Rite of Passage 5 - Mike Martinez

Mike Martinez is a fighter who potentially could do well in the sport. An amateur with two fights under his belt, Martinez relishes the opportunity to compete and is no stranger to the concept of hard work. At Rite of Passage 5 he steps into the AKA cage, and plans on putting on a show for the crowd. His opponent on the night will have plans of his own!

Martinez started training MMA after leaving high school;

“During high school I was wrestling. In 2006/2007 Christian Fulgium was my wrestling coach. When I got out of high school, I still wanted to do something and wanted to compete. I heard Christian was doing MMA and thought I’d be interested. I went to a local gym here in Bossier City. I had my first MMA fight with no experience, and just went and fought. After that the gym I trained at closed. I then got introduced to Karate Mafia. I fought for them as well and went 1-1. I changed job and took time out from fighting, I still trained but was not competing. I did a local boxing event, but it wasn’t quite the same as MMA so decided to start MMA again. Kendrick Williams is running it over there now.”

As well as wrestling in school, Martinez played football and ran track. Despite coming from a wrestling background, Martinez has worked hard to embrace all aspects of the sport of MMA;

“I like grappling but I like standing up and kickboxing too. If I had to say I was better at anything then probably it’s wrestling, but I can do it all. The transition from high school wrestling to MMA wrestling wasn’t hard for me.”

Martinez‘s opponent, Zach Mixon (1-0), is a fellow Louisianan fighter;

“He’s 1-0; I think he’s fighting out of Leesville. He fought at 125 lb, but this is at 135 lb. His fight was pretty quick, less than a minute. It’s not easy to win so fast in your first fight and he won by heel hook as well which was impressive.”

Along with a full time job, Martinez balances training with work and family;

“I try and do MMA three or four days a week. When I don’t go to MMA, I do some form of cardio. Whether its running distance or sprints, stuff like that. I’m not big on weights, so when I am into weight lifting I do light weights, high reps along with my cardio.”

In terms of having a favorite fighter, Conor McGregor is Martinez’s favorite fighter to watch;

“He talks a lot. Either way people like him or don’t, but will still watch his fights. He talks a lot but shows up and sells his fights. I like his game plans.”

After this fight, Martinez will see what is next for him in the sport. He intends to fight again, but isn’t sure how quickly before he will fight again;

“”I’ll see how it goes; I still have a little weight to cut. I cut down about 20 lb and hopefully won’t have much water weight to cut at the end. That’s the hardest thing to do, the weight cut. As well as working, I have family. I have a young one at home, she’s four years old. We’ll see after this when I fight next.”