36 25 14
Yes, those are measurements not of a body,
but of a body of work.
Let me explain:
My age as of today, april tenth, twenty-seventeen, is thirty-six years old. In a little over two weeks, I will be thirty-seven. I have an amazing thirteen year old son, a beautiful and dedicated fiancé, plus our own place to come home to with bills paid. What more could I ask for? I am healthy and fit. I am also motivated to accomplish more in my life. In the past have set out timelines so I don’t linger in one space to long when my passion is fleeting.
Twentyfive is the number of professional mixed martial arts fights that I have had, with a record of eight wins and seventeen losses. It has been a long road following a dream of greatness with the struggle to adequately focus on training, rest for proper recovery, and the financial freedom to cover this lifestyle and the proper diet to take care of my day-to-day responsibilities.
After being involved in one of many brawls at various night clubs & gogo bars one night someone leaving Deko Lounge yelled over to me that I should learn some of that UFC jiu-jitsu so I could just choke people out. Never heard of either so I continued my path of playing semi pro football. Soon after that chance mention a free introduction to jiu-jitsu was announced at the weightlifting gym I worked out at. The warm-up was so intense it scared me being the well conditioned athlete but boy was I wrong. I went everyday for that week but had a hard time understand the heavy brazilian accents of the instructors. After the last session of the week one of the trainer’s at the gym told me about this place in elizabeth new jersey called B.A.M.M.A. and that I might like it better. The next week I go check the place out and I meet a guy named Eddy Rolon one of the instructors there he seemed like a happy go lucky type of guy that smiled the entire te talking telling me that he has fought before and all of the training he has done the. He invited me on the mat to see what abilities I had besides my football playing background. We pushed and pulled for position then my weeks worth of training kicked in as Eddy shot in for a takedown and I jumped guard. For those that may not know what jumping guard is facing someone you jump up and wrap your legs around your opponent’s waist and pull them ontop of you. This is what I learned from the smaller brazilian instructors. At the time I was two hundred eighty five pounds flying through the air pulling guard. Eddy eventually passed my guard and submitted me, we started again submitted again. I was hooked at that moment wanted to learn more! So I signed up that day fourteen years ago.
Many things happened after that moment I had a renewed passion for learning, self discovery, and testing my will in the face of danger. Two week after that moment I first hand learned the danger of my new passion. In those first moments ever in a live grappling situation jumping guard I tore tendons and ligaments in eddy’s knee and that sidelined him for some time. Later one Eddy instilled one of his many mottos “if you break your toys you will not have anything to play with” meaning be delicate with your training partners or you will not have anyone that will want to train with you.
Months later that year I became a father. No driver’s license due to my driving past, and only the income of a bouncer to support my son & paying for jiu-jitsu well in my case no-gi submission grappling classes was not in my cards so I returned to another season of playing semi pro football for the New Jersey Terminators and that would be my last as every day I dreamed of being on the mats training. Every income from that point on was to care for my son and get me to training after I retired from playing football.
Security, daycare, cell phone sales, construction, bodyguard, airport snow removal, landscaping, web designing, electrician, marketing, personal training, computer networking, a second run as a telephone company technician, professional photography, truck driving, and yes a professional mma fighter. Fourteen years on the grind.
Now where am I? I’m in bed the morning after my thirty-seventh birthday searching for that fire to push myself to train like I did before the seventeen month gap between my last two fights. I would train seven days a week no excuses at work at home or on the mats. I have gotten too relaxed with the home life trying to create a balance with very little time to devote to anything besides sleep. I am not retired yet from fighting my body works perfect and I know what I need to do to keep my mind hungry to keep on task.
#ir62