NEWS

Once the biggest amateur prospect in mixed martial arts, Jose ‘’Shorty’’ Torres developed into a world-class athlete at Flyweight, and will look to get a winning start on his road to the BRAVE CF world title in the main event of BRAVE CF 42, which takes place this Thursday, September 24th, in Bahrain. He meets fellow American Sean Santella, a fighter with a lot more pro experience than him, in the first round of the BRAVE CF Flyweight tournament.

After making his BRAVE CF debut early last year with a win over Amir Albazi, ‘’Shorty’’ was scheduled to take on Marcel Adur for the inaugural title in November. A few weeks before the bout, however, his father passed away. Torres admits he didn’t deal with the grief in the right way and ended up pulling off the title fight, after experiencing panic attacks in the build-up.

As he excused himself to deal with his mental health issues, Jose became an advocate for athletes to explore this important side of fighting, dealing with nerves, fear and sadness. He says it took him a while, but he’s finally in the right place mentally and looking forward to returning after more than a year away from action.

‘’All the mental stuff I’ve had to go through…it’s been a journey. For us to push through, I mean, it doesn’t matter that we have a blue check mark on our social media or whatever, we all go through the same struggles. I want to show that mental health is important. So, for me, pushing through this camp is not just for myself, but it is also for a lot of people. To prove that if this ‘’Shorty’’ can do it, so can they’’, said Torres, who’s confident of getting a first-round stoppage of Sean Santella on Thursday.

‘’This fight would be the typical striker vs grappler fight, but I can do it all. I’m excited to knock him out on the feet, in the first round. I am here to make a statement. Especially since it’s been like 16 or 17 months since my last fight, it is also a statement for myself. I’m going to push the pace, I’m going to be relentless on all three round, but I think it will be a first-round TKO all day’’.