Guest Appearance Frank Shamrock, Michael Bisping, and Kit Dale. Exec Producers: Echo Charles (@echocharles), Jade Charles (@jadecharles). More at Flixpoint.tv
After a year or so of deliberation, I have decided to finally take up Mixed Martial Arts following months of off-hand boasts to friends, family and one-night drunken acquaintances that I’m starting MMA any day now.
I am by no means athletic, but I wouldn’t exactly call myself incompetent either. Unfortunately my teenage years of kickboxing, long distance running and gym membership have long been diminished by the following years of heavy drinking, smoking and domino’s pizza. I reside firmly in the paradox that besets most of us in our early 20s of both overstating past athletic glories and insistent self-deprecation that comes immediately before physical activity.
I am, in short, average, which is why I think this story is worth sharing. It will either provide an inspirational tale of self-improvement or a fairy tale-esque story of the guy who went to A&E when he decided to try fighting. Let’s find out together.
WEEK 0: (the week preceding my first lesson).
Monday (One week to start):
Discounting the aforementioned domino’s eating marathons, my cardio is a little laughable. I ran a half-marathon a couple of months back in 2:07, which, if you have little experience in marathon-ing, is pretty terrible. In the last mile, middle aged and elderly participants surrounding me were walking at a slightly slower pace than I was jogging. For someone that used to run 10k at 6am before getting the bus to school this was somewhat depressing.
How much things can change in a week, I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that it’s a pretty terrible idea to turn up having done no exercise so whatever I can do won’t hurt.
Because of this, I make what I was sure was an intelligent decision to build up some cardio by going to a spin class. I retrospectively realise I’ve grossly underestimated this task. Upon arriving, I find it’s very clearly marketed for middle aged women, who assure me that the first lesson is the hardest. Said women very quickly prove to be much better than me at spinning* and proceed to continually increase the resistance throughout the duration. 15 minutes in and I’m forced to turn the resistance down until my legs stop burning with fire from the pits of hell. I later check my heartrate and discover my ticker is working overtime at 185bpm. This doesn’t seem healthy.
*I make a mental note to return one day as UFC champion and reclaim my masculinity.
The class proves to be a great 45 minute workout and I work up a sweat unlike I have experienced before. Before leaving I notice that I’m in the worst condition of anyone in the class, but I get a shoutout from the fitness instructor which I can’t help feel was a little condescending. Nevertheless a good humbling definitely won’t hurt in the long run.
After lesson ends my legs are completely jellified but I feel great. I’ve decided that high intensity interval type exercise is definitely the way to go, so I vow to try some sprints tomorrow and come back for another class on Wednesday if I’m confident enough my legs still support my body.
Well I can confidently say one day in that things are going great. Let’s see how this goes.
Pictures:
Me looking naively optimistic before the marathon
Just after returning from spin class
I’ll post again when I have an update / something interesting to say.
Let’s start by acknowledging that Lawler – Condit lived up to all expectations and then some. It was a wild and spectacular contest, capped off an awesome UFC event to take us into 2016 and instantly became one of my favourite fights of all time.
Having said that, the immediate calls for an instant rematch are reactionary and foolish. Here’s why:
Robbie Lawler / Carlos Condit
This was the most ‘Robbie Lawler’ Robbie Lawler fight I’ve ever seen, paralleled perhaps by the MacDonald fight at UFC 189. Even when Lawler was getting dominated in rounds 1&4, part of you just knew that he was holding something back, and holding something back he was.
Living up to his initial label as the ‘Mike Tyson of the UFC’ he went full blitzkrieg on Condit in the final round, who showed the strength of some kind of mountain lion / terminator crossbreed and refused to go down.
The consensus appeared to be (at least on my Twitter feed) that Condit had done enough in rounds 1,3 and 4 to win the fight, I also had Condit winning but, unfortunately for Carlos, two of the three judges disagreed.
Many fans / commentators are calling for an immediate rematch due to the controversial outcome and demand for a repeat of what tongue-in-cheek spectators are calling the ‘fight of the year’. While I have some patience for this case and would never suggest that Condit doesn’t deserve to get something for his efforts, in regards to an immediate rematch I wholeheartedly disagree.
Perhaps this would fly in, say, the Flyweight division; in which Demetrius Johnson is lacking serious challengers to his long-held throne. But in the arguably the most competitive of all divisions, with at least five challengers who would provide a great contest for the belt, it doesn’t make sense from a business perspective and neither would it be justice for the fighters that have rightly earned their shot.
After last night it seems pretty clear to me that whichever elite fighter Lawler the UFC puts in front of Lawler will make a thrilling fight. His brutal KO power and near inhuman resilience more than made up for his technical disadvantages in the striking department against both MacDonald and Condit. Furthermore, with the utmost respect, both Woodley and Hendricks had probably done more to deserve the shot ahead of Condit before this fight. Compile this with the up-and-comers like ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Neil Magny and Kelvin Gastelum and waiting a probably six months to book this fight doesn’t really make sense to me.
The judging decision sucks for Condit. While admittedly contentious, very few would have complained had he got the decision. That being said, it was no Ross Pearson – Diego Sanchez. Both men seemed ready to die in the cage for the Championship, pride and our entertainment. There were no losers in this event. Condit took his loss with admirable reticence and class and personally I feel many of his fans should follow his lead.
Since the fight was called, analysts and statisticians have hotly debated the definition of ‘effective striking’. This is part of the sport, and debating judging decisions is one of the factors that makes it so enjoyable to watch. Having no proverbial ‘dog’ in this fight, being proved wrong in a decision victory for Lawler was just another twist in adrenaline pumped roller coaster that was this entire event. It gave one last ‘bloody hell!’ moment in even after I thought I was bloody well maxed out of excitement.
It has set an impossibly high precedent for 2016 and for that we are indebted to Carlos Condit. The only real shame for fight fans will be if he decides to retire, a possibility he announced post-fight. If he truly feels this way, a rematch in some ways makes less sense. If he is considering his future at this point, the many wars that would follow his potential championship winning fight would not be conducive to a successful post fighting career. While the fairy-tale ending of achieving everything in the sport before retirement may well be out of his reach, he will have at least had the best possible exit from the sport.
OPMMAMOTD:
Before UFC legend Antonio 'Rodrigo Minotauro' Nogueira was UFC champion, he was utilising his outstanding cardio, elite BJJ and an iron chin to overcome the man-maintain Bob Sapp.
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