A mild-mannered 35 yr. old banker by day, Angelus has long sought refuge from the rigors of the real world through combat, and vice versa. To him, this convergence between two environments that seem to be worlds apart makes perfect sense – it makes him whole.
“One thing they both have in common is competitiveness,” he told TXMMA.com in a recent interview. “They’re both extremely competitive markets and every warrior has his downtime. Case in point, a warrior goes into battle knowing he has to be ferocious but in his downtime, that’s where he finds a sense of peace and calm. That’s where he can train his mind and keep his wits as sharp as his body. I train extremely hard all the time so when I’m at work, it gives a chance for my body to heal. At the same, I’m extremely competitive in either arena. I don’t want anybody to sleep on me wherever I am. People that see me when I wear a suit know I’m competitive and people that see me when I’m in shorts see the same thing. It all aligns perfectly.”
Although he’ll be marking his official MMA debut at Legacy Amateur Series 6 against Mike Eaglin, Angelus actually has worlds of experience to draw from.
“I’ve been involved with martial arts on and off since the age of twelve. I used to secretly have to sneak out or tell my mom I was doing different sports just so I could do martial arts because she wasn’t interested in having me do this kind of stuff where I wasn’t safe and sheltered.”
Expanding upon that, Angelus mentioned having fought in combat fighting and hard-style karate tournaments as he first dabbled in the world of fisticuffs as he got older.
“Back in the 90’s, I was involved in open combat tournaments which I guess you could call the infancy of what we now call mixed martial arts. You’d go in against people with different styles and they’d match people of similar weights and you’d fight all day until somebody was considered the winner. Now I’m an old man but I try to keep myself young and vigorous by competing.”
Heading into next Saturday night, Angelus is excited not only to show the Houston MMA community what he do, but also bring together a skill set to make his many trainers proud.
I think the last time I remember being this excited was when I lost my virginity or when I had my son. I’m itching to get in there and make everybody proud and I’m trying to contain my excitement to the point where I don’t bust my load in one shot come fight night. That’s not what I want. I want to come up with a good game plan, use my maturity, and really gauge my opponent and atmosphere around me so I do well. Really and truly, my main goal is to make everybody proud, to represent the people that have helped me. That’s why I do this and how I will gauge my victory. I want to go in there and execute everything I’ve been thought to get things done.
I’m going to treat this like a dangerous new situation. I need to assess things correctly and make good decisions. I may not go in there and be totally technical or totally straight-line because that’s not who I am. I think I’m intelligent but at the same time I’m very aggressive so I’ll do what I have to do to take my victory.”
Fighter Acknowledgements
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