Ras Hylton (Carpenters 349) Discusses Mixed Martial Arts Career

At six-foot six and 260 pounds with a big beard and long dreadlocks, Ras “the Jamaican Shamrock” Hylton, 39, of South Portland is a striking figure. A member of Carpenters Local 349, Hylton has also worked as a professional mixed martial arts fighter for the past several years. With a 10-8 record, Hylton is ranked #3 in the Northeast and #29 in the nation in the heavyweight division. Most recently, Hylton won the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 86 at Monhegan Sun in Connecticut while proudly displaying his Local 349 trunks. Hylton survived three knockdowns and still came back to stop Branko Busick by TKO in Round 5 with only seconds left.

Despite his appearance, Hylton, also known as “Rasquatch,” is a soft-spoken, kind hearted person with a deep commitment to justice and equality. Born in Biddeford and raised for much of his childhood in Augusta, Hylton grew up in two cultures. His mother is from Wayne, Maine and his father is from Jamaica. Hylton’s half-brother is the legendary reggae artist Ripton Joseph Hylton, who goes by the stage name Eek-a-Mouse. His homelife was difficult, marked by the tragic passing of his older brother when Hylton was ten.

“My weird family dynamic in being in an interracial family in Maine led to certain stressors that caused inter-family dynamics to fall apart at times,” he said.

He helped his 10-year-old brother Leo run away from their abusive father. They cold-called a social worker and he ended up in the foster system. But after a potential adoption fell through and one of his foster mothers died suddenly, Leo struggled with alienation, disconnection and isolation. He was diagnosed with emotional detachment disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. One fateful night, a few months after his 18th birthday, he participated in a violent home invasion alongside an older foster brother, wielding a machete against a man and his 10-year-old daughter, leaving them both with permanent injuries. In 2010, Leo Hylton pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 90 years in prison, with all but 50 years suspended and 15 years’ probation. While Leo was in foster care, Ras Hylton moved with his parents to Florida to be closer to his father’s side of the family.

“I got a whole lot of culture shock coming from Maine to Florida and realizing that there were places in America that weren’t completely white,” said Hylton. “I also got exposed to a more casual form of violence. I got jumped the first week at a new school in eighth grade when I was 13.”

By that time, Hylton was six feet tall with a full beard and he had never had to physically defend himself in a fight. It was then that he decided to start studying martial arts. After four years in Florida, he moved back to Augusta, lived with his older sister for a while and bounced around a bit. Eventually, he moved to Sanford and started a family. But as he worked, paid the bills and raised a family, he began struggling with his mental health. He realized that martial arts offered him a therapeutic outlet and improved his mental health. He started teaching classes, going to tournaments and meeting other fighters. He also began exploring mixed martial arts fighting. Unlike most MMA fighters who typically have a wrestling or jujitsu background, Hylton was trained in traditional martial arts. But his friend Nick Gulliver, an MMA fighter from Brunswick, agreed to teach him full-contact, street-level martial arts like Brazilian jiu jitsu.  

“I realized that if I was going to buckle down and make martial arts part of my life in a more official capacity, then I needed to be confident in what I'm doing,” said Hylton.

Gulliver introduced Hylton to MMA fighter John Raio, the owner of First Class Fitness and MMA in Brunswick. Raio, who made headlines in 2017 after a mime made the mistake of jumping him in a parking lot, taught Hylton cage sparring and helped him land his first fight with New England Fights (NEF) at the Colisée in Lewiston. NEF founder and former State Rep. Matt Peterson said Hylton’s fighting skills, his personality and his unique look really resonated with fans.

“He was ferocious,” said Peterson, who sponsored the state law legalizing MMA tournaments. “Guy could really fight, but he's very kind and warm when you interact with him in person. He’s got such a soft handshake, but he's got clubs. I mean, he could probably crack concrete with his fist. He's quite a physical specimen and has had some spectacular knockouts.”

Hylton’s career quickly took off and he won his first three fights with NEF. First Class MMA fighters had an undefeated heavyweight record for a couple of years between Hylton, Bryce Bamford and John Raio. Hylton began traveling around the country, fighting for Belator MMA and Professional Fighters League (PFL).

“I just had a debut at the bare knuckle fighting championship, where I said I would never go because they don't let you kick and elbow people, but here I am finishing off my career,” said Hylton.

A Union Career & Criminal Justice Reform

Shortly after the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, Hylton had been training some fighters at First Class when they offered to teach him carpentry. At the time, he was working at Home Depot. But it was hard to make a living as a self-employed carpenter and he decided to instead pursue an apprenticeship with the Carpenters’ Union. Since then, Hylton has attended the Maine AFL-CIO’s Worker Candidate Training, Labor Lobby Day at the State House in Augusta and participated in our 2024 election canvassing program. While at Lobby Day last year, he was not only able to lobby legislators on labor issues, but also his favorite cause: bringing parole back to Maine. At the Worker Candidate Training in January, Hylton gave an impassioned stump speech about how inmates like his younger brother Leo should be given a chance at parole, which was abolished in Maine back in 1976.

Hylton describes his brother’s crime as an “atrocity,” but he argues that he has been rehabilitated and has tried to make amends for the horrible act he participated in. He is prohibited from contacting the people he harmed, but he has submitted a letter of apology to them. The family has chosen not to respond. Leo Hylton holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine and  a master’s from George Mason University. He has written several columns about criminal justice reform for The Bollard and is a co-­instructor at Colby College in the anthropology department, becoming the first professor of his kind in the United States. He is currently working on his doctorate. Leo Hylton counts among his advocates, Maine’s commissioner of corrections and former Maine State Prison Warden Randall Liberty, who, as sheriff of Kennebec County, arrested him.

Leo's older brother Ras believes that if parole was reinstated, his brother would have the opportunity for a meaningful review of his progress. However, under the current system, the best he can hope for is to get his sentence reduced to a little over 40 years time served.

“It’s been scientifically proven time and time again that sentences in excess of 15 to 20 years, cause you only to go backwards when you are locked in a box and isolated from the rest of society for your life,” said Ras Hylton. “But we've been scare-mongered ever since 1976 to think that the only answer to crime, especially for black and brown bodies in this state, is to throw you in a box, lock it, and throw away the key.”

Meanwhile, Hylton says he feels grateful for having a long career in MMA, but “there's only so many concussions you can get  before it starts going way downhill really fast.” Still, he says he has a few more fights in him before he rides off into the sunset.