Damn am I glad this fight is over!

If you are reading this, this is the first time I have ever blogged or really ever written anything other than an essay or term paper for school so bear with me. I just wanted to get some things out there concerning this last fight.

Man am I glad this fight is over! That is hard for me to say, because I LOVE to fight! Those of you who know me know I love this sport! I am glad it is over only because of the training camp leading up to the fight. I wonder if Randy Couture had to go through this starting out....

When I got the call from Shane Dunnagan (probably the best promoter to promote MMA, but thats a different blog) to offer me the fight I was pretty pumped. It was another chance to get in the Cage. The only problem is I knew training was going to be difficult for this one. Being a High School wrestling coach this was running right in the middle of wrestling season. I work a 10+ hour a day job 5 days a week and run 3 hour practices a day for wrestling. Doesn't leave alot of time for my own training. Not to mention the travelling required for tournaments every weekend. My training partners were hit and miss due to their prior committments. And lastly a pregnant wife that required many doctor appointments! Doesn't make for a very productive training camp to say the least.

After I came up with a game plan for my training schedule that required sacraficing sleep for training time, it was time to go to work. I was travelling 2 to 3 hours twice a week to train with other camps and sneaking out of the office to get in workouts when I wasn't busy. One good thing was that I had one of the best 215 lb wrestlers in the southwest so at least I was able to do some wrestling with a big partner while I was coaching. Not the best training but at least I was maximizing my efforts with what I had to work with. I was doing this for the first month, but soon found out that the older I get the harder it is to burn the candle at both ends. I remember beaing able to do all things all the time as a young early 20's punk kid. As a 30 something "old man" this made me feel like I was getting beat down by a sledge hammer all day. I was getting hurt in light rolling drills and my immune system was non-existant, as I was getting sick every other week. I even suffered a knee injury that held me out a couple weeks. as well as countless other bumps and bruises. At this rate I wouldn't be alive for the fight let alone compete. Something had to give! I was commited to the wrestling team and quitting my job probably wouldn't have gone over to well with my pregnant wife and my four children. Unfortunately my only choice was to scale back practice! From going four to five days a week to two to three days a week. I was only travelling maybe once a week to once every other week just to get some live sparring or live rolling with other guys.

One thing is for certain, MMA is not an individual sport! Being a lifelong practioner of what people clasify as an "Individual Sport", I never understood why it was called that. Without teammates it is a miracle that someone can compete. There were weeks when I had no training partners and you would see me in my gym shadow boxing, lifting and just practing shots on the mat solo. It sure makes for one hell of a boring practice session. It got so bad I was calling in some of my former wrestlers to come in and train with me. I guess I took for granted my transition into MMA from being a pure wrestler. I brought these former wrestlers in and just assumed that they would be able to jump right in and do the boxing and jitz sparring like I did. Well...not so much. These guys really fell out of shape after their competition days were over. I think they had about a five minute cap on live training. Not to mention the gears were about slow and stop. I appreciate them being warriors and trying, but it proved to be a practice in futility! Still I want to thank all of the guys who gave it there all and still took the ass kicking and sore joints training with me. Even though this wasn't the most productive training it was still something.

About two weeks before the fight I heard about a Judo club in Las Cruces at New Mexico State University that had a Black Belt that competed Internationally and a big 230+ lbs Brown belt that were looking for guys to train with. I had trained briefly in Judo during my time in the USMC while I was training for the All-Marine Wrestling trials so I thought what the hell. So decided to make the trek over to Las Cruces train with them. It went about as well as I could expect for a Judo only workout. While it was fun to train in another discipline and I will definitely go back to tighteb up my standing Gi game, it wasn't helping me to get ready for a fight that was only two weeks out. I will say it did help my confidence a bit as to say I did a bit more than hold my own against the two high ranking Judokas. The only problem I really had with the training session was I was thinking that my cardio should have been alot better than it was. I really worried about that.

Turns out I got the damn Flu....Another damn set back! a week and a half out and I am sitting at 230 lbs and can barely lift myself out of bed. I get truly sick about once a year and it really knocks me out! What a time for it to happen. After all the setbacks and shitty training I was truly tempted to pull out of the fight. About five days I suffered the damn Flu and got back in the gym to do what I could. I just couldn't let down Shane and the XCFC or my family, friends and the few fans I might have. Not to mention my pride wouldn't let me pull out. I just kept thinking that if I truly was a warrior or a real "Fighter" I would endure this and fight anyways. Whatever the outcome I was going to fight and give it everything I had.

It didn't come in the best of shape to say the least. I weighed in 231 lbs easily the heaviest I have ever been at a fight. I was so damn big and bulky! I have always been alot faster than the heavyweights I've faced in wrestling, BJJ touneys and MMA. I was just hoping that I was still fast enough to not be to much of a target for this tall striker.

Fight night came and went and though I felt the least prepared I have ever been in any competetion I have ever been in it went well. I managed to coax a submission via Americana, 1:12 seconds into the 1st round and really take no damage. Not to go to much into a side trail, but if someone has you in a tight keylock and your arm is about to be ripped off, you might want to tap. I really hope that my opponent is OK, but damn man tap out! I was really tempted to let go of the lock after listening to the tendons in his arm literally tear. At one point, I loosened the lock and looked at the ref to see if he would stop the fight. After realizing that he was going to let it go on and that this guy's pride wasn't going to let him tap, I did the only thing I could do...rip his arm off! I can tell you in all my life I have never seen an arm bend the way this guy's did. I am pretty sure this dude is going to need some serious rehab on his shoulder and elbow.

I want to apologize to Shane and the XCFC, my family, friends and all the fans that came to watch the show for not coming in in the best shape. For not putting on the best show I could and for having an anticlimactic Main Event for an otherwise exciting show. I promise to come in better shape and put on a more exciting show the next go round!

Thanks and KNUCKLEUP!

Zeus