MANCHESTER, NH – A handful of professional athletes have hailed from Manchester, such as Major League baseball players Mike Flanagan and Steve Balboni, and track and field star Corinne Robitaille, to name a few.
You can now add Zak Lansing’s name to that list, although his sport is a little less traditional.
On June 27 at The Fontainebleau in Las Vegas, Lansing will make his professional debut as a super-heavyweight at Power Slap 13 when he will take on Ro Montana, a professional wrestler who will concede more than 100 pounds to Lansing.
And Lansing said that he will “100 percent” be representing The Queen City.
“I love Manchester. I live and breathe Manchester. It’s the best city in New Hampshire,” said Lansing, a graduate of Manchester Central High School.
For those unfamiliar with power slapping as a professional sport, it is almost exactly as it would seem: Two competitors stand across from each other and take turns striking each other with an open palm to the cheek, with the intent of knocking out their opponent. Most fights are three rounds, or three slaps each, and if no one is knocked out—similar to boxing or mixed martial arts—the decision goes to a panel of judges.
“Power Slap” is the name of the American slap fighting promotional company that is owned by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief officer Dana White.
Lansing’s journey to signing his first professional contract with Power Slap has been a whirlwind, brushed with serendipity.
As a child, Lansing was diagnosed with IgA Nephropathy, a chronic kidney disease that led to him becoming a Make-A-Wish recipient, and at 14 years old, Lansing was flown to Las Vegas to meet White and some of the UFC stars.
Meanwhile, Lansing was training in mixed martial arts at the Manchester gym Bare Knuckle Murphy’s, which is owned by Linda Murphy, Lansing’s current Power Slap trainer and longtime friend and mentor.
“Linda has been a constant in my life,” Lansing said. “She is the peace in my life. I’m an intense person, and she is very Zen, a pacifist who only believes in sanctioned fighting. She is an amazing woman.”
While training at Bare Knuckle Murphy’s, Lansing also played four years of varsity football for the Little Green.
However, due his chronic kidney problems, which has landed Lansing in and out of hospitals throughout his life, he could not get sanctioned to fight and his football career was brought to a precipitous end.
Still, Lansing has remained diligent in his training at Bare Knuckle Murphy’s, which he said still helps him cope with an anxiety disorder.
In March, Lansing’s barber happened to run into Dana White at Encore in Boston, talking some good-natured trash, so White gave him the contact information for Power Slap, which the barber then shared with Lansing.
On a whim, Lansing sent pictures of himself training to the organizers of Power Slap and was stunned when they wrote him back, offering to fly him to Las Vegas for a scouting combine.
The second Lansing hit the training bag at the combine, he said it sounded “like a shotgun blast” and people started to notice him. Of the 30 competitors invited to the combine, only four of the men were offered professional contracts, including Lansing.
Since signing the professional contract in May, Lansing has been training with Murphy to prepare for his first bout with Montana. He said that he has been doing a lot of core training and working on his flexibility, which includes yoga.
“I think yoga is one of the most underrated things when it comes to anything in life. It makes you better at everything,” said Lansing, who expects to weigh in at around 390 pounds.
Lansing also said that Murphy is training him like a discus thrower with a lot of balancing exercises. “I’m really lucky to have Coach Murphy. While she has never trained a Power Slap athlete, she understands the body unlike anyone I have ever met,” he said.
As far as the sheer brutality of a sport where people willfully absorb slaps to the face, the violence doesn’t bother Lansing.
“I believe violence is a natural human thing, but in order to be a good person in society, you can’t express it,” Lansing said. “I think a lot of people want to express it, and they don’t, and that is what makes them mean. I get to do something that is very primal. Violence can be beautiful when it is controlled and sanctioned.”
And the idea of being struck does not unnerve Lansing, rather he said it “excites” him. “I know it sounds crazy, but I want [Montana] to crack me, so I can look back at him with joyful glee, like I’m Santa Claus,” he said.
With the opportunity to compete professionally manifesting in slightly more than three months, Lansing said he is treating it like a professional sport and he is not going to squander the opportunity that has been presented to him.
“This could be my last chance in life to do something extraordinary,” he said.
While Lansing’s bout will not be televised live, it will be available on Power Slap’s YouTube channel shortly after its taping.
You can follow Zak Lansing on Instagram.