A week on from my fight, and since then I’ve been partly chilling out (I took 2 days off work afterwards) and partly doing my blue arsed fly impression (started a new project when I came back). I made it to BJJ on Monday and Thai boxing on Wednesday and Friday but I was taking it fairly slowly. The nose is still a bit fragile and I had the fun of bleeding on someone’s nice white gi on Monday. It was his own fault for pulling my head into his chest. After a couple of weeks of careful eating to make weight I’ve also been indulging a bit this week. Not enough alcohol (total for May and June so far is 2 pints of beer and 2 small glasses of wine) but I have had a few pizzas, cakes and other things. From next week though it’s back with the programme. I want to get down to about 85 – 86 kg at the beginning of the session at the gym which means losing about 2 – 3 kg from my fighting weight and means I’ll be at Thai cruiserweight. I’m slightly shorter than
As far as the fight itself went, in rounds 1 and 3 I was only behind by 4 points and with an extra block and kick in each one they could have gone the other way. That first punch in the face in round 1 really makes you realise that it’s real and that it isn’t training or sparring. Round one was probably mostly adrenaline. In round 2 I got a bit distracted by the electronic scoreboard, and in round 3 I think I began to get into it and think about what I was doing. I’ll probably remember more about it when I get the DVD through in a couple of weeks time, but the main bits that stand out are:
- Getting my opponent in the balls with a slightly too low body kick
- Losing my gum shield at one point (I really need a better fitting one) and falling over at another
- The opposite corner shouting out instructions on how to beat me up (!)
- Getting bopped on the nose and blasting out the blood so I could breathe. I knew something was coming out but I had other things to worry about at the time
Fighting is very different from training, and I think the biggest difference is being able to cope with the pressure of attacking and defending when someone’s trying to do the same to you. You can’t call for time out and you’ve just got to keep going. I’d say one of the most important bits is being able to keep your nerve. Not everyone can, but the aftermath of my bike accident was probably a lot harder. It’s interesting to think about how many people say they think they could deal with it but go to pieces or wouldn’t even try it in the first place. Usenet trolls for a start.
The main thing people have asked me about the fight is if I enjoyed it. I think so, but I think I really need to do another one to decide. I’ll probably go for amateur Thai rules next time (more what I’m used to). I’ll give it a couple of months and it obviously depends on when the next one is, but I’d like to do one around late August/early September. The trophy I got from this fight is pictured with this post.