HAVANA, Cuba. – At 17 years old, Aryan Manes Altagracia, a promising athlete from Matanzas, has charted a different path than many of his contemporaries, who pursue perhaps more conventional successes. His dream is ambitious: to fight in the octagons of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and become champion of that prestigious Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) circuit.
The tall young man is part of a new era of Creole athletes who seek to break the mold. However, beyond their talent and dedication, the obstacles to reaching that world of high level and fierce competition are significant and diverse. Above all, because in Cuba there are no professional fight circuits and there are few academies that offer comprehensive MMA training.
Without the possibility of competing locally, athletes face stagnation in their progression and, at the same time, their chances of getting on the radar of sponsors, talent scouts, and fight show promoters are diminished. Practically their only recourse is to display themselves on social networks.
In this unfavorable context, to fulfill his dream, Aryan would have to emigrate. “I have a lot of faith and I will fight against any obstacle that stands in my way; “I am going to reach that goal no matter what, wherever I am,” he commented in an interview with CubaNetalthough he assures that for the moment what is appropriate is to concentrate on training to improve his technique, strength and speed.
He began as an athlete at the age of seven, in the discipline of artistic gymnastics. “Then there was a recruitment at the primary school where I studied, for taekwondo; We talked about it as a family and they authorized me to take the aptitude tests. To make that decision, I listened a lot to my father, who was also a taekwondo athlete and has been my guide throughout this journey,” he said.
Currently, the young man is studying the last degree of pre-university education at the Luis Augusto Turcius Lima Sports Initiation School (EIDE), in the province of Matanzas, where he trains taekwondo as his main sport and is also interested in learning judo, wrestling , karate and boxing. Outside of school, in an external area he is instructed in jiu-jitsu to complement his training as a mixed martial arts fighter.
“As a child I watched the films of Jean Claude Van Dame and Chuck Norris; “I wanted to be a great fighter like the characters they played,” he says. With the passage of time he has changed his idols: now he looks in the mirror of the UFC fighters Yoel Romero (also Cuban), Nate Díaz, Anderson “La Araña” Silva and the featherweight titleholder, the Georgian-Spanish Ilia Topuria.
Seeking to emulate them, his daily routine is that of a consecrated man. Inside and outside the EIDE, his life revolves around the physical training gyms and the tatami mats and mattresses where he learns the techniques of each discipline. “You have to increase your dedication to level up, this is a training stage. That is the first step towards my dreams,” he says.
The hours of sacrifice have been returned to him with good results, since in his short career he has not yet known defeat. As a taekwondoka, he has provincial golds in the 36 kg, 48 kg, and 50 kg categories, a weight in which he also won the International Open held in the Sports City of Havana, in 2021. This year he also won the national title of the school games (at 66 kg).
He also won the gold medal of the National Shiaikan Combat Jiu-jitsu Championship (in the 61 kg category), held in 2023 in the resort of Varadero, Matanzas. The same result was repeated in the Pan American Games based in Panama, that same year.
Although the road is long and arduous, Aryan knows the importance of each of his steps in the race to reach the most famous professional fighting octagon in the world. “All this, and what I know is to come in terms of success, is being added to my resume as a letter of introduction, for when I can start pursuing that dream of fighting in the UFC,” he points out.
“My father and my family are the fuel that gives me strength. I am working to make that goal a reality and nothing and no one is going to stop me from achieving it. My conviction is above all, I will not stop until I become a mixed martial arts champion,” he concluded.
