It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this blog. I finally decided to get surgery on my right elbow.  I’ve developed a significant amount of bone spurs over the last few years.  Right now, I’m unable to straighten my right arm.  It’s about 30 degrees off from being straight.  The surgery is costing me a pretty penny, but I’ll spend the money to get my arm straight again.

My left elbow is starting to develop the same condition, so I may end up getting surgery on it this year as well.  What’s that saying?  There are some chances that you can’t afford to take, and there are chances that you can’t afford not to take.

I won’t be able to teach any lessons for at least a couple of weeks.  I’ll be moving at the end of this month up to Atlanta, but I’ll still give lessons in Newnan and Fayetteville on the weekends if requested.  I’m hoping for a speedy recovery, and hopefully I’ll be back in a couple of months training.  Injuries have kept me from fighting this year.  At this point, I’m just looking to take it one step at a time.  Maybe I can have one fight before the end of the year.  It could be Pro Boxing or MMA.

I’ve been really training hard.  I’m looking to return to action around March.  My gym, X3 Sports, is managing me, so I don’t have to go through the headache of talking with the promoters myself to get fights.  I just want to worry about training and fighting. I’ve been working on a lot on every aspect of my game, and I look forward to a victorious return.

I started wearing a gi again after almost nine years.  I’m looking to get my purple belt soon.  I’ve got some really good teammates and training partners at X3 Sports (Marius Cujba, Clint Hester, Steele McCall, Patrick Mandio, etc.) who really push me and then some.  I’m still have time to teach one private lesson a day and a couple on Saturday.  I’ve had to take Sundays off because I’ve been so exhausted.

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted on here.  A lot has happened since my trip to Miami.  I’ve been hard at work training for my next fight which could possibly be in February.  I’m looking to get back on the winning track.  I’ve gone back to eating lean again although I’m not a vegetarian anymore.  I think fighters need to have meat in their diet.  It’s one of the factors that keeps them aggressive.  I’ve been pretty busy between designing websites, giving personal training sessions, and fight training.  I give myself one day off per week.

I’m sitting in my hotel room in Miami as I’m typing this.  I’m here in Miami to do some training at the Freestyle Fighting Academy (www.bestfreetrial.com).  I went there last year and I was very impressed with the level of training over there.  I was originally supposed to train on Thanksgiving weekend, but I was offered a fight in Aruba, so I took that.  I pushed the date back two weeks to December 12th, but an open wound in my left leg got infected to where I couldn’t train, so I had to push the date back another week.  So, I’m finally here, but not without a hitch.  I did some killer strength training on Thursday which left my arms useless.  Trying to get things done with half functional arms is not fun.  Everything I did took three times longer to do.  Up until today, I couldn’t even bend my arm enough to touch my own face.  I ended up buying some Tiger Balm last night and sat in a jacuzzi this afternoon to help my arms heal.  They seem to healing slowly.  Tomorrow, I’m going to be doing practice sessions and one on Tuesday before I leave.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the win in Aruba.  I felt like the referee stopped my fight way prematurely.  I only got hit three times while I was getting up off my back when the referee stopped the fight.  Later, the referee admitted making a mistake as well.  The fight was a back and forth matchup until then.  Live and learn……

As I’m writing this, I’m waiting on my ride to pick me up and take me to the airport.  If you haven’t been following my blog, I’ll be headed to Aruba to fight this weekend against Gregory Milliard, a 205 pounder.  I’ve been putting on some pounds for this fight.  Usually, I fight at 185 pounds, but I’ve always wanted to fight out of the country.  Fighting gives me an excuse to travel to different parts of the country.

Actually I’m only going to Aruba next Thursday.  Instead of spending my Thanksgiving with family, I’m going to be out of the country.   I recently bought a passport just in case I had an offer to fight in another country.  Sure enough, I got offered a fight in Aruba on Thanksgiving weekend.  I’m going to be fighting up a weight division though.  I’ll be fighting at 205 pounds.  Wish me luck.

I’ve been training like mad for the last two weeks at X3 Sports (www.x3sports.com).  There have been times where I have been pushed to my mental breaking point.  I realize that I can only push myself so far.  I’ve been really impressed by the progress of X3.  They have a specialist in every area of fighting now, and that place is becoming a breeding ground for professional fighters.

I’m taking this week off of training.  I’ve been training hard for almost two solid months and I want to get my mind right when I fight again.  From what I hear, losing can be the best thing to happen to somebody.  Frankly, I hate losing and I will win in my next fight.

For those of you who didn’t see the fight, you can see it here:

I’m pretty disgusted over my reluctance to stand up, and I’m not going to make this same mistake again.  I will be going into my next fight with a different mentality and a KO victory.

Unfortunately, I was not victorious in my return to the ring last Friday night.  Seth Baczynski was a very game opponent who submitted me via guillotine choke in the 2nd round.  I absolutely feel ashamed about the performance because I lacked the killer instinct, and I’m going to take this week off of training to think about why I lost the instinct.  I apologize to the people who came out to watch me for giving such a horrible performance.

The last few days have been an emotional roller coaster for me.  My opponent, Rhomez Brower, is on a 30 day suspension which means that he can’t fight me on October 30th.  His last fight was on October 4th and he was TKO’d.  Nobody knew this because it did not show up in the stats on the major MMA websites.  For a second, I felt like all of my hard training for the fight had been a waste.  Luckily, my promoter, David Oblas, was able to find another opponent for me in a few hours.  My new opponent is Seth Baczynski.  It’s going to be a good tough fight as Baczynski brings a stellar 10-6 record to the table.

I weighed in today at 185 pounds and Seth weighed in 187 pounds.  To pass some time, I hung out with a friend of mine for a couple of hours and talked about subjects that weren’t fight related.  I’m going to stay up a little later because I know I’ll be fighting late tomorrow night.  I’m definitely prepared to fight.  A lot of people have helped me in my training but two people who come to mind are Nhan Nguyen (my brother) and Kevin Gittemeier.  Both of these guys spent a lot of valuable time in training with me.  Of course, I’d like to thank James Thorpe who will be in my corner tomorrow night with Kevin and Nhan.  James actually did some sparring with me as well.  And, I’d like to thank X3 Sports and Team Genesis.  I’m looking forward to giving my best performance tomorrow.