THE DAY IS MINE!

We touch gloves and start pacing around each other. The roar of the crowd prevents me from hearing anything Bobby is trying to tell me.  Hurt tries to go for a takedown, but i defend it easily. Spreading my legs apart and keeping my balance, I break his hand grip around me and we get back to pacing around each other. He is walking on his hind legs, which means he either has good cardio, or is a kicker. We are going for 3 5 minute rounds.  He throws a flurry of punches, which I dodge easily, but only to be clinched against the cage. Luckily Bobby is behind me, so I'm hearing everything he says to me. "Relax Logan! Your doing good! Get that left arm inside, then push up and out!" I do just that and I'm out of clinch.  We exchance a few shots, but nothing that did any serious damage.  I then see if I can try to break this guy. I bring out my shin. I go for his hamstrings. left, right hook, shin. I switch my lefts and rights, but still use my shin. He comes in for an uppercut, but i block and evade, and shoot my shin as hard as i can to his left leg.

*WHAM*. My shin hits his leg directly. I could feel his femur bone against my shin, THATS how hard i hit him. "OHHH!!!!!!" The crowd certainly heard it, and he felt it, but he didn't flinch."Damn" I thought.  "Don't just go for his leg, Logan! Damage him everywhere!" Yelled Bobby.  I then go for a high kick, and just miss full contact. I twist my body and shoot high, and my toes make contact with his jaw.  But to no accomplishment. It barely hurt him. He throws a flurry and back to clinching.  This time he just pushes me up against the cage, and does absolutely nothing. I look at the clock. :13. "shit, I gotta do something" I thought.  I push him off a bit and just go for body shots. He absorbs them and in return he throws a flurry. This time I'm cornered, so I just cover up and bob and weave.  *ERRRRRRRR!*. Airhorn.  We go back to our corners. Bobby runs in and splashes me with water. "Lets wash this man juice off you. You're doing great dude! you totally won that round." "I hate clinching, I think I felt him clawing at my sides dude." "Holy shit! I see it! He clawed you dude! Theres blood! I got it." Bobby takes out a towel and splashes it with Luke water and rubs my left side hard. 10 seconds later, the bleeding stops. "Okay, what do you think? What are you gonna do?" "I'm gonna have fun, Bobby." He smiles at me, "Haha  alright dude, but don't push it. Lets see if he has any ground work in this round aight?." "Okay, I'll try to get him down over by your corner." "Good, that way I'll yell profanity at him and tell him how much his face reminds me of an ugly penis." "Sounds good." "TIME IS UP! ROUND TWO!" yells the referee. Bobby takes my face into his hands, "Make me proud, boo boo". By far the gayest thing he has ever said to me.

We touch gloves and we go again. He instantly goes for the clinch. "FFFFUUUUUUUUU!!!" I thought. I'm not having this shit. I push him up and throw a flurry of body shots. He couldn't react fast enough, and got hit hard. He backs up, while breathing heavily. We circle around each other and exchange punches. I work my bobbing and weaving into my shots, and it shows. Every 5 punches I get in, he gets 1 in on me.  After about a minute of exchanges, Its time to work on my ground work.  I sweep for his legs, and I instantly take him down. He locks his legs around my waist for full guard, and keeps it there. He will not let go for anything. I try  switching to side control, or even getting out, but he just sticks in place.  I look at the clock. 3:49. I've been in this position for 2 minutes and the referee hasn't done a damn thing? Prick. Lets try something. I get my head under his right armpit and get my hands to the mat. I get to my feet and pick him up, and also immediately slam him back down.  Apparently it knocked the wind out of him, because he unlocks his legs. I lose no time and pop to my feet and spread around the cage. The referee signals Hurt to get up, and he takes his time.

Now here's where it gets stupid. Hurt evades me. He basically runs around he fucking ring for the remainder of the round. He knows the full guard would make him win the round, so he does just that. I sweep, he just runs away. I jab, he runs away. I juke at him, runs away.  So i get creative. I stand in the middle of the ring while he circles me, and just stand perfectly still. Seeing if he will at least try to do SOMETHING. He does absolutely nothing. Which made the crowd and referee mad. He stops Hurt from frolicking around and takes a point away from him, which is HUGE! Meaning, I just won the round. He didn't like it, because once the referee signaled the judges Hurt comes after me. He throws punches, and clinches. Tries to knee me, but fails. Then he head-butts me. Which is illegal, but the ref didn't see it. But the crowd did. :10 seconds left in the round and he head-butts me. I get dizzy. Everything gets fuzzy. I just cover up and wait to hear the horn. *EERRRRR!!* The airhorn blew, but I still feel punches. He still throws them for a good 3 seconds. The ref throws him off of me and is yelling, threatening to throw him out if he does it again. He just smiles and walks to his corner. The crowd instantly boo's him and I heard Alvarez had the look of disgust. The ref stands me up, "You ok, kid?", I nod and walk to my corner.  Bobby takes an ice pack and puts it on my forehead. "FUCK HIM UP!!!" He yelled at me. "He is getting desperate, meaning he is weak now. Take out the axe and start CHOPPING!" "He...hit me hard...Bobby.." "Your ok man! just focus on me! How many fingers am I holding up?" "You're not holding up any." " 'ATTA BOY!" He massages my shoulders while whispering to me. "Heres what I want you to do. I want you to just give him a few jabs and a few kicks, then when I give you the signal, you unleash hell on the pricky bastard. Got it?" "Whats the signal?" "You'll know. Just get out there and break out the axe until I give you the signal." "Gotcha". I get up and actually feel refreshed. I look over at hurt, who is laughing. I now notice I have a huge bump on my forehead. He did this to me. He's gonna get it. I'm gonna fucking murder this kid.

I hope Bobby gives me that signal soon. I wanna show everyone how hard I hit people.

