“I was raised by a single mom, and she started her own business,” said Leavitt. “She’s worked hard my entire life to take care of us. Even though she was successful, she was trapped by it. And even though she had the wealth and the stability, she didn’t have the freedom to do what I think she would have liked to do with her life and have the fun and accomplish the goals that she wanted to do. And even though she had the fulfilling family life and she raised three good kids and she’s a grandma now, I saw how hard it was for my mom to make those sacrifices. And when I look at fighting, I see a path to freedom and flexibility in my life. I can train for four hours in the morning, and then hang out with my wife for a few hours, and I just get more time to spend doing the things that I love, and spend time with the people that I love. I feel like I might be miserable if I was on a schedule my entire life.”
Well, there is a schedule to be kept, as he’s got a fight to get into on Saturday. That’s just fine with Leavitt, who, despite not having 20 fights under his belt, knows that he belongs. He’s known it for a long time, too. Now it’s time for the world to see it.
“Since I’ve been 18, there were some positions where I would get the better of fighters who do this for a living,” said the Syndicate MMA standout. “And I felt like I was really having a lot of success with them and I felt like I was really there. The way we perform in a fight and the way we perform in the gym is sometimes very different, but it definitely helps me mature as a fighter, having to wait, and I feel like my career will be better off because of it. But it was very hard to be in the gym every day with these killers, these people that I watch on TV, and know that I could do that if only the stars aligned. I’m glad I had to wait and work to get that shot, even if I thought I was ready a year or two prior.”
