I sit done with Jose and talk about our time in Ranger Battalion. The Op tempo we were under during our years serving together with deployments and training cycles, and how it was tougher on our loved ones than it was on us due to the nature of being in Special Operations.

Jose speaks with me about how he fell in love with martial arts and MMA when he was about 12 years old when he watched the original bare-knuckle fights before the UFC days. After losing his mother at a young age he began heading down the wrong path and knew he needed to make some changes sooner than later. not knowing anything about the military he just wanted to do "whatever the hardest thing" was and that was Ranger Regiment and going to Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP).

Jose explains to me what it was like for him when he decided to leave the Regiment to become Ranger school Instructors and then moving on to the big Army.

Jose has always pursued MMA throughout his military career whether it was representing his Battalion or pursuing it on a professional level. Due to injuries, he had to step away some from MMA and he explains to me how he got into modeling for Romance novel covers.

Jose is in the works of building a consulting business and a gym in his hometown in North Carolina.

IG: @jbarreiro217