Former Marine Prepares for Saturday Night Muay Thai Fight

Marine veteran Joshua Rittenberry (5-3) is scheduled to fight Hector Vargas  Saturday evening as part of 11 WCK Muay Thai and MMA matches at Pala Fitness Center.

Fights start at 5 p.m. and go to midnight. Rittenberry and Bisset are scheduled to fight at 7 p.m.

Rittenberry has trained in some form of fighting since 2002 when he was taught some basic grappling moves by a fellow Marine.

If he could make a living from it, the 29-year-old said he would fight full-time or open his own gym, but for now he works the late shift at a Costco optical lab.

"I work there at night but this is who I am," Rittenberry said before a Thursday morning training session. "Being a fighter has become a part of me."

In 2009 after a deployment to Iraq, Rittenberry left the Marines and moved to Imperial Beach where he began to train and teach classes at Healthy Kicks Fitness.

Healthy Kicks closed about a month ago and owner Victor Beltran opened IB Martial Arts across the street from their former location on Palm Avenue. Ramon Beltran and Robert Aldama will be in Rittenberry's corner Saturday.

"You don't choose to fight. It calls you," he said. "A lot of people do their first fight and you never see them again. The ones who do it over and over again are people who just love it."

Rittenberry's evolution as a fighter began when he was based in Okinowa, Japan before being deployed to Afghanistan in 2005. There he met kickboxer Koji Arano at the gym on base.

As a Marine trained to kill, he said getting kicked or punched is easy.

"You're there to fight, you're there to kill, the fighting is the easy part," he said. "The hard part for Marines is settling down and learning the techniques. That was the hard part for me."

To improve technique and learn more, Rittenberry and Arano started the Fuji Fight Team that drew upon the different talents of Marines who wrestled in high school or had a history in fighting. Locals who worked on base also took part, like a janitor and guard with Kilkishen karate belts. Kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and other fighting styles were practiced.

"This was the most influential period with a teacher like Koji," he said. Workouts lasted a few hours a day. "It kind of ruined me, but it changed me forever."

Rittenberry said he also trained with a boxer and Muay Thai fighting Marine in Mississippi when based in Florida.