Luke Trainer is knocking on the door of light heavyweight contention in Bellator MMA, but his goal and purpose is much more defined by what he’s doing outside of the cage. Trainer, whose parents have fostered children since he was 12-years old, has just as much focus on creating foster homes than he does his fighting career. So much so, he’s prepared to stop fighting when he’s made enough money to achieve those goals.
Talking with reporters at this week’s Bellator Champions Series London media day, Trainer explained that his focus on creating foster homes is something he takes just as seriously as a fight camp.
“I do a bunch of work with schools now. I work with children in care. My role is to go in there as a mentor figure, teach them martial arts, and then we have time after the session where they can confide in me. I’m just an outside party where I can give advice or just be a listening ear. Actually, after this fight, [I’m going to] get the win, double my purse, the plan is to get my first property, and that’ll be the first children’s home I open. Mom and Dad are still fostering, but everything with foster care is still No. 1 for me.”
Trainer, who will face Laurynas Urbonavicius on Saturday in London, believes there’s plenty of advantages for him in this fight as he looks to put on a performance much stronger than his last win over Grant Neal. With his eyes set on current champion Corey Anderson, he is eyeing the finish in London but still his overall main dream is in his crosshairs.
“Once I’ve made enough money to do what I want to do in foster care, I will leave this sport. I’m not sticking around to become a journeyman or that jazz. My end goal, when I leave this sport, I will have a chain of children’s homes, purely for 13-18 year olds, between them age ranges, the kids that get thrown to the wayside. Those will be the children that I’m focused on. I’ll bring martial arts, I’ll bring a different outlook, a different set of skills that other children’s homes don’t bring. I don’t think there’s enough done for those kids, and in speaking to them I think I have what it takes and I have the people around me to help me. We’ll be helping a bunch of human beings become better, safe and loved human beings.”
Chasing his dreams both inside his fighting career and outside of it, Trainer discussed his capability of focusing on both while not being thrown off his pursuit of either. He does admit, however, that he’s not fully convinced that focusing on his goals outside of fighting while being fully entrenched in his career, is a good thing.
“I still haven’t worked out if it’s a good thing or not. There’s some guys that do this sport and it’s the only thing they ever want to do; they would give up their entire family, their loved ones, everything and just fight and get a belt. For me, there’s a lot more important things. I think God wants me to do this stuff with the foster care and that is why I’m here.”
Not taking anything away from his opportunities as a fighter, Trainer acknowledges that his martial arts career is fully paving the way for him to do all that he wants to do with children’s homes.
“It’s a blessing that I get to do this sport to get money to then do that. This [fighting] is like a stepping stone. I know that may sound silly to say because I’m in such a great position right now but if there was a choice, don’t fight tonight and become a foster care owner, or never become a foster care owner and fight for the belt tomorrow, I would scrap this, I’d say ‘see you later’ to everyone and I’d go be a foster care owner. I love this sport, this sport has given me so much, I’m super grateful but that’s what I’m here for. I’m going to earn as much money as I can here, win as many belts as I can here, when it’s time to go, I’m going, and I’m going to go help some humans.”
