TAP,SNAP or NAP Neomage's MMA fight prep log

[neomage2021]

Got a call from a promoter today. Interested in giving me a fight at 145 lbs. 145 will be the lowest I have ever competed in anything but should suit me. Opponent unknown but this promoter is a good guy that I have had many friends fight for and he does a great job at setting up even matches. I will either be fighting late August or early September depending on which card I'm on. Know for sure in the next week.

Background:

Training out of: Greg Jackson's MMA
experience: going on six months of training. No prior grappling or stand up of any kind

Achievements: 4th place local no gi tournament 3 weeks after starting training, 2nd place grapplers quest vegas no-gi in begginer division. One kick boxing smoker at 170lbs TKO 2nd round due to leg kicks.

Starting this log to keep me motivated and track my progress up to the fight. I will also post a video of the fight win or lose!


I am heading up to Jackson's for the days training soon.

Today should be 1 hour of kickboxing about half of that sparring, 1 hour of grappling, and 1 hour conditioning.

Will update details after practice

[neomage2021]

Kickboxing went well. Worked clinch for about half an hour.

6 rounds of sparring. Found out my rib was not completely healed from taking a good slam two weeks ago when I caught a right hook right on that rib. took the air right out of me and is a bit sore but oh well.

Grappling class was good. Ran a little short because coach has a fight coming up saturday. Worked on sweeps and heel hooks from the butterfly guard. 4 5min rounds of rolling. Worked with a newer guy today so I pretty much just worked positions with him for those rounds put myself in bad positions and let him work from there.

Had to pick up a friend so no conditioning tonight.

Now its time for some tuna and rice casserole!

[neomage2021]

Just received an e-mail about the fight. There is a card in my hometown Sep. 17th. So Now I know I have 8 weeks to prepare. the plan right now is to fight at 145.

Eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and heading to do a morning workout in about 45 mins.

Morning work out will be:

20 mins on the airdyne to warm up

Circuit training (unless noted no rest between exercises):

Dumbell arnold press: 3x15 (focus on the negative) 20 seconds rest between sets
Kerttlebell snatch 3x15 10 second rest between sets
bench press 3x15 (focus on the negative)

The next set of exercises are done with no rest between
deadlift 10 reps
bent over rows 10 reps
front squat 10 reps
back squat 10 reps
1 minute rest then repeat 2 more times

kettlebell drop and catch 25 each arm ( hold a kettlebell above my head, drop it and catch it with the other hand just below chest level)

10 minute intervals on the treadmill

5 rounds with Bas Rutten thai boxing cd 3 minute rounds 1 minute rest

[neomage2021]

Just got back form the gym. Worked 1 hour of grappling 1 hour of mma.

Grappling class worked on escapes and submissions when someone tries to single leg you. The rolling omoplata is fun.

I went 5 5 minutes rounds for mma sparring. Mostly worked from against the cage both having someone against the cage and back against the cage. Need to really work circling off the cage more while still landing shots.

[neomage2021]

8:30 am Gym 20 min warm up on airdyne, 4 rounds 3min Bas Rutten all around workout

2pm-3pm: Worked some striking combos on my own with the heavy bag.
These are the combos I worked and will focus on during sparring tonight

1. Circling to the right, hard left straight, followed by right low kick to the leg
2. Right straight to the chest left hook to the head
3. Overhand right, left hook to the liver
4. inside leg kick with lead (left) leg, right straight

I want to focus on these 4 combos, with of course throwing in other stuff.

Grappling class... We'll see. Coach has a fight coming on saturday so he is really starting to focus. May just do take down circle or roll the entire class.

feeling strong, tiny bit sore, weight this morning 166
Quick tuna wrap then off to the gym.

[neomage2021]

Only got in a few rounds of sparring today. Kickboxing class was mostly technique and conditioning. 3 rounds of medium sparring. good fun

Grappling class worked on the omoplata from guard, 2 armbars off the omoplata adn the omoplata sweep to mount. rolled for 15 minutes straight to end class. My main focus was defending letting my opponent get me in bad positions and working to better positions.

hit a really nice combo while rollling. Opponent in my guard put his hand on the mat so i went for the kimura, to omoplata sweep and got the mounted armbar.

