Atlanta Marathon and MMA Instructionals
For the last few months, I’ve been training to run a marathon. That’s 26.2 miles. The run will be Sunday, October 30th. I’ve notice my cardio when I’m grappling. I get tired, but I recover pretty quickly. I’ll post some pictures of the run next week.
On another note, check out my new combat sports instructional website. It’s in development right now, but you should be able to find some useful videos to help out your grappling and striking game.
Grappling Tournaments
Since receiving my purple belt, I’ve been doing grappling tournaments more often. In the last few months, I’ve competed in three of them. In each one, I’ve been lucky enough to take a first place. I’ve lost matches in other divisions though. The competition is getting tougher, but anything worthwhile isn’t easy, right? If it was, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Yesterday, I avenged a loss in the purple belt gi division by beating a brown belt and the guy who beat me in the no-gi division. What was even sweeter was that I got the victory by beating him in double overtime. He wasn’t very happy with the loss. The guy was an excellent grappler and I look forward to facing him again.
I’m looking forward to learning more and getting my brown and black belts in the future. I don’t expect them anytime soon. My guard passing needs a lot of work.
I’d like to take the time to thank my sponsors, Red Dawn and Xtreme Xile for the support. Red Dawn has made it possible for me to compete in these tournaments.
Purple Belt
A few weeks ago, I received my purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Ranieri Paiva at X3 Sports. Some people say that it’s been long overdue. I should have received it years ago, but I went several years grappling without a gi. I do have to say that my grappling has improved a drastic amount since I’ve put the gi back on.
One More Run
My elbow is healing up nicely, and it’s straighter than it has ever been in the last eight years. I’ve had sideline myself from any heavy training over the last week and a half due to a sinus infection. Thanks to some badly needed prescribed meds, I’m feeling a lot better. I’m hoping I’ll get to at least train once this week. Training and working out is so much a part of my lifestyle like cigarettes are to a smoker.
It’s been more than a year since my last fight, and a lot of injuries have healed up. I’ve had a lot of time to think about whether I want to continue to fight or not, and my answer is yes.
Getting Back into Shape
It’s been more than two months since I’ve had surgery, and my progress has been good. It didn’t start out that way though. In the first month, I didn’t feel like I was making any progress. I thought I just wasted my money, but in the second month, I started noticing some changes. Now, I’m into my third month of rehabilitation, and it seems that the progress is speeding up.
I’ve started back with BJJ and boxing at X3 Sports about three weeks ago. When I started back, I was at a whopping 204 pounds. My body fat had increased to 20 percent which is a far cry from the 9.9 percent I was more than a year ago. Things are getting better each day, I’m now at 192 pounds, and I’m giving lessons again.
I’ve moved up to the Smyrna/Marietta area at the beginning of August, but I still travel down to the southside once a week to see family and friends and give lessons.
Surgery and Moving
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.
Training Hard
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.
Happy Belated New Year!!!
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.
Miami
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.
A Quick Stoppage
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……
