Chivers was already an athlete in the making. He played rugby and did trampolining, but that all changed after his first taste of fighting.
“I quit everything else after that. I have been looking at it very seriously for the last year or two. I love the sport and I love fighting.
“It is hard to explain. It is a surreal feeling fighting someone. It is everything. Getting your hand raised at the end of a fight is incredible. Training sucks but the fight is always worth it.”
Lots of trainingTraining and Chivers have become constant companions. He spent three months in Thailand last year at an MMA camp, with support from Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti, Blitz Surf Shop and Te Kura Awhio MMA.
Now based at Auckland Oliver MMA, he has been hardcore training in the lead-up to San Diego — multiple sessions of kickboxing, jiu jitsu, and strength and conditioning work each day of the week bar Sunday.
The gym is also his home.
“I live there with another boy called JJ. We are both dedicated to it. I was meant to go to university last year but I went to Thailand instead.”
The boys live at the gym for free. Coach and ATTNZ head Oliver recognised their dedication and talent by providing free accommodation and funds towards their American venture.
Chivers says leaving Gisborne was a necessity.
“There are more high-level guys in Auckland to train with. It is like being in a pond, swimming and fighting with bigger fish. In Auckland I am constantly tested. In Gisborne I am the biggest fish.”
Te Kura Awhio head coach and director Barry Kingi-Thomas says the club could not be prouder of Chivers’ dedication and progress.
“Byron is at the forefront of his generation of fighters,” said Kingi-Thomas. “He has a huge amount of potential. In fact, in Tairawhiti there is a huge amount of talent and people who could do what he is doing. They just need to be as dedicated as he is.
“Byron needs exposure to high-level competition, It is the big fish in a small pond thing and he can only get that overseas.”
Kiwi team at Las VegasChivers knows this too well through fighting his way into the Kiwi team for Las Vegas.
Earlier this year he fought John Brewin (Auckland MMA) — a 2015 NZ representative for the same competition in the US. Chivers overcame an early fright in the form of a jarring uppercut to the jaw to win the fight and secure a slot in the team.
Kingi-Thomas says a lot of high-level Kiwi athletes have gone overseas used to winning only to lose and throw in the towel.
Chivers has no expectation of taking the international circuit by storm and he knows he will need to work hard at it.
“Byron is realistic about that,” says Kingi-Thomas. “What we have tried to instil in him is a sense of professionalism.
He knows when he goes away he represents not only his gym but his family and his tribe.”
His potential was underlined with a shock win at the 2016 NZ Grappler NoGi Nationals in March.
Chivers, a blue belt at the time, got black belt Dan “The Gravedigger” Digby to submit on his way to placing second in the adult NoGi advanced men’s up to 88.5kg division.
“That was weird,” said Chivers. “Dan tapped and I stood up and the stadium was just quiet. Usually everyone loses to Dan. He is like a mentor and an absolute legend to us.”
Purple beltChivers was awarded his purple belt a month later by Oliver at an April training camp run by visiting Alliance Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor, Joao Paulo Faria — Faria being the same instructor he is now training under at San Diego.
Chivers’ dream is to compete in the professional UFC ranks.
After the San Diego camp, BJJ and MMA competitions, his final stop before returning home will be Coconut Creek in Florida.
There he will train under American Top Team founder Ricardo Liborio. American Top Team is one of the premier feeders of MMA fighters to the UFC.
No matter where he places at upcoming events or where he ends up, his core values of passion and dedication come down to his roots at Te Kura Awhio.
And in victory or defeat, Chivers says there are two things he will always be.
“On weight and on time.”
