Done and Done.

King of the Cage: Underground 69 is over and it went well.  I won the main event fight via armbar at 1:48 of the first round, even though it seemed a lot longer than that.  More than anything I am relieved to have that fight over with.  While my preparation going into the fight was good, the week before the fight was not.  Almost exactly a week before fight time I injured my back.  I'm not sure how, but I could barely put pants and socks on.  Just getting around and doing everyday activities was tough, never mind fighting.  A few chiropractor and massage appointments helped a little, but I was still in a lot of pain, and not very mobile.  To make things worse, at the same time I got sick and had to go on antibiotics.  Those things really kicked my ass and made me feel sluggish.  Cutting weight while on antibiotics was brutal.  Needless to say, the week leading up to the fight was less than ideal.  Luckily all of the hard work had been done by then anyways.

Sizing up the opponent.

As for the fight, everything went pretty much according to game plan.  My brother Mitch and I had done the scouting report and put together our plan.   It was as if Mitch choreographed the entire fight.    I was able to stay patient and make it through my opponents striking and exploit a few positions we knew I could get to.  I would have liked to pull the trigger a lot more in the striking aspect of the fight as I feel that my striking is much better than I showed in the fight.  The one thing I didn't want to do though, was get in a firefight with a guy who's strongest skill is boxing and who's most dangerous weapon is fast flurries of punches.  With my limited mobility in my back I was much more keen to get my hands on him, control some heavy top positions and take what he would give me, which turned out to be an arm-bar.

Looking to finish.

For those of you that were at the fight and booed my opponents apparent lack of respect in the cage after the fight it's worth noting that I went and talked with him afterwards and he was pretty cool about everything.  For people who've never fought it's tough to describe what happens to you at the end of the fight.  You have so many chemicals being dumped into your system that it's tough to keep your composure, especially after losing a tough fight that you spent countless hours preparing for. trust me, I've been there.

Now I'm looking forward to healing, relaxing a bit and getting ready for my next fight which looks to be not very far away.

Thanks to Trevor Dowhaniuk for the pictures I've used here, he captured some great ones.

No, I Am Not "Getting Jacked" For This Fight.

"Are you jacked?"  "Are you excited?"  "Are you getting pumped?"

Every time I fight I hear these questions at least a bazillion times in the week leading up to the fight.  When I shrug my shoulders and answer with "not really" or "not yet" people seem taken aback.  The truth is I've never been one to get all jazzed up before I fight and there's a few reasons. 

1. It's counter-productive.  Some people think that fighting angry, or "psyched up" is the way to go.  That may be true if you think that overwhelming your opponent is the only way you can win.  If you have faith in your training, your skills and your game-plan though, getting all "psyched up" is a detriment to clear thinking.  
2. When your emotional level gets too high you run the risk of an emotional crash when something doesn't go your way; and in a tough fight there are bound to be moments where not everything is going your way.  In such moments it pays to have a clear mind and be able focus on correcting the situation.
3. Getting psyched up burns a lot of mental energy.  It can zap the system as badly as using up too much physical energy before the fight.  I often chuckle to myself when I see new fighters with their hands taped and mouthguards in, walking around with angry faces several hours before they fight.  Do they know how much work it takes to look that pissed off for that long?
4. This is not new. This will be my 8th professional fight. Before that, I had several amateur fights.  I've fought overseas.  I've wrestled for a National Championship.  This fight is important.  It does not, however, overshadow everything I've done previously.  

   

   This will not be me at weigh-ins.

If you are coming to watch me fight on Saturday you'll probably see my opponent come into the cage yelling, jumping around, gesturing to the crowd and mean mugging.  He might try some of the same stuff at weigh-ins. That's fine.  Maybe, for his own confidence, he feels like he needs to do that, but you won't see any of that from me.  A few hours before the fight you're likely to find me hanging out, playing cards, having a nap or sneaking out to talk to some friends in the crowd.  When it comes time to focus on the task at hand I'll be all business, but there's no sense wasting all of my energy before hand.

