Behind the Scenes Of The Win This Weekend!!

Posted by admin in Blog Comments

Oct
11

I had a bad left leg injury for about the last month. So for about the last month I had only been sparring with punches. The week before the fight it seemed to feel better so I decided to spar adding the Kicks back in. This was a bad mistake. As soon as I got kicked in it once it flared up big TIME!! So I immediately started getting therapy done on it. Fight week my doctor worked on it more, but told me that he didn’t want to irritate it anymore and stopped.

I was a little concerned about it for the fight. When I was sparring that day it hurt so bad that when I would get kicked in it or thought I was going to get kicked in it, I would reach down in anticipation of the pain. This is a terrible thing to do, because it shows that you are hurt and if someone fakes a kick low and you reach you will get kicked in the head!!!!

I don’t ever look at my opponents at all. I leave it to my coaches to look at my opponents and put together a game plan for me because I don’t like to look at it & create anxiety about the person. I rather just be prepared for everything. Well the problem with that this time was, I’m not a part of a team or have a coach right now.The fight prior to this one I trained out of Evolve Academy and Warrior Gym. Master Mike out of Evolve put the game plan together for me for that fight. He also got this fight for me, but I was unable to get to any of those places because I’m now back in school and have very limited time to train. That’s also why I haven’t been blogging. I was able to get good sparring in at Lloyd Irvin’s Mixed Martial Arts Academy on the days guys were sparring. This was right on time because Mike Easton had a camp going on and I was able to spar with a couple of the guys after he was done with them.

So, Friday at the weigh ins I got very distracting news that I should not have heard before a fight from the management. Which caused things to be in my mind that I shouldn’t have had going on before a fight. My brain turns over like something crazy. I’m super analytical and don’t trust anyone PERIOD!!! So, my brain started turning over about that whole situation, thinking about how it all really went down and the people that were involved with it. Then, later that night my Boy Ron Stallings looked at my opponent and say hey this guy is a south paw and you have to protect the kicks. My brain immediately started turning more thinking dang!! You know he is left handed which means he will primarily kick the Inside of your leg because of the way he’s positioned. I had also noticed in weigh ins that he was about two inches taller than me. So I knew he would definitely get to kick my leg. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have cared, but I knew that if the wind blew on my leg it was going to be super painful. My brain thought even more about the people that I know knew that this Guy was south paw, but didn’t mention it to me. In my head I was thinking if I had known and it was reverse I would have told them.

I went to my screw everybody mode, but was thankful that at least I knew before the fight. I immediately prayed then thought to send a message to others that are strong prayers to pray on my behalf. But I didn’t entertain the thought to send a message. I immediately got mad and screamed with authority ” Satan Get Behind Me You Have No Authority ME, I know you are trying to distract me and keep me from my purpose!!” People use Devil and Satan interchangeably, but they are never used that way in the Bible. Devil is when he is using his divisive nature, to cause division. Satan is used when he is trying to keep one from his purpose. Don’t worry I’m not going to get into that but I could LOL. I just said that to say I had to recognized my opponent if I was going to have a change of defeating him.

Next, I started visualizing moving the opposite way so I would be use to it the next night, because all of the people I had been sparring had been right handed. I also started thinking about all the other times I had allowed things before a fight to give me anxiety and after the fact I realized I shouldn’t have even wasted that energy. I later called Rashad letting him know the thoughts I had earlier. He talked to me and told me the that people aren’t on my level Period!! This helped me think about just how Great I know I am!! And that it didn’t matter.

I did a lot of mental practicing in my head that night. I woke up the next morning and saw that my little sister had posted something on face book about how I use to go around the house singing 112′s “Cupid”. So this caused me to go to the car and get my Ipod and start singing in the room. I started to relax more immediately. I’m always to myself singing something mostly Marvin Sapp or Fred Hammond. I thought to go to my car and get my tripod to record a song, its below so you guys can get a laugh. hahaha A hour before I was to leave my room I talked to Rhadi Ferguson and he basically told me, “No fan or promotion is going to care about your injury or the things that are going on,the adrenaline will kick in and you won’t feel the pain you got to get that stuff out of your mind and win the fight, take a nap and I’ll called you later to pray.”

I got to the venue and got a prayer and great words with my mentor Crosby Bonner and Best friend Jarrett Becks. I realized that I didn’t have anyone to wrap my hands. I immediately remembered Mike Kelley from MMA 3:15 radio volunteering his services to me before when he was wrapping other fighters hands. I called him and he was in the venue. He went to his car and got his stuff and wrapped me. We were at crunch time and he knew it, I could tell because he was sweating. He did a great job. That was the best my hands had ever been wrapped!! When he finished we only had a couple minutes to go over my gave plan and warm up before the called me out. So I really didn’t get warm. I was totally relaxed when the fight started, but just as I feared he soon started to kick that leg and it hurt so bad with the adrenaline and all!!!! I stayed focused and didn’t show it in my face, but couldn’t help but to react by reaching for his kicks with my hands because of the pain. He threw a kick and slipped and I immediately got on him. While I was down there I was praying Lord please let me finish this here, because I didn’t wanna take another round of me getting my leg Kicked. So, I Thank the Lord I finished the fight 1st round!!

I forgot to give Juan Ponte thanks at Max Muscle for sponsoring me with my supplements. Check him out by clicking on his name!!

A Good Laugh At My Expense!!! HAHAHA