Q: What advice have you got for a youngster who is just starting out with the intention of building a career as a mixed martial artist?

Roy: “The first thing a young person needs to do is to figure out who they are. Or what they want to do. Firstly, I would recommend trying everything, if that’s possible. That’s the only way to truly finding that one thing, their true passion. When you find something you enjoy and it gets hard but you still love it, then you’ll know you’re on the right track. Whether that’s MMA or whatever. When you’re happy to keep pushing and pushing when things get tough, then you got it.”

Q: What’s more important, natural talent or attitude?

“Anyone can be a champion in life, it doesn’t have to be as a fighter or in pro sports. You just have to have the champion attitude. No matter how many times somebody knocks you down, it’s having that resilience to get back up that counts. It’s not how many times you fail, it’s how many times you get back up. And a lot of people often forget that. It’s not about whether or not you hit a home run that first time, it’s about how you keep on going, and going, and going.”

Q: What’s the best piece of training advice you have for budding fighters?

“If you’re getting the same results, then you’ve got to change something. If you change something then you’ll probably get a different result, and that’s how you grow. A lot of people get it stuck in their head and think, ‘It got taught to me this way, so this is how I have to do it.’ But that’s not always the case. You know, throughout my whole career people have taught me to do it one way or another and you know what, for me, it just doesn’t work. So, guess what, I did it my own way and I’ve been successful.”

Q: Is that the key, finding your own way? An individual approach?

“I’ve always just been true to myself, and trusted myself. At the end of the day, as long as you can go home and look at yourself in the mirror, then that’s all that matters.”

Q: The fear of failure inhibits a lot of young fighters. How can they get over this?

“The biggest thing for me personally, as a professional athlete, is this: I was taught, ‘If you shoot for the stars and you just end up on a mountain top, then hey, you’re a lot closer to your goals than most.’ So many people don’t even put their goals out there. I guess they’re afraid of success. Afraid of actually trying or afraid of failure. But the thing is you either hit rock bottom and bounce right back up and keep on trying, or you accept failure. The thing is to just keep plugging away and eventually something is bound to stick. But the key to it all is finding something you love. You find something you love, then it’s not really work.”