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:
Need to boxspar more to get used to hard exchanges especially if i give up reach
need to kneespar more
clean up jabs to the body
need to get my runs in harder (sprint, sprint, sprint)
clean up left kicks
start to practice everything in combinations
Be more agressive and practice closing the distance and staying busy
Still going to fit in grappling monday, weds, and friday and saturday.
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.
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!
I grew up traveling between the Philippines and the United States. I began my journey as a martial artist through wrestling at The Hill School in Pottstown Pennsylvania. I rented my first UFC and was hooked. I went to California for College and dove into Brazilian Jiujitsu and spent my early years training under Gabe Ruediger (Rodrigo Mederios Blackbelt). I competed in several tournaments: Grapplers Quest, Pan Americans, Copa Pacifica. I medaled in almost every tournament.
Upon graduation in 2007, I took a break from martial arts to focus on my career in financial services. I became overweight and depressed. After a year, I started to train again in late 2008.
In September 2009, encouraged by one of my mentors Edge Brown, I started to compete again, this time in Thai Kickboxing and MMA Smokers. After a year of thaiboxing I made my MMA Amateur Debut in November 2010.
In January 2011 I left my job in Finance focus on becoming a better martial artist.
