MMA fighter says people should respect each other's vaccination decisions

Local MMA fighter Roque Martinez is sounding off on latest Executive Order from the governor. Martinez said the order will make it difficult to train for his fights.

"I'm not an anti-vaxxer, I just choose not to do it for myself," he said. "If it's something that someone chooses that they wanna do to feel safer themselves then, by all means."

Martinez said the latest EO has divided the island and what the island needs now is to come together and fight the virus.

"It threw me off because, just because my personal choice to not do that, it supersedes a lot of things I have done good for the community," he said. "I'm sure it's with a lot of other people. I've seen Claire, Frank "The Crank" they've come out and taken a stand as well. These are good people in the community. Just because they chose not to get the vaccination, in a sense people look at us as the bad people in the community now, like we're part of the problem."

With the EO in effect, Martinez is trying to figure out how to train for his future fights and he hopes that he can do that on the island. Martinez said that if he has to, he may need to fly back to Seattle and that's something that he doesn't want to do.

"Not only is the gym, it's part of what I use for my job," he said. "I literally need gym access for what I do."

"It's mind-boggling how they're gonna take away my rights to a gym because I'm not vaccinated," he said. "Which is like I said, it's a way that people stay healthy. Science has proven that being healthy is a great way to combat the COVID sickness."

"I think they're going about it the wrong way. But like I tell people, I'll deal with it," Martinez said. "It's my choice to not get vaccinated so I have to deal with the consequences of not being able to go to the gym."

He'll be back on island soon, and he gave this message to the people of our island.

"If there's anything I can say it's respect everyone," he said. "Whatever someone chooses to do, well being that its nothing crazy or bad, just respect people's decisions and choices."