Feeling good tonight.

[neomage2021]

Today was my rest day, So all i did was 30 min jog on the treadmill in the morning and 30 min on the stationary bike tonight.

[neomage2021]

Looking like it will be a good day!

This morning woke up at some oatmeal then went to the gym. treadmill intervals for half an hour, shower, then work.

Just got off work feeling great going to have some chicken and collard greens then workout.

Thinking today I will striking technique for an hour. Mostly basic combos, footwork drills and defensive drills shadowboxing. After that finish off with 7 rounds of the 3 min round Bas Rutten Thai boxing cd.

Finish things off with my toys! A 10 lb sledgehammer and an old tractor tire. I think I'll try 1 minute intervals with 20 15 seconds of rest. As many intervals as I can muster.

[neomage2021]

will be a bit of a short day today.

Went to the gym at noon.

started off 30 min cardio

complex 1:
(with 105 lbs)

bent over rows x10
upright row x10
military press x10
lunges x10 each leg
squats x 10
deadlift x10

did 4 ish sets of that. shoulders were dead on fifth set.

Ab work:
crunches x50
leg lifts x50
plank 1 minute
side plank (each side) 1 minute

3 sets

complex 2:
wiht 45 lb dumbells

flat bench x10
incline x10
decline x10
plyo pushup x20
3 sets

sprints
100 yards sprint
100 yard jog back
6 of those


Back home eating some fruit. Maybe nap, maybe watch some old UFC.

5 rounds bas rutten all aroufd fighting

Then it's time to go watch some friends/team mates kick ass in their fights at Duke city mma series II

[neomage2021]

been without internet forever! Anyway quick update. training going great. I'm fighting Sept 12 at 145 lbs against a 2-0 fighter named Angel Solis.

My weight is right where it needs to be right now. Sitting at 160 lbs. The plan over the next two weeks is to practice some specifics I got from watching a video of one of his fights.

Good week of sparring this week and start to taper off the sparring. Keep rolling hard. week before the fight lots of shadowboxing, technique working, and less contact. And of course weight cutting

[adoniscomplex]

you train at jacksons ?
how is that ? do you train with all the big names ?

[pbucch]

good luck. It takes a lot of courage to compete. Subcribing...

[neomage2021]

training at jackson's is great. I see the big name pros all the time. Don;t usually train with jardine, rashad, or marquardt much. they train in the mornings. I do grapple with Leonard Garcia, Donald Cerrone, and Tom Watson 2-3 times a week. I get a lot of help from Leonard since we are the same size and weight. I got to train with Joe Stevenson a few times when he was getting ready to fight Nate Diaz. He is amazing on the ground

Getting ready to head up to the gym in about 20 mins. Plan tonight is to work some sprawl and brawl as well as transitions off the cage. Probably about an hour or so of that followed by an hour of conditioning/plyometrics.

My weight is right on track. 161 lbs this morning. I feel good at this weight and making the 15 lbs cut. if i lose another lb or two before I start the cut, that's cool too. Got my blood work for the athletic commission done today.

[neomage2021]

Really sore today. Because of classes and work I'm going to end up missing the first half hour of kickboxing. Should still be able to spar atleast. After that more takedowns and takedown defense in grappling class. My promoter said he was stopping by the gym today to watch me practice.

[neomage2021]

Strained my forearm a bit last night. ice and muscle cream seem to make it feel just fine though. So no worries. Not heading up to Jackson's tonight. Will work 1 hour plyo and medicine ball work, 30-45 mins shadowboxing and if my shoulder is feeling okay 8 rounds or so of the bas rutten all around fighting cd on the heavy bag.

[neomage2021]

Spent the weekend at my grand parents farm in north Texas. Got in some good old fashioned hard work training in. Got back about 2 hours ago.

