So………….

17 year old me never thought I’d be typing this post only five years after I started this crazy journey of mine. I thought I was going to be the next great MMA Superstar, I was the shit, then i woke up one day without that love for it anymore…..So yeah after countless hours in the gym, 5 fights, moving 2300 miles away from home, training with one of the greatest teams in the world, meeting my idols, meeting new people, I’ve decided to hang up my gloves. The reason being is that I’m not dumb, I woke up a couple weeks ago without the desire to train or compete anymore and when that happens it’s time to call it a day because you never want to go into a fight or even sparring with self doubt and not wanting to be there. I was training at the MMA Lab for the last 5 months and it was the greatest experience of my life, training along side Benson Henderson, Bryan Barberena, David Michaud, Scott Holtzman and countless others. That in itself is something the average man will never do in his whole life and I am proud to say that I met and trained with such high level athletes, but even better human beings…………But lets go back to the real reason I am calling it quits.The main reason is lack of passion and self confidence, I had previously won my first 3 fights and I was fighting for my first amateur title against the very tough Roger Pratcher, We fought 4 tough rounds but during the 4th he caught me with a rear naked choke and i was forced to tap. I sat on the cage floor in total shock, I had just lost my first fight and I swear it was like I had lost the UFC title or some shit like that. I was so angry at myself for losing and couldn’t deal with the reality of losing. After the loss I remember sitting in the back battered and bruised crying into the shoulder of my former Coach and that’s when it hit me like a ton of bricks “I didn’t know if i was cut out to do this.” But me being a hard nosed SOB I decided to give it another go. I decided to take a fight against Jason Chavis,an undefeated guy out of Knoxville, TN. He had taken like 8 years off and I knew i had what it took to take his ass out. But deep in the back of my head I still had that doubt ringing, I still didn’t know if this was what I was cracked up to do. So fast forward to fight day, in the locker room with my coaches, 2 of my teammates were on the card as well. I was getting my hands wrapped and all of the sudden they yell “ROY YOU’RE UP”. I thought, “Mother Fucker I’m not even dressed, I haven’t warmed up, hell i don’t even have my gloves yet.” So I frantically get dressed, the commission signs my wraps and all that other mumbo jumbo and I walk to the on deck area behind the walkout ramp. I sat there in a sort of fog, and the self doubt came to the forefront, I had just lost in November, my head striking coach left, I’m not warmed up, oh shit wheres my mouth piece? Yeah that happened, your boy forgot his mouthpiece in the back. So I ran back to the locker room and found it thank God but by the time I got back to the back it was ready to go. My music hit and it was go time, but at that point I was so flustered and filled with self doubt that I knew it was gonna be a long night. My opponent comes out to some Tennessee fight song and I see in his eyes that he’s ready to go. He gets in the cage, they announce our names, they lock the cage and its go time. First round wasn’t to bad, except burnt my arms out going for a standing guillotine for half of the round, so by the second round I could barely hold my arms up, and he got a take down, on the ground he passed into side control and caught me with a shoulder lock, it was either tap or risk my arm being mangled. I chose the first one. So that was it, the fight was over and i had lost once again. I remember seeing my mom in the stands when I was getting up off the cage floor and I said “I’m Done”. I told my coaches I was done, I was fucking finished. We walked to the back and I sat on the shower floor wondering what had went wrong. How did I not win? What the hell am i doing? Is it me? Is it my coaching staff that is changing on a weekly basis? What is wrong with me? As i sat there I contemplated my next move. I couldn’t end my career on a loss, I was going to take the next step and I was going to do whatever it took to win, I was gonna drop everything and go to the MMA LAB, where I could be submerged in the best coaches,teammates, and atmosphere. Why the MMA LAB you ask, well my lovely girlfriend of 3 years is from Phoenix and we decided to go see her parents out west back in may, so I emailed Coach Crouch and asked if i could come train with the fellas, he said no problem. I came out west and fell in love instantly, “this is the exact atmosphere I need to become better and to get back on track”. So i decided I was going to move out west, 2300 miles from my family to pursue this wild dream of mine. I got here and I instantly became hooked on MMA again but along the way the self doubt creeped back in. I was getting my ass whooped on a daily basis and to me that was losing, even though these guys that were beating me were top notch competitors, to me I was failing. I constantly had to remind myself that I was new to the sport and to trust the process. I bought over 10 books for sports psychology to try and read up on how to help my thought process but nothing seemed to work and then I began dreading working out, I hated waking up and going to the gym in the morning, then doing it again mid afternoon. I began hating the very sport i loved so much. That went on for a couple months, I kept my thoughts to myself and went through the motions. But one day I had just decided I needed to call it quits, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore and the very reason I got into this sport was for enjoyment.Now people may read this and think to themselves, “What a Bitch, he quit because he lost and couldn’t deal with getting beat up at practice”. But thats not why I quit, I quit because i lost the love for the sport. Lets take it back, way back……….I began watching MMA back in 2002 with my Grandfather, we had recently gotten satellite television and I was scrolling through the channels looking for Pro Wrestling because I am still to this day a major pro wrestling fan. That being said I found the Japanese MMA Promotion PRIDE being shown on Fox Sports South or some weird sports channel. It intrigued me because it was real fighting going on in a “Wrestling Ring”. From that day i was hooked, I begged my grandpa every month to get the MMA Pay Per Views which were the early Zuffa era UFC’s. The first one we ever watched was UFC 39 “Couture vs Rodriguez”. It was a couple days after my birthday and so 8 year old Andre was pumped to watch. Ever sense that first one me and my grandpa have literally watched every single UFC event after that. The only ones we missed were when he was hospitalized for heart issues back in 2013. So with all that being said you can say I’m a huge MMA Fan and that’s where I developed my passion for the sport. But like i said I lost the love for the sport and I didn’t want that because this sport is amazing and I will always love watching it and training at times but for now its on to my new venture. It has been my dream ever since highschool to go to culinary school to become a chef, on my senior night program for wrestling thats what it said my plans were after graduation. But as you can tell I chose the MMA route, it took a long time to come to fruition but in the upcoming months I will be attending one of the best Culinary schools in Arizona. I am super pumped for this next journey and hope you all will come along with me via social media and my new kick ass blog. I hope this post sheds light on a couple things.

If you aren’t happy in life make a change. No Passion means don’t do it. Don’t waste time doing something you aren’t passionate for MMA is still the greatest sport in the world. Always trust in God

Anyways I hope everyone is having a great day, Thanks for reading my Blog, oh and sorry if the post is rambling in some spots, I really don’t care, It’s my blog.

Andre Roy

“Just The Kid”

Oh Shit, Just forgot. I want to say thank you to my family, friends,coaches,teammates, oh and my cat Butterscotch. Thank you all for the love and support over the years. I love you all.