You know, I always try to tell folks, hey, get into some type of training, learn how to breathe, learn how to move. It can be really therapeutic in a way. I want to I want to know, how did you end up on the Ultimate Fighter? And, you know, was living with the other fighters similar to like living in barracks that are like, we're your experience being in bootcamp?

Yeah. So Well, first, how I got on the Ultimate Fighter, I was actually signed to the UFC before I was on the Ultimate Fighter. So I had a contract with the UFC. The person I was supposed to fight, ended up pulling out of the fight. So then I was left without an opponent, and they were trying to find me an opponent, they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. And then a few months later, they asked me, Would you be willing to do the Ultimate Fighter instead? And we'll keep your contract no matter what the results are the ultimate fighter was. So I ended up I agreed to do it. It kind of ended up being a win win situation, because it gave me publicity, and it gave me that experience. But I didn't have the risk of not getting UFC contracts since I already had one. So for me, I looked at it as a win win situation. And you're totally right. It was very similar to being like in basic training. Because you're isolated from the outside world. You're living with these people that you're going to fight so that's just like super awkward, right? But I think the isolation part and the fact that it's like a very stressful and intense environment. Constantly, you're constantly on edge, you're constantly stressed out. You're constantly like working hard. It was very similar to basic training. So I think I had an edge over everyone else because I had been in that situation before where you're cut off from civilization and you're cut off from society, you can't talk to anyone, no family or friends or anything. And you're living with a bunch of strangers. The other people kind of went crazy. They didn't know how to handle it. But I had the mental edge because I had been through something similar before.

Yeah, I was gonna ask about that. Like, did you watch other fighters kind of go through a process of Oh, I miss home? I'm home sick.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's, that's fascinating.

We are only filming for like two months. So to me, it was like, Oh, this is not a big deal, whatever. But to them, it was like, Oh, my gosh, I haven't seen or talked to my family or my friends and like few weeks, and I'm just like, yeah, it's not really a big deal. You'll make it and I ended up like, kind of consoling a few of them. I made some really good friends, some lifelong friends on that show. And because of my experience, I was able to, like, calm some of them down, because they were getting a little worked up being away from family and friends for so long.

Yeah, I was gonna ask about that. I mean, I guess, having been familiar with being away, especially for six months, two months is nothing and it kind of cracks me up. Whenever I hear civilians talk about, oh, you know, I've got to, I gotta leave my house for the weekend or a long weekend and go out of town for work. And I'm like, that's nothing try an entire year, you know, and then, you know, because during my time when I was in the military, it was when Afghanistan and Iraq were at its height.

And it was a real thing to get stopped lost, and to come home, after a long deployment, and then redeploy, again, back out into combat, like literally within months. It happened to my first sergeant happened to several NCOs that I worked with, and, you know, going through that experience, and and had you having been gone for six months, man it that that was a piece of cake for you. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. And so while you were on deployment, I'm curious to know, how did you continue training? Or was that available for you? And how did you train to keep your your math skills intact? While you were overseas,

it was actually pretty awesome, because I got lucky. And there was someone over there that had started a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club, like, a year or two before I gotten there. And then they happened to be in my unit. So I was in the unit replacing their unit. So as soon as I got there, I got introduced to this guy. And he's like, Hey, do you want to take over the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club? And I was like, Yes, for sure. So and I was purple belt at the time. So I was the highest ranking jujitsu person on base. So it was really cool. I got to advertise for my class all over base. And I was teaching a pretty good sized group of people. Every Monday and Wednesday, I believe I had a class at 7pm. So it was really cool. I got to teach jujitsu over there. And then we got to roll. And we had grappling mats and everything, and then actually met an Australian, who was over on bass, and he did Muy Thai. His name was Ben. So we used to hold pads for each other. And we used to do kickboxing and stuff all the time. And it was a blast. And I'm forever grateful to Ben and all of my friends over there that helped me train because they all were very supportive of me and my career. And I was also really cool during the jujitsu club over there, because I got to meet a bunch of different people from a bunch of different career fields on that base, and including, like, pilots and officers, but once you got on the mat, you could laugh and joke around and stuff. And so I had like, more personal relationships and like friends, like from all walks of life, and I made lifelong friends on that deployment because of it.

Yeah, it sounds like an awesome experience. Now, Ben was a Australian military service member is

an Australian Air Force.

Okay, cool. So your work with other countries while you're over there as well. It's fascinating. We

had the Danish and the Australians and the British over there. So

who were the toughest?

