Here’s the background story of how our brother Zach Tenorio came to be part of the Arena family and MMA fight team. His journey to success has just begun. He has been a great teammate, staff member, and friend. We look forward to his return.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Zach Tenorio:
Back in 2016 I was trying to go back home to Guam. I was out here for what was going to be at least a month and in that time I was kind of looking for a place to train. My brother’s friend found out that I was getting interested in MMA and trying to pursue it as a profession. She hit me up and said that her friends, Joe Duarte and Vince Salvador, were training at this place called The Arena.
I actually stopped by here to check it out and within like the first few days I really knew this was where I needed to be at. One of the things that influenced that was one, there was Vince here, and Vince is from Guam. Joe Duarte, he fought out of here as well. There’s Baret Yoshida, and Baret is from Hawaii. The vibe was just very laid back and kind of like island style almost, but the training was solid, and that’s kind of what I was more used to growing up in Guam, training in Guam.
Fast forward maybe like three months, Vince asked me if I was interested in working the front desk and immediately I was like, “Hell yeah,” and I’ve been working here ever since and it’s been amazing. They’ve fully supported me in my goals in pursuing MMA. They let me train. I’m always in the environment and I’m always watching, and they just had my back from day one.
Vince is like an older brother. He’s always looked out for me, super funny, super talented. He’s a cool dude, super cool dude. Working at the desk, during his classes I’ll just peek over and kind of just see what he’s teaching them and maybe try it on the side just while I’m on the clock. The Arena definitely helped me to be able to just focus practically all my attention to one thing, and that was just training and competing.
In the next few days I’m going to be moving home, back to Guam to spend time with my family while this whole COVID situation kind of blows over. Once everything opens back up, then it’s every intention of mine to come back out and continue to pursue exactly what I’ve been pursuing this entire time, and that’s becoming a champion.
Thank you to all the coaches, thank you to The Arena, thank you to life. Everybody has had my back from day one. My name is Zach Tenorio, man, and I’ll be back.