The ref signals and we go for the final round. Hurt starts circling me, trying to go for the clinch. I get him good on his first try. As he goes for one of my elbows, I dodge to the left and basically slap the back of his head. *WHAP!*, He looks at me with the face of a killer. I just smiled. He then tries to throw punches. A few jabs, but nothing special. I give him a few more leg kicks, which I knew were hurting. I could see it in his face, and also when he started limping. But I don't go for his leg, I'm waiting for the signal.  I look at Bobby, and he just signals *thirty seconds*. I go for a few more leg kicks, and just a few right jabs.  I'm counting down in my head. 15..14..13..12..11.  I circle around and clinch him to the cage for a few seconds. See how he feels when I do a little dirty boxing.  7..6..5.  I get back in the center of the ring, and Hurt circles me. 3..2..1. I get close enough for my range. I'm waiting for it.

"LEEEEEEEEEEERRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JJJEEEEEEENNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Best.Signal.Ever.

Thats where I unleash hell. I begin to throw jabs left and right. He starts backing up. I kick for his head. Connect! Hitting his jaw hard. He then pins his back to the cage. This is where it gets messy. I then throw every type of boxing combination I can think of. Left left right, right right left, right left right, left left left right hook, right h left h right h left h. I even threw a few spinning back hands.  One of them connected. I then throw one good shin shot to his leg. He screams and gets down on one knee. But I wasn't done. I grab him by his shoulders and stand him back up. I just try to hit him as hard as I could. "FUCK HIM UP LOGANN!!!" I keep saying to myself. He then falls to the ground, where I give him one of the worst beatings of his life. I hammer fist his skull over 7 times. Punch after punch after punch. I felt like I was pounding his head into the center of the earth. Then, he becomes lifeless. Unconscious. I can see in his eyes he is in La La land.

I stand up and circle the ring. The crowd is on its feet and just goes nuts. Bobby is losing his fucking mind. I see Ricky and Leslie and everyone else cheering for me. I honestly felt like I won the UFC belt or something.  I climb up the cage and hang off the side. I look at bobby and just scream at him. He screams back. This is what men do.  I get off and walk over to Hurt to see how he is doing. He just cusses, and cusses and cusses some more.  He gets up and comes up and just shakes my hand, then instantly leaves. Wanting to not be part of anything else anymore.  The ref grabs my hand. "LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! WITH A WIN IN THE THIRD ROUND BY KNOCKOUT! YOUR WINNER, LOGAN "THE HYBRID" SZUCH!!!!" The ref raises my hand and I just yell into the air. I finally did it. I have fought and won! and this is my first fight? Good god, I can't wait until I can actually do this for a living. Bobby comes into the ring and gives me a bear hug. Again, this is what men do. "You did it man! You kicked his ass!!!" "I know. I was there". John comes into the ring and shakes my hand. "You think I did good, John?" "You got the bonus, Logan. Holy fuck you got the bonus." "Good to hear." Ricky comes up and just shakes my hand and winks at me. I considered it a compliment, as well as a pick up technique. Leslie came out of fucking nowhere and jumps to me, giving me a huge hug. She wraps her legs around me, and I just spin around screaming. The crowd whistles, and does the whole *oww oww!!* thing. John, Bobby, and Ricky just stared at us. I stop spinning and look at all three of them. "What? Can't a man get a hug from a pretty lady?" Leslie instantly blushed, which i thought was funny.  She gets down and we walk out of the cage. I haven't high fived that many people before walking back. Kinda hurt.

I walk back to the locker room to the doctor, who inspects me. I got a concussion. Holy shit. But aside from that, I'm fine. John insists I go to the hospital, and I agree. I sit down and Bobby begins to take off my gloves. "I'm fucking proud of you man, that was great." "Thank you, I appreciate it. Nice signal by the way." "I knew you'd like it.". After a few minutes talking with everybody, a man walks in. "That was a hell of a fight you had there, Mr. Hybrid." "Thank you, sir. May I ask who you might be?" "I'm Eddie's manager". My heart fucking sunk. HIS MANAGER?!?!?! Oh please Lord. Please tell me I get a half a million dollar bonus. "I'm assuming I did something that caught your eye then? In order for you to come back here." "Yes. Your entire skill level is what caught my eye. Also Eddie's eye. Stick around after the event, so we can talk." "Yes sir." He thanks me again and walks out. I just scream. "I AM GOD!". "You really aren't" said john.  "You're most likely Buddha's gay half brother, though. Thats something to be proud of." Bobby. A truly funny man. We talk for a bit more and watch the remaining fights. All while I think in my head, "Oh man, this is awesome. Eddie Alvarez thought I was a good fighter. I hope this turns out for the best".

Thats when I realize, "Fuck, how am I gonna keep this bump on my head to myself?" Bobby raises his hand. "Just tell your mom you passed out from busting a nut too hard, and you fell flat on your face."

".......fair enough"

The shit before the fight.

I wake up at around 6 a.m., only to see everyone else snoring their asses off. Today is the day. I'm going to be fighting in my first Mixed Martial Arts fight. I instantly had butterflies.  But i kept my composure, just enough so i could hit the toilet while i took a piss.  I open up my laptop and start watching fights. I must've watched about 60 before everyone else started to wake up. Bobby looked at me wide eyed. "You weren't up all night were you??" "Nah, I woke up at six. Been watching fights." "Nice, well don't look at too much, we gotta train buddy." You also gotta work on your side control". That was Ricky. He actually spoke. I thought I was dreaming. "Thanks for the heads up, I think I'm good with it now. I'll perfect it later on throughout the year." I hear a knock at the door and I go to open it. Its John, along with Jason behind him. "Good to see you girls finally woke up. We're gonna work on cutting the water weight before the fight. Get dressed. We'll see you three in fifteen."

"Got it, John." I said. I go to grab my stuff when I hear my phone ring. I notice it isn't a number I know. I answer it, and to my surprise its a girl. "Who is this?" "Its leslie!" ".....how the hell did you get my number?" "That would be ME!!" Bobby said. "She wanted it while you were working on your boxing. She wants your hot bod, amigo." "Shut. Up. Anyways, whats on your mind, Leslie?" "I just wanted to say good luck on your fight...again." "Well, thank you very much Leslie. I really appreciate it. Im guessing you would like my autograph when I get back?" I joked as I said it.  Thats when i heard giggling in the background, lots of giggling. "Nah, but I'll definitely take it once you sign with the UFC, hehe." "Heh, well I'll be sure to do that. I gotta go to work, but I'll talk to you later?" "Ok! good luck! bye!". I hung up and walked out of the room.  We all headed out into the gym and to the treadmills. There we suited up, and by suit up I mean we put on sweat suits, then 2 layers of winter clothes.  We go to the treadmills, and begin to jog.  Now, when it comes to cutting weight, I can't do these types of routines without any music.  It just doesn't work for me.  I just put headphones on and when my music kicks on, I become a different person. I like it.