Oh, no, I gotta say the Australians were definitely my favorite. They're so funny, man. They don't care. They'll just say whatever's on their mind. They don't care if you're gonna get offended. It's, they're hilarious. And they can get away with it because they're Australian.

I always find those folks that are from like, Bosnia, Serbia. Those places like that. Just they're naturally built. Tough. Like they're just naturally stout, very, like slim, but very strong. And I I think that's kind of strange. I don't know why I think it's just maybe it's hereditary maybe. in their DNA, DNA, yeah, man. I mean, they are tough, tough people, man. I mean, just I mean, hell, they made the kettlebell. Right. So what's to be expected? So now that you're retired Leah, do you still find time to train?

Um, yeah, I've kind of taken a little bit of a break, just because I got a little burned out on the sport in general. And it's just, it's a lot of work. Being a fighter, you're in the gym and grinding all day, every day. So I just kind of wanted to relax and just have some fun and chill for a little while. But I definitely, I mean, martial arts is like a part of who I am. So I'm definitely going to be continuing my training. It'll just be more for fun. And as a hobby now, instead of like a career. So jujitsu and kickboxing, I always love teaching that still, I actually just taught a private lesson a couple hours ago. And I love teaching. It's like my passion. I love sharing my knowledge with other people. And I definitely plan on continuing to train but I haven't been training very much recently, I just kind of been taking a little bit of a break, but I'm gonna go back.

Yeah, that's completely understood in at the end of the day, Leah, I mean, you'll always have that gift, you'll have that gift that you can give other folks as far as coaching and training. And that's... all the folks over the span of my own hobby level training. I've never forgotten anyone that's really coached me or taught me something new, or made me better, you know, over time. And I think that's having that gift to give other people is really, really important when it comes to mixed martial arts and martial arts in general. And overall, do you feel like training martial arts or MMA can help you with stress and anxiety? If it's just on a hobbyist or a fun level? Yeah,

totally. I am a strong advocate for martial arts is like a huge stress reliever. Especially like jujitsu and kickboxing, I don't know. There's something about like, punching and kicking people that you just, you can't walk away angry anymore. It's just like a release of all of your anger and frustration. And then also you get that endorphin rush from like, exercising intensely and jujitsu is the same thing. You're, you're strangling people, you're trying not to be strangled. You're, you're basically practicing what's called mindfulness. So you're just focusing on the moment, because you can't think about all those other things that are bothering you in life. Like, you have to focus on the fact that you are either getting punched out or kicked out or getting strangled, or you're trying to do it to someone else. And you're just, that's all you can focus on. And so you're you, you bring your attention to what's right here and now. And you forget about your other problems and worries and troubles just even for a little bit. And then that endorphin release. And that just the feel of like, all that stress and tension leaving your body just walk away from the gym feeling so much better.

Yeah, no doubt. And I always talk to folks about the breathing aspect of it, and how important breathing as whether it's, you're doing tactics, or whether you're shooting, or whether you're sparring, I found myself more times than not, when I was helping to coach some of my friends in tournaments, Jujitsu tournaments, I found myself reminding them to simply breathe. And I think that helps kind of relax everything, bring everything down, think clearly. And because I think sometimes when we tend to get stressed and anxiety, we tend to hold in our breath, which sounds really strange. But it's just natural for us as humans. So and talking about stress and anxiety, I'll tell you that Brazilian jujitsu has always been there for me, to help me kind of take my mind off of things when I was going through a tough time. And I just wanted to double down on that and see if you kind of felt the same way. And it's kind of refreshing to hear that coming from you, especially since you fought at such a high level. And you know, over the time that you have been a professional fighter, been a military member, you've experienced a lot of leadership opportunities. And so I want to ask you, how does someone self assess their leadership shortcomings? And how do you suggest someone could work on bettering themselves? I know you as a fighter, you had to look in the mirror a lot of times and you had to assess what do I need to work on? What do I need to get better at and you had to accept them and you had to make them better? What advice do you have folks out there to do that for themselves and their maybe in their career or their own personal life.

