UNLIMITED MMA — KICKBOXING — CROSSFIT — JIU JITSU

“You have that whole build up, from the weigh-ins up to the fight, to just think about it,” he said. “It’s a lot of anxiety really, and the walk into the ring is the worst part.”

“Your senses go to another level,” he continued. “You see and hear everybody. The whole time, you’re thinking, ‘I’ve got to do this. Everybody’s watching me.’ All I can do is remind myself that I’m doing this for me. Nobody else.”

That may be true, but if so, Arenal’s got everyone fooled.

“I heard an analyst on a Manny Pacquiao (boxing) fight say, ‘As fighters are entering the ring, they usually look like they are walking their final mile, Pacquiao looks like he’s walking his first.’” said Rudi Ott, Arenal’s coach with Unlimited Kickboxing. “That is how I would describe Tristan before a fight-all smiles and dancing into the ring like he’s doing the ‘Soul Train’ line or something!”

Arenal will be fighting on the undercard of Showtime’s February 26 televised card in San Jose. He will be squaring off against George “The Killer” Miller in what might be one of Arenal’s final amateur tune ups before turning professional.

“This will be one of my last two amateur fights,” said Arenal. “My coach is trying to get me as much experience as possible, because in the pros, there will be a big experience gap between me and my opponent.”

Arenal may not have the experience of a pro yet, but he has a background in a variety of fighting styles that will serve him well in the sport.

He had a successful high school wrestling career, and he also had experience with boxing, albeit in a less organized arena.

“I don’t like saying it, but I was a bit of a troublemaker as a kid,” said the 24-year-old Arenal. “I did some garage boxing, and I had a couple of fights here and there. Let’s just say I had good hands.”

Two years ago, Arenal took a break from training for a career in emergency medicine to “see how far I could take it” in MMA. Since then, he’s been creating work for other EMTs in the area.

“He’s progressed very well,” said Coach Ott. “Since training at Unlimited he has gone 9-0 as an amateur with six knockouts in the last year.”

Ott has added martial arts to Arenal’s repertoire. “He was a good boxer and wrestler when he came to me,” said Ott. “We’ve added a Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu game to his skill set that, if he continues to make improvements on, he will be very hard to beat.”

“He’s developed me into a whole different fighter,” agrees Arenal.

Indeed, Arenal’s approach to his amateur bouts seemed to focus more on development than wins and losses.

Despite the wrestling background, most of his MMA bouts have focused on striking.

As the transition to the professionals looms, Arenal and Ott are putting all the pieces together.

“In my last fight, Coach Rudi began pushing me to the ground. He wanted me to work on my ground game in a match,” said Arenal.

The result was a first-round arm-bar submission victory over Chris DeLuna that earned Arenal the WFC Lightweight Title.

“Coach had me let a lot of my bouts go more rounds than they had to,” said Arenal. “You can always spar, but fighting in front of everybody…it’s a whole different mindset. It’s the best practice you can get.”