Robelis Despaigne Details His Transition from Olympic Medalist to UFC Fighter

While Robelis
Despaigne was initially apprehensive about dabbling in mixed
martial arts, it did not take him long to get signed with the
world’s top promotion once he did.

Despaigne (4-0) scored a four-second knockout win over Miles Banks
at Fury FC 84 in Houston on Dec. 3. This was the fourth consecutive
knockout for “The Bad Boy” in as many outings, with the last three
coming in a total fight time of 19 seconds. In an unprecedented
move,
Ultimate Fighting Championship matchmaker Mick Maynard signed
Despaigne within minutes of his win over Banks, which was also
announced live on the broadcast. Speaking about the surreal
experience, Despaigne recently told MMA Junkie:

“It’s finally happened. My dream finally happened…I knocked him
out. They raised my hand and I was pulled for an interview. When I
came back, I spoke to my manager AJ Ariosa literally two minutes
after the fight and he told me, ‘Hey, you’re signed to the UFC.’
Three minutes after that, they announced it in the cage. That’s how
it happened.”

A 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in Taekwondo from Cuba, Despaigne
began training at the age of nine and made it to the national team
at 16. However, the Cuban national began to be estranged from the
sport due to external factors, at which point his coach recommended
he transition to MMA. The 6-foot-7 heavyweight standout said:

“It was amazing. Since Cuba’s Angel Valodia Matos won the Olympics
(in 2000), I looked up to him. Every person that is an amateur,
that’s the biggest tournament you can go to. You’re representing
your country. … Once I got to that, I had to leave with a medal. Of
course, I wanted gold. But I had to leave with a medal for my
country.”

“I was losing love for the sport in 2012. A lot was going on in
Cuba where I wasn’t really happy about the sport. I was loving love
of it. My coach kept on telling me to do MMA. But all I had seen
about the UFC and MMA was knockouts. I was like, ‘I don’t want to
get knocked out.’ I was skeptical about it. But then I started
watching the fight and was like, ‘I can actually do this. I’m going
to go ahead and try this.’ Yeah, that’s what happened. That’s why I
went into MMA.”

Despaigne kicked off training MMA in Cuba in 2019 and moved to
Orlando, Florida in 2022. With the UFC 300 being targeted for a
yet-to-be-decided venue in Miami in March, “The Bad Boy” is
plotting a debut in his new home state.

“My ambitions have been very high through everything I’ve done.
That’s not going to change now. I want to fight three or four times
next year. That’s for sure. And I want to hopefully fight for the
belt in one or two years. … I’m going to fight for the belt – and
win it.”