Some of the stuff I listen to is Aesop Rock, Doom, Cloudkicker, basically anything except for pop rap, and country.  I was listening to Cloudkicker- States, while I took off the few pounds of water weight.  In little over twenty minutes, you could see a pool of sweat coming off from all of us. Afterwards we shower off, and we just hang for a bit. Everyone is relaxed, except for me.  I can feel my stomach turning, and my blood pulsing. I feel like I ran a mile in under a minute. I begin to shake a bit thinking of all the possibilities, and thats when Ricky puts his hand on my shoulder. "Relax dude, it isn't the end of the world." I take a deep breath and nod to him, but still nervous as hell.

We go to the back where they fit us with the gloves, and take our weight. Yesterday I was 160, today I'm 155. Not bad for my first weight cut.  Before I know it, the event starts, and thats when we decide to go into the back.  As Bobby tapes up my hands, I see my opponent. His nickname is "Hurt". My guess is, he likes to hurt people.  He is almost my size, a little lankier though.  We exchange looks, and Bobby notices. "You know you gotta beat this guy, right?" "Yea, i know, just gotta figure out how" "You already do, just let it come out in the ring." He gets done taping my hands, then holds them up to his face. "Your a natural at this Logan, now its time to show them." I nod to him, and I go over to where to fit me with gloves.  A few minutes later, and Jason is up to fight.  "When ya'll see me, I'll be signing that 6 fight contract with Strike-force". He walks out and thats when his music starts. I watch him on the monitor, critiquing his every move. He always moves to the right, and when he goes in to strike, he leaves his chest WIDE open. But his opponent never noticed, and never even tried to go for it. The fight lasted to the second round, with Jason winning via technical knockout. The other fighter just got tired. I could see his conditioning was non existent, which gave Jason the big edge. He walks back into the locker room with his head held high, and feeling like a million bucks. "I told you I would kick his ass." "Yea, don't get your hopes up, that was your first fight." John said.

A few more fights take place, and its Ricky's turn.  He walks out and I notice he looks at me, and gives me a nod, and walks to the cage. I notice his opponent is huge. Looks like he should be fighting in the LH(light heavyweight) division. Ricky is fighting in the LW (light weight) division.  His opponent is screaming, and pounding his head. Wanting to take the fight to a brawl, while Ricky is completely still. The ref signals the ok, and they both start circling. His opponent instantly swings for the fences.  Throwing left and right hooks like theres no tomorrow. Ricky keeps his composure and evades most of them. Half of the round is almost up, and thats when I notice that his opponent is TIRED. His hands go down every time he circles. Thats when Ricky starts jabbing him with his left. Which made the fighter go for double leg takedown. Ricky saw it before it even happened and threw a flying knee, and it connected. Hard. I could feel the shot to the fighters head. He instantly fell to the mat and didn't move for a good minute. Ricky calmly goes back to his corner, and waits for the official decision. The ref raises his hand, and he comes back in the locker room. "You see?", he said to me, "You just have to relax. Don't think about anything else but that other person in the ring with you. Do that, and you can't lose." "I gotcha, thanks Ricky." I shake hands with him, and the night goes on. I see a few good wins from noticeable guys, but nothing that stood out. So far Ricky and another fighter were the only two fighters who gave Alvarez some good footage to look at.  I'm hoping I can do the same.

I look at the roster, and my fight is up next. I just take deep breaths and try to relax. One of the workers of the event comes up to me. "You logan? Come with me, its showtime." I get up and John comes up to me, "Your gonna do great, kid. Just remember what we've trained, and you'll be fine ok?" "Alright, thanks John." "Go get 'em man".  I walk out with Bobby walking right behind me. I can hear the crowd getting louder and louder. "This is it" I thought, Its time to show why I'm here.  They guy who pulled me out of the locker room comes up to me. "When i give you the thumbs up, you walk out, got it? Not until I say so." I nod to him. Bobby puts his hand on my shoulder, and whispers "kick some ass" to me. I chuckled, and wait for my music to start.  I chose Hold On by Cloudkicker.(This is where I want you to bring up youtube, and play this song.  I want you to feel what I felt.)  My music starts, and I close my eyes and think about what I'm gonna do. I think of all of my training I've done to get this far, I think of Bobby and how much he's helped me, I think of John and how much he supports me and helps me, I think of Ricky and how much faith he has in me, I think of Jason and how much of an asshole he is, and I think of leslie, and how I don't want to disappoint her. The guy gives me the thumbs up and I walk out onto the stage.

The lights blind me at first, but they dim. I hear the crowd get louder as I look into the cage at my opponent. I begin to walk down the stage and every part of me that made me nervous went away. I begin to feel calm, and almost numb.  I go up to the cutman, who applies to vaseline to my face and I hear someone call my name. Its leslie. She's in the crowd with her friends, just yelling at me. I was shocked. I look at Bobby, and he's just smiling oh so much. He knew they were coming, just never bothered to tell me. Asshole. I take my shirt, pants, and shoes off, and fix my cup inside my shorts.  The cutman applies the vaseline on my eyebrows, forehead, sides, and cheek bones. He puts my mouthguard in my mouth, and I step to another person. He checks my gloves to make sure I didn't tamper with them. He signs them for authentication, and gives me a thumbs up to step into the ring. There, I walk straight to my corner. Most fighters like to run around the ring a bit, get a feel for it. I like to not waste time, and get going with the fight.  I see my opponent bouncing around, looking energetic. Like most fighters are. I like to just stand completely still and stare at my opponents.  I feel it makes them uneasy, it shows to them I'm not jittery, I'm not nervous. I'm just ready to fight. The music cuts and the ring announcer comes into the cage.  "Ladies and gentleman! Tonight we have another spectacular lightweight fight for you! In the red corner, weighing in at 156 pounds, standing 5'6, and with a record of 2 wins, no losses, Tanner "Hurt" McCurt!!!!" The crowd screams, like they did every other fighter thats fought tonight. "Now in the blue corner, standing 6'1 inches tall, weighing in at 155 pounds, in his mixed martial arts debut, Logan "The Hybrid" Szuch!!!!" The crowd goes wild again. The announcer leaves the cage and the ref comes in. When this happens John yells for my name behind me. "Logan! If you win this fight, I'll give you a 2K bonus!" My eyes widen huge. Like, woah. 2K? Thats a lot. Now my heart is pumping, and the nerves start coming back.  "Focus logan! come on! just relax" I keep saying to myself.  I look at Ricky, who is standing next to Leslie. He just nods to me and I knew what he meant by that. The referee looks at me, "You ready?" I nod. "He looks at Hurt, "You ready?" "Hell yea! Lets do this!". "READY! FIGHT!". The bell dings, and we walk into the middle. Right when I touch gloves with him, I think to myself,

