All Blog Posts (75)

*This is a blog that I started a LONG time ago and then saved in drafts. Im going to go through and finish all of those one by one

I make play lists on my Mp3 player when its time to put in work. Everyone at PKG is respectful of the person getting ready for his/her(in Chad Georges case) fight, so I bring my music player and get to use my soundtrack for training. This is what I set up for the next couple of days

Kid Cudi-Alive

Brother…

With this blog, Im not going in order, Im just going to put fights down as I remember them. This should hopefully keep the integrity of my though process intact

Griffin Vs Shogun: Great match up and another great example of "any given sunday" Last time was Forrests night and last nights was for Shogun. MMA is too unpredictable and there can be so many different outcomes. Im not saying that it was luck, but if they fought 10 more times, do you really think it would be the same…

This isnt the reason, but its a good story

Ive known Anderson for years. I first met him when we were both managed by Ed Soares and Anderson was getting ready to fight Rich Franklin for the first time. He was very nice and even with his lack of english, personable. Ive spent enough time with him over the years and I would call Anderson a friend. In fact, when I went to train at blackhouse Anderson told me "we bad boys for life"(still one of my favorite things! HAHA).…

Ok, so I had surgery this weekend. This was LONG over due and I finally just went it got it done. There is over a year of back story, so Ill start from the beginning.

 I have had off and on back pain for over  a year.  Prior to my title fight with Lenny Lavato for the Palace Fighting Championships, it went out bad. 2 weeks prior to my bout and I seriously thought about pulling out. The pain was so great, training wasn't possible. I worked around lifting weights, wrestling and anything…

First off, I ended up watching the prelim streams live on facebook and the quality was very good. There was not one fight that stood out as being note worthy, although the Njokuani fight SHOULD have been stopped in the 1st rd. Regardless of the fighter still standing. Just sitting there getting kneed and punched for over a min should be enough for a stoppage

The spike prelims were different. Both explosive and fast.

Dos Anjos Koed Sots quickly. It was one of…

Here are my thoughts on the fights

Javier Vazquez vs. Joe Stevenson. Javi was my roommate years ago and I know how good he is. I was surprised Joe could make 145lbs because Ive heard how much he cuts to make 155 and I thought the cut would hurt him.   I have no idea if it was the weight cut or not, but  Joe looked sluggish. Not sure where that puts him, but I had a feeling that either Joe or Javi would get cut if they lost this fight. We will see what…

Bocek Vs Henderson. An exciting back and forth fight. I know both guys and I thought Ben was going to win(which he did). The kid is just unchokeable. I think he breaths through his knees or something. As good of a grappler that Bocek is(and he is REALLY good), you just cant choke the unchokeable. The other thing is Ben has amazing cardio. I remember helping him get ready for his second fight with Cerrone and the kid was dancing in between rounds.

Valdi Vs Brilz. I train with…

My thoughts on the fights:

beebohm had a horrible gameplan against Aoki. Even if he would have taken Aoki down, he would have still be in a bad place.

Mousasi did a TON more damage, but his takedown defense is SERIOUSLY lacking. No way that Jardine should have taken him down that much. That being said Mousasi won that fight(even with the point deduction) and never had any damage done to him.

I dont know why, but Japanese fighters seem to…

The place that I wrestle has a few kids that are aspiring to be "super star MMA Fighters". A hefty goal indeed, but what is most worrisome is that in their quest, they are neglecting their education. There are a HUGE number of kids who aspire to be professional athletes, with MMA becoming more mainstream, there will be more kids wanting to be Pro's. 

I am not the person to tell someone to not follow their dreams, in fact, I think everyone should. I ALSO think that EVERYONE…

They say(Im not sure who "they" are) that there are two types of people. Dog people and Cat people. I am strongly in the former category. Now, I am an animal lover regardless of what type(besides snakes, but snakes arent animals), but as far as personal preference for domesticated animals, Im going dogs every time. Dont even say one thing about rabbits, chinchillas,ferrets, or any other rodent type pets. They are cute and have their place, but THEY arent in the 2 categories, so lets stick to…

I gave myself a week to analyze and figure out what went wrong in my last fight. Admittedly, most of that week was me feeling sorry for myself and beating myself up mentally over and over again. At the end though, I felt that the biggest issue Im having now, is weight.

