Justin Wren

Amateur wrestling career

Wren enjoyed a highly successful and decorated wrestling career before venturing into MMA. He was a standout at Texas wrestling powerhouse Bishop Lynch High School, where he was coached by Olympic Gold Medalists Kenny Monday and Kendall Cross. During that time, he was a two time Prep State Champion (2004, 2005) and a two time Prep all-American, winning the Prep National Championship his senior year in Lehigh, PA.

While he was indeed a standout collegiate-style wrestler, Wren's greatest success came in the Greco Roman style. He was a two time All-American in that discipline, winning the national championship in Fargo, ND the summer after his senior year in high school ('05). This championship gained him national attention and earned him a scholarship to the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University to train for the Olympics to compete in Greco Roman wrestling.

Mixed martial arts

Wanting to try his hand at Division I college wrestling, Wren attended Iowa State University to compete for then coach Cael Sanderson, however, he sustained an injury training before he could join the team. To stay active, Wren entered local fights around Iowa and began his MMA career.

Wren won his first four fights by knockout before taking his first loss. His opponent was Matt Thompson. Wren then won five more fights and was ten and one before appearing on TUF. Heading into the tenth installment of The Ultimate Fighter, Wren had trained all over the world but found his permanent home in Denver, CO with TUF 10 coach Trevor Wittman.

The Ultimate Fighter

Wren was on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter fighting for Team Rashad. He was picked third for his team and sixth overall. On episode five, Wren fought UFC veteran Wes Sims, defeating him via first round technical submission from an arm triangle.

Wren then moved on to the quarter-finals and fought Roy Nelson in a controversial two round majority decision loss that many spectators at ring side, including Dana White, felt should have gone to a third round.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Wren would go on make his UFC début at The Ultimate Finale 10, against Ultimate Fighter 10 castmate, Jon Madsen, to whom he lost via split decision. Wren was later released from the UFC.

Post-UFC

On Jan. 23, Wren announced he has signed a deal with an unnamed promotion. Jan. 26, the promotion was named as the Ring of Fire MMA based in Colorado. He fought and defeated Josh Henry in his début for Ring of Fire by TKO in the first round.

After injuring his back from a slam in his victory over Josh Robertson, Wren underwent a corrective procedure to repair six or seven discs in his back.

Bellator MMA

In July 2015, Wren signed a five-fight contract with Bellator MMA. After five years away from the sport, Wren made his promotional debut against Josh Burns at Bellator 141 on August 28, 2015. He won the fight by unanimous decision. He won his second Bellator bout against Juan Torres on February 19, 2016, also by unanimous decision.

Wren faced Roman Pizzolato at Bellator 174 on March 3, 2017. He won via submission due to an arm-triangle choke in the first round.

Humanitarian work

Justin has done a number of charity drives and expeditions for his charity Fight for the Forgotten, with his work being featured on The Joe Rogan Experience. He published an account of his life (co-authored by Loretta Hunt) and work with the Pygmy people, also entitled 'Fight for the Forgotten', in September 2015.

Justin has used a portion of his earnings from MMA to buy land and build fresh water wells for the Pygmy people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His solution uses local workforce and can be walked into the often otherwise inaccessible areas to well drilling machinery, initially they find well locations using a vertical electrical sounding machine supplied by their partner charity Water4.