Musician and filmmaker Andrew Oliver documents his journey from stage to cage in Paperweight
Before he traded jabs with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in the mixed martial arts (MMA) cage, documentarian Andrew Oliver faced another formidable foe: the Brown Beauty.
Standing just about knee-high and weighing less than one pound empty, the Brown Beauty is a fixture at Upstate Karate in Simpsonville, where Oliver spent a six-week “fight camp” training with MMA featherweight Westin Wilson.
“The Brown Beauty . . . is not a trash can for trash,” explains Wilson in Paperweight, Oliver’s new film. “It is a trash can that you earn the right to use.”
A scene in Paperweight shows Wilson bringing out the Brown Beauty during a particularly strenuous workout. “I’m like, ‘These guys think I’m gonna throw up,’” Oliver says in the film. “A couple minutes later, I was throwing up in the bucket.”
Co-directed by Oliver and Dan Johnson, Paperweight chronicles Oliver’s journey from the stage to the cage. A music producer, CEO of Forthright Records, and member of Greenville indie rock band Brother Oliver, the longtime MMA and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fan had little experience outside a friendly “scrap” videotaped in his backyard with another MMA enthusiast in 2015.
That scrap, along with 10 years of watching UFC matches, kindled “the over-confident alpha in me,” says Oliver. “A lot of people can relate to that with any sport they’re watching. You see a wide receiver drop an open pass, and you think, ‘I could have caught that.’ The point of the film was to play off that armchair quarterback mentality.’”
“We’ve always operated with . . . an intentional delusion,” says Oliver’s brother and bandmate, Stephen, in the documentary. “Punching up. Swinging for the fence, doing things that most people might think is impossible.”
The brothers’ gritty optimism was previously documented in How to Set a World Record, also co-directed with Johnson, which chronicled Stephen’s quest to break a Guinness World Record for “longest marathon playing mandolin.”
A Paperweight’s Journey
For this journey, along with the often-bemused Wilson, Oliver trained with other MMA fighters who specialize in the two common UFC combat techniques. With bantamweight Jake Romano, he worked on grappling, honing close-quarters control, takedowns, and submissions on the ground. Striking specialist Blake Spence, another bantamweight, helped train Oliver in standing jabs and kicks. Both fighters train at Upstate Karate, owned by former professional kickboxer Ray Thompson.
“I don’t think most people realize what we have here locally,” says Oliver, a Michigan native who has called Greenville home since attending Bob Jones University. “If you just pull into any random town, you’re not going to have a bunch of UFC fighters. It’s a pretty special thing they have at Upstate Karate.”
The prestige of the Simpsonville karate studio has been magnified by the owner’s son and most celebrated protégé, MMA icon Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, described by various commentators as “the nicest guy in the UFC.”
“The cliche is that fighters are going to be rough and gruff, just beating the crap out of each other,” says Oliver. “And that is so far from the culture. They’re about the art of the martial arts, and they genuinely seem to care about each other. They’re legitimately some of the nicest guys in the world.”
Nice guy or not, Wonderboy didn’t hold back once the amateur fighter got into the cage. A forceful kick to Oliver’s head startled even Wilson, who was acting as referee—but he was even more surprised when Oliver fought on through all three rounds.
Wonderboy was impressed, too. “Man, you gotta have a sack on you to do that,” he said to the camera while embracing Oliver after the fight. “We gotta work on our conditioning, though.”
Paperweight is available for streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV, and is available for free on Tubi and Hoopla.
Coming Soon
Look for Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in the upcoming movie Road House 2, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal and also includes UFC fighters Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier, and Tyron Woodley.
Know Your MMA and UFC Terms
MMA: Mixed martial arts, a contact sport focused on striking and grappling, drawing on various combat techniques from around the world.
UFC: The Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s largest producer of MMA events.
Cage: The enclosed area where bouts take place, called “the Octagon” only in official UFC fights.
Striking: Standing combat, hitting the opponent with punches, elbows, knees, or kicks.
Grappling: Wrestling, takedowns, and ground fighting to gain control and submissions.
Submission: A hold or other technique that an opponent cannot escape, forcing him to tap out or verbally submit.
Cardio: The stamina allowing a fighter to endure a fast-paced bout. Insufficient cardio may cause a fighter to become “gassed” (exhausted).
Decision: The outcome of a bout as determined by the judges’ scorecards in the absence of a definitive finish.
