By FIGHT! contributor Matt Burosh
Miguel Torres doesn’t need a sports psychologist or motivational speaker to get his head right for a fight. He just has to come home.
“The biggest things keeping me motivated are the same things since the beginning: My family, and to honor my father and mother,” admits the WEC bantamweight champ. “They struggled hard to provide me a better future and that’s why I went to college, to get an education and to show them that their struggle didn’t go to waste.”
Now Torres is the one who struggles – not at manual labor like his father, or administrative tasks like his mother, but in the gym he built and lent his name to, the name he passed along to his infant daughter, Yelana.
“Above my cage in my gym, I have pictures of my daughter and that’s one of the main things I do now when I train and fight—I think of my daughter,” Torres says. “I’ll be able to live the rest of my life fine, but I’ve created a life, so now I have to support one. It’s no longer about me.”
Torres is the pride of the Region, the corner of Indiana nestled into the south eastern suburbs of Chicago, Il. It could be all about him if Torres wanted but the fighter would rather try to make sure that he’s not an anomaly.
“When I fight, the main message that I hope to send out to the kids watching is that if you have a dream, a passion, that you should follow it wholeheartedly,” says Miguel Torres. “And whether it’s fighting or another career you want, don’t let anything stand in your way.”
Top contender Brian Bowles is standing in Torres’ way. Tune in to Versus at 9 p.m. EST on Aug. 9 to see if the champion can hold on to his belt. Click here to learn more about Torres.
FIGHT! Fans: Do you think Bowles has what it takes to become the WEC bantamweight champion?
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