Zach Calmus on BKFC 30 bout “Juan Torres is a real fighter”

Zach Calmus test skills with Juan Torres at BKFC 30 on October 1st.

Calmus appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts and several subjects were touched upon in our talk. Excerpts from our chat are below.

Zach Calmus

Beginning in bare-knuckle boxing at the BKFC tryouts and his combat career having a grassroots progression

“My whole life has been grassroots. I wasn’t supposed to fight. My dad plans meetings for an investment company. For thirty-five or forty years, he planned meetings for Met Life Financial and he worked like every single day. Hard work but white-collar you know what I mean. My mother ran the kitchens for Marriot for like twenty-something years. The meetings that were planned by my dad, my mom was running the events for all the food and catering. All the decorations and all that. My parents were meeting and event planners and my mom’s an incredible chef.”

“The path that I took was on my own. I don’t come from a fighting family. So grassroots I mean I had brothers trying to convince me not to fight when I was coming up in USA boxing. I lost my first five or six fights. I didn’t start winning until losing for years. But it’s something that I stuck with through high school. Got out of high school and stuck with it. I boxed from 17 years old to 29 as an amateur. So I didn’t go pro until I was 29. Threw my hat in at the national level. In 2017, I won the golden gloves open class and then in 2018, I got ranked 13th in the country.”

BKFC 30

Calmus’ thoughts on his upcoming opponent this weekend

“Juan Torres shouldn’t even be talked about in the same conversation as Kyle McElroy (Calmus’ prior opponent). They’re completely different athletes. Juan Torres is a real fighter. So that’s the difference right there. Juan Torres is not gonna run from anybody and he’s tough.”

“I saw his (Torres’) fight with Steve Herelius. Herelius backed up the whole time. So it can happen… Sometimes fighters make fights. That’s the reality, fighters make fights. So I just think I’m a much better matchup.”

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Dylan Bowker

I've been enamored with combat sports for as long as I can remember. I've hosted MMA talk shows Lights Out and Pure Fight Radio with featured guests like Jens Pulver, Roy Nelson, Miesha Tate, Mark Coleman, and more. I've been an MMA broadcaster for XFFC as well as BTC and have done play by play commentary on live pay per view on GFL as well as FITE TV. I've provided written, audio, and video content covering some of the biggest MMA promotions like Rumble in the Cage, Unified MMA, and King of the Cage. I've worked as a sports entertainment personality for over five years and given play-by-play or featured promotions of KSW, ONE Championship, TKO, and Invicta FC. My work can be found in the USA Today Sports affiliate MMA Torch, Cageside Press, MMA Sucka, and Liberty Multimedia.

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