Rhode Island Hero Luis “Rockstar” Felix Poised (14-8) to Make Run to UFC With Upcoming Title Defense at CES XXXII

Luis “Rockstar” Felix (14-8) is the current Lightweight Champion for CES MMA, one of the largest mixed martial arts organizations in New England. After original opponent Waylon Lowe (16-7) was forced out due to injury, the thirty-one year old Felix is now scheduled for his first title defense against Ryan Sanders (9-7) at CES MMA XXXII on January 8th, 2016.

Despite opening his career at 2-4, Felix displayed unprecedented perseverance – first winning the AFO Lightweight title against current UFC veteran Joe Proctor (11-4) at AFO: Thanksgiving Massacre 3 in November 2010 and culminating in the Lightweight title against Julian Lane (9-5-1) atCES MMA 30 in August 2015; a rematch and second title opportunity for Felix after first losing to Lane at CES MMA 25 in August 2014.

Currently riding a three-fight win streak, the Cranston, Rhode Island native and decorated former Cranston High School East wrestler is also a deeply-rooted member of his community. In April 2014, Felix and friends started Action Sports and Technology Resource Organization (ASTRO): a 501(c)(3) non-profit aimed at assisting high school kids finish school and avoid trouble through technology education and mixed martial arts training.

With leadership and altruism, Felix remains committed to providing a tangible example of discipline and success for members of his home state and surrounding New England areas.

After finishing up preparations for his title defense, Felix took the time to discuss his upcoming match versus Sanders, his team and his goals.

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ON BEING CHAMPION

The thing with defending it: you know you’re the target. You know you got people waiting in line; people eyeing you, checking you out. Seeing how they can come and take you out. You just got to be ready for whatever challenge.

For example, look what’s happening now: I was supposed to be fighting Waylon Lowe and now he’s out; he can’t fight. And you have people just jumping at the opportunity to fight me now. Whereas before, I was that guy coming up where if something happens, I had the opportunity to come up. So you got to stay ready and you got to stay focused.

Towards the last couple weeks of camp, I started envisioning how the fight was going to go: how it’s going to end up, things that are going to happen in the fight. I was so set on this fight with Waylon Lowe, and my mind was… It was almost like I was dreaming about this fight and how it was going to end; how it was going to go throughout the first couple of minutes; how I was going to finish him.

Then all of a sudden, I got the opponent change and it was like we went from a 5’7” dude who was kind of one-dimensional; a wrestler with power left hand, slow-paced fighter. Now to a guy that’s 6’2”, right-handed, throws kicks; everything but the kitchen sink. It took me a day to figure out like, “Alright. I got to find a way to… how am I going to fight this guy? I need new sparring partners; we need to switch this whole thing up!” It took me a little bit.

So I’m just starting to get back visions for this opponent Ryan Sanders, and it’s starting to come together. But man, that day was like… It was kind of like a mind-fuck for a little bit. That vision of fighting this one guy and knowing that, “You know what? In about ten days, you’re fighting a whole different animal and a whole different style fight.”

The conditioning and training part is done; it’s just your mind-set now on the grind of what this fight is going to be. That was definitely a first for me: I don’t think that’s ever really happened to me until now. I was like, “Man, that was something different.” For like twenty-four hours, I was weirded-out.

But it’s all good. I’m ready for it.

When I first started, it was something to continue what I was doing with wrestling. I needed a sport and something to compete in, and it just kind of fell on my lap. I got offered a fight – kind of like a last-minute fight – and one of my coaches said, “You’ll make $800 bucks.” So I was like, “Hell yeah, I’ll take it. Why not?”

I tried it, and I fell in love. But I didn’t look at it like my career or something that I wanted to do forever; it was just kind of something I was doing at the moment. Just got done with wrestling in college and still playing baseball, so I was still playing another sport which I was thinking: do I want to pursue this? Do I want to start working? What is it I really want to do?

