David Delapaz grew up in Vista, CA, and has lived there for his entire 15 years of life. While he played football as a kid, he used to watch muay thai fights with his dad and fell in love with the sport at a very young age. “Muay thai was always so much more interesting to me,” he says, when comparing it to other sports or activities.

He began his training at a very young age (around 4 years old). In terms of the number of fights he has done; it is so many at this point, he lost count a while ago.

Delapaz has a great record thus far—completing and winning in tournaments like the 2019 US Muay Thai Open WEST Championships, the USMTO West 2018 in Phoenix and in 2019, the TBA Classic Muay Thai World Expo. In the later, he beat out a very tough Canadian opponent who went on to win the gold medal in last year’s IFMA Muay Thai Official World Championship in Antalya Turkey.

But it isn’t about the win records for Delapaz necessarily—although he says the winning does really excite him. “I just like to fight,” he says. “I like to forget about it and train like I am still trying to prove myself.”

Going into his last tournament, for example, Delapaz was very disciplined—running anywhere from 12 to 15 miles. He says he even trained hard enough to be able to still eat at his favorite restaurant—McDonalds.

While he still sometimes gets a little nervous before a fight, when he gets in the ring, “it feels so natural,” he says. “Overall, it’s just so much fun. If you ever been in a fight there’s a feeling you get inside and you just can’t get it doing anything else.”

I guess we’ll see what the future has to hold for Delapaz, but there is no doubt that it is his time to shine. “I definitely see myself fighting because in all honesty it’s the only thing I know.”