It was announced yesterday that Jose Torres will be taking on Sean Santella on Sept. 24th in the first round of Brave CF’s flyweight tournament.
A 16 month layoff hasn’t affected the 28 year old’s goal of becoming a two division champion once again.
“I want to be a double weight division champ for every single promotion I sign for,” Torres told me. “I did it for Titan (FC), I did it for IMMAF, and I want to do it for Brave (CF) as well. I want to claim the flyweight and bantamweight titles.”
‘Shorty’ is a prime example that you don’t have to be apart of the UFC in order to be an accomplished mixed martial artist. He shared his advice for young fighters who looking to break into a big-time fighting promotion.
“What I try to tell people is try not to be too dependent on a promotion, whether that’s the UFC, Brave, Bellator, whatever the case may be,” Torres explained. “Fight for you and enjoy the journey while it lasts because if you keep waiting for that one thing the journey will pass you by in a heartbeat.”
I mentioned Anthony Romero as someone who is clearly a young-talented fighter, but just missed out on the UFC contract recently on DWCS. Torres was kind enough to give some advice to guys in similar positions.
“If you have an opportunity somewhere take it,” he declared. “Just because it has that name doesn’t mean it’s the best thing in the world. Especially in this sport, you gotta make as much money as possible.”
He continued to offer more advice to up and coming fighters, “Really you just gotta be able to take care of yourself mentally, because this sport is extremely hard, especially for the guys trying to get into the UFC on the Contender Series. If they win and don’t get the contract, so be it, keep on pushing forward… if you’re winning keep on doing your thing.”
Those truly are wise words from someone who has been in the same boat as these young fighters.
Torres mentioned taking care of yourself mentally and he practices what he preaches.
“For me, things that I’ve been doing to keep mentally strong is I’ve hired a mental coach and honestly just been trying to care less. It’s weird to say, but all our anxiety comes from caring so much about something,” he said. “I’m trying to enjoy what I have.”
Jose Torres has had a tough road to get to where he’s at today, and he’s earned every last bit. If you follow him on Instagram, you know that he is constantly looking to make a positive impact on others.
“I didn’t have the best upbringing which is why I started my foundation (Team Shorty Foundation) to help people. I didn’t have the proper male role models growing up… my father and brother, even though I love them to death, they weren’t people to look up to. For me, being at the gym gave me that responsibility and that mentor-ship.”
He went on, “The reason I decided to help people is ‘what am I here for?’, I’m not going to be the selfish guy taking everything.”I started my foundation because if my father and brother had more opportunities they could have gotten a lot farther in life.”
The Team Shorty Foundation is built to keep kids in the gym instead of in the streets. Please support by following the link above!
The death of his father last October and then the COVID-19 pandemic this year have kept Jose Torres out of the cage for over a year. Make no mistake, ‘Shorty’ is itching to get back in there and do what he loves.
“It’s (Sept. 24th fight) finally showing that all this hard work is gonna pay off,” he asserted.
Torres was unfairly released by the UFC in 2018 . He is undoubtedly one of the top flyweights in the world and you’d be foolish to sleep on him at bantamweight as well.
Make sure you tune into the opening round of Brave CF’s flyweight tournament on Sept. 24th when Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres takes on Sean Ssantella.
