I'm fighting next week!

It's been exactly two months and two days since I've been in Thailand and I finally feel like i'm in fight shape. My cardio wasn't very good when I first arrived, it was actually pretty good for American standards, but it was pretty crap for fighting in Thailand.  In the U.S. before I came, I would bike 12 miles (19km) almost everyday, and do Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu 5x a week.  My diet was relatively healthy, and I had stopped drinking all together a month before I came.  But training in Thailand takes you up to another level.  First it's hot as hell and running in the sun can be draining, and second, instead of just going for a 4km run which would be my normal workout, in Thailand, it's simply your warm up for an instead 2 hour class.

So today was the day, I wanted to test my cardio to see if I was ready to fight.  I started off with my 2.4mile (3.8 km) warm up run and set a personal best.  After the usual shadow boxing and bag work, I went three intense full on rounds with the best guy at our gym, Mirkko, who also happens to be one of the best K-1 fighters in Estonia.  He has amazing boxing, cardio, speed, power, technique, and experience so I'm quite fortunate to have him here at the gym.  He's also a very funny guy and has become a good friend.

We've sparred together before, mainly boxing only and he's always gotten the best of me, but every time we spar, I learn something and more importantly, I improve.  Today was the first real time we had the chance to spar Muay Thai and it was intense.  For three 3.5 minute rounds he comes at me super aggressive, hitting me with combos. I got caught a few times which reminded me to keep my hands up, especially while backing away.  It was exhausting, for both of us.  I fired back and caught him with a few good body kicks and punches.  But what really made me feel good about myself was not backing down, losing heart, and being able to keep up with his intense cardio.  He's had over 45 pro fights, so I knew what I was getting into and never expected to best him, but what I got out of it was so much more.  We were both physically exhausted after the three rounds, and it was good to know that he was just as tired as I was.

But class didn't end there.  After hitting the bags I did three intense rounds of padwork with the head trainer Chon. He had seen me give it 110% with Mirkko but pushed me hard regardless which I appreciated, I was physically exhausted afterwards, but I wanted more. So I asked Piers, another guy that's currently training for a fight to spar with me.  We did two more rounds of good Muay Thai sparring.  It was after all that, and a lot of thinking for the past few days that I finally decided to ask Chon for a fight.

I tried approaching him after class, but I could tell he was busy so I waited until after dinner.  I was worried to be honest.  I was worried that he would tell me that I'm not ready yet, or that I need to train twice a day for the next three weeks if I want to fight.  Honestly, I don't know what I would have done if he had given me that ultimatum.  I know that my unorthodox training schedule may seem lax, but I do it so my body, muscles, joints, and bones can properly recover and avoid injury.  If I was 22 and 20 kilos lighter, I might consider training twice a day, but being 31 years old and close to 99 kilos (217lbs) I know what my body can and cannot do.  All I know is ever since I've been training this way, I've lost 4 kilos (8lbs), retained all my strength and muscle, lost 1.5 inches (3.8cm) off my waist, and my cardio has improved through the roof. So I'm going to continue to do exactly what I'm doing regardless of what anyone else says.

Originally I wanted to get down to 93kg before starting to fight, but I decided, fuck it, I'm itching to fight, feel ready, feel good, and I would ideally like to win this fight without any injuries and ask for another fight straight away.

So I asked Chon, who was sitting at the dinner table with all of the Thai trainers, and told him I was ready to fight.  He asked me how soon and I said next week.  I was extremely happy, thrilled even when he didn't hesitate, ask me to train more, or anything, he knew I was ready and agreed to set it up asap.  So nothing's official yet, but it's in the works and I should be fighting very soon.

Wish me luck!  And if you haven't already, add me on facebook.


Warm Regards,

Johnny @ My Fight Camp