Reflections on a fight
Just over 3 week ago, I had my first amateur MMA fight. It’s something that I’ve been working towards for a long time. I signed up at BJJ 6 years ago wanting to eventually compete in MMA, and for whatever reason that journey has taken a little longer, with lots of little sidetracks along the way - I won’t go into all of them because they’re not all relevant.
Because I’ve been training for a long time, with the goal to fight, becoming and ‘MMA fighter’ has been a part of my identity for a while. I recall many interactions that have had me backtracking once people find out I train with things like “Yeah, I’ve fought in muay thai but i actually want to do mma” adn things like that. Me now knows its a bit silly because in reality, a lot of people don’t know the difference and a whole lot of people don’t care. Just the fact that it’s such a big thing in my life means that I feel the need to explain.
Anyway, my first fight was something that myself, and a lot of people around me have been excited for, for a long time. I’ve openly expressed my intention to fight to many people, and because of that, many friends, family and teammates (and of course myself) were excited for it.
Leading up to the fight, there was a lot of questions that I had that would be answered when I step in the cage. I had high expectations of myself, knowing how long I’ve been training and how long I’ve wanted to fight. I had questions of if my cardio would hold up, would I remember what I did in training, do I have a chin, would I feel comfortable and be able to listen to my corner, will I make weight (I was 72kg when I agreed to fight, fight was at 61.7kg 8 weeks away), among other things.
It led to a lot of thinking about the fight, visualisation, (and maybe a bit excessive) on top of having to diet, being tired from training etc.
To be honest, I quite enjoyed the focused, hard training, the routine that I had built and a lot of things that went with preparing for a fight. There was also negative side of things though like me lacking in energy outside of the gym, being restrictive with my diet, and the anxiety when thinking about the fight. I think they seemed to affect my girlfriend more, who’s a very empathetic person and can notice changes like that.
It did hit her quite a bit, and I know she had to balance her own excitement, (and excitement for my excitement), with also being anxious about the fight and me being hurt, and having to deal with all the negative side effects I mentioned.
I think having fought already, I’ve answered a lot of those questions and doubts that were in my head. I do feel the next one will be much easier because I know I can make the weight, I really felt comfortable in the cage and I had so much fun. I lost a close split decision, but it was an amazing experience - a lot of the situations we drilled in training happened, and I just felt good.
I have a lot more to say about the aftermath of the fight, but I’ll save it for another post.