 "I've lived a decent life. But not a life of luxury. I've lived in poverty for a long time. So many people have hurt my family. I've always been told I can't do anything. That I'm a failure. That I would never amount to anything. This is my chance. My chance to shut every single one of those people up, and laugh in their faces. I have to win in order to make sure I live the way I want to live. This guy is in my way. He is trying to make sure I don't get that life i want. I must take care of him. By any means necessary...."

The calm before the storm

We are in the van for 11 hours, so it gets boring over time.  Bobby decided to play a game titled "who farted?".  He was the only player. After countless stops for pee breaks and more fast food restaurants i can think of(I don't eat fast food, I consider it death food. Fruit salad works wonders ^_^) we arrive in Miami.  The ride to where the event was being held was pretty awkward. Every person was silent, just looking around.  Not saying a word. *ffaaaaarrrrrrttt*. Luckily Bobby knew how to break the ice.

We pull into the parking lot, and to all of our surprise, there are photographers outside. Apparently nothing exciting goes on in Miami, so for a bunch of people to take pictures of amateur fighters, thats gotta be the evolutionary step.We step out and the flashes start flying. By the way, this isn't even fight night. This is 2 days before the event even takes place.  We just run in, and look around. The place is fucking huge! It looked to be the size of the civic center (which is a stadium in Pensacola). Me and bobby started to get really excited.  Ricky was just silent, not showing any emotion.  Jason looked at the other fighters coming in and decided to taunt every single one. Calling every one of them a "dick nugget" and pointing and shouting wither "submission, tko, or knockout".  An asshole at its finest.

We all are told to go to the banquet room. Theres only about 30 fighters at this event, but the entire room was filled with fans, photographers, and journalists.  We all had to sit in the front. When we got to the front, I noticed why it was such a big deal. There he was, sitting on top of the podium, Eddie Alvarez. My fucking hero, he's here.  In my mind, i flipped my shit. We all sit down, and the promoter goes over all the rules for the event. What is illegal, what is not, and what to do when something "bad" happens.  Elbows are not allowed on the ground, and no kicking downed opponents. Everything else was standard rules of MMA.  After the promoter got done talking, Eddie Alvarez comes up on stage and talks to us about what he expects, and what he has in store for the "prodigy's".  I honestly cant remember much. I was in shock and awe.  After the pre fight conference, if you can even call it that. We get back in the van and drive to the hotel.  John and Jason get a room, and me Bobby and Ricky get one room.  We just put our stuff down, and Bobby takes pictures out of certain situations, such as using southpaw, going for the clinch, or ground situations. I try to remember what to do, and how to remain calm in those situations. I feel good, this fight is my first and I feel really good about it. Bobby is more excited than me, and Ricky is still silent. We get to bed early, and me and Bobby decided to wake up early to train a bit and get to the stadium before the other fighters.

We wake up at 5 am and walk to the stadium, considering its only a few blocks away.  We get to where the counter lady is, and ask her if we can get inside the cage, and just get a feel of things.  She gives us the ok, and we walk into the stadium.  We get to the cage, and realize its almost identical to the ufc cage. Except a little bigger.  We get inside and start to walk around, see how springy the fence is, how padded the mat is, the usual.  We decide to just wrestle a bit, without changing. Just to get a feel for it.  We try clinch on the fence, we just goof around after that.  We feel good, laughing, playing around. Not trying to be as serious as everyone else is. You gotta have fun too if you wanna do this job.

After that we just decide to go back to the hotel, and chill a little bit.  John and Ricky and Bobby see us come back and thought we had just run away. "You guys scared the shit out of me", John said.  "We just went to see the cage, and get a feel for it. Don't worry", I said.  After we talked for a bit, we just walked around the hotel, talking to other fighters, and just relaxing.  1 more day, and the event would be here. My first fight on the line, and a chance to see whats in store with Alvarez.  This is going to be good.

Getting Ready

Lets flash forward to four months later.  I've been training almost six days a week, for two hours each day.  I've been keeping this entire thing under wraps from my parents.  The only people who know about me training are my fighter friends, Bobby, and my brother in law.  I have been focusing on BJJ and my striking.  I'm good on the ground, but I just love to strike. Ever since I saw Eddie Alvarez fight Aaron Riley, I've wanted to perfect my striking to the skill level of Alvarez.  After working on my striking for a few minutes, John sits me down and talks to me about my future in MMA. We go into his office and he shuts the door and closes the blinds. Which made me nervous at first. "Ok, so heres the deal, you've been training for little over 6 months now. How do you feel? Physically and mentally?" "I feel great! I love the way things have gone. My striking is amazing, and I think my ground work is going extremely well. I need to work on my Muy Thai a bit more, but other than that I'm 100%." "Thats good, because I might have a fight for you". "Really?" "Yup, theres this promotion starting in Miami. Showing off new talent. I'm gonna sign you up." "ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! THATS AWESOME!!! I CA.....oh no" "What, whats wrong?" "I don't think I would be able to, John. I have no health insurance. If i get hurt, I have no way of paying for it." "Ok? Neither do any of these other fighters in here. You think you're the only one? Listen, you just train for this fight, I will take care of the expenses alright?" "I don't know how to thank you enough, John. You've done so much for me" "Just kick this kids ass, thats all i ask." "Consider it done" "good, now get out there and train".  I walk out and begin to work on my striking, focusing on body shots and my hooks.  When my adrenaline kicks in, I feel like im fucking fast when it comes to striking.