I'm not saying that I don't get nervous or scared; I do.  I've said before that anyone who says they don't is either lying or stupid.  You should be nervous or scared.  Those feelings you get is your body preparing itself for battle, pulling out those fight or flight (hopefully fight) responses that have been ingrained in our DNA for millenia.  If you aren't getting those feelings, your body and mind are not properly prepared to do what you are going to do.  I recently heard a quote from Urijah Faber that sums it up nicely.  It went something along the lines of "Yeah, I get butterflies; I just make them fly in formation".
Word.

Why Do we Fight (or... Why Fighting is Important)

People often ask me why I fight.  There's a hundred reasons, and I could talk about each of them for hours.  I could talk about the evolutionary or anthropological reasons that people fight; the reasons that the fight or flight response is hardwired into our brains to facilitate human survival.  I could talk about growing up in a family where stories of warriors, be they athletes, schoolyard scrappers or decorated WWI and WWII veterans figured prominently into family history.  I could talk about the need to test my limits and challenge myself both physically and mentally.  I could talk about the purity of combat sports; no balls, nets, hoops or equipment. Just you, your opponent and all of the skill and preparation you could both muster.  I've heard a lot of different fighters explain why they fight a lot of different ways.  I ran across this video recently and enjoyed a slight twist on the overcooked question of "Why do you fight?" Instead of dealing with the question the speaker in the video discusses why fighting is important. 

King of the Cage: Underground 69

 Fight night is about a week away and I've done most of the hard work.  it's time to let me body heal, finalize some gameplan ideas, sharpen a few technical skills and make sure that my weight is good.  I'm looking forward to getting back in the cage, even though it's always a bit of  a crazy feeling.  People who tel you they don;t get nervous are either lying or stupid.  That nervous feeling is your body preparing itself to do something it doesn't normally do.  If that's not happening, something's wrong. I've fought 10 or 11 times now and I still get those feelings.  The only real difference is now I expect them and they don't really bother me.











Steel City MMA

Steel City MMA is opening it's doors on Sept. 1st 2011.  You can now register online for Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Wrestling, MMA or any combination of the above. Check out the on-line registration page.  Click on the "Steel City MMA tab, change the date to September and select the class or classes you'd like to enroll in.  Also, join our facebook page and check out our website for prices, schedule and other info.

The Tornado is Back... Big Time
Un Sik "Tornado" Song (8-0) finished his mandatory military service about a month ago.  It didn't take him long to get back in the action. Un Sik fought two weeks ago in DEEP: Grachan against Atsushi Ueda (8-3) and won via unanimous decision.  He said he had his opponent in a deep triangle and an armbar and had the guy fully mounted but couldn't finish him.  He seemed a bit embarassed that he gassed towards the end of the fight, but give the guy a break, he hadn't fought in two years.  Now that he's back to training full time his conditioning shouldn't be a factor for long.  Un Sik isn't working a part time job, and is instead focusing on fighting.  He has set himself a pretty tough schedule for his first months back.  After his last fight he has a pro kickboxing match next month and then another fight in DEEP the month after that.  If he wins that fight it looks like he'll be getting a title shot against Katsunori Kikuno (13-2), who also fights in DREAM.  The return of 'Tornado San" has been getting some decent attention on the interwebs, with articles and people commenting about his fight here, here and here.

Un Sik has really been working on his wrestling a lot lately.  I haven't been able to scrimmage with him lately but we work technique together and then I run him through drills and situational scrimmaging with other guys.  the speed that he picks up techniques is mind blowing.  His kinesthetic memory is probably the best I've ever seen.  He can see a complicated technique once and use it in a live situation almost immediately. Scary.  he's really jacked about the improvement in his wrestling.  Yesterday he told me that in 20 amateur and professional fights he has never scored a takedown on a leg attack and that is going to do it in his next fight.  We've also been doing a lot of pummeling and clinch work, especially against the wall.  His last fight and his next one are in a cage and it's an area of MMA he's never really worked on before.  It seems like more and more Japanese organizations are starting to use cages and Asian fighters definitely need to learn that part of the game.

