Fuentes led off the card that would also serve as Dada 5000’s MMA debut with a TKO finish in the first round. On film fights, Fuentes now stood at 10-2, professional fights, 1-0. His American Kempo background, love for fighting and love for money was all coming together but still, all good things must come to an end.
“I took it to the pro level I just didn’t continue doing it,” Fuentes explained. “You get injured a lot during training and it just didn’t weigh out to me, money-wise. I had other things going on so I basically kind of shied away from it.”
Jorge would eventually become a mainstay at the pinnacle of the MMA world. Rey continued putting in his time working security. It seemed that inflicting harm on each other for a few hundred dollars would be the extent of their relationship until they crossed paths again at a Miami mall. One man in the UFC, one man a security guard he fought back in the early days of YouTube.
“There was a shopping center in Kendall Mall where I first ran into him after our fight,” Fuentes said. “When I saw him, I was coming out of a supplement store, I think. I can’t remember that well but when I saw him, I was with my son and my son’s mother, he was with his daughter, it was like a family thing that day. I basically called his name. I was like, ‘Hey! Jorge!’ and he looked at me and he was like, ‘Hey, Rey! What’s up?!’ When I saw him that day and we shook hands it was just good energy. Nothing was even weird for one second. I was really looking forward to that moment.”
Today, Fuentes is a 40 years old father, out of the fight game. The man who sent Jorge Masvidal to the ground still goes to the same ICE job every day and enjoys the same life he always has. There’s no bitterness, no disdain and no jealousy. One of his favorite fighters is Jorge Masvidal and Fuentes doesn’t even mind the fact that some will always see him as, “the guy who Jorge beat in the street fights.”
“I want to say the first three or four years of having that on my shoulders it bothered me but like with everything, time heals,” Fuentes said. “I learned to let it go. It wasn’t something that haunted me. It hasn’t haunted me forever, but I basically manned up and owned what it was. I don’t see it in a negative way anymore. A loss is a loss. I don’t see it as a bad thing. I’m actually proud of how well I did. I feel like he and I brought that to the world and it’s history.”
Don’t miss UFC 244 Saturday November 2 and relive all of Masvidal’s fights from the UFC, Strikeforce and HooknShoot ONLY on UFC FIGHT PASS!