Bobby comes out of the bathroom, proclaiming he took a massive dump, and that the bathroom would never be the same. "Sup dude, how is your striking going?" "Its going good man, I have a fight." "AWESOME!!! Against who?" "Don't know, But Its in 4 weeks." "Well, lets not waste any time, you want a knockout right?" "Of course, everyone does" "Then lets work on those headshots".  We go to the bag and start punching. I focus on 'one, two combos'.  Left Left Right. Right Left Right hook. Left Right Left Uppercut. Right Left Right body shots. Trying to perfect it. Like its a new language. I work a solid hour on the bag, and wanting to go more, but Bobby stops me to keep my pace. "Alright man, lets go work on your ground work". This time Bobby wanted to wrestle with me. This was gonna be a sight to see.

"Just to let you know, I've been working on my glutes" "What does that have to do wi....." "HYAAA!!!!" He jumps through the air like fucking spider man, trying to pounce me. I just strafe to the left and he falls to the mat, hard.  He immediately gets back up. "Your fast, but I'm faster. WATCHAAAA!" He now goes for my legs, and to my amazement, he gets me down to the ground.  We wrestle for about 5 minutes, just working on my switches to ground, side control, mount, guard, side guard.  After 6 minutes we take a minute break. "You're ground work is excellent, Logan. You just gotta work on the switch from your back to side control. Other than that, you'll be fine on the ground" "Okay, lets go 5 more minutes". We went for half an hour. We lost track of time. We would have gone more if John didn't come out and break us up. After that we just get dressed and head out to the car. I drop Bobby off, who is excited about the fight more than me, and I drive home.  I literally pass out once i hit my bed.

Now lets fast forward to three weeks later.  I've been pushing myself to the limit every single day of training.  3 days before the fight. Bobby is basically my Doc Louis now. He pushes me to the max, and tells me what to work on, what to do. We even have combinations down to letters. When he shouts out Z! I know to Left Left Right Uppercut. He is quite an amazing trainer.

After several minutes on the bags and in the ring,  John calls everyone in the dojo together.  "Alright everybody, listen up. I've signed up a few fighters for the MFC in 3 days. The Miami Fighting Championship." (Its like every promotion ever created uses Fighting Championship in their name) "So I'd like everyone to give a hand for Logan, Ricky, and Jason. They will be fighting in the lightweight division, and they will be kicking some ass". Everyone cheers, and a few people come up and shake our hands. Like we are famous or something.  There was this one girl, who came up to me and shook my hand. She winked at me, and smiled and walked back to her friends.  Oh yea, shes down to fuck. Not really, but she is cute, and no other person winked at me when they shook my hand, so decided to keep an eye on her. We go back to training and I start on working on my knees. I like flying knees. They sort of throw fighters off sometimes. So I'm hoping to use it in my first fight.  My shin is also a fucking weapon. I've noticed no matter how many times I use it, I never hurt. Almost, weird.

After a few hours, we stop and John takes all 3 of us aside. "Alright guys, heres whats gonna happen.  Tonight we will meet back up here and we will be driving to Miami.  It will be about 11 hours before we get there, so be ready ok?" "Yes sir", all three of us said simultaneously.  "Ok, I'll see you three in 6 hours." "Hey John, can bobby come? I asked him to be my cornerman for my first fight. I gotta have him" "That fatass?" Jason said. That made me fucking pissed off. "Watch your mouth, you sad excuse for a fighter". He walks up to me and stares me down, trying to intimidate me. I love staredowns, I either smile and stare back, or I just stare back, with the intention on killing that person who is staring at me. I wasn't smiling. "Jason, cool it before I kick your ass. Sure Logan, he can come, just have him here at the right time." "Thank you, John."

We walk out to get into our cars, "Hey Logan!" I hear coming out of the dojo. Its the girl who winked at me. She comes running out. I put my stuff in the backseat and wait for her and for Bobby, who just stopped in his tracks and watched. "Hey, you winked at me, right?" "Uh yea hehe. Um, I just wanted to say good luck on your fight in Miami" "Well thank you, I appreciate that. Whats your name?" "Leslie", I put my hand out to shake hers "Well, its nice to meet you Leslie". Instead of shaking my hand, she gave me a quick hug, and ran off. I kinda felt proud of myself. Bobby walks over after she leaves, "I could see your boner from the dojo" "Shut the hell up dude".  I call my mom and tell her Im spending the weekend over at Bobby's. She says it would be good for studying. Yea. She tells me to be safe, and i disconnect. We basically drive around downtown until the time came to go. We were too excited to get sleep, or do anything else.

6 hours later we meet up with John and the others.  We get in his van, which is pretty huge, and off we go. Next stop, Miami, and my first ever Mixed Martial Arts fight. I nearly squealed with excitement. This is gonna be awesome.

Finish the Fight

Me and Ricky start pacing each other, and I can see in his eyes that he wants to take me down and make me tap, no matter how he does it.  We start to clinch a bit in the cage, but since this is a grappling fight, no knees or strikes.  So i try to get one of his hands alone, to try to pull off a flying armbar, but to no luck.  Its almost as if he knew I was gonna go for it, and he shoots for one arm and jumps. Once i saw that jump, I immediately strayed back. Leaving Ricky in the air, who fell to the mat on his back, pretty damn hard.  "Oh shit!" screamed Bobby.  John jumped out of his chair, "Ricky! You ok?" "Yea, just got the wind knocked out of me a bit" "Okay, Logan? You don't just leave him there, you go in for the mount, or the submission, or anything. Don't just wait for him to get up.  He's vulnerable, and you take it. Got it?" "Got it".

Me and Ricky shake hands, and go again.  I look at the clock, 7 minutes 23 seconds.  Plenty of time.  We exchange tugs and pulls and at one point we get to the ground, But we are next to the cage, and Ricky immediately uses it to get back to his feet, in little less of fifteen seconds.  We go for shoots again and again, he defends every one of mine. "Damn, he's good" I thought to myself. "TRY A FLYING HEEL HOOK!!!" yelled Bobby. "Umm, thats impossible, you dumbass" i yelled back. "WELL IM GIVING SUGGESTIONS HERE!", "Yea, don't do that" said John, which made me laugh quite a bit.  We exchange clinches and we both know this isn't going more than this round.  Clock, 5 minutes 12 seconds.  Still plenty of time.  I shoot for his legs and he defends, but also goes for my back and immediately for a rear naked choke. I stop it by pushing one of my hands to my neck and twisting my neck.  By doing so, they can't get a full choke in, and by twisting your neck they can't put it in effectively, they only get one artery, leaving you tons of air space.  As i defend his choke, i twist my body and get his back to the mat.  Then i push off his legs, and stand up.  Ricky gets up and i notice he's a little pissed. He then clinches me against the cage.

Clock, 2 minutes 43 seconds. I gotta do something now.  I can't get him off of me, and he knows it. So i notice he's going to go for the flying armbar again, and i stop it by jumping and locking my legs to his pelvic area.  By doing that, my weight forces my back to the mat, giving me a good advantage. Clock, 1 minute 32 seconds. "Do it now, logan!" I thought to myself.  I get control of one of his arms and trick him a bit by holding one of his legs, thinking that im going for a leg lock.  Once he sees that i IMMEDIATELY buck my hips to the left and twist my left leg around his neck, and I pull for dear life.  He falls to the mat and starts flipping his body over in order to try to twist out.  I pull back, and twist. He groans, and starts tapping the mat, and i let go. We both are exhausted, but glad the fights over. "THATS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!  YOU PULLED OFF A HOUDINI MOVE!!!" Bobby screamed. "Yea, I don't think houdini would think that was one of his moves, Bobby", I said.  John was clapping, "Good job guys, I haven't seen that much commitment in a practice fight in a long time. You guys shake hands and get out here." We both shake hands and hug. "This ain't over" Ricky said as he smiles at me. "Oh i know it isn't" I say as i smile back.

"You guys work on your boxing a bit, and after that, we'll call it a day." I nod, "Sounds good, thanks for the practice fight Ricky", "Anytime, man.". We get to working on the punching bags and the bob and weave exercises. "Dude, you kicked his ass" Bobby said, holding the bag. "No i didn't, I was lucky to even finish the fight, dude." "Oh yea? Well did you know Ricky is a 2nd degree brown belt?". I stopped punching and was in a state of shock. Theres no way he was a brown belt, thats impossible. "........your fucking with me" "No dude, look". He points to Ricky's bag and there it is, the brown belt, hanging out. Ricky sees it and tucks it back in, and also saw me see it, and just smiles and waves. "Are you telling me, that I was able to submit a 2nd degree brown belt? Basically a black belt in BJJ?" "You obviously proved it in the cage, dude". "Holy shit...." i thought to myself.  I submitted a 'to be' black belt in BJJ, and I've only been training for one month. I got back to punching and working on my hooks, for about another hour, until it was time to go.

As we packed our stuff, and headed out the door, I heard John, "Hey Logan! I gotta talk with you". "oh shit" i thought, "I'm in trouble, I shouldn't have waited for Ricky to get up, damn. Now I'm in deep shit".  I put my stuff down and walked with him into his office.  "That was one hell of a fight you gave out there in the cage today". "Thanks, just doing my best". "I know you are, which is why I want to extend your membership here." "Really?!?!?! Oh my god, thank you man! for how long?" "For as long as you wanna train here". "Oh my god, I can't thank you enough, this is amazing. John, thank you so much. I promise you, you won't regret this decision, I'll make you proud." "Oh i know you will haha, If you keep this up, I can get you in a fight in a few months." "REALLY?!?!?! AWESOME!!!! THANK YOU!!!". I gave John a bear hug, which is the manly hug between men. So. Manly.

I ran out to the car and told bobby as i drove out of the parking lot. "Dude, you lucky bastard haha, well i know you love this stuff, and as long as your into it, I'll be there with you" "I appreciate man. John said in a few months I might be getting my first fight. Wanna be my cornerman? You're good with healing cuts and telling me what to do" "absolutely man. I'm here with you till the end" "Fuck yes".  I drop him off at his house, and i drive home, literally giggling with excitement.  I'm doing it. I'm actually going to be an MMA fighter. God, this is gonna be the shit.

My MMA career. How I'm a professional, and didn't even know it. Pt.3

Three weeks go by, and my back is fully healed. Through the healing process, I managed to work on my Boxing and Muy Thai.  Boxing was the easy part. I've always thought I threw good punches, I just never had the combinations together. Thats where John came in. He helped me find out which is my power arm(which is my left arm. Hell of a left hook lol), and found out i can bob and weave with ease. Needless to say, He was pleased to know I could be a boxer if i wanted to.  

Muy Thai....thats where I had a few problems.  The thing about Muy Thai is that its all about clinching, and kicks. Followed up with knees. Thats the basic just of it.  Problem is, i absolutely HATE clinching.  I understand clinching if you got hit pretty fucking hard, and use it to recover a bit, i get that. What i absolutely hate, is when fighters use it as if its BJJ.  They clinch against the cage, and do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR MINUTES. You need those minutes, but if that guy is giving you a "modified hug", you can't do shit, except try to wrestle out. Wasting valuable time and energy.  But, according to the judges, they had control, and gave "damage".  So whenever i see fighters use it for anything other than recovering, I either yell at them to stop being a pussy, or walk off. 

