Week closer to the fight. Looking forward to getting in there. Guess I’ll give everyone an idea of what a typical day for me here is like. I get up at 4am, get some breakfast, head to the gym at about 4:40am, I stay there until about 5:45am, then off to work from 6am to 4:30pm and home for 5pm and then go to the gym until 7pm.
I live pretty close to where I work and where I train but four times a week I head an hour towards the Coast to train BJJ. I didn’t know where I was gonna train before moving out here but it has all kinda worked out for me, it has helped me stopped being relaxed, it has helped. I have had to prove myself all over again.
With the work I do I am on the ground and on machine’s, some days we spend ten hours in the sun, lifting concrete pipes, some days are hard and other days are ok. It can be tough and taxing but I think it helps build mental toughness. We work 13 days on, 1 day off and home for a week every four weeks. Normally on our days off we get f*cking hammered! Everyone gets shit faced here. They are a bunch of miners, rough as guts, they don’t give a shit out here, its crazy….and funny! But now that I have a fight coming up I don’t drink but I end up driving all my drunk mates around.
Last time I was home was the end of January, I leave straight to Ireland from here but the after I get to go home for a couple of days to see my wife and kid before heading back out here. It was Valentines day on the 14th, then it was our anniversary on the 18th and I made sure to spend some money on my wife but it was my birthday on the 19th and I didn’t get anything, so I’ll have to see to her about that haha.
I read a Jack Mason (my opponent) interview recently with WHOATV and it had me a bit perplexed. He said he is the most experienced fighter I’ve fought… Well yeah, he has fought a load of fights. I guess on paper he has more experience with the number fights but there must be a reason he hasn’t done too much in MMA or made it to the UFC. I think he believes his own hype, he should really settle down.
I just hope he doesn’t bring his point-sparring, wet blanket fighting style in this fight. I think he will come into this with the game plan of trying to take me down and hold me there and put the audience asleep with a boring fight. I just wish he’ll meet me in the middle and want to throw down. The last person that did that was Manny (Manual Rodriguez) and he got KO’d. Valentino Petrescu, another pom, decided to stand with me on TUF and he also went to sleep. I’d love the chance to KO another pom, I really hope Jackie has the confidence to try a strike with me. But it is ok if he doesn’t, I’ll understand, he doesn’t have good striking in his arsenal to do so.
I have no injuries coming into this one unlike my last two fights so I can’t wait to fight injury-free for a change, so my mindset heading into this fight is great. Last year was a shit year so hopefully I have a good start to 2014. Preparation has went great for this fight, feel great, some good training, my weight is down, I feel good.
Speaking of weight, I hope Jackie actually makes weight for this fight. He is saying he has got all the tools to beat me but he’s just got to make weight first. I’ve noticed he has had more than a few catch-weight fights, probably because the drop from middleweight is tough on the guy. So would be nice if he could make weight.
Just want to give a shout-out to my sponsors:
Shuuush Apparel
The Boxing Club
Bellakai Restaurant
Arj Plant Hire
Nutrition Underground
Brooks Running