Part 5 – The battle is over but the war goes on
The fight is over. Win, lose or draw what has been done has been done and now its time to reflect and move forward. You have to remember that the fight you have just had is the final product of many weeks of hard training and planning. Did you prepare properly? If you didn’t get the win, was there anything you could have done in training that would have changed the outcome of the fight? And if you did get the win is there anything you could have worked on to be more dominant in the fight? If yes then its time to re-group, re-arrange your training and get back to work. If the answer is no, then you are probably lying.
Now before we move on I just want to talk a little about losing. Nobody likes or wants to lose ever and if you do then you are some kind of sick freak who probably likes being run over for sexual gratification. It is ok to be pissed off, if fact it’s exactly what you should be.
Whether you compete in MMA on any kind of one on one combat sport there is always one winner and one loser (unless it’s a fucking draw of course). For every time someone has a 10-0 record there is someone else with a 0-10 record its just the way it has to be. I see guys come into my gym and train for a few months for an amateur fight, they have a tough fight, something happens and they lose the fight and that’s it, gloves are hung up, no more gym time, they go play football or another equally homosexual sport.
Is that the way a real fighter behaves? No it certainly is not. A real fighter picks himself back up and dusts himself off. You need to use that loss to fuel your training for the next 12 weeks until you get a chance to get back in that cage and fight you heart out once again. Remember, it is not an ‘L’ on your record for ‘Loss’ it is an ‘L’ for ‘LEARN’. Learn from your mistakes and improve. Even if you have a string of losses if you behave the right way and improve between fights then you will get the win you deserve and that victory will taste so much sweeter than those who have yet to taste defeat. The only real loser is the guy who quits.
Winning a fight is one of the best feelings you will ever feel. You have beaten someone in the most primitive form of competition and you have tapped into the caveman that’s trapped inside you. But there is an inherent problem with winning a fight that plagues the amateur ranks and we often see emerging into the pro ranks.
“Yeah I’m awesome I just beat somebody’s ass, I am the man I could take GSP right now”
That’s right, you have won your fight and now you think you are complete, you have the skills to beat any man, animal or machine that is placed in front of you and your training is perfect for any situation you will find yourself in. Sorry to burst your bubble but your wrong, because in this sport, if you aint’ learning your losing.
From fight to fight you need to improve in order to keep moving forward and the easiest way to do this is to look at what mistakes you made in the fight, or what you could work to fight more efficiently. After each fight I like to reflect on the training I have done up to that point and look at what happened in the fight then start to plan what I will be working for the next few weeks.
Time between fights for me is to work on weaknesses in my game, then as the next fight looms ever closer I begin to tailor my training to that particular opponent. I like to stay competitive between fights and often enter grappling tournaments and have the odd boxing match or Thai fight. Trying to stay injury free is a big thing to so make sure you train hard but you train smart too.
The main point of today blog is simply this…..don’t stop learning, don’t stop creating new challenges for yourself and don’t stop chasing your dreams.
“Running water never grows stale” Bruce Lee said that I’m fucking sure he did.
My first professional MMA loss against the unbeaten Eugene Fadiora (10-0)
