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...."