LOS ANGELES — Boredom had overtaken Mason Rivera during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Five years before his first interception at UCLA, one of four by the Bruins in a demonstrative 54-3 victory over Maryland, there was pent-up fury building.
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Rage and speed came to fuel Rivera, who racked up 195 tackles, nine tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, five forced fumbles and two interceptions in four years at Cal Poly after growing up in Tracy in San Joaquin County.
The pandemic hit during Rivera’s junior year at Kimball High School, and programs across California were kept from playing organized sports.
Rivera didn’t just love competition; he craved it. To the point where he pushed himself to complete exhaustion, even as a 10-year-old boy playing Pop Warner football.
Rivera’s youth football coach, Gilbert Coronado of the Tracy Buccaneers, recalled his work ethic and drive. Every game there was a brick given to the team’s MVP of the day. A real brick that weighed five pounds, attached with Buccaneers stickers.
And every game, Rivera fought for the brick.
“He’d play the game of football so hard that his face would turn red,” Coronado said. “I’d have to tell him to stop and make sure he came out to rest because he never wanted to leave the field. He did it all for us.”
So when a family member had gifted Rivera a pair of boxing gloves and a punching bag that Christmas Day of 2020, they’d be put to use almost immediately. The punching bag was set up, and the sounds of Rivera wailing away on a punching bag would be heard around his family’s house.
His father, Sean, saw his son found a passion outside of football and began enrolling his son in Muay Thai classes at the American Top Team gym in his hometown.
“I always liked martial arts as a kid,” Rivera said. “At the time in high school, everything was shut down, I found ATT and had a lot of fun doing it. I saw other guys showing up for fights, so you wanted to sign up for one.”
Rivera never displayed fear, even on the football field. No matter the stakes of the game or the size of the opponent, his swagger never wavered.
“At practice, he was a menace,” Coronado said. “He was so coachable, and he understood everything we were teaching him, and we were running advanced schemes for these 10-year-olds. It was advanced even for high school. With (Rivera), it was like we had extra coaches. He would figure out how to win that play and at the end of the day we dominated.”
But the sport of Muay Thai was different. Full hand-to-hand combat using elbows, knees, punches and kicks to break your opponent and either knock him out or make him quit. Rivera trained for two and a half years and wanted to fight.
Rivera didn’t tell the coaches at Cal Poly what he was doing off the field: intense sparring sessions, two hours a day, and a weight cut to slim down from 175 to 170 pounds.
And finally, the fight he craved was scheduled after he graduated high school. His family drove to Monterey, and the 18-year-old Rivera saw his opponent – a 24-year-old with a 1-0 record. Rivera, by contrast, was going into his first fight not knowing what to expect. It was an amateur fight with gloves, shin pads and headgear required.
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The walk to the mats for his fight was scary. Pumping adrenaline and early shades of self-doubt factored into his mind.
Until the bell rang and Rivera began throwing kicks and punches. Rivera made clear from the early rounds that he was the superior athlete and better-trained fighter.
“The referee told me to dial it down a couple of notches,” Rivera said. “You couldn’t knock anyone out or else you’d be disqualified. So I made it more of a technical fight and just focused on landing and scoring points.”
Rivera eventually won. The next day, he headed to San Luis Obispo to join his older brother Ryan playing for the Mustangs. It was the one season the brothers got to share the field.
Training Muay Thai has served as a lasting allegory for the challenges Rivera has faced over the past five years. His inexperience questioned his ability until he walked onto the mat and felt comfortable.
“It was a big confidence boost and helped me transition,” Rivera said. “Everyone was going to be bigger and stronger. I learned just because these guys are a few years older than you, you can still show you’re more than capable.”
That lesson serves Rivera now as one of the many defensive backs UCLA has deployed under Bob Chesney during its 4-0 start, punctuated Saturday by Rivera reading Maryland quarterback Malik Washington’s eyes and picking off a pass in the first quarter.
Rivera was a late addition to the Bruins and didn’t begin practicing in Westwood until the summer.
Rivera adjusted and has learned to evolve his game with James Madison transfer Derrick Barksdale. The two players have compared notes, with Barksdale helping Rivera integrate into defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler’s system.
“We ask each other questions, and we talk about plays on film,” Barksdale said. “At the same time, I feel like we match up. He’s a competitor, and we all competed in the secondary. We match up pretty well.”
Rivera’s addition has given UCLA another layer on a team that touts its depth as a strength. He had the natural abilities all along and is showing how the Big Sky Conference can translate into successful Big Ten Conference players. All it took was one moment for Rivera to take advantage of the opportunity presented to him.
“All he needed was a shot, but he needed to get out of his own way,” Coronado said. “He’s just as big, just as fast. Once he understood he was good and he belonged in that type of tier, nothing could stop him. He knows he belongs and got out of his own way. He started believing in himself. We keep on encouraging him and he’s benefitting off his own work.”
All Rivera needed for his confidence was to step in the ring and fight.
“I’ve made the most of every opportunity,” Rivera said in coming to UCLA. “Every rep they gave me, I’m taking full advantage. I’ve embraced that role ever since I got it.”
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