Jay Jay Sanchez prepared to go into deep water in XKO 14 main event against Ciprian Hangan

Photo: Greg McClendon

HICKORY CREEK, TX, February 14, 2012 – It’s been a long road with a lot of time in between for Jay Jay Sanchez when it comes to when he first decided to start fighting and XKO 14 this Saturday night. Born out of ‘The School of Hard Knocks,’ the 31 year old first decided he wanted to fight at the age of nineteen. It was then he entered into a local “toughman contest” and won his first tournament despite minimal training. Not having much money at the time, Sanchez had to make do as a vagabond in the world of fighting, finding people and schools to train with wherever he could them.

“I wanted to be a competitor, winner, and a champion,” he says. “I wanted to be recognized and respected. I wanted people to know I could fight.”

Fast forward all this time later and Jay Jay still has many of the same goals in mind. The main difference in this day and age is that he has a better platform to do it on.

“One of my goals is to “Promote” the athleticism it takes to be a well-rounded/complete fighter,” he says about how MMA can be tied into fitness and healthy living. “With so many people wanting to be in shape this is one “sure fire” way to do it and you don’t have to fight to do it, that’s one’s own personal decision. Even just training in MMA is a good decision for anyone looking to get healthy and stay fight.”

Hearing about that as one of Mr. Sanchez’s main goals, one can see plenty of maturity in between those early days fighting in toughman contests to the fighter that’s going for his third win in a row as an undefeated professional fighter training under Kirk Gibson at Texas Elite MMA.

“I’ve come along way, I feel good and been training my butt off,” he says.”I usually get up at 5 in the morning and work all day before coming home to my fiancée Samantha. Then the girls (Samantha has 3 children) get home from school and we all spend time together until it’s time to train. No I’m just making sure the cardio is there, training goes injury free, and my weight is on point. As a team, we just make sure we’re mentally focused and ready to put on a good fight.”

He’ll be taking on ‘The Transylvanian Vampire’ Ciprian Hangan in the main event this Saturday at Xtreme Combat.

‘I know that he comes to bang, stands his ground, and has a hell of a right hand. I also know he can grapple so I need to push him and see how far his cardio can go. His two first fights haven’t made it passed the 1st round and come to think of it neither did his 2 amateur fights, so I’d like to go deep into the water. The fans can expect a good fight on fight night, and with this game you never know what’s going to happen but I feel really good and my cardio is there. In my mind I see a few ways it can go with me coming out the victor. I can punch, kick and submit. And knee!! I’m seeing a fast paced, hard hitting 3 round WAR.”

“I definitely want to Thank “Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” also my Coach Kirk Gibson, my friend Jason Gavenda, my fiancée Samantha “soon to be Sanchez” all my bros at TXELITEMMA in Denton, Texas and my sponsor Born2Bang athletics!”

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About Mike Calimbas

Mike Calimbas is a mainstay within the Texas MMA and Grappling scene and a frequent contributor to TXMMA.com and other publications, online and print, as writer, photographer, and analyst. To contact Mike for any reason, feel free to add him to your network through the Facebook and Twitter links directly below. Also, follow along on Twitter via @TXMMAfeed (#MMA) and @mikecalimbas (everything else)!

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