I think getting feedback from other people, especially, I've always been wanting to advocate for my friends being honest with me about like brutally honest sometimes about like, how I come across what are what am I doing? Like, what am I? What am I able to improve on? Right. And same with my coaches, obviously, they're giving me constructive criticism all the time about what I need to work on and stuff for fighting. But there's a lot of, I'd say, mental aspects of fighting that I needed to work on I, I struggle, really bad with anxiety. So much so that I started working with sports psychologists because I knew I needed to work on it. And not only did I know, but my coaches were telling me, Hey, you're getting really worked up in practice for things that you shouldn't be that worried about. Because if I would make one mistake, I was super hard on myself, right? So I knew I was getting stressed out and worked up over things that I didn't need to. And I guess just taking a look in the mirror, receiving that constructive criticism from those around you, those that are closest to you. And not taking it personally but saying, Okay, this is what I need to work on. And being honest with yourself like, Okay, I'm not strong in these areas. And what can I do to fix that?

So would you mind just talking to us about the time that you took off for your injuries? I know, you had experienced some issues with your it was your chromosomes,

and thyroid and my mitochondria?

Mitochondria. That's what....chromosomes....mitochondria. So you had experienced some issues with your mitochondria? Because you had been training so damn hard. Yeah. And you had to you had to fix that because you weren't eating right. And you weren't getting enough rest and things like that. You know, at what point did you realize that you had to do something like what was that final straw that kind of broke the camel's back and said, Leah, you need to take some time off for this.

So it took me a long time, I knew something was wrong with me for probably a couple of years leading up to it. Just because weight cutting was so much harder for me than it was for any anyone else. And as soon as I was done fighting like I would, my body would balloon back up in weight, and it kept getting higher and higher every single time and I would be barely eating anything, but my body was just so starved for something that it would hold on to every ounce of anything that I ate. And it didn't matter how little I ate, I just kept trying to cut calories and try to keep working out harder. And the more I did that, the more my body was fighting me. And I was listening to the advice of coaches that didn't know what they were talking about as far as weight cutting for women especially. And I just, I knew something was wrong with me when one day I came home from practice. And I like it was not even that intensive of practice. But I like passed out on my bed for several hours. And like I woke up and I couldn't. I was like so disoriented. And I didn't know what was going on with me. I just knew that no matter how little I ate, and how much I was working out, I kept putting on weight. And I could barely keep my eyes open anymore after one practice. And I was used to training at that time, I was training like eight hours a day, and I was eating between 500 and 1000 calories a day 1000 calories was like, I was pretty happy that day that I got to eat 1000 calories. And that's insane when you think about it, but like at the time, that's what I was getting told to do. And I didn't know any better. But I remember just being absolutely miserable, and my whole body hurt. And I just I knew something was wrong. And so I went to the doctor, they did some tests, they found out my thyroid wasn't working at all. I had hypothyroidism, the medication that they gave me for the thyroid. There wasn't helping me. I didn't feel any better on it. And so I ended up finding a functional medicine doctor that specialized in thyroid disorders. And he's the one who actually saved my life. He ran a bunch of labs on me. He showed the lab results to a bunch of doctors and they're like, I don't know how she did as much as she did for as long as she did because most people would be hospitalized and like having organ failure by now. So I was pretty close to you know, hospitalizing myself. And it was at that point that I knew I needed to take a break and step back and take care of my body or else I'm not going to be able to fight ever again. So it was a really long road to recovery. And I had to basically restart everything, my thyroid hormones were all messed up down to the mitochondria. And my cells were not working properly. So I had to rebuild my bodies from the cells up.

Absolutely amazing. So you're a true fighter. I mean, you don't know when to quit. You don't know when to quit. And I would imagine that that's just probably how you were brought up there in Wisconsin. I, I grew up. I was actually born in Hawaii. And then I moved in my father was in the military, retired and then so I went to live with him in the state of Ohio. So I understand that in those Midwest states, some of the hardest workers and especially in those rural communities, come out of there. And that's probably why some of the best sports players out there come from those rural communities as well. And I would imagine that that probably attributes a lot to your overall hard work and can do attitude that you have in over the years. Have you trained at a number of different places? And if so, where would you say is your favorite place to train?

I've traveled to Alliance MMA in San Diego, I traveled to syndicate MMA in Las Vegas. I'm mostly trained out of Pura Vida and Milwaukee, for the majority of my career, and then I switched to Wanderlei jujitsu, an MMA and they're in Wauwatosa, which is a suburb of Milwaukee. And I have to say that Wanderley jujitsu is by far my favorite place that I've trained. Just because the coaches seem to genuinely care about every single person in there, not just the fighters, not just the people that pay them the most. They genuinely care about every person and it's like a big family like everyone's welcome. I feel like I'm at home every time I go into that gym and I the coaches really care about the well being of the fighter, they don't care about the money that the fighter is going to bring in. And I really love that. Unfortunately, with my experience with Pura Vida, that's the gym that almost killed me. So, while they were like a family to me for a while, I ended up having to leave just for my own health reasons. But Wanderley jujitsu took me in and helped me come back to fighting after that three year layoff.

