For nearly two decades, Troy Lavalley has been involved in the world of martial arts.
“I wrestled in high school,” Lavalley, who was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, said. “After high school, I started training in jiu-jitsu…I trained in jiu-jitsu for a couple years, and then I moved to the United States and I started kickboxing.”
“We’ve been watching the UFC since the beginning—UFC 2 is when we started watching. The sport was growing so much—all of my friends in the States and all of my buddies up here were doing it—and having my background in martial arts, it was pretty natural to make the crossover into MMA … It was really to test myself.”
Since making the transition to mixed martial arts, Lavalley has contested—and won—a pair of amateur matches and is currently scheduled to contest his third career mixed martial arts match against Cody Moliger on Saturday under the Saturday Night Fights banner in Regina.
According to Lavalley, 35, his long run in the world of martial arts is no coincidence.
“I always enjoyed team sports, but I always enjoyed individual sports a little more, because you’re not focused on the team,” Lavalley explained. “The only person that you’re going to let down is yourself if you don’t train and eat properly. I enjoy the camaraderie amongst the teammates, too.”
“Athletics have had a very positive influence in my life,” Lavalley said. “I think I could’ve went down a couple wrong paths if I hadn’t had it at certain points in my life, so it’s been pretty important…I’d like to think that I’d be in a good position (without martial arts in my life), but practicing martial arts keeps your head on straight, keeps you grounded and it stops you from making bad decisions in life.”
While the sport admittedly plays a major role in Lavalley’s life—specifically over the course of the past year—there is a good chance that his forthcoming match could be his final foray in the sport.
“In my line of work, you’ve got to travel and you can’t put in the amount of time that’s required to compete at a very high level,” Lavalley said. “In the last year, I’ve been fortunate enough to have that time.”
“I own part of a directional drilling company, and we just started an environmental clean-up company, I’m the part-owner of Complete Martial Arts and Fitness and the co-promoter of Saturday Night Fights, so I’ve got a lot of things on my plate,” Lavalley said.
“It can be too much, to be honest. For the commitment and the training that it takes to be successful in this sport, you almost have to be 21, 22 and not have a lot of commitments. I’m doing it because I love the sport and I want to fight in my hometown again. I’m not sure if I’m ever going to do it again. It takes a lot from you and a lot of understanding and a lot of help from a lot of people.”
“There’s always that chance that I’ll take another match. I’ll have to sit down with the people in my life and find out how hard it was on them—because I can see how hard it is—but we’ll see. It’s a possibility.”
Regardless of how many matches Lavalley will have in the future, he is quick to insist that he is by no means closing the door on his time in the world of martial arts.
“After my fight, I’m going to concentrate on doing some sport jiu-jitsu,” said Lavalley, who is pursuing his brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. “I’m not saying it doesn’t take commitment—it’s still hard work and it takes a lot of commitment—but you’re not training two times a day, six days a week.”
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