I always took fights on the last-minute against the top guys that we had in New England at the time. Won some, lost some; didn’t work out so well at the beginning, clearly. But then I kind of had a little change mid-way through my career where it was kind of like a wake-up call: I ended up in the hospital a couple times. Got an opportunity against Joe Proctor for a title fight where I actually got to put together a six-week camp. After that fight, things just kind of changed.

The losses and the things I went through early in my career – that perseverance is kind of what built me up to be like… Once I decided to start to take this sport serious and really go after it, being able to not give up.

Some people: they’ll be brought up and they’ll be undefeated. Then when they suffer that first loss, they kind of fall apart because they’ve never been through something like that.

I just feel like all the lessons and all the losses that I went through earlier in my career have built me up and made me who I am today. I think that’s why I’ve been able to make these big strides in the last couple of years.

Huge. For me, wrestling is what always set me up for everything. Wrestling is such an individual sport, but such a team sport at the same time. You don’t win a National or Team National championship without your teammates and your drilling partners and the people you’re with every single day. I feel like that prepares you.

In fighting, it’s the same way. You need your boxing coach, you need your Muay Thai coach, your wrestling and jits coaches; so many people have a piece of you winning on Fight Night. Yeah, you get all the attention and all the glory, but I’m not the fighter I am today or where I am today without the coaches that I have in my corner right now. The people I had coaching me from literally when I was a kid coming up in wrestling and whatnot.

All that has made me who I am today. I didn’t just make myself; I didn’t just learn these moves; I didn’t just show up to the gym and train on my own and become a world champ. There’s a lot of people involved in this everyday goal and fight. One hundred percent.

I think you need to be really good at one discipline on the ground, and one discipline on your feet. So whether you had an amateur career or some kind of career in boxing, kickboxing or Muay Thai – that’s very important.

If you were a wrestler your whole life and you just practiced stand-up here or there but never really competed in stand-up, it’s completely different once you get punched in the face. Then all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh wait, I can’t take this guy down.”

That knowledge or that feeling of being in there and knowing your range is huge. Because you could be a great wrestler and have a guy that just moves on you. And because you’re so uncomfortable on your feet, your gas tank will go twice as fast as it would normally, because you’re just not comfortable on your feet. You have to be able to get comfortable on your feet as well as being able to defend yourself, or be able to take a fight to the ground.

That’s why I always loved to compete in boxing. I took up boxing fights against top-notch guys; we always spar with a lot of professional boxers here in Rhode Island. We have all our amateur guys competing in straight kickboxing and Muay Thai competitions who are wrestlers – because you need to be able to, “If I can’t bring this fight to the ground, I have to be able to on my feet. When I get hit and I can’t take this guy down – what am I going to do?”

Once you start panicking, all of a sudden no matter how well your conditioning or how good your gas tank is, that’s going to go because of those nerves and you not feeling comfortable.

For amateurs especially, before you turn pro: my thing and our thing is go compete in boxing. Go compete in amateur kickboxing fights and Muay Thai fights. Then go do grappling tournaments. We have a lot of guys that I’ve coached that are wrestlers – and that’s the first thing I have them do before they step into an MMA fight. Go do amateur boxing fights; go do amateur kickboxing and Muay Thai fights. Just so you can focus on your standup.

I think with both aspects of MMA, you got to be comfortable in both areas. And those guys – their standup becomes that much better. Because they’re so good on the ground, and they’re so comfortable with, “You know what? If you take me down, I’m going to get back up. So I can commit to my punches.” I feel like once you get to that comfort level where you know that no matter what, if this guy takes me down to the ground – I’m going to get up and I’m going to get out and get back to my feet.

When you’re able to commit more without that fear of being taken down, your stand-up doubles in MMA. When you’re a great stand-up guy and you constantly have that fear of, “Damn, if this guy takes me down it might be over. Or I might not be able to get out.” You’re not as good as you would be in just a boxing fight or just a Muay Thai fight; it changes everything up.