Yeah, that's really important to underline. Over the years I've trained it like five or six different gyms because I've moved all over the place. And I started out at a gym that was not built for hobbyist, it was a gym that was built to build fighters. And so day one, you are going against amateur and pro fighters are grappling or sparring. And I've seen literally soccer dads go in there and get their ass whooped. And I feel I felt bad because I was fortunate that I had a wrestling background so I could hold my own. And, and then I've also been to gyms where it's very family oriented, they care about the people that are enrolling, they're there to build you up. They're there to teach you. So it is important to be selective and choosy when it comes to who are you training with and where you're training. And it's, it's nice to hear that you found a home and you found a good a good place that's actually going to take care of you. And look out for the greater good of you, overall. And Leah, I want to give you an opportunity before we finish up the podcast here to provide any additional piece of advice for our listeners. It could be in regards to overcoming obstacles. It could be enrolling yourself into education while you're in the military, whatever it is, what message would you like to give to our listeners out there? Something that maybe has been on your mind and something that you want to broadcast to everyone to maybe help out their current situation?

If I could give anyone just one piece of advice is that you can do anything that you set your mind to okay, no matter what the obstacles that get put in your way, no matter what other people say. When I first told people I was going to be a UFC fighter one day, people looked at me like I was crazy, right? But guess what? I worked my ass off and I made it happen. So it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, a lot of discipline. But honestly, you can truly do anything you set your mind to no matter what your goals are. I don't want to see anyone give up on their dreams just because they think oh, it might be too hard or people might judge me. People are gonna judge you anyway. They always have an opinion about what you're going to do or say so you might as well do what you want. Right so Please, please, please don't be afraid to go after your dreams.

Yeah, no doubt about it. And you know, we all start off with a different hand of cards is what I like to say, you know, and some of us have to work harder than others. Some of us are naturally gifted, maybe with memory, some retain things faster than others, you might have to work harder. But at the end of the day, you definitely can achieve whatever you certainly put your mind to, and you are certainly a model mentor, for that exact thing to be honest with you, because coming from coming from Wisconsin, and making it to the level that you made it to, is something that I think should definitely should definitely be proud of yourself. And I'm sure your parents are and your family are very proud of everything that you've accomplished. And you've been such a professional, everything that I read about you and watched even your interviews, you've been a true professional all the way through. And Leah for anyone out there, I'll make sure that I put in the show notes, your Instagram, your Facebook, is there any any other way that folks can connect with you who heard you speaking today and want to follow you or get more information about you,

I'd say Instagram and Facebook is the best way to contact me feel free to send me a message if you want to talk to me. I'm on social media all the time. So I'm constantly checking my messages. And I'll get back to you as soon as I can. And also, if anyone wants me to come speak at their school or on their podcast, or whatever, I love public speaking opportunities. So please feel free to hit me up. I'd love to talk to you about that.

Most definitely, most definitely. And as a father of daughters, I, I really hope someday that I could convince my girls into following your path, to be honest with you. I mean, that's it, I know the value behind it. And it's just convincing the rest of the world the value behind it and how therapeutic can be and how rewarding it can be to be where you are right now. Leah, I just want to say thank you for joining us on the More Information podcast has been an absolute honor to get to know you better. And I'm looking forward to hearing more about you and what you've got coming over the horizon in the future. So thank you for sitting down with us giving us this chance.

Thank you for having me. It was an honor.

The honor is all mine. As I always say and for folks out there. As always, I want you to stay tuned, stay focused, and stay motivated. Warriors fallout. You've been listening to the morning formation podcast. I hope you found today's materials helpful and of value to your current situation. You can connect with me on Instagram at the underscore morning underscore formation underscore podcast. Or you can connect with me via email at the formation podcaster@gmail.com. Also, I would like to thank my partners at act no education further support, authenticity, community and trust. It is what you can expect from all members of the Act now education team. You can link up with them today and learn about some new free educational resources on their Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or at their website act now education.com whether today's show took you back to a nostalgic time or helped you think about tomorrow. Thank you for tuning in. And I look forward to seeing you again. Stay safe and stay motivated. Warriors fall out