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Vice Journalist and Undefeated Fighter Djatmiko Waluyo Excited for Indonesian Debut
Opportunity knocks for Djatmiko Waluyo, who will be fighting in Asia for the first time on Friday night. The half Indonesian, half Mexican welterweight is undefeated and will be fighting for as major international promotion for the first time at ONE: Tribe of Warriors.
Waluyo is perhaps better known as a journalist than a fighter. His articles have appeared on some major MMA websites, but the 33-year-old’s record speaks for itself and he will be hoping to win a sixth straight fight when he faces Trestle Tan in Jakarta.
The moment will be particularly poignant for Waluyo because he has never fought in Indonesia before, but feels a strong connection to the country.
“I'm half Indonesian and half Mexican, my father is from Surabaya and my mother is from Monterrey. My father did Pencak Silat, the Indonesian martial art. I was always fascinated by that and always asked him about stories of him fighting and training back in the day. But we lived in small towns and I never had the opportunity to train any martial art, so I did regular sports.”
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Although he didn’t get into martial arts until slightly later in life, Waluyo was always athletic and excelled at another high contact sport.
“I had an American football scholarship in Mexico, but in 2003 I dropped out to go live in Indonesia. I learned Indonesian that year, met my family, and truly learned to be Indonesian, not just have it in my bloodline.”
ONE: Tribe of Warriors is set for the Istora Senayan Stadium this Saturday night (local time) and several members of Waluyo’s Indonesian family will be in attendance. Other work commitments mean that will never be able to train and fight on a full time basis, but he says he’s found a way to fit his workouts around his day job.
“I’m now publisher and producer for Vice Sports in Latin America and I used to be editor and producer of Fightland in Spanish. It gives me a chance to change my perspective every day around sports and being an athlete helps me bring perspective to the media outlet as well. Besides that, I also write for UFC en Español. It’s a lot of work and it’s difficult to train, but I wouldn’t change either one. I’ve accepted both challenges and I will continue with them both.”
His last fight was two years ago when Waluyo beat a Brazilian fighter on a Jungle Fight card in Rio De Janeiro. His 5-0 record is even more impressive when you take into consideration how infrequently he fights and how little time the 33-year-old has for training,
“I wish I could get in four or five hours of training a day, but there are days that I can’t even make it to the gym because of work. So for this training camp, I would actually go run in the middle of the night and workout at odd hours to get the work in. I think there are very few professional fighters in MMA that have the opportunity to be fighting full-time. Most fighters have other jobs to help them make it through. I’m in the same position and it’s not that easy to train.”
With such a tight schedule, Waluyo is hoping that, if he’s lacking something in terms of the quantity of his training, he can more than make up for with the quality of the workouts he’s getting in.
“I train jiu-jitsu with Dan Schon at Bujutsu in Mexico City. He's been jiu-jitsu world champ in several belts and categories and is a three-time Newaza world champ. We train striking there as well with other coaches and I also train at Union Mat with former UFC fighter Juan Puig.”
Waluyo decided against attending the recent TUF: Latin America tryouts because he was worried he would get selected and have to give up his day job. However, the opportunity to fight for ONE Championship was too good to turn down.
“I think ONE is one of the most important MMA organizations in the world, so there was no way I would not take them into consideration. I kept seeing my MMA fighting days continuously getting further away into my past. So when I received the offer from ONE, everything just re-opened up again, and it re-opened in a larger scale that I hadn’t had before. It’s a great opportunity to be in a huge fighting organization and re-connect with my Indonesian and Asian side.”
The idea of fighting in Jakarta obviously appealed to the Indonesian in Waluyo. But the opportunity to step into the cage with a Filipino will also bring out the Mexican in him as he reflects on some of the legendary boxing bouts that have matched protagonists from this pair of countries together.
“Mexican and Filipino boxers have a healthy rivalry, mostly represented through the wonderful fights that (Manny) Pacquiao and (Juan Manuel) Marquez gave us all. Trestle Tan is a tough Filipino fighter, and I know Filipinos are tough, period. They have that same hard nosed fighting spirit as Mexicans do and that is what I expect of my opponent.”
(Follow @JamesGoyder on Twitter)
