To write about the entire weekend would take me forever - it was a great experience, a definite learning experience, and one that I'm looking forward to partaking in again next year.
First and foremost, I have to thank my Kruu and all my training partners who helped me get ready for this weekend. Without them, fighting isn't possible. Training, in general, wouldn't be possible!! It's alot of work prepping for a fight and it's not done in isolation, that's for sure.
Weigh-ins. Weighs were Friday at 2pm. Thursday, I had gone for a run to try and drop water weight. I was 149 lbs when I left the hotel. Keep in mind, Iowa on this day was about +35 degrees. I went for a run with Sacha around 4pm, but it was still bloody hot. I put on a sauna suit, and then sweat pants and a sweat top, bundled up like a freak in the 100 degree weather!! I couldn't keep up with Sacha - no way, I was exhausted after 10 minutes. I slowed down and turned around at 30 min. On the way back, I had to stop at a bank and hope not to faint from heat exhaustion. Possibly one of the stupidest things I have ever done!! I felt sooooooo bad!! Underneath the sauna suit layers, I was dripping wet. Back at the hotel, I collapsed on the bathroom floor, hoping not to die right there. When I finally got mobile, I stripped down and went downstairs to the hot tub and did a few cycles of 10 min in the hot tub, then jump into the pool to cool off. By the time I came back upstairs and stepped on the scale, I was 143.5. Woo hoo!!! I had a light supper (chicken and salad and green beans) and only sucked on ice chips and a bit of water for that evening.
I was nervous as hell Friday morning. The bulk of my anxiety about this weekend tournament was making weight, so I knew as soon as weigh-ins were over, I was going to feel a whole hell of alot better. In the morning, I sat in the hot tub a bit more, and didn't drink anything. I did have a light breakfast (hard boiled eggs and a yoghurt) with coffee. We left for weigh-ins around 1:30pm. I got to pre-weigh myself and found out that I was 144.4 lbs - 0.6 lbs under the limit!! Woo hoo!! So we had to wait around for the medics and to get all the paper work done. It all went smooth, including the official weigh-in. Afterwards, we went to an Italian place for lunch (okay, it was 3pm lunch!!) and just pigged out!! Too much food actually. I couldn't finish all my ravioli - it was too rich and too much carbs for my carb-deprived body. But man, real food felt good!!! Actually, we ate WAY too much all weekend - Italian, steak, ribs, bbq, beer. Although I really didn't have that much beer - one a day, plus a margharita on saturday night when I knew I wasn't going to be fighting the next day.
Fight #1. In the blue corner, weighing in at 144.4 lbs...
Win, split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29). The majority of this fight was spent in the clinch. I learned very quickly that I don't turn people in the clinch very well!! I did utilize the body hug/back-breaker clinch alot, which the ref didn't like and warned me about (perfectly legal though). I lost the first round and won the 2nd and 3rd rounds. In the first round, a right cross stunned me right at the beginning and made me realize that yes, I was in a fight and the girl actually wanted to hurt me!! She landed a good knee as well, which knocked the wind out of me. The combination of the two made me a bit gun-shy, and made me lose all concept of relaxing and not rushing. I spent A LOT of time in the clinch, which is odd because I really don't like being there in the first place!! Mid way through the 1st round, I really didn't want to be there. I didn't want to be hit anymore, I didn't want to feel like puking. Actually, I wasn't ever really gassed in either fight - it was more me not wanting to be hit! In hindsight, if I had kept my guard up, I wouldn't have been in that situation. When the decision came, having my hand raised as the winner was an amazing feeling!! I felt so relieved, so excited and completely happy about winning. Hug my opponent, bow to her Kruu, hug my Kruu and bounce around, giddy as hell.
Fight #2. In the red corner...
Between the 1st and 2nd fights, I had a couple of hours to kill so spent the time relaxing, snacking (ooooh, definite junk food and coffee happened!!), and watching the other fights. It turned out that Sacha and I had our fights back to back (#54 and 55) so we worked it with the coordinator to be in the same ring, back to back, to make it easier on Kruu Bob to corner for us both.
I felt slightly flat before my 2nd fight. I kept the warm-up short this time, did some shadow boxing, skipping and just bouncing around to keep warm. My head was winning and I was thinking too much. I need to figure out how to quell the voices in my head before a fight and stay in the moment. I kept flashing back to the first fight, which wasn 't being productive.
I lost the 2nd fight, split decision (30-27, 29-28, 27-30). In the end, I think I did more damage to her than she did to me. She didn't manage to get in any good punches nor kicks. Again, the bulk of the time was spent in the clinch, not because I wanted to be there, but simply due to the fact that I moved in for punches and didn't move out again, got myself trapped and had to resort to the clinch. Again, I was unable to turn the girl and throw truly effective knees. I got in one great cut kick and should have moved in further for the kill, but that was the one time where I actually did back up!! Poor Kruu, I could hear him yelling "move in! move in!!", but I couldn't do as he was saying - I was gun-shy and tired. 2 fights in one day? Hell ya, I was tired by that 3rd round!!
The above photo is of myself, Kruu Bob and Ajarn Chai at the TBA (Thai Boxing Association) 40th Anniversary dinner. Ajarn Chai is the founder of TBA, and a Muay Thai legend. He's also Kruu's instructor. An amazing man, to say the least.
2 comments:
Woohoo! Can't wait to hear the whole story and are there pictures/video?
Are you in one piece, will you fight next weekend?
More! More!
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