Sorry about that Rage Mode. Back to Muy Thai.  Knees!!!! I absolutely love giving knees. When i clinch, i either try to knee, or use a type of combination in less than 10 seconds. If i can't do either, I get out and try something else, or use a little boxing THEN go for it again. But i never go over 10 seconds. When you are in the ring, time almost stands still. 10 seconds can feel like 30 seconds. See what im getting at? Never waste time! When you do that, you either prolong a fight that should have ended IONS ago, or leave the fight to the judges. (BTW, for anyone out there, Im gonna quote Dana White on this one. "Never leave it up to the judges". HE IS RIGHT! There have been numerous fights where fighters have won based off of the judges.  But if you watch the fights, you think to yourself "That guy won? HE DIDN'T DO SHIT!!!".  According to the judges, though, he did. Prime examples are Shields/Kampmann, Shields/Mayhem, Kampmann/Sanchez, Korean Zombie/Leonard Garcia, Nam Phan/Garcia, Machida/Shogun.  The list goes on and on. Never leave it to the judges, because what might look like a win to you, will most likely end up a controversial win to him.)

Legs were also a problem.  I have long ones. I found out my shin can be used as a deadly weapon.  High kicks though, THOSE were a really big problem.  Whenever i went for a high kick, It would feel like my femur bone grinded up against my pelvic bone (sounds weird, and not true, but its what it felt like) A few times I could handle it (Im also good with pain) but after a few minutes, it felt like the fires of hell.  Solution? stretching.  "Thats it?" I thought. Theres no way thats the solution.  Turns out, it is.  By stretching out your legs at least an hour a day, you stretch those pelvic muscles that keep you from perfecting those high kicks.  After a solid week of stretching, i was kicking with ease :).  I've always liked kicking. It made me feel like I had a full arsenal against my opponent. I can box, kick, knee, wrestle, and submit. The all around dude lol.

After those weeks went by, my back was completely healed, and i was ready to get back to working on my BJJ and wrestling.  "I know you're ready, but take it easy the first few times ok?" "Im not five, John.  I know how to handle this."  Bobby also found out he's good at something. Its boxing, sort of.  He has a wicked right uppercut, but he tends to never use it. Ever.  He tries to bob and weave like Ali, but he forgets he has more fat than muscle, so it never works.  Although he is good with his feet. (like that fat dude playing DDR, then trips off the machine) So bobby just stuck to boxing as his main line of training.  Ricky was one of the decent BJJ wrestlers.  He's also an awesome guy, so we were good to go.  Solid 10 minute intervals, 1 minute rests. Starting on your feet. "You guys ready?" I nodded, as well as Ricky. "LEEERROOOOYYYYY!!!!" Bobby liked to yell that instead of John saying "Go". 

As we paced around each other, I wanted to try to sweep him. I've never done it before, but I have seen Genki Sudo perfect it.(Look him up, the man retired in his prime, and is IMO one of the greatest fighters to ever live.) So I start moving to my left, while also faking to go for his body. 1, 2, Go. Thats the system.  You try for the body once, then immediately again, then the third time go for the sweep.  Sounds like it would never work, but it ALWAYS DOES.  I lock my hands around his pelvis, and use my upper strength to lift him up a bit.  As i did that, i shot my left leg around his right, and pulled in. He lost his footing and BAM! on the ground. After wrestling for a few minutes, I managed to get into a leg lock. Basically twisting his ankle, hoping he would tap. But he didn't. He is also good with pain.   A few more minutes on trying to make him tap and controlling the cage, and the round is over. We go to our corners, and Bobby brings me some water. "Dude, he isn't tapping. What are you gonna do?". I look over and Ricky smiles at me. He gets back up from sitting and starts to jump around, as if he just got into the cage.  As i smile back, "I'm gonna have some fun, broski". "hehe I got you man, but finish it in this round, kapeesh?" "Got it". John gets back into the middle, "Alright guys, you ready? Round two! Here we go!" I looked back at Bobby standing behind me, "Lets have some fun >:)".  He smiles back and screams at the top of his lungs "LEEEEERRROOOOOOYYYY JEEEENNNKKIIIINNNNNSSSSS!!!!!!!"

My MMA career. How I'm a professional, and didn't even know it. Pt.2

While my parents gave me the big "no way jose" on MMA, i tried to just be a fan. But after a solid week went by, i got edgy. I wanted to train. I love training, whether its after a hard day, or right out of bed, or even after or before a fight, i love to do it. I learn every single time i train. Its like learning a new language, you keep doing it until you can use it flawlessly.  So i couldn't take it anymore, i had to find out how to train, without letting my parents, or even my brothers and sisters to find out (i didn't trust them before to not tell before this). On my way to class at my campus, i pass by a dojo. Which was weird, because I didn't know people on that side of pensacola could spell dojo correctly. It caught my eye, so i decided to stop by after class. As i stepped inside, what i saw would basically change my life. Fighters. Close to twenty of them, sprawling, striking, training in every aspect of MMA.  BJJ was taking place on the left side, standard MMA training in the middle, and capoeira on the right (i have used capoeira in a fight before, more on that later).  My jaw dropped. This dojo has been there for almost a full year, and i had no idea it was so close! I had to find out how to start training there, and fast. The owner of the dojo saw me and came over. He saw how i was eying the fighters and asked me "i see your interested in mma, correct?". I nodded and he told me to follow him in his office. He basically gave me the rundown on what they do there and how much its gonna cost. The cost...was too much. When i realized i couldn't afford it, i apologized for taking up his time and walked for the door. He stopped me and gave me a suggestion. "I'll tell you what, you bring a friend in here next week, I'll give you two weeks free. If you excel beyond what i think you can, then we will work something out. Sound good?". I was ecstatic!!! all i had to do is bring a friend, and 2 whole weeks free?!?! I can do that!!! So i shook his hand, almost shaking it off, and rushed to my car and began calling friends. After a few minutes, i found a buddy of mine who had absolutely nothing to do for the next 3 weeks. So essentially, he was a perfect match for my person to bring in.

He wasn't exactly athletic, but he could carry his own weight (metaphorically and physically). Next week comes, and i tell my mom im going to my friends house to hangout and study a bit.  I also told her we would be studying for finals, and i'll be constantly going over there for the next 3 weeks. She gave me a thumbs up, and i was off! I picked him up and we go to the dojo. When we arrive, the owner sees me walking in and signals me to come over. He welcomes me and my friend, and asks us to get dressed for serious training. As we walk out, I see one fighter eying me, in a mean way. Almost as if he didn't want me there. He bumps into me as i walk to the owner, basically to show me who's the next ultimate fighter. I thought of him as "the ultimate douche", instead.  "Alright ladies, we have two new members today, Id like to introduce to you Logan and Bobby. We will be training hard, so i want to see all of you giving your all, and i mean all of it. No slacking, or i will throw you out, understand? Good. Now, lets see what you got, Logan. Jason, step up here and you two wrestle and work on your ground work for a few minutes."

