For Titan Fighting Championship 31 co-main event combatant Desmond Green, MMA bouts are not one-on-one.
He has an entire family inside the steel cage with him.
"I have a lot of little cousins in high school, about to graduate, and they definitely look up to me," Green told Bleacher Report. "They love the fact that I fight, and I always try to stress to them, 'You can do whatever you want, you just gotta put your mind to it and you gotta ride the boat until you get to shore.' So it definitely feels good that I'm able to do that, to be somebody positive for my family to look up to."
Green, a graduate of the University of Buffalo where he was a Mid-American Conference champion wrestler, strolls into his bout against World Extreme Cagefighting champion and UFC veteran Miguel Torres at Titan FC 31 on Oct. 31 with his relatives on his back. He'll be carrying them toward a brighter future and happier days.
As the first college graduate in his family's history, Green is inspiring with his status as a 12-3 professional fighter.
He supports his mother as best as he can, keeps his sister living comfortably and shows up on fight night to notch a victory and further his own career. They need him, and this fact is not lost on the 145-pound fighter.
"My brother, he actually took a different path, he was kind of in the streets a bit," Green said. "He got three years upstate in prison. He kind of made me promise that I'd stay straight, fight right and take care of my mom and my sister while he was gone. So that definitely motivated me to actually take a different path, go to school, finish it up and try to grind it out."
And a grind it was.
In addition to the normal class load of a college student, Green worked hard on the wrestling mats, thrice qualifying for the NCAA Division I tournament and taking home MAC champion honors once.
In addition, he worked a job at Wal-Mart, a position that was a necessity as much as a formality.
As a sophomore in college, Green learned that he would father his first child, his daughter, Tsajelia.
While the newfound duties added stress to his hectic life, Green found something else through this newest development: motivation.
"It (having Tsajelia) actually kind of helped me focus up a lot more on life," Green said. "I had to focus up and start taking care of some more responsibilities.
"It was crazy. I had a good support system from my family and actually my wrestling team, they helped me out a lot too. My coaches would help babysit while I was at practice … When my team found out I was having a kid, they actually threw me like a baby shower, they called it a diaper party … It was really supportive, like a family up there with my team."
Now, Green is a father of two, Tsajelia and Desmond Jr., and he continues to find motivation and inspiration in them.
"It's tough (having children), but I use it as motivation," Green said. "If I'm going to be gone all this time, I'm going to make it not be in vain so I can go home and celebrate and be in good spirits. You're already giving up two months away from your kids for camp, so at least go out there and make it worth it."
To help ensure his success, Green moved his camp from Team Bombsquad in New York to Tristar in Montreal, Quebec, home to top-level UFC fighters such as Rory MacDonald and former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
While the work he received at Team Bombsquad shaped him as a professional mixed martial artist, Green feels the knowledge and work he's put in at Tristar will take him to the next level in his career.
"The best move I've made in my career so far is coming up to Tristar, so that's why I'm so excited to fight, just to show people how much new stuff I've learned," Green said. "Before I was going out there, real raw, just talented and a lot of athleticism. Even Firas (Zahabi, head trainer at Tristar) told me, 'You're making major improvements from the first day you came up.' Every day I go out there, I feel like I'm getting better."
Taking on a former champion in Torres will be no small task, however, and Green acknowledges the challenge ahead. After getting knocked out of the UFC by Michael McDonald at UFC 145, Torres went 0-2 in the World Series of Fighting before finding his groove and rattling off three straight victories in regional promotions.
While he will look to continue that momentum against Green, the New York native says there will be none of that. He's showing up to win, and the Titan FC strap is in his future.
"I'm fighting a guy in Torres, he has more finishes than I have amateur and pro fights," Green said. "Now that I'm up at Tristar, it's like, man, with this training regimen they got, I feel like it's only a matter of time before I'm a champion.
"So beating him, it will be an accomplishment, it will be a nice way to gauge where I’m at, but honestly, I plan on finishing him. I feel like I'm a top featherweight right now, and I feel like with a couple more fights I should be in the UFC, so I really want to go out there and dominate."
