Throwback - Fight Week UFC 89

I was recently looking through the disorganized mess that is my hard drive. I have a folder full of what would in the real world, be scraps of paper, napkins and receipts, with random scribblings on them. In amongst the chaos are a few ‘diary entry’ type pieces which I wrote at one time or another during my career. Some would have been printed in magazines, but most have just been sat in this folder since I wrote them. As I sift through them and delete anything incriminating, I may post one from time to time if I think they may be of interest. 

This piece below was written after my UFC debut. Akihiro Gono at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England. Admittedly, its a little crude and thin on detail but it is an insight into my first experience of fight week in the UFC. It was an exciting time. I remember feeling vindicated after years of hard work and training. All of the doubt that I had encountered, both internally and externally, as people started to follow my career. The win, although a close decision, was like a silent middle finger to everyone that said I would never make it, and a good foothold to start my UFC career.

Hollywood, CA. - October 27th, 2008

Well, I just got back to Los Angeles and have taken a few days off to rest before training starts again. Its nice to be back and to be able to relax for a few days, let the diet slip a little... well, a lot actually! My weight has gone back on fast and I have been close to falling into a diabetic coma after all the sugar I've been eating! I figure I deserve it though, I worked hard for so many weeks and won my debut UFC fight against an experienced fighter. I'm pretty happy with it but I could have been better, and I will be next time.

As for the UFC experience, things are crazy in the week leading up to the fight. There is so much to do as well as all the of usual stuff I have to take care of before the fight, like my massage and haircut. I'll give you a brief rundown of fight week for all you guys out there that sent me texts with questions like "have you done the shadowboxing while being sprayed with water thing yet?"

So, I woke up on Monday morning at 186lbs. I had been controlling my diet over the weeks leading up to fight week but now it was time to start dropping the carbs off and bringing the weight right down for the weigh-in. I trained on Monday afternoon and then again on Tuesday morning, working on technical stuff and focusing on gameplan. After the Tuesday morning session was done I went straight over to the hotel in Birmingham where the UFC had set up offices and took care of all the paperwork that needed doing.

Once all of the necessary paperwork was out of the way, I had a weight check to see where I was at (183lbs) and the signed a load of posters. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay at the hotel that night because I had to get my massage appointment to make sure there were no knots in the muscles that would slow my striking down. On the Wednesday morning I went to get my hair cut and coloured before leaving Nottingham and heading to the hotel to check in. Once I got there I had an itinerary for all of the stuff that needed doing, photo shoots, videos and interviews, as well as the schedule for the weigh in and fight day. 

After the photo shoot I went and got my Playstation set up in the room, there is nothing worse than being bored during fight week, so a couple of decent games are a real life saver! Thursday I had my video interview for the big screens in the arena before the fight and the infamous 'shadow boxing in the water spray thing'. Thursday is always the worst for dieting because you know you are waking up hungry and going to bed hungry, at least on the weigh-in day you know you will have a stomach full of food before the day is out. My weight was holding steady on a diet of almonds and turkey breast and a load of water.

I woke up on Friday morning at 176.5lbs so I had a small glass of water to get my body working and then started cutting in the sauna. It wasn’t the biggest sauna in the world and when you have about twenty fighters all cutting weight, it can get a little busy! I started off with a twenty minute session to get my body sweating, the atmosphere in the sauna was pretty dull as everyone was hungry and thirsty. The only guy that was talkative was Chris Leben, everyone else pretty much stared at the floor while he explained that every one hundred drops of sweat that come off his forehead equate to about a pound in weight. 

When my twenty minute sauna session was done, I got my sweats on and jogged on the treadmill for twenty minutes before getting back into the sauna for my last twenty-minute session. We left the hotel to head to the weigh-ins and when we arrived the doctors were waiting to do medical examinations. We were then lined up in fight card order to begin the weigh-in. After making weight and having a little banter with Gono, we were all sat down backstage for the chat with Dana White and Joe Silva. They wished us all well and told us to fight hard and enjoy the experience and everyone sat rehydrating and filling their face with all kinds post weigh-in treats.

That evening was pretty much dedicated to eating and drinking and its a Rough House tradition to go to Nando's after we make weight and eat a stupid amount of rice and chicken. Three large meals later, I called into the UFC Fightclub party and meet some of the fans. I stayed for about an hour and chatted to as many people as I could, as well as posing for loads of photographs before heading back to the hotel for more food and drink. At about midnight I had my usual post weigh-in, weigh-in to see how my rehydration/carb loading is going... I was up to 187lbs again.

Fight day. The moment I have been preparing for over the past eighteen weeks, and ultimately the past several years, is finally here! We left the hotel around two and were taken over to the arena in the UFC mini-buses, then showed to our warm up area. I got a few minutes to have a look at the Octagon before I had to go backstage to get my hands wrapped by Stitch. I started warming up about an hour before I was due to fight and just worked through some padwork and some basic wresting and BJJ to get my brain working. 

I stood behind the curtains while I watched Gono dance his way to the Octagon and waited for my music to start. As soon as I heard Mr Buffer announce my name and the first few chords of 'England Belongs to Me', I knew it was work time. Walking out to that crowd was awesome and in a strange way, it relaxed me a little knowing that i had made it to the UFC and that I could just relax and enjoy the fight. For those of you that haven’t watched the fight yet, get onto ufc.com and take a look.

After the fight I went straight back to my dressing room and got three stitches to keep my cut together and was checked over by the doctor. I managed to catch a couple of the fights after mine and meet some fans before the press conference. The relief after the fight is like nothing else, its just so nice to have all the hard work pay off and to get that first win under my belt. Anyway, back to training tomorrow, time to get back in shape!