Tom Shoaff, a ‘Gentleman of Violence’ no more

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - Southwest Oklahoma is full of individuals who have stories to tell and it is the job of local news to help tell them. Follow me along while I help tell one of those stories.

On Sept. 6, 2023, I went to a gym near what was the Lawton mall. This gym is not one you’d see for weightlifting, with iron plates strung all around; it’s full of fighters, a gym where punching bags dangle from the ceiling.

As you walk into the gym you can’t help but notice the two grappling championship belts to your right, with what seem to be hundreds of medals glistening from the sunlight hanging above the aforementioned hardware.

One of the coaches of this gym is a 6′ tall man sporting a fashionable mustache and goatee. The goatee seemed to be a new addition given that the majority of pictures that line parts of the gym have him sporting a lone English gentleman mustache. This description of the facial hair he usually sports is quite fitting due to his fighting nickname being, “A Gentleman of Violence.”

That “Gentleman of Violence” is Tom Shoaff. Tom is a recent bare-knuckle fighter retiree who serves the Lawton community through coaching the next generation of fighters. Tom is only 34-years-old. Emphasis is added to the word “only” due to fighters now seemingly hitting their prime around their mid-30s.

For instance, Charles Olivera won a UFC championship for the first time when he was 31-years-old, and he is still currently fighting at the top of the lightweight division there. Glover Teixeira won the Heavyweight UFC title when he was the ripe old age of 42.

It seems that a fighter’s mid-30s are comparable to an NFL player’s mid-20s.

Despite that, Tom just retired from professional fighting after a 5-year-stint in the Bare-Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), a bare-knuckle boxing organization.

Before competing in bare knuckle boxing, he spent 11 years fighting in various mixed martial arts promotions.

While many fighters might be upset at the idea of retirement, Tom is not one of them.

“I fought August 25, my last fight, my retirement fight. I feel good. I lost, but I’m not upset at it,” Tom said. “I had a great career. I had a great journey so to speak and I’m ready for the next chapter.”

While Tom is not sad to leave the ring, fans of fighters who are not afraid to stand up and strike might be.

Announcers during many of his bare-knuckle fights describe Tom’s fighting style as one where you do not want to miss a moment, and one who is not afraid to square up and throw down with anyone.

Those descriptions are not inflated either. Of his nine bare-knuckle fights, all but two ended in either a knockout or technical knockout.

Tom definitely knows this about himself and does not deny his tendency and willingness to stand toe-to-toe with his opponents.

“I like to strike,” Tom said. “Boxing is what I have always done so to speak. It is my bread and butter. Even though I fought MMA, the only reason why I did MMA as opposed to boxing was because MMA was the cool thing. It was right around when the Ultimate Fighter came out.”

The Chicago native officially made Lawton his residence in 2019 after a spider bite left him in the hospital which led him to losing his job and his house in the Chicago area.

But that wasn’t the first time he set foot in Lawton. Tom’s brother was stationed here about 15 years ago and Tom followed him to the area. That is where Tom met his first-ever real coach, Andy Pierce.

Pierce has been noted as being one of the best boxing coaches of not only Oklahoma, but the whole United States. Tom had high praise for the man, even going as far as saying he considered him to be a father.

After putting in a lot of training hours with Pierce, Tom moved back to Illinois to finish his amateur career and to start his professional MMA career.

After some years passed, Tom logged his 15th fight of his MMA career. After that fight, Tom was staring straight at a fork in the road. He had 11 wins and 4 losses. If he wins his next fight, he’d be able to move to the next rung of his MMA career. But if he lost, he’d practically have to start all over. Instead of rolling the dice and letting fate decide which path he would wander down, Tom decided to carve a path right down the middle and head toward the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.

“The transition to bareknuckle from MMA was very easy because I just wanted to stand up and strike anyways. I learned the grappling because I had to,” Tom said.

However, whenever someone decides to carve their own path, it can take some time to get your feet underneath you.

Tom lost 3 out of his first 4 fights in the BKFC. The last of the three losses was to Joe Elmore, a decision loss. Despite it being a loss, Tom received high praise for the fight for its bell-to-bell excitement. By the end of the fifth and final round, Tom’s face was slightly bruised, and his opponent’s face was leaking heavy blood.

After the Elmore fight in September 2020, something must have switched for Tom. By this time, he had permanently moved to Lawton. He fought Nathan Mitchell in his first fight after his second consecutive loss. Tom won by body punches in the first round.

He then fought Josh Wright, a fresh face at the time for BKFC. Tom won that fight with a stoppage in round two.

To make it three wins in a row, Tom defeated Bruce Lutchmedial with heavy shots you could hear land clean while the last seconds of the third round were ticking away.

This three-fight win streak set up a title shot between Tom and the undefeated bare knuckle boxing lightweight champ, Luis Palomino.

Tom was 4-3 entering into the championship fight with a 7-0 Palomino.

The lead up to this title fight was something unlike Tom had to deal with before.

He received the phone call in April or May of 2022 asking him if he wanted a title bout in September of that same year. He of course accepted. However, the fight didn’t take place until December of that year.

Tom started his fight camp, which typically lasts around six weeks, right after getting the call. However, the fight kept getting pushed back.

Tom never stopped training for the fight. So, what was supposed to be a three-month camp, turned into an eight-month camp.

“That was exhausting, both mentally as well as physically. And then going into that fight there was so much tension and buildup on my own part because I have been striving for that for a year and a half at that point. I had gone on a three-fight win streak and I was told if I got all three fights, if I got the win streak then I could have the title shot.”

Having that long of a pre-fight build up would be tough for any competitor, and Tom is no different.

“By the time fight night finally came about, I just wanted to get in there and win that championship. So, I was just full of steam so to speak. And it was probably detrimental to me to be honest. I felt very chaotic, so to speak, going in there, almost manic. I wound up taking some shots that I probably shouldn’t have taken. And the doctor called the fight because, well, I almost lost my eyeball.”

Despite losing the opportunity to wrap a BKFC belt around his waist, Tom said he would not change a thing, a common theme throughout our discussion.

“Hindsight being 20-20, I don’t think that I would have changed any of it at all. Simply because, where I’m at now as far as retirement is concerned, I don’t think that I would be where I am if I would have won that fight,” Tom said. “Mentally, emotionally, spiritually I think that losing that fight, and the last fight, was probably the best thing that could have happened to me, so that I could focus on things that are more important and that’s my gym.”

Tom ended up losing his next fight, his retirement fight, to Bryce Henry by way of a TKO at BKFC 49 in Miami on Aug. 25, 2023 – five years to the day of his first fight in the promotion.

Tom’s full focus is now on his Lawton gym.

Whenever the topic of his gym was asked about, his face would instantly light up. While he is more than proud of the accomplishments his students have achieved, there is something else that students obtain through training that has Tom proud – confidence.

“The biggest achievement we probably have here [at the gym] is going to be self confidence in anyone that walks through these doors,” Tom said. “Regardless of who you are, where you come from, what your background is, big, small, your age, we see a tremendous amount of people come through these doors and within a couple of months of them being on the mats and having an understanding of what’s going on you see their confidence skyrocket.”

However, confidence is definitely not the only thing the students at the gym are obtaining from the lessons they learn there.

“We got a wall full of medals here, we got team trophies, like I said, I am very confident in our jiujitsu. Myself and Derek Lemos, we own this gym and we run the majority of the jiu jitsu programs here. I run the MMA program, Derek runs the Gi program and then we have a guy named Shelby Anderson who runs our no-Gi program. In my somewhat humble opinion, we got the best jiu jitsu in the area. You can’t go to any other gym in town and get the rolls you get here.”

The gym has many different classes and programs. I got to see one class firsthand – their Thursday evening MMA class which takes place in the gym’s own cage.

Walking into the gym you can hear an array of sounds. You can hear feet stomping around, bodies sliding quickly across mats, a bell dinging in three-minute intervals, and Tom’s voice coaching those within the cage.

Those in the cage were working on drills to help the offensive partner learn how to control opponents better, and the defensive partner learn how to better escape off the cage wall. Tom kept a close eye on those participating and quickly corrected any mistakes he saw.

As Tom kept his eyes on the action inside the cage, I looked around and saw something peculiar.

While those participating in the MMA class all looked grown, if one turned around and looked at the large-scale grappling mats behind where the cage is located, you’d find children as young as four participating in a jiujitsu class.

The ages of the kids participating seemed to range from 4 to 13-years-old.

From this melting pot of individuals putting in work, it’s clear the gym prioritizes having a class for almost everyone, including those just old enough to attend kindergarten.

Judging by a lot of those young kids’ demeanors they too dream of becoming a fighter like Tom was and, in many ways, still is.

I asked Tom what advice he would give to someone who says they want to become a fighter.

“If you are like me or were like I was, and it was a deep driving desire in you to do this, then you have to be willing and ready to sacrifice everything,” Tom said. “Because I did. I sacrificed relationships, I sacrificed family, I sacrificed friends, outings, vacations, all kinds of things and I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t make it, I wasn’t the best, you know what I mean? I did really well, I do have a great career, I won’t dispute that. But I wasn’t undefeated, I was never number one in the world, I was never considered the best of the best. And I sacrificed almost everything. So, if that’s really what you want, this is truly what you want to do, and truly where your heart is dragging you to, be prepared to sacrifice everything. And I’ll train you, I’ll help you get there, I will give you my road map. It’s not the best one, but it’ll get you where you want to go. I’ll do that. But if I could give you my heart’s honest desire for most people is that they don’t ever have to go through the things that I went through to make a buck. I don’t want that for anybody.”

To learn more about Tom Shoaff’s gym, you can go to lawtonmma.com.

While Part 1 of Tom’s and I discussion is posted above, you can watch Part 2 of our conversation here.

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