What got you into mixed martial arts or Brazilian jiu-jitsu? I always wonder what paths my LIMMA family took to eventually get where we are today in martial arts. For many they grew up wrestling or in families playing contact sports. Some I know grew up idolizing UFC or cage fighters. My path was rather indirect in nature and perhaps even unlikely to end up training in martial arts. I can’t say I wrestled growing up, ok I tried for like a month and was one of the heavier kids and quit once the other “husky” kid quit. I did karate for a summer when I was 8 or 9 years old. I don’t remember much about it other than I bloodied my fathers nose practicing my sick moves and I’m pretty sure I never trained again after that. I didn’t compete until later in my middle/high school days. I only excelled at football and did track and field for conditioning during off seasons. Football is as close to contact that I came but not quite the same as the physical contact from training martial arts. I had the pleasure of going to high school with Ryan LaFlare. Dude was competitive in everything he did, even when we would rush to see who can finish their mechanical drawing assignment the quickest to get to leave class early and hang out in the cafeteria. Fast forward a few years, I am in college studying architecture and at that point only fighting my waistline and falling asleep in classes, my bestie makes me aware of a MMA gym opening up in Lindenhurst. Sure enough Ryan was opening up a gym in our hometown. My interest peaked immediately as for I grew up watching boxing and the original UFC’s but never dared to train in those arts. Having the comfort of knowing Ryan eased my decision to walk into the gym and give it a go. After my introduction class, I was pretty much hooked! I haven’t competed in anything for over 8 years at that point in my life and the rush of winning and losing small battles for an hour or more during the day totally satiated my desire to compete again. Training became my outlet for everything. I had a rough day at work and needed to blow some steam… I trained. I went through a drought of not being able to find a job in architecture… I trained. My daughters and I finished dinner early and homework was done… I took them with to train. My life changed for the best the day my bestie convinced me to sign up to long island mma.
-Pat Rivera