Ariel Sexton: I Fight For Myself

Ariel 'Tarzan' Sexton

Ariel Sexton could probably (actually, there is no probably about it) take you down in a fight. We are going to guess in less than a minute. But only if he needs to, not because anyone told him to. When most people think of any sport that involves combat fighting - boxing, kick boxing, martial arts - we automatically think of aggression, strength, violence, the big KO flashing across our screens. But for award winning jiu-jitsu mixed martial arts fighter Ariel "Tarzan" Sexton, fighting is a philosophy of life, it's an art form.

As both a teacher and fighter, Ariel has travelled the world to compete and teach the way of the warrior. And with a few jiu-jitsu awards in Costa Rica under his belt along with a couple of MMA championships and a gold medal in International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation Miami open, Ariel isn't planning to stop winning.
"I don't fight for other people, I fight for myself," he told City Times. "I want to do it when I'm hungry for it. I'm still a bit beat up from my last fight. I have some nerve damage - I hit a nerve in my eye and my whole right side of my face. It went numb and it's been numb for like four months. It feels like I have a staple on my face and it's itchy and it's numb and tingly around my nose and my lip. But it is getting better."

We didn't really know what to say to that. It's definitely dedication on another level. Ariel was recently in Dubai for the Salon des Grandes Complications as an Ambassador for watch brand Perrelet, a role that proves his career is heading in the right direction.
City Times sat with Ariel and talked about his journey in the competitive fighting world, jiu-jitsu's life philosophies and the importance of having a poker face.

Before you start thinking that Ariel goes into a fight beating his chest and letting out a man howl like the Tarzan of books and movies, think again. His alter ego nickname didn't come from his antics while fighting but from a source much closer to home.
"I never had a nickname and you kind of need to have one in this game. I didn't pick it, because you can't really pick yourself a nickname. But I was driving in the beach in Costa Rica in the jungle with my mum and girlfriend while I was doing an interview over the phone for a fight I had in Canada. The journalist kept asking me if I had a nickname and my mum was at the back, she's very loud, she kept talking and saying, "Say you're like a little monkey boy, swinging from the jungle and the trees, like Mowgli or Tarzan, say you're like Tarzan," and the journalist was like, 'Tarzan? That sounds good.'"

His mother is also the reason why Ariel entered the world of competitive fighting. And that lead him to discover the world of jiu-jitsu which he found was the only way forward for him.
"My mother put me into classes to put some discipline in me. It wasn't until I was a young adult around 19 that I started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and it was just an instant click. This is what I wanted to do. But I couldn't live off jiu-jitsu cause it's very hard to live off that kind of sport, especially as a beginner. You have to become an expert and that takes ten years. So I took to professional fighting to finance my jiu-jitsu career. Mixed martial arts and jiu-jitsu have taken me all around the world and I'm very blessed that I can inspire and help people and show them the art that changed my life."

According to many people, jiu-jitsu is more than a way of fighting it's a philosophy of life, interaction and engagement. It's an art form. But how and what does that mean personally to Ariel?
"Jiu-jitsu translates to the gentle art. Most of us are so imbalanced as it is, so it balances you out. If you're very hyper, you become calm, if you're an introvert you become an extrovert, if you're weak you can learn how to defend yourself and it opens up the doors to relationships with new people. If you're an angry person it will reveal your character very fast. It breaks you down. And then you build off that and that's how you grow. Jiu-jitsu breaks you down, it smashes you and you're humbled cause this could be a 15-year-old boy or a girl that smashes you."

It's also a sports form where size, rank or brute strength might not matter as much as it would in any other sport. Jiu-jitsu is a great equaliser it seems.
"This is the type of sport where it takes anybody for who you are and it doesn't matter if you're overweight, underweight, if you don't have one eye or if you don't have an arm. It doesn't matter what you have, it will always adapt to you no matter what. This first thing is you need to be humble enough to just accept what it is, go on to the mat, bow, be humble and trust and have faith that your instructor is going to guide you in the proper way. It doesn't matter who it is. Like in chess the king, the queen, the pawns they all get put back in the same box at the end of the day in jiu-jitsu, on the mats, you can be a lawyer, a world champion, a pilot but on the mat, everyone is equal."

And here he is acting as a brand ambassador for watch brand Perrelet. Brand endorsements and associations are vital to propel an athlete's career commercially. And the match between Ariel and Perrelet makes even more sense when their morals and acumen actually line up.
"I'm one of the top ranked fighters. I'm going to be fighting for a world title very soon and why not? The time is now, let's find a company that has the same kind of morals, principles, good people behind them and Perrelet fit in with that. They decided to take on this MMA fighter and use him  as an ambassador of time. For me, time is everything. Timing is so important for a fighter. I have to train for months and months and months to be perfect for 15 minutes."
Like many individual sports, training is the absolute root of how and why success comes about. But without team mates, does the journey become easier, harder, or lonelier?
"It gets lonely, especially when you lose. When you lose no body wants to be your friend, when you win everybody wants to be your friend. I just came off a big win, which is probably why I'm here."
Although physical fitness is incredibly important, what about mental strength and training? How important is mental endurance and control against an opponent in order to outwit him?
"I've been studying so much psychology because I know that in combat sports your mind set is everything. Mental preparation, is so important to be a champion. I try to watch as many comedies as I can before a fight so I can stay loose and laugh. I try and focus on the moment. I try to relax. cause I know instincts are going to take over. All the muscle memory is already there, I've trained as much as I possibly could train so I know that in a moment I will be able to react when I need to, but the main thing is to just remain calm no matter what. You have to have a poker face. If you show emotions you can lose a fight and I've lost a fights cause I got mad and I got raged out. Go crazy and you'll make a mistake. Fighting isn't personal, it's a sport, you're literally shaking hands, before and after. You're just in there to try and outwit the person, check mate, that's it."

• Dubai