Dedicated to martial arts, Darren Jones recently won one of his main dreams at Jiu-Jitsu: a black belt. Britain graduated from Brazilian Leonardo Guerrero. The two have a friendly relationship beyond the mats.
Darren started in martial arts in the early 1980s, he started in karate and judo. After that, he went into boxing and then started practicing kickboxing – where he began to take the game deeper, grew in the sport and wanted to become a professional.
– I have competed since I started in the sport and I have won many fights and titles in England. I got my black belt in 1994 and my high school in 1996 – Darren started training at MMA, but a bad moment came in his life:
In 2006, when I was riding my motorcycle, a car ran over me and stopped on top of me. My leg and my right jaw were crushed in the crash. It ended before my competitive MMA and kickboxing career began. I was told I couldn’t walk straight again, I couldn’t even train anymore because the anterior cruciate ligament rupture and the intermediate attachment in the other leg made this impossible.
Unable to become a professional in MMA or kickboxing, his dream, Darren did not give up the fight, in 2009, he began to reveal fighters for some MMA events. In 2011, he began a relationship with Leonardo Guerrero. The Englishman was looking for a Jiu-Jitsu teacher to strengthen his MMA team and improve the playing field when he saw the Brazilian’s Facebook ad. Leo, who was looking for a job in the UK, immediately accepted the invitation.
Leo commented on his relationship with his new Black Belt: – Darren gave me the first opportunity (to work in the UK). I didn’t teach, I put an ad on Facebook, I was looking for a gym to get my own place. I was unemployed. He recently sent me a message saying that he had opened a gym with his partner and invited me to teach. He gave me this opportunity, he is the most important guy to me. One thing I have is thank you, I will never show my back to those who helped me. He always helped me with everything I needed here. I was already thinking about giving up teaching and he and my wife would not let me stop – said the Brazilian.
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