Matt Arroyo appears as one of the competing fighters in the Spike TV network’s mixed martial arts contest reality series The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra. He is 24 years old with an MMA record of 2 – 1, and originally hails from Cobleskill, NY. Arroyo underwent most of his training in Tampa, FL. Arroyo finished high school back in the year 2000, and went on to attend higher learning at the University of Tampa, earning a place on the college baseball team as walk-on aspirant. But by 2003, he had begun studying Brazilian jiu jitsu at the Gracie Academy in Tampa, under the tutelage of Rob Kahn.
Arroyo focused more of his time on this new interest in the martial arts rather than swinging a bat and sinking home runs, and he eventually quit the baseball team. By the time he earned his degree in May of 2005, he had also managed to earn a purple belt in BJJ after constantly strenuous training sessions and hard work. Upon gradution, he pursued a career as a life insurance agent for nearly two years, before deciding that he would do MMA fighting full-time instead. He is now also an instructor for mixed martial arts in the Tampa area.
(Photo courtesy of UFC)