Guess who Jason was? THE ULTIMATE DOUCHE! He smiled as we walked into the middle of the cage.  As we touched gloves, he shoves me, kinda hard. I knew what was coming, and i was gonna bring back the same.  John(the owner) whistles, and he rushes me. Now let me tell you what you are suppose to do. You are suppose to get a feel of your opponent, work on getting inside, and get them to the ground as quick as possible and work your way into a submission. What your not suppose to do, in a sprawling match, is throw a spinning back kick, and expect it to connect to my head. Luckily, i saw it coming, and i have pretty good reflexes. I simply ducked and moved quickly to the left. "Jason! You try that shit one more time, ill kick your ass so hard, your girlfriends ass is gonna bleed!!!" He just smiled, while i laughed my ass off at that comment. He now tries to go for my legs. Over, and over.  He tried to fake for my body and goes for my knees, which is where i pulled off an awesome defense. I just jumped. That was it, i jumped over him, and he went down, head first, into the fence. I was hopping around the cage, and smiling extremely big ^_^.  He took this as a racist comment, and decided to go for my body, but only after he slammed me into the cage, while grinding my back on the fence. Got a pretty mean cut, and eventually he got me to the ground. I can see he's tired, and i just went for it. As i got him into my guard, i squeezed. I squeezed my legs as hard as i could, and it worked. He went from badass, to screaming lady tapping out in little over 13 seconds. As i stopped, and got him off of me, and walked out of the cage.

The owner was shocked. His jaw was on the floor. Bobby couldn't breathe because he was laughing so hard. The other fighters just stood there, eyes wide open.  "I've never seen that happen before", John said. "Yea, me neither. I wanted to see if it would work". "YOU HAVE THE LEGS OF THOR!" yelled Bobby. Made me kinda proud. Jason walked out, into the locker room, got his things, and walked out. "Don't worry, he does that all the time, but he pays for the training, so he keeps coming back", john said. "Well, i hope i don't have to do that again, my back is killing me". My cut was bleeding kinda bad, but Bobby brought some bandages, so i was okay.  "Let that heal. Still come in for the week, but no training for a little bit OK?" "yea...., but come on, we only sprawled for half an hour, John. Let me do something, please", "Alright, we'll work on some kicking, and maybe a little boxing, sound good?", "Hell yes", "Good, and by the way, if this is what you can bring to the table, I think we both will be very pleased with the outcome in the next few months" "God, i hope so" "alright, lay off for today, and take it easy, just watch these guys a little bit".  For the next hour, they worked on striking, kicking, and muy thai kicks.  All doing very well. Bobby? he was the life of the party, trying off every special move you can think of. At one point he yelled "TIGER UPPERCUT!" on the punching bag, and managed to hit the bag while doing it. The entire dojo was a gazed in laughter. "Alright, nice job guys, Ill see all of you tomorrow. Do your routine exercises at home, and remember to eat. Remember, you wanna gain weight, not lose it". As i thanked him for the nice, and kinda weird first day of training, me and bobby walk out and drove off. He points to my back, "Dude, how are you gonna keep THAT from your mom?", "By wearing a shirt, dumbass". As i dropped him off, i could hear him complain to his mom how he almost lost his life in an epic boxing match, though he had no damage on him at all, as i drove off.

I walk into my house and instantly took a shower, to get my stench off of me. My cut stung a bit, but i would live. I get out, slipped on a shirt, as well as the other things, and as I'm walking to my room, my mom passes by me. "Hey honey, did you learn a lot?", "Oh yea mom, I'm gonna ace these finals with ease", "Thats good!". Its about 10:30, so i just throw my bookbag to the ground, turn on my noise buster, and go into a coma. As i pass out, i think to myself "This is going to be awesome. I can't wait."

My MMA career. How I'm a professional, and didn't even know it. Pt.1

First blog in the history of ever. So im just gonna blog on what i love, and MMA is one of those topics.  When i graduated high school, i visited my sister and brother in law in Tennessee. While we were there, my brother in law introduced me to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The thought of being able to submit, control, and outdue your opponent, even if they are twice your size, intrigued me a lot.  We suited up, he gave me one of his old Gi's, and wanted to see how i am with no experience.  We sprawled for 5 minutes straight, and he was quite intrigued.  I found out while on the ground, my guard is almost impassable.  He is a 2nd degree brown belt, so he knows what he is talking about and his skill set. He was unable to do anything for 3 and a half minutes. Once time was up, i was surprised to still be able to keep going.  I felt great! So my brother in law wanted to introduce me to his friend, who is also a mma trainer, the next day.  The night before, he ordered UFC 101. I knew who Forrest Griffin was before this, but only a little. I also knew who bj penn was.  The prodigy, i guess.  After seeing Forrest get destroyed (which i didn't like seeing), i saw the effectiveness bjj is in the cage.  Seeing Florian tap, just made me jump and and scream. "Hell yea! Penn is badass!" Needless to say, i became a fan overnight.  The next day, we drove to the gym. I was introduced to my brother in laws trainer, who is a big guy. He knows his stuff, and knows how to train. He told me to suit up and show him what i have.  For about an hour, i showed my boxing, muy thai (which was non existent at the time), wrestling, and bjj. He told me i was above average, and asked me how long ive been training. I told him a few days, and told me, word for word "your a born fighter, dude".  I liked that idea, but my parents didn't.  When i got back home, and told them i wanted to try out MMA, they were dead set against it, and still are. One major thing, was that we had no health insurance, so if i got injured, i wouldn't be covered. At all.  I had no job, so that didn't help either. The only way i could train, is if i moved out and got my own place, but with no car or job, i couldn't and they knew that. But what they didn't know, is that i am one sly mother fucker.