Troy Everett may not have the “household name” status of a lot of other BJJ athletes out there, but make no mistake: the guy is a legend.
Everett, a brown belt at Mile High Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Colorado, is a crucial member of the small, but mighty Team No Sleep — a.k.a. the team that makes Fight 2 Win happen just about every weekend throughout the year. Everett does a little bit of everything for the promotion, working a lot and — as the name suggests — sleeping very little when shows are on. It’s a tough job, but he’s kept up with it over the years since he met CEO Seth Daniels through a college radio internship. “I was big into MMA at the time and a fresh white belt,” says Everett. “The guys whose show I worked for did all of the voice-overs for Seth’s commercials, and he put me in contact. I asked Seth a bunch of times to work for him and he said yes and then I kept showing up and now he can’t get rid of me.”
Everett (whose nickname is “The Night Pigeon”) has come a long way since those white belt days. He started training BJJ for the same reasons that a lot of people do: “wanting to do MMA but not get punched in the face.”
“I just kept doing because I really liked it. It gave me confidence I never had before while making me realize that there are a lot of people in the world that can beat me up very easily.”
Since then, it’s been a road of ups and downs for the brown belt, filled with the highs of winning and the lows of multiple losses in a row. But although he’s won a few tournaments, Everett says his proudest victories have taken place on the very stage he helps build. “[One of my favorite wins was] my first F2W match because I was 0-3 at the time and never thought I would win a match on the stage, so that feeling was incredible. Especially since it was in my hometown in front of my friends and family. And the other is beating Chris Leben in Hawaii at F2W 100. Dude is a legend, and it was the biggest match and win of my life.”
It isn’t exactly a rare occurrence to see Everett on the F2W stage. In fact, he’s competed a whopping eighteen times for the promotion — more than anyone else in F2W history. Sometimes, his appearances have been voluntary. Oftentimes, he just “ends up” on the card.
“I compete a lot because Seth needs people to fill cards and I have an inability to say no to matches. Also sometimes he just sends me match confirmations so I find out about them after they get announced,” he says. “It is definitely hard to compete and work, but it also helps me out because it gives me something to do and keeps my mind off it for the most part. I’m an over-thinker.”
Everett will compete in his nineteenth F2W match tonight at F2W 112, hoping to add another win to his current record of 9-9. This week, he’ll be going up against Mike Nelson in a 215lb match. Next week at F2W 113, he’ll face his biggest challenge yet: a match against Vince Barbosa for the currently vacant 185lb Masters No-Gi Brown Belt title. “I’m extremely nervous, but excited. Vince is a really talented guy, so I’m excited to test myself against him,” says Everett.
Before Everett takes on his title match, you can watch him compete against Mike Nelson (plus many other exciting matches) when Fight 2 Win 112 streams live on FloGrappling tonight!