When I first started fighting, I was always considered a large lightweight and looking back, I may have been, but it wasnt good weight. By good weight I mean I wasnt as lean or as in shape as I could have been.…

As I sit here feeling sorry for myself, I replay everything in my head. Its annoying and doesn't help anything, but I still do it. Its frustrating to know that going through this mental breakdown doesn't help anything and still go through it anyways. The one thing is I know when Im done beating myself up and going through the depression(and yelling F@CK out of the blue), Ill be fine and regroup. I need to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. I will take this loss in stride and move…

Its 5am the day after my most recent fight in the UFC. Once again, Ive lost. The feelings that Im having cannot be described. Disappointed and emotional wrecked dont do my feelings justice. Paul Taylor dropped me in the second rd of our fight. I felt great going into this fight, but once I hit the cage immediately felt helpless. Its a horrible feeling to appear ready  moments before, to have it all unravel when it means the most. All I have been doing is sitting back and wondering. "what…

Its fight day. Woke up at 9am. Had a light breakfast and weighed myself. 167lbs =) I feel very good and ready to go. Fight check ins are at 230 and the first fight starts at 420. Im excited to put all of my work into this one day.

Time to get my first win in the UFC

Woke up around 8am. There is a mandatory check in with the UFC to check your shorts, banner and weight. One of the sponsors on my banner got blocked off, but other than that, no problem. Weight this AM? 158lbs. Ive got 2 lbs to cut, so Im going to relax until about 1 or 2 and get a 30min workout done and be on weight. Weigh ins start at 4pm and I cant wait.

Its almost fight time and Im ready to get this done!

Its Thursday, the week of the fight. Ive been in Vegas since Tuesday. The sun is out, but its still cold with the wind making it uncomfortable. Got to love the desert. Since getting here, its been business as usual. Interviews, pictures, workouts and a lot of dead time in my room.

This morning I woke up, weighed myself(159lbs if you were wondering), which is a must everyday of fightweek, went and did an interview with MMAJUNKIE, ate some DELICIOUS breakfast(3oz of chicken and…

The rounds of a professional non title mixed martial arts fight are 3x5minutes. That is a total of 15minutes with 2 minutes of rest between.

I began my training camp for this fight November 29th. When my fight arrives I will have put 10 weeks into this camp. There is a constant stream of things that are involved in a fight camp, but the most important is obviously training. In a normal week I put in from 17 to 20hrs training. Thats doesnt count walks or anything light. That…

I am essentially 3 weeks(well 2 weeks, 6 days and 14 or so hours, but who's counting) away from my fight. Preparation has been going great and I will be ready to give 110%(I realize this is an impossible feat, but this what Im going to attempt to do).

The 2 questions I seem to be getting as the fight gets closer are "are you ready?" and "Are you nervous?"

Am I ready? If the question was if I were to fight right this instant, would I be ready for that? Without…

The New year is upon us and while every one is preparing to complete this year with celebration, Im in training camp. I realize that I COULD take the night off and I COULD have taken Christmas off as well, but that is not going to happen.

I still have 4 weeks to prepare for my next bout and there are no days off for holidays. Ill rest when Im broken down and tired, but certainly not to celebrate. Ill take care of that after my victory. Im hoping that Paul Taylor was with his…

I realize Ive been really slacking on my blog. It just seems that every time Im motivated to write something, I end up getting distracted in one way or another.Im going to try once again to be more on it.

Ive been back with ZUFFA/UFC since August. Its really nice to be in an organization that well run. It really just comes down the the small stuff.

Weigh ins starting on time, not 3-5 hrs later, transportation covered to and from the airport, food per…