Here's a video of me, Heung Kol and Un Sik in between matches at a tournament.

Un Sik and John warming up before some kickboxing sparring.

In other Daegu MMA news "Little GSP" as he's known, has his first kcikboxing match coming up next month.  he's been working pretty hard with a lot of the older guys.  It's kind of fun to watch a 16 year old kid go from total goofball to focused fighter training for a fight.  This kid has really stepped up his training in the last while and I'll be keeping my eye on him when I leave Korea.

Engrishee!
I spotted a good piece of Konglish on my drink the other day. Koreans love their vitamin drinks. I don't even know what kind of vitamins are in these drinks but they must be good right?  Even if there's nothing in it at least I'll feel more confident, at least according to the copy on the can.

Ho Shin Sool, KING OF THE CAGE and XCC


The boys are ready to rock again.  Jeff, Ray, Trevor and Johnny are going to represent Ho Shin Sool at King of the Cage on May 8th at the Dreamakes Theater.  Everything I heard about the last event was great, here's hoping this one is just as good and better.  My brother, Mitch, and Adrian Vilaca are also going to be fighting soon in Birch Run, under the MUTT MMA banner.  Here's the poster for the KOTC event, with Trevor and Jeff on it.  I heard that there are some renovations coming up at Ho Shin Sool.  After seeing that poster I hope they put a tanning bed in the basement.





Genki Sudo Appreciation

Living in Asia I've really learned a lot about the Asian MMA scene.  I've learned a lot about a lot of differnt fighters and seen a lot of awesome fights that have never been broadcasted in North America.  One fighterthat I've become a huge fan of is Genki Sudo.  I always knew who he was, but never knew much about him until  recently.  The guy is a phenomenal fighter, carries a positive message with him all the time and is very interesting to listen to in his inerviews.  Sudo started as a wrestler, but developed all around MMA skills so quickly that he was soon taking on and beating World Class kickboxers in Striking only K1 matches.  His fighting style is impossible to pin down.  He might switch from a pure grappling style into drunken boxing before throwing in "the robot" and using his Muay Thai to finish a fight.  That's to say nothing of his ring entrances that make Mayhem Miller look like he's walking in off the street in jeans and a T Shirt. Genki Sudo fought in the UFC three times, going 2-1 but fought most of his fights in Asia, which is too bad for North American fans.  Do yourself a favour and watch the documentary that I posted at the top right.  It's about 40 minutes long and split into 5 parts.  I posted the first two.  It's a cool documentary with good fight highlights and interviews and it's well produced.  I have a tough time imagining that any MMA fan could watch the documentary and not be a fan of the guy.  As a matter of fact I think everyone, fight fan or not, would appreciate a lot of the interview sections.  After all, Sudo mentions that to him MMA was a in many ways just the medium to get his message across to as large an audience as possible.

KOTC and Fighting in Japan.

The last few days have been filled with all kinds of MMA related news for me.  I've been keeping in touch with the boys from Ho Shin Sool about their fights at King of the Cage: Title Defense, I watched UFC 107 and had some exciting MMA news of my own.

Ho Shin Sool MMA Rips it up at "King of the Cage: Title Defense:

Dominant.
What else is there to say?
Ho Shin Sool fighters went 5-0 at King of the Cage for the second time this year. Two KO's, one submission and two unanimous decisions.  That's good fishing. Ray, Adrian, Jeff, Trevor and Dalton all came to fight and showed why we're the first and best MMA club in the area.  Big props to Jeff for ending his pro-debut in under 30 seconds.  Here's a highlight video of the event featuring most of the Ho Shin Sool crew.  You can also read some good newspaper articles about the fights here and here.

Watch live streaming video from soonews at livestream.com

Who's Fighting in Japan? I am.

I've accepted a fight in Japan for January 9th.  I was a little apprehensive about taking the fight because there are lots of things I still don't know about the fight and some things I probably won't find out until I get there.  When you're dealing with two language barriers (Japanese to Korean and Korean to English) it's tough to get accurate info. Here's what I do know.

• The fight will be at 70 kgs.  This is a weight class higher than I normally fight at but weigh ins are the same day and I know that most Japanese fighters don't really cut weight.
• I will fly from Busan to Tokyo with 4 other Korean fighters on Friday January 8th, fight on January 9th just outside of Tokyo and fly home on Sunday the 10th.
• The rules of the fight are slightly modified.  Full MMA rules on the feet, full ground and pound on the ground but no submissions.  I'm not sure if this is good for me or not.  On one hand being able to take someone down without worrying about submissions is awesome, on the other hand my submission game is a lot more dangerous now than it was three months ago.
• The organization does not pay travel.  It's really expensive to fly to and stay in Japan, especially Tokyo.  Luckily I've had a few sponsors step up and it looks like I'll be able to swing the cost of travel. More about that later.
  

Other than that I'm pretty much flying blind.   I don't know much about the guy I'm fighting, but the owner of Daegu MMA seems convinced that this is a fight I should win.  I don't know who will be cornering me.  I'm not sure if anyone from the club will be going.  I know there is a fighter from another Daegu MMA location that is also fighting. Maybe we will corner each other.  Maybe I'll put some feelers out to see if there are any mutual acquaintances in the fight scene in Japan that would be up for it.  I don't know the name of the organization I'm fighting for; it might be an organization I know or it might be a fly-by-night one time promoter tat will never be heard from again.  I don't know how big of an event this is.  I'm prepared for the venue to be a local gym with 30 people watching and I'm also prepared to walk into a big venue with a few thousand spectators.

There were a number of legitimate reasons for me to not take this fight. Wrong weight class, lots of unknowns, bad money etc.. but in the end one of the main reasons I came here was to fight and fighting in Japan is an opportunity that a lot of fighters would kill to have.  I don't want to leave Korea and say, "man, I wish I would have fought in Japan while I was here."

So, as they say, Game On.

Ho Shin Sool MMA Fighters Gearing up for King of the Cage Dec. 12th

On July 25th five Ho Shin Sool MMA fighters, including myself, stepped into the cage at King of the Cage: Disputed.  Disputed had some match-ups that would settle some regional rivalries and Ho Shin Sool proved again that not only were we the first to bring MMA to our area, but we were, by far, still the best.  The night ended 5-0 for HSSMMA with 3 KO's and 2 submissions.  Those who had questioned our legitimacy, dedication or talent were left to eat their own bitter words.

    Ho Shin Sool Fight Team celebrates going 5-0 at KOTC: Disputed

If you were at Disputed and want more (or if you missed it and are mad about it) you'll get your chance to see the HSS boys in action again on December 12th at King of the Cage: Title Defense. Four HSS fighters will be in action at Title defence, which will take place at Vegas Kiwedin Dreamakers Theatre.  If you've never been to a KOTC show, don't miss this one.  The atmosphere when HSS fighters get in the cage is something not to be missed. The Sault area is lucky to have a quality promotion like KOTC coming back so don't miss out.   Coach Liguori will guide  Adrian "So Young He's Almost Sperm" Vilaca, Trevor "The Tremor" Manchester, Ray "Broken Parts" Gowlett and Jeff "The Big Caboose" Elliot into battle.  I might have to check the accuracy on those nicknames, but I'm pretty sure I got them all.

          Poster boys Jeff Elliot (far left) and Adrian Vilaca (left).  Trevor Manchester

and Ray Gowlett didn't make the cut due to aesthetic issues.

Tony Hervey will also be defending his 145 lb KOTC title at Title Defense.  Hervey just lost a close 5 round decision to Takanori Gomi, considered one of the best lightweights in the world, at Vale Tudo: Japan. 

Tickets are available at Ho Shin Sool Martial Arts and Fitness Center, Brody's Bar ad Grill and Sportscenter Bar and Grill.  Brody's and Sportscenter are also HSS sponsors so show them some love!

P.S.  Boy have I got a treat for you!  Every once in a while I'm going to post a clip from the movie "Vision Quest" on the blog.  If you're a wrestler and have never seen this movie I'm calling you out right here and saying that you're not a real wrestler.  Boxers have "Rocky", Football has "Rudy", Wrestling has "Vision Quest".

Ho Shin Sool MMA

One of the things I'll miss most about home is training at Ho Shin Sool. Before moving back to Sault Ste. Marie I spent 5 years wrestling for Lakehead University, one of the best wrestling teams in the country. Our team was extremely close and trained at a very high level. At the end of 2005 I wrestled in the gold medal match of the National Championships. The next month I graduated, got a job back home and my wrestling career as an athlete was essentially over. It was tough going from training 20 hours a week at an elite level to not having anything to train for at all.
After seeing an online add for a grappling class in town I dragged along Ray, another ex Lakehead wrestler to check it out and act as back up if need be. I was a bit skeptical because most of the martial arts clubs I had been to in the past were very closed minded about people coming in with backgrounds in other styles. I quickly found out that HSS was not like that. They had dedicated grappling classes twice a week and the instructors had a good understanding of what they were teaching. Jim, the owner, is a high ranking black belt in Dahn Moo Do, but was committed to learning the other aspects of martial arts including wrestling, kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. Jim welcomed a couple of has been (or never were?) wrestlers into his club and we began to learn a lot from each other.
Over the next few years things began to evolve quickly. I dragged a few more wrestlers along, and as word got out people began to show up with different backgrounds: boxing, kickboxing, jiu jitsu, etc. Classes began to get much busier. The basement was converted from a yoga studio to a dedicated training area complete with weights, a training cage and extra mat space. Members of our club began competing successfully in Jiu Jitsu and grappling tournaments as well as amateur and Professional MMA.
To paraphrase Jim "We brought MMA to Sault Ste. Marie" We were the first club that had legitimate striking, wrestling and Jiu-jitsu coaches all under one roof. We were the first club in Sault Ste. Marie to compete in MMA and the first club to do so regularly. King of the Cage came to Sault Ste. Marie because they saw one of our fighters compete at another event.
We take pride in the fact that every one of our fighters who enters the cage is well prepared. Having been to numerous small MMA events we have seen plenty of fighters get in the cage who had no business being there. A lot of our members who have never fought are already much better prepared than many of the fighters we've seen at the various MMA events.
I'll miss the HSS family while I'm away for a year but I couldn't think of a better send off than the display that HSS fighters put on a few weeks ago at King of the Cage. Going 5 for 5 with 3 KO's and 2 Submissions left absolutely no doubt who the best club in the area is. Defeating a few fighters from other clubs in the area also drove the point home. (check out the video of Jeff Elliot defeating Owen Martin at the top of the page).
While we had 5 fighters on the King of the Cage event, the evening was a success for the whole team. All of the members of the team were instrumental in our success that night. Many gave up evenings and weekends to hold pads, be sparring partners and help us on the technical aspects of whatever their specialty was. The night of weigh-ins and the event itself it was great having our team around taking care of everything we needed and providing a great atmosphere to prepare in. I heard a quote a little while ago that sums it up perfectly "You're out there all alone, but if it wasn't for them you wouldn't be there at all." Big thanks to Boss, Big John, BJ, TJ, Mark, Scott, Ray, Larlo, Husky and Sean.
Thanks for everything guys, I'll miss ya while I'm gone.