I think having that confidence on the ground will improve your stand-up as long as that’s something you work on and something you want to get better at.

I thrive on it. It all started competing in front of my friends from when I wrestled. I would always have my friends come to my wrestling matches, and nobody wants to lose in front of their friends. And my friends are rough; they’ll get on you. We’re a bunch of jokesters, and we’ll get on each other for failing or not doing so well – no matter what sport it is.

I think that’s always pushed us to compete and do better in front of one another and want to be better than each other. But for me: I loved being the underdog. Going into fights where people were like, “This guy’s better than you. This guy’s been around.” Always having something to prove has always been a big motivator for me. I’ve always had big support from my friends and family, and we’ve kind of always carried that on and used that to our advantage and got after it.

For me, whether it’s hometown or a fight in Japan: I kind of feed off the crowd, whether it’s in my favor or against me. I love the essence of competing in front of a big scene.

One of my friends, Justin Pasquazzi: we’d been friends for a little while, and he’s always talked about working with kids. So I was like, “Listen, I’ve been working with kids for so many years.” Middle school and high school kids, just through wrestling. And never really did anything with MMA just because I’ve been learning and figuring things out for myself in MMA.

But I’ve always helped out in the wrestling community and did different things for different schools and whatnot. Kids have always held a special place for me, because the leadership you get from your coaches is very important. For me growing up, a lot of my coaches were some of my role models, and helped me not just stay in school and stay out of trouble butwant to be in that sport. Which obviously kept me from doing the wrong thing when you had extra time outside school.

So we got together and started this organization called ASTRO, and we put in for an after-school program here in the Providence, Rhode Island area. We’re doing an MMA program for the kids in which they get credits for their graduation. And for me, it’s been the best experience I could’ve gotten into. It’s something that I’ve always been doing, but now that I’m doing it with MMA it’s been very special. It’s been awesome.

I don’t even know how to explain it; it’s just kind of taken off. We just finished up with it, and now they want us back so we’re definitely going to be doing it again. It’s been great.

Think about as kids – if you’re not busy and you got all this time in the world, all the stuff you can get yourself into. For us, it’s fun coaching and teaching. And at the same time, you’re doing something great because you’re occupying their time in a positive way.

That was me growing up: my time was always occupied in sports. And it kept me from doing a whole bunch of the other stuff that everybody else was doing. You surrounded yourself with those kids that were into sports, and that’s who my friends became. All the kids on my sports teams – those were your friends, so you guys all had that in common; you stuck with each other and stayed busy. It kept you from using drugs and selling drugs and everything else.

I think goals are important. I think when you set yourself on a goal and you start having a vision, you start working towards something. If you’re just like, “Oh, I’m just going to compete, and do this, that and the other.” Kind of like what I was doing when I first started, you just kind of go about it.

I think in life, you need to set yourself goals and things you want to do, so you have a vision of how you want to attack it and go after it and accomplish those things. Once you set those goals, set bigger ones for yourself and new ones for yourself. That’s me, man. For me: it’s get to the UFC. And I feel like I’m just coming into my time.

My time is right now; it’s time for me to make a run.

I want to get to the UFC; I want to fight their best guys and I want to make a run at that title. And whenever that’s over and said and done with, then I’ll move onto the next aspect and part of my life. For right now, that’s the goal. So whatever I have to do here at CES to defend this world title – doesn’t matter how many times I have to defend it. I just know my goal is driven to go in the UFC and make a run. I don’t want to just go to the UFC and say, “Oh, look: I made it here!”

I want to go and make a splash and be somebody there.

Be like, “You know what? I fought the best guys in the world, and I went after this title and the guy that stood in my way. I went after it one hundred percent.” Prior to just saying, “Oh, this is my goal” – I set a bunch of little goals leading up to this title, and so far I’ve checked them all off. Those are a few more that I have to check off to get to that final goal. Let’s work; let’s set off bigger and better things.

Getting there is definitely a goal – but that’s not the final piece of it.