I’m just really happy I joined X3 Sports. To me, X3 is everything. I love this gym. I love the people who work here. I love my team. I love the coaches, without them, there would be no me. Of course, I have my family. When I’m not with my family, I’m with X3. X3’s a family to me.

My first sport was football, that’s how I came into X3 in October 2013 at 250 lbs., cheeks fat, pretty bloated. In high school, I was 190 lbs., small but very fat. My coaches wanted me to get bigger to play linebacker. So all I did was eat, drink protein shakes and lift weights, and then I got fat. In college, I prepared for spring training, and I got huge. My arms and face were big, but I was athletic.

One day, I googled “X3 Sports” after I saw UFC fighter Clint Hester on TV trained here. He inspired me to join and become a fighter. I started off with Kickboxing for a month and lost weight. The instructor said I could learn better striking by upgrading to Muay Thai. So I did Muay Thai, then Jiu-Jitsu afterwards – I loved doing everything and I kept doing them twice a day. I kept losing weight. In three weeks, I had dropped to 215. I kept coming after a few more weeks passed. I lost 20 more lbs. When I reached 199 lbs., I said ‘Wow’ to myself. I hadn’t seen that weight in two years. This is really working!

BJJ is very special to m,e because it is another way I lost all my weight. Constantly doing it with my GI on, it’s a grind and most people give up because of the grind. MMA saved my life, because I would rather be in the gym than on the streets. The sport altogether is very challenging, very fun. I never expected it to be such an adrenaline rush. After the first time doing it, I fell in love just like that.

Everything that I’ve gotten, that I’ve achieved, X3’s helped me so much. You can talk to anybody here, everybody’s pretty cool. I’m very thankful and happy that I got caught up at X3, rather than being out there (on the streets). SEE MORE OF ROBERT’S STORY ON OUR BLOG.*