- Joined
- May 14, 2017
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The guy has lived in Sweden for six years now at age 23. Had to look up his story, and this is what he said in a podcast by his former organization FCR:
I was born in Albania and went to the first two years of school there, and then my mother went with me and my brother to Greece. I was eight years old when we moved there.
And so I grew up there and lived with my family in Greece until I was 17 years old. We wanted a better life and got more opportunities in Greece. It was okay in Albania, life wasn't
bad but you don't get paid so much money so we couldn't pay all the taxes, rent and that stuff in Albania. And we had family in Greece so they helped us when we arrived.
In Greece I played football, I always loved football when I was young. And I played until 2014, around there. That's when I also started to watch martial arts, and a friend of mine,
Symeón, he was training MMA at a small gym so he asked me if I would like to try. And I was like "no, I don't wanna do this. I don't like that sport" as I thought it was fake, you know
like WWE. But he kept asking me for six months "please come and try" and we went to the same school so every day at school I heard this. Because he knew I was athletic and like
to train. And as I didn't play football anymore and had nothing going on, I did follow him there once and tried. I didn't know nothing and when I went there I loved it. I don't know what
happened, but I felt like a passion, you know.
After 4 months of training I did an amateur fight, and then like 3 months later I had my first pro fight. And in that second fight of mine I was still 15 years old. And this was against a guy
who was 26 years old and a purple belt that I submitted in a triangle. I was nervous, I didn't know what would happen as I didn't have much skills. I went there and did like in a street fight.
And you could see that, but I went in there with a dog inside of me and fought. So it went well. For my first fight my mother didn't even know that I had started training MMA. Because I had
only told her "hey mom, I'm going to the training", so she thought that I had picked up football again. And on the fight day, after I already had done all the weigh-ins and stuff I went home to
rest. Then I told her that I was gonna have a fight that day. She was like "What? What do you mean?" And I tried to calm here down with that "it's only amateurs, we don't even punch
each other for real" and that it would be against somebody as young as me, it's more of a show and just for fun. But she didn't believe me and got stressed.
I had a professional kickboxing fight in Albania that I won, and there I was with a friend of mine who's famous in Greek kickboxing. His name is Giannis Fezoulai, and I was eating
with him the next day after we competed at the same event. Then another guy called him and started to talk about me "I saw this guy Bernardo, he looks like a very good striker. I can talk
to Andreas here at Allstars and get him to come here to Sweden and try, if he would like it himself". And at this moment I wasn't in any MMA gym no more, I only trained kickboxing.
I was 6-1 in MMA but was only training kickboxing now, as I had left the MMA gym over some problems. In the beginning I was like "yeah yeah, this is all talk..." you know? I said yes
of course, but didn't believe in it. I didn't know that somebody completely unknown could reach out to you and help so much. But after 4 months I came to Sweden with his help. First day
I went to the gym and they welcomed me here.
This was a crazy experience. I thought that all these fights I had before, you know, that I had prepared for those perfectly. But no, it was here at Allstars that I had my first perfect preparation.
It was at this time that I learned what a training camp means, you know? We had 4-5 guys who were fighting at AK, we was a big team that trained all together. We did a great training
camp, and I felt unstoppable you know. It was the first time I felt like this, and when I stepped out of the cage after my first fight I wasn't even tired. It was amazing, I felt a boost from the fans
that were starting to know of me here as well. So I continued to train here with discipline, getting better every day at the gym.
Source:
I was born in Albania and went to the first two years of school there, and then my mother went with me and my brother to Greece. I was eight years old when we moved there.
And so I grew up there and lived with my family in Greece until I was 17 years old. We wanted a better life and got more opportunities in Greece. It was okay in Albania, life wasn't
bad but you don't get paid so much money so we couldn't pay all the taxes, rent and that stuff in Albania. And we had family in Greece so they helped us when we arrived.
In Greece I played football, I always loved football when I was young. And I played until 2014, around there. That's when I also started to watch martial arts, and a friend of mine,
Symeón, he was training MMA at a small gym so he asked me if I would like to try. And I was like "no, I don't wanna do this. I don't like that sport" as I thought it was fake, you know
like WWE. But he kept asking me for six months "please come and try" and we went to the same school so every day at school I heard this. Because he knew I was athletic and like
to train. And as I didn't play football anymore and had nothing going on, I did follow him there once and tried. I didn't know nothing and when I went there I loved it. I don't know what
happened, but I felt like a passion, you know.
After 4 months of training I did an amateur fight, and then like 3 months later I had my first pro fight. And in that second fight of mine I was still 15 years old. And this was against a guy
who was 26 years old and a purple belt that I submitted in a triangle. I was nervous, I didn't know what would happen as I didn't have much skills. I went there and did like in a street fight.
And you could see that, but I went in there with a dog inside of me and fought. So it went well. For my first fight my mother didn't even know that I had started training MMA. Because I had
only told her "hey mom, I'm going to the training", so she thought that I had picked up football again. And on the fight day, after I already had done all the weigh-ins and stuff I went home to
rest. Then I told her that I was gonna have a fight that day. She was like "What? What do you mean?" And I tried to calm here down with that "it's only amateurs, we don't even punch
each other for real" and that it would be against somebody as young as me, it's more of a show and just for fun. But she didn't believe me and got stressed.
I had a professional kickboxing fight in Albania that I won, and there I was with a friend of mine who's famous in Greek kickboxing. His name is Giannis Fezoulai, and I was eating
with him the next day after we competed at the same event. Then another guy called him and started to talk about me "I saw this guy Bernardo, he looks like a very good striker. I can talk
to Andreas here at Allstars and get him to come here to Sweden and try, if he would like it himself". And at this moment I wasn't in any MMA gym no more, I only trained kickboxing.
I was 6-1 in MMA but was only training kickboxing now, as I had left the MMA gym over some problems. In the beginning I was like "yeah yeah, this is all talk..." you know? I said yes
of course, but didn't believe in it. I didn't know that somebody completely unknown could reach out to you and help so much. But after 4 months I came to Sweden with his help. First day
I went to the gym and they welcomed me here.
This was a crazy experience. I thought that all these fights I had before, you know, that I had prepared for those perfectly. But no, it was here at Allstars that I had my first perfect preparation.
It was at this time that I learned what a training camp means, you know? We had 4-5 guys who were fighting at AK, we was a big team that trained all together. We did a great training
camp, and I felt unstoppable you know. It was the first time I felt like this, and when I stepped out of the cage after my first fight I wasn't even tired. It was amazing, I felt a boost from the fans
that were starting to know of me here as well. So I continued to train here with discipline, getting better every day at the gym.
Source:
