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All Lester Batres Jr. Needs Is 10 Seconds
Fury FC’s Lester Batres Jr. Relives His Toughest Fight To Date, An Amateur Bout That Forced Him To Lean On His Father And Coach, Lester Batres Sr.
Every father wants the best for their children. Whether it be in their career, their relationships, or their everyday lives, every father wants to see greatness for their offspring.
In the case of the Batres family, “like father like son” takes an extremely literal meaning. Lester Batres Sr. was a standout fighting for Legacy FC, and now trains Batres Jr. out of Renzo Gracie Lake Houston. Batres Jr., now 2-0, fights for Fury FC in Houston and will be competing this weekend at Fury FC 94.
“I am his head coach,” Batres Sr. said. “And this is my son, but it's gotten to the point to where, man, I'm extremely confident about how good he is.”
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A 2-0 pro record may seem a small sample size, but Batres Jr. has been through the ringer in the amateur MMA circuit. Competing with the IMMAF has given Batres more live fight experience than fighters that are five years older.
“When we did these IMMAFs, I could have signed him up in the juniors,” Batres Sr. said. “Yeah, he started at 19. We're fighting grown a** men who are 25, 28, 30 years old. Guys from Africa, Serbia, Switzerland, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. IMMAF was like, ‘Sign him up in juniors, it'll be easy. He'll win easy.’ We’re not going to do that because we're not training to fight kids. We're trying to fight men.”
Batres Sr. is all business when the coaching switch is turned on, and consistent and relentless training has set up Batres Jr. to succeed at every point in a fight.
“We don't train five-minute rounds, we train six-minute rounds,” Batres Sr. said. “Houston got hit with that hurricane. We were training last week with no power at like 120, 130 degrees. We didn’t stop. I'm having guys switching up with him, hitting three, four rounds easily.”
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Although Batres Jr. has already had two fights as a pro, one of his most challenging fights came as an amateur in Colombia.
There was a moment where genuinely I was like, f**, this sucks,” Batres Jr. explained. “There was a moment right then and there where I could have made a choice. The choice was either to sit there and fold or sit there and rise.”
Knowing a finish was needed to win the fight, Batres Sr. pulled no punches in his between-rounds speech.
“I was like, ‘You got two f**king rounds, champ,’” Batres Sr. said. “I’m not going to lie to you. We don't need a wrestle f*** here. We need to go TKO this mother*****. I was like, ‘You're the champ.’”
Going into the final minutes where you and your opponent both know you’re down is a difficult place to be, but the Batres’ are no stranger to adversity. The early mornings and the late nights came through, and Batres Jr. found a way to get the finish.
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“[Batres Sr.] has never said this before, but before this fight he was something new, but it stuck with me,” Batres Jr. said. “He said all we need is 10 seconds. All we need, no matter where we're at in the fight, all you need is 10 seconds to finish it. Sure enough, I found those 10 seconds. It was that 10 second moment where I had him pinned on the cage. I took a deep breath and I saw my moment, my opportunity, and I started just chucking. I wasn't going to stop until he was down.”
With his father in his corner and experience on his side, Lester Batres Jr. is set to light up Houston this weekend at Fury FC 94. Whether it’s a quick submission or a three-round brawl, Batres is must-see television.
Don’t miss Fury FC 94, this Sunday on UFC Fight Pass!!
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