It is not every day that you get to see an MMA fighter that idolizes a tennis star but David Forster proudly stands out as a representative of this rare anomaly.
The 26-year-old Slovenian will return to action at BRAVE CF 81 when he takes on Chad Griffiths in a Super Lightweight battle. While Forster is now considered as one of the most promising fighters in Europe, growing up, he had dreamt of becoming a tennis player.
Forster’s first real encounter with tennis came before he turned 10-years-old. He stumbled upon the 2005 French Open Semi-Final matchup between Tennis superstars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and this put a seed in an already driven Forster to choose tennis as his career.
“I became an instant fan of Rafael Nadal, because of his work ethics, always fighting till the very end, never breaking a racket and always very respectful to everyone. I liked his character on the court and off the court,” Forster recalls.
Forster developed dreams of becoming a tennis star just like his idol Rafael Nadal and even trained himself through conditioning sessions. Interestingly, Forster was already involved in another sport during this time: football.
He was an accomplished goalkeeper in football as a youngster and won multiple trophies for best goalkeeper as well. Despite this success in football, his need to become more independent, pushed him towards tennis.
Unfortunately, fate hit a smash at him when his parents divorced and financial difficulties forced him to stop the expensive sport of tennis. The divorce of his parents derailed his sporting career completely and he started gaining weight.
“It was difficult for me; I don’t really remember 2-3 years of my life, I was fat. Those years are just kind of a blur. I think I got over it in high-school, I just kind of accepted it and moved on with my life,” Forster said.
It was at high school that Forster first tried out MMA. While he was not fully committed to the sport initially, he eventually came back after enjoying success in weightlifting. And after this, there was no looking back for Forster.
He is now preparing for his return to the most global MMA promotion in the world and one thing that he has learned from his rollercoaster sporting career is that hard work beats everything.
“I feel like anyone can achieve anything with hard work, you just need to put everything you have into it and you can be successful in anything. I chose Mixed Martial Arts, but I am sure if I tried something else and worked hard as I am working at this, I could be successful in other things as well,” he concluded.
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