Issue 095
December 2012
You were part of MTV’s Caged, a reality series that followed a set of young, up-and-coming fighters in Louisiana. What was it like starring in a reality TV show?
“Doing the show was a really great experience. Obviously now it’s passed, but it opened up a lot of opportunities for me that are allowing me to move forward with a couple of different things. I’m a fighter, not a TV star.”
Caged really focused on the lives of the stars of the show, but not so much on the training. You seem like the type of person who is dedicated to the gym, so did that frustrate you when you looked back and they barely showed how much time you put into training?
“It was somewhat disappointing that they didn’t include that much training into the show. Obviously, I’m in the gym every day grinding, trying to better my skills and there were people out there who thought I didn’t train for my fights. That was pretty disheartening at times.
“However, I am a fighter and I did train for every one of those fights. I was in the gym grinding, not eating lunch with my girlfriend every day. That’s kind of what the show made it out to be, but anybody who knows anything about this sport knows that I was clearly training for my fights. There was no way I could’ve performed the way I did without putting in the effort in the gym.”
At the end of the season you got the chance to train with Tito Ortiz. What was that like and how long did you two train with each other?
“It was a great experience. Tito brought me out to California and I was there for three months. I was actually planning on staying there longer, but my grandfather became ill and I came back to Louisiana to bury him. Sadly, we broke ties and we never got a chance to get back together to train.
“He had his fight coming up, so he must have been pretty busy, but I’m sure he’ll be a part of my training later on in my career. But, as for now, I’m at Gladiators Academy. The training in California was great, though, and Tito took care of me. He showed me a lot of great things and really spent a lot of time with me, which I was surprised about. He’s a really good guy.”
Was it weird training at such a young age with someone who’s literally achieved everything there is to achieve in the sport?
“It was definitely surreal, but what it did do for me was it made me realize that everybody in this sport is human. Tito is a great guy and it was a lot of fun going out there. It’s great to be able to say that I trained with someone like Tito Ortiz, spent time with him and saw the way that he trains.
“For me, it’s always been the goal to be at that level. I didn’t want to be shocked when I got there, I wanted to take everything with a grain of salt and take things day by day and move forward. Others may not think this, but in my mind I’m supposed to be at this level, and one day I hope to be one of those people. It really was a great experience.”
After three amateur wins, you made your pro debut at Legacy Fighting Championship in September, winning by decision. How did you prepare?
“I trained at Gladiators MMA. We’ve got a great facility, and a lot of really good guys who are coming up. You’ll see more and more guys coming out of Gladiators soon, with myself being one of them. I worked really hard and put forth a lot of effort, because I thought I was going to be fighting in March. By the fight time it was 11 months since I last fought, so when I stepped into the cage I was an entirely different fighter than I was before.”
