Archive for April, 2013
Expecting the Win
After watching the Ultimate Fighter Finale in the weekend, I couldn?t help but think about how Uriah Hall, from my perspective, seemed to be expecting the win.
To put yourself in his shoes for a minute, since the time you have been in the house everyone has been telling you that you are a wrecking machine and that you are already a contender in the UFC Middle Weight Division. Then the poor guy leaves the house and as the rest of us get to see the Ultimate Fighter unfold on tv – his team mates, friends, family and general public would all be telling him about how he is the man and so on. There is no doubt that he put in the hard yards for this fight but he was told every day that he would win. To put a Rocky spin on it, he had lost the ?eye of the tiger? as to him he was already the TUF winner.
For Kelvin Gastelum it was the exact opposite – every fight he went in to people thought he would lose, or at the very best win hard. Each and every day, while in the TUF house, he had a point to prove and people to beat. Then when he left and was training for the finale he had everyone telling him that he was the underdog and how he would get knocked out, that motivated him to train at best of his ability each and every day.
When it was fight day it really looked like one person was expecting to win while the other wanted to win. Each and every minute Kelvin was looking to make the fight his by putting the pressure on, throwing big shots and looking for takedowns to make sure he got the win. On the other side was Uriah Hall and it seemed like he didn?t have a plan and was just looking for that shot that everyone told him he had. Then when he got taken down he seemed to get very angry like ?I shouldn?t be here, I am meant to win?. Then he was getting a little frustrated and things did not go his way. In his head he did not train for a hard battle, where as Kelvin knew it was going to be a hard fight and went in there to take it because no one else thought he could.
Don?t get me wrong here, believing in your ability is important and having confidence that you are going to win is important, but you also need to know that your opponent is danger and will be better than you in certain places so you have to train to avoid their strengths and stick to yours. From my experience it is easy to train for a fight that everyone is telling you that you are going to get a hiding, and very hard to train for fight where everyone is telling you that you are the man and going to whip him ? just ask Uriah Hall.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
Who Can You Train With?
People seem to think that if you get to train with a big name for their fight that it is a great experience. If by great experience you mean training with someone who doesn?t care about your technique and just treats you as another body to beat up, then yes it is a great experience.
I know a few guys that have trained with some of the top guys for their fights and day in and day out they put their body on the line for them. In return they get a thank you, not even free tickets to the fights, let alone a percentage of winnings. During the training time they are used to practice whatever the fighter needs to work for their fight. They are training purely for them they are not worried about you at all. Now that is the name of the game and that is what everyone does for their fight. However when you are at the top of the food chain everyone you train with, chances are, are not as good as you.
On the flip side if you are training for a fight and you had a top fighter training with you then that would be awesome. Imagine going over to one of the big gyms in America and having Cain Velasquez, GSP, or Randy Couture to train with for your fight. If you are training with them you are going to get better, as they are the best you have to get better training with people who are better than you.
For me, helping one of the top guys prepare for their fight would be cool, but you end up being the ?training partner? and you see these guys fight and they are mentally conditioned to not win. So they help other people around the country for their fights and before you know it a skilled guy who had a lot potential is now just known for being a training partner.
Instead of being the training partner it is better to make a name for yourself and train with best guys as often as you can to make yourself better, not to help them. Sadly fight gyms are littered with talented sparring partners who never get anywhere, do not let this happen to you!
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
Out of the Limelight
Something that occurred to me when I was at the last fight night was that no one cared who I was or what I was doing. This may not sound like much but it was something a little different for me – I could walk through the crowd and no one said anything. Back stage I had a chat to a few people but overall no one cared who I was, and I loved it.
First of all let me tell you a little about my background, as chances are you don?t know me either. From the early 2000?s to the 2007, I was world famous in Porirua. Being world famous in Porirua means that you can?t walk around the Porirua Pak n Sav without someone recognising you – strangely enough the produce department seems to be the most popular for people to come up and have a chat. The further out of Porirua the less I was noticed however I still got people coming up to me when I was out in Town and got the occasional elevator chat.
The local fight nights were a little different – if your picture was on the fight poster you might get asked for your autograph, which I will say the first time you get asked for your autograph is rather cool. At these nights I usually had to stay out the back as if I walked around the crowd people would come up and say all sorts of things, so I stayed out the back away from everyone. When it came time for me to warm up (usually I fought late in the night) people would come out of nowhere and be in the room while I was doing my final preparation for the fight. I can only assume that these people where either interested in what I was doing or wanted to walk out to the ring with me. I did not like ?hangers on? so I had very strict rules in my corner, otherwise you have all sorts of people standing in your corner for the fight, which could be distracting.
For me fighting was all about beating the other guy, all the stuff out of the ring wasn?t something I worried about. There are other people that fought that wanted the attention and loved people watching them and so on.
To get to my point, when I noticed that I wasn?t getting any attention any more I thought ?great? – it had been decreasing for years but at the last fight night it was very noticeable. Honestly I am glad that the attention is off me, but then it clicked – that is why people do come back fights, as they miss the attention. They get older and their training partners, fighters or friends are fighting and getting the attention and they miss it and want to be back in the limelight.
My popularity was nothing amazing, just people around Porirua knew who I was and people at fight nights remembered some of my wins (no paparazzi or anything here). But I am enjoying just being in the background and letting my fighters take the limelight. There would be no better satisfaction for me than seeing my fighters succeed and make a name for themselves as to me that would be success – I am now a trainer, it is not about me anymore it is all about my fighters.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor