Fight Night

This was nothing like I had thought it would be...but man it was fun.

The morning of the fight I felt good. My nose had cleared up a bit and was now just consistently running so I felt this was a good sign. The weight cut had not really been too bad so by Friday morning I felt good and ready to go.

I ate bacon eggs and toast at Moulin Rouge Cafe in the Tenderloin with Steph (which is awesome if you've never been). I stopped by the gym to fit some headgear on (As this was my first fight head gear was mandatory). Then drove with my Buddy Steve Kuo to the event.

Steve had driven up for LA to watch me fight and to hang out. He is a 179lb fighter fighting out of The Yard in LA and is 3-0 in his amateur muay thai career thus far. A former accountant at Deloitte and an aspiring firefighter, he is one of my closest friends and an old training partner from my Claremont Jiujitsu days. Having him around calmed me down a lot.

We arrived promptly at 1:15pm and waited for the commission. At this time I had my mug shot taken. The photographer commented that for fighters we all looked pretty chunky. I guess this meant I re hydrated well! or maybe I should drop to another weight class :(

340pm and the commission still had not shown up. We sat around talking crap and admiring Calstate hayward's various random athletic pictures and trophies. We also sat and talked to Adam's opponent who was a really nice guy. We also met the ring announcer who had some colorful things to say including that Edge could teach a grasshopper to kill a spider. i think that was pretty accurate.

5pm comes around and the doors open. Finally we are shown to the back locker room for pre-fight physicals. Bebe and Edge arrived to corner us and wrap our hands and I felt that much more confident.

The entire process of physicals, waiting felt a lot like being back wrestling in Highschool. We did a walkout pre-fight ceremony and the fights began. I blew my nose and started to worry if it would affect me. I started to worry if I had done enough and if I would be able to perform. I looked at my teammates and I worried if I would disappoint them. I was a mess.

I was the fourth fight on the card and I was butterflies all the way as each fight finished. I put on my shorts and warmed up for less than a round with BeBe. As usual I had a sweat going...fast. I stayed warm and walked out to the wrong music...but I didn't really care.

At this point I did not feel very nervous or scared but anxious. I looked away from the crowd and walked slow into the ring. I thought that this walk would last a long time as many had told me but it felt actually good to finally get in. I was far from relaxed though but kept this to myself mostly. My nose felt clogged. My opponent walked in. The ref told me to follow his commands and the fight was on.

I honestly don't remember much from the fight in detail. Things came in flashes:

I remember landing my first jab and feeling good about it. I remember eating the first right from my opponent and not worrying about my nose anymore. I remember the first leg check and how much it hurt my shin. I remember kicking back and not feeling a thing. I remember how great it felt to feel my leg kicks dig into his thigh. I remember how great it felt to land my right hand. I remember how weird it felt to get rocked by a flurry but feel no pain. I remember getting muscled in the clinch. I remembered landing some knees to his body and feeling his ribs. I remember reverting to double underhooks and thinking about throwing him or taking his back (thank god I didn't do this). I remember eating a late punch and thinking wtf. I remembered hearing edges British accent telling me to kick, punch, kick, 1-2s, low kick, again, low kick again. I remember the rounds becoming shorter and shorter.

And like that it was over. I looked at edge and asked if I won. He said I did and i raised my hands up and i flexed. Bebe told me to stop flexing as i had no biceps. I stopped :). they called out my name And that was it. I won a split decision. It was great.




















Jen beat her opponent up and showed some great head movement. She won as well after a little mess up on the score cards (I felt bad for her opponent but Jen deserved the win!)





















Adam dominated his opponent who was much taller with his pressure and won easily. He looked on point!



















It was an awesome night for the gym and it felt great.

















I thanked Kru Edge and Bebe. I thanked all my friends and family. All my training partners who showed up.

I spoke to my Dad on the phone who couldnt wait to call me. He asked how it went, congratulated me, and then told me to stop fighting. I told him Id just begun but that I would take care of myself.

That night I ate some pinoy food at Geris grill and enjoyed some Ice Cold San Miguel Beer and felt relieved. Then went to the old faithful blackthorn to celebrate with some jameson shots, margaritas ($4!), and stellas.

I cant wait to do it again. A few days off and back to the gym :) I have a lot to work on including circling off, keeping my chin down, and accuracy on lowkicks.

Thank you to all who supported me.

Weigh Ins

Weigh ins-

The diet really paid off in the last week and i had stopped fluid intake only on that day. I had the half day from work, picked up Andrew and Adam and met Darren at FTCC. Darren is not a trainer at Gym 445 but typical of his nature was kind enough to help us all make weight. Rodney generously offered the facilities at his home for our cut.

The weight cut was relatively easy for all of us with minimal sauna time. I learned some new tips about squeegeeing off sweat in sauna and when to take on and off my sauna suit from Darren. This helped a lot.

Driving to weighins took us 2.5 hours! With Darren sharing colorful insights (including tyson impressions and japan stories) behind the wheel (if you train at FTCC or know him at all you know how entertaining this can be), we made it without too much discomfort.

We all were well under our weight limits. While Adam's opponent had long since weighed in. Jen and my opponent had not. In fact Jen's opponent was not coming until Saturday. After some talking with the commission and with Darren's convincing nature jen was able to weigh in that day thankfully. My opponent showed up and weighed in at 153lbs...six lbs above our agreed weight. I questioned this. And Darren immediately said just do it anyway. I hesitated for a second but I wanted, needed to fight. I thought about the three weeks I had just put in and agreed.

We finished up with some pedialyte, and some well deserved japanese food. My feelings fluctuated between nervous and excited the entire night. I couldnt wait.

Good friends and family were critical at this time. While my parents dont really like the fact that I want to fight they have been very supportive. This helped me a lot mentally. I slept not wanting to let anyone down.

Week 3

Week 3- making weight and tapering off

Darren U had given me a diet to follow the week of weigh last year and I decided to implement it much earlier in the week this time. see my post on weight cuts for more info on this...

On Monday I felt rested but developed some phlegm in my throat. I ignored this for the most part and ran some sprints in the am and hit the pads with edge in the evening, 6 rds on the bag, finishing with the cardio class, and doing 100m wind sprints.

On Tuesday did a good session in the Am with Edge. At night did the stanyan run and 5 block sprints right into sparring 5x3 in a row. Again sparring revealed a lot. I felt good landing mostly low kicks jabs, one-twos, and counter hooks. This was pretty much the way i felt I was going to fight. the fifth round I felt like absolute jello, and andrew really pushed me. This was the last sparring session till the fight.

On Wednesday I felt really weak and started to develop a head cold. I rested this day and only did 5 rounds of shadow and stretched. Drank lots of fluids, loaded up on vitamin c, cold-eeze and rested. To end the night I took theraflu. I did not want to be sick.

On Thursday I felt much better, but developed a sore throat. I started to worry and kept a steady regimen of fluids, cold-eeze, and vitamins. Under the eyes of Edge that night I did 7 rounds of rounds of fast shadow and 5 rounds really really light and fast on the bag. He said that was all and I was done till the fight. After training that night, i ate a builder bar and headed to FTCC to drop some tickets. I spoke with Darren about the fight and weigh ins the next day. Went home, drank some thera flu and fell deep asleep.

Week 2

Sorry for the late update. My twitter account will help alot as I can see what I did each day for the most part.

If you want to follow me its www.twitter.com/dkcuenca

Week 2

The second week of training was intense. I took the day off on Monday to do some fighters training at FTCC. Since I work full time I usually do FTCC group classes at night. The classes are great for techniques and developing my grappling/mma knowledge but its just not the same as fighters training as far as partners and cardio demands. So I wanted to get a session in.

I did a few rounds of shadow and jab straight drills. Then Rod worked with me on the micromits. Man was my accuracy bad and I really need more time to work with Rod. Rodney Mirasol is not my main standup trainer but a key person who has been helping me alot with my standup game since I decided I wanted to do muay thai last year. Ronnie Carillo, an upcoming amateur, friend and training partner also gave me some tips as well. This helped me a ton in the next few days. I then did 5-7 rounds of mma grappling with the other FTCC guys as well as Chris Cariaso, Evan Esguerra, and Neungsiam who were visiting from Fight and Fitness. Finished with a run up a hill near the gym and into nice park a good way to end the workout. Later that day did evening pads with Edge at 445 and a set of sprints.

The rest of the week I followed pretty much my routine, making it into grappling twice but trying to avoid the FTCC bug that surfaced on Tuesday following the morning training. I woke up at 530 am each day to either go to kezar, do hill runs, or work with Edge and my main training partner for this fight adam rutland who was fighting at 179 on the same card.

Sparring gave me some indicators on where I was. I felt great on Tuesday but on FridayI sparred with Adam and my eyes were opened.

Bebe Etzler and Bret Bergmark were cornering a sparring session between us and we really pushed it. And I never felt so exhausted before in my life. To be honest, I got my ass kicked and being the emotional guy that I am I felt frustrated. Had I done enough? Was I ready? i whined and asked questions. i even called up a good friend and trainer Andrew Moy to ask what I could do. The answer was...keep working, or as Bret said...stop thinking about it and kick his ass.
I had a good nights sleep, put the night behind me.

That saturday as a team we really pushed it hard. I started it with a good stanyan run with jenny followed by 6 sprints. I did the 10 round bag work out. Then we sparred for a few rounds. We ended with intervals at Kezar. I felt like I wanted to die.

That night I watched the UFC at coach Darren Uyenoyama's house. It was good to see nog win his fight with couture that night. Watching the pros I thought of how much more I wanted to accomplish in martial arts. I shared some thoughts on the upcoming fight with Darren and he showed me some of the cool Ryan Hall concepts he learned during his VA trip and was going to teach. It was a nice way to end the hard week and to be honest it really made me miss grappling but knew I had to focus on standing up until the fight was over.

thoughts on first week of training and plan for next week

This first week went well. I did take friday off which was cause i was so damn exhausted made up for it with some box and kickspar on saturday which was very good. Did fifteen minutes of hell to end the day.

Also got some time to relax with some friends at the FTCC one-year anniv at kyoto sushi on Friday. I cant believe its been a year. Some new faces and the return of some old ones. Our gym is growing strong and we are doing well. Weve got good people :)

Also found out that my friend/training partner taylor is actually the matchmaker for the card im fighting on. Which is good.


A few things to work on for next week:

1. Need to boxspar more to get used to hard exchanges especially if i give up reach
2. need to kneespar more
3. clean up jabs to the body
4. need to get my runs in harder (sprint, sprint, sprint)
   
5. clean up left kicks
6. start to practice everything in combinations
7. Be more agressive and practice closing the distance and staying busy

Still going to fit in grappling monday, weds, and friday and saturday.

short edit to the below post

After yesterdays workout I realized that I am in good shape but not where I want to be come fight time. Will write more tonight before going to bed. So the below statements about me being in great shape. disregard.

Muay Thai Debut 9.5.09- Hayward

On Friday I just got word that I will be competing against another 0-0 muay thai fighter from Cung Le's USH at 150lbs on 9/5/09. I would like to fight at 145-147 but in grappling ive been comfortable up to 160 and I dont think size or strength will be an issue at all. After sustaining a massive ankle injury early this year I cant wait to get back to competition. And after tough losses in grapplers quest I am really hungry for a win.

Ive been working a ton on my standup primarily with Kru Edge Brown and also Andrew Moy at GYm 445. In addition have been getting lots of help from both Rodney Mirasol and Darren Uyenoyama at FTCC. In the next three weeks I am going to try to fine tune all my weakspots. Its funny after a year of starting real standup training I have a ton of really glaring errors. These will be remedied.

Ive been pushing myself conditioning wise but have not been extremely dilligent about eating clean. though weight wont be an issue I must insure that I stay away from any vices avoid as much sugar as possible and eat clean as possible. My conditioning will now focus primarily on endurance and explosiveness translating to, 15 minutes of hell drills and of course Sprints in the form of Takus at Kezar and the 445 stanyan run to6 windsprints up a sunset block routine.

Ill be sparring 4x a week for the next two weeks at least and doing pads or contact drills daily with partners or edge, andy, or rodney. I will still be grappling 3x a week at the group classes MWSaturday at FTCC and drilling with the chen chens on Sundays. Im planning on competing at the No-Gi Mundials this year as well so ill be working hard on that.

I'm taking care of this guy from USH. No disrespect to him but hes going to have to come close to killing me in order to stop me in september. and im looking to knock his head off.

as Kru Edge told me last year when I started at the gym... if your going to be a bear you might as well be a grizzly... (wonder if he was thinking of that luda song that just came out).

Im nervous, excited, and ready to work. While I am confident in myself, im getting ready for nothing less than a war. After watching many friends and training partners experience this I cant wait to finally do the same!

Follow me on www.twitter.com/dkcuenca for daily training and life updates. ill approve you as long as you are not a spammer!

Cutting Weight- Guidelines (do not try without supervision or consulting medical professional/coach)

My friend was asking me some questions on weight cutting recently. I normally get questions on cutting weight or tournament preparation experience a few times a year. What many may not realize is I am still changing things around when I cut weight though there are certain principles that work really well for me.

First my philosophy is if I am weighing the day of I dont cut weight. Unless its like 1-2lbs. But still on the side of caution dont cut weight day of. This guide is not for that.

(note take this advice as caution as some of these measures are extreme. Consult your coach or medical professional before taking any of these strategies)

1. 1. Eating clean up until the weight cut (at least three-four days before)- If you are in combat sports most likely you've been eating great up till this point. It becomes even more important during this time. Darren Uyenoyama helped me a lot with my last few weight cuts by suggesting getting rid of anything that would stick in my digestive system. During this period do not eat meat, wheat carbs (including whole wheat etc), sugars, and decrease sodium intakes and very little fat intake. Focus on eating green vegetables, non-wheat carbs such as quinoa, and eat vegetable based protein sources (tofu, hummus (though hummus does have a ton of sodium so eat sparingly).
   
2. Super Hydration (2 days before weighin)- Note this is not overhydration. You basically sip approx 2 gal of water through the day (dont guzzle it). Pee as much as needed and workout normally (though you should be tapering off). This gets your body used to expelling water freely and also gives you a realistic figure of where you are cutting from as you are more than well hydrated.
3. Stop meals night before weigh in (dinner). This will ensure any residual calories in your system from food will either be excreted or used as fuel. Your body should be clean and ready for your weight cut.
4. Prepare post-weight cut meals and all logistics, find a good weight cutting partner. Good post weight cut immediate foods: Pedialyte (32oz at least), banana, zone bar, water (at least 32 oz)(have this ready). Find a place that has a treadmill, shower, and sauna that is NEAR the weigh in location (the less time you spend dehyrdated the better). A good weight cutting partner is someone who has cut weight before, and is a positive person who cares a lot about you and can call for help if things go wrong. (he also must be willing to go into the sauna with you etc. and pick ur naked body up if needed). Pack clothes for after the weight cut, during the weight cut, and a scale if there is none near the weight cutting area (hav eyour partner carry this). good postweight cut clothes are comfortable sweats, flip flops etc. good during weight cut clothes: old t-shirts, sweats, long sleeve thermals, and if you can get a good vinyl suit (title boxing has great pair)- sneakers. It seems overkill but the more you can bundle yourself up the less your body has to do to generate heat to create sweat. IF you can get some sweet sweat (available on titleboxing) or albolene makeup remover, you will need this beofre cutting weight
   
5. Once all of these things are prepared you can begin to make your cut. I like to have about 1hr per 2lbs I have to cut before I can weigh in (weight day of weigh in). Although Id say the first fourlbs come off in the next 20 mins or 30mins if you do the cut right. First strip down to your boxer briefs and apply the sweet sweat/albolene onto your body. Put on each later of clothes and make sure you tighten all drawstrings/straps. Put on your sneakers and do short warmup on treadmill followed by 3 30sec windsprints you should be sweating, finish with 3 minute constant pace. Your sweat should be going strong. Now go immediately into the sauna. You will feel all the sweat drip down like crazy. Stay in the sauna for only 10-15minutes! dont stay longer than this. Take off your weight cut clothes and jump into a short cold shower (do not drink any of the water), you will actually sweat more during this cool down. Weigh yourself. If still not on target put oin your clothes and jump in the sauna again. Repeat until you are on target (i like to use the most conservative scale you can find)
6. You may be extremely dehydrated now so head immediately tot he weigh in location and make weight. Once you make weight begin to rehydrate by sipping on pedialyte (u can use the cap to better measure off small amounts). SIP DO NOT GUZZLE! after clearing the first bottle of pedialytle put either a zone bar or banana in your system. Eat slowly. Clear the next bottle of pedialyte by sipping and then finally the water. Keep sipping water till you are fully hydrated, now if you can get some good sleep/rest.
7. Wake up for your next meal and eat clean but now its okay to eat carbs and meat. Id say a good sushi/sashimi dinner works well. Lots of green vegetables and also eat as much sodium as you want dont go crazy but you need to restore whats in your body. Keep drinking water and replenishing yourself slowly.
8. Sleep early, watch a movie or something to get your mind off fighting, and get some great rest for the battle tomorrow.

I hope this helps whoever reads this.