Isaiah Martinez and Jesse Delgado are both from California, both went to Illinios and both won NCAA titles. This is common knowledge for most wrestling fans. What most people don't know is that the two actually ran into each other twice in high school when Isaiah Martinez was a freshman and Jesse Delgado was a senior. During the filming of To Hell and Back, Illinios associate head coach Mark Perry talks about those two matches and what they told him about Isaiah.




In the words of Mark Perry:

"Like I said, you never know that early. It was more like when someone would introduce me to him when he was young. As a young kid most kids are pretty timid, he would look you right in the eye. You knew he was confident, he had a chip on his shoulder. Really when it settled in for me as a coach, I was at Cal Poly we recruited Jesse Delgado. He was very similar recruiting him, not nearly as highly touted coming out of high school but he had a great high school career.

They wrestled for the third and fourth place match at the state tournament Jesse’s senior year, his freshman year. Jesse had beaten him pretty good earlier in the season, maybe at like masters or something. I was there and I saw that match, it was more of Jesse just picking him apart and hitting him with the things Jesse does well.

For him to make that kind of adjustment in a short period of time, in a month. He put it on Jesse and not only did he put it on him, he got on his back like a horse at the end and was holding his head in the mat. Some people don’t like that but to me it’s just more of a confidence it’s not an arrogance thing.

Right then I knew I got to find a way to get this kid somehow. He has something, just a confidence level. You can have all the skill in the world but if you don’t have that self belief and that confidence it’s going to eventually catch up to you. Seeing that at that young of an age, for me personally, I knew that he had something special."

 
Isaiah Martinez after winning the 2015 NCAA Championships



Jesse Delgado after winning NCAA title #2 in 2014


Be sure to check out the Original Series To Hell and Back: Isaiah Martinez

WATCH: Series Trailer

WATCH: Episode One

Episode Two airs on Wednesday November 4