If anyone saw the my team mate nate destroy maia, that is exactly how the best case scenario in my fight will go. I have been training specifically for that scenario. The one video I have seen of my opponent he started out the fight throwing 3 lazy right high kicks with out setting them up and every time he did his left hand dropped damn near to his hip.
So i have been training to block the high kick and throw a straight right down the pipe. My strength is on the ground but i feel comfortable standing up too.

I'm about to start my last week of hard training. The week of the fight will be lighter training, weight cutting and mental preparation.

STARTING TO GET EXCITED!

[neomage2021]

Good workouts last night.
6 rounds heavy sparring. probably the last bit of heavy sparing I do before the fight.
Grappling class was all about defending the takedown last night. Grappling coach brought in some awesome wrestlers to help out.

tonight grappling class will be on submissions off of the sprawl. Get to practice one of my favorite submissions. The Peruvian Neck Tie.

Tonight I think most of my striking work will be on ground and pound. I asked greg jackson if he could spare 10 mins or so tonight to help me with some specifics on ground and pound. He said sure he would help me as long as he could.

[neomage2021]

After fixing a small case Hyponatremia(water intoxication) last night I'm feeling 10x better than i did monday and tuesday. I had started to up my water intake to 2 gallons a day to prepare for next weeks weight cut. The increased water along with a lot of sweating caused me to have a salt imbalance. Felt kinda of hazy the last few days. One of my coaches is a paramedic and hwen i told him how I felt he knew exactly what it was. gave me some electrolyte powder to add to my water this week and I feel great now.

Today will be my last sparring session. I feel my grappling is fine so tonight I will focus completely on striking. 8-10 rounds sparring, some ground and pound and striking off the fence.

[neomage2021]

For the most part I feel my timing was on during the last sparring session. One of the guys i was sparring is a 185lber and he tagged me pretty good behind the left ear when I stepped in on him. That punch buckled me for a split second. Kept sparring through the round but it took me the rest of the round to recover.

After sparring worked for 30 mins just on blocking the high kick and throwing the straight right hand.

ended workout by doing a short test cut. Its been a while since I have cut weight so I put on a bit of albolene, sauna suit top and sweatshirt and did cardio at pace I was sure I could keep up even if I was exhausted for 30 mins. Lost 2.8 lbs in that half hour so test cut went well and I should have no problems with making weight.

Current weight as of this morning 158.9

[neomage2021]

Todays workout:

4 mile jog to warm up

grappling drills on my own for 30 mins: shrimping, sprawling, bridging, hip work, shooting

20 minute ab workout

1 hour plyo: jump squats, jump lunges, tire flip, sledgehammering tire, rope swings, various medicine ball throws, clap pushups. repeat all those until i couldn't move

8 rounds 3 minutes each bas rutten all around fighting cd followed by 4 1 minute rounds of alternating non stop fast punching and non stop power punching.

ended wiht light shadow boxing for 10 mins

[neomage2021]

probably won't be back on until sunday so here is my plan for tonight and tomorrow.

going to roll for two hours tonight working on getting out of bad positions

tomorrow: climb south baldy peak. Good 11 mile strenuous hike. Going to try to do it as quick as possible without risking turning an ankle or anything. goign to carry weighted backpack+ food and water. eat lunch some shadow boxing and mental prep/relaxation at the top of 10,400 ft peak.

[zackmorris]

Good luck man. In for the journey

[daYDreAmErX]

Good stuff all around I'm subscribed

[neomage2021]

Got back from the hike. It was a great way to get a workout in and get a break at the same time.

Plenty of time left in the day so I think i'll rest and watch a movie for a few hours then spend 2 hours tonight working skills.

Going to work angles, combos, and body kicks on the heavybag.

grappling wise: wall shrimps, bridges, shooting on the wall
probably take the heavy bag down again and just work positions, transitions and sprawls with it

[neomage2021]

feeling a tiny bit run down, so all i did this morning was 1 hour yoga and 20 mins shadowboxing.

going to rest up and watch some old fights for inspiration for a few hours then head up to the gym to grapple.

[neomage2021]

Spent last night doing some cario and working positions with an awesome grappler
I hate the the jacobs ladder machine with a passion. To relieve any soreness decided to take a 15 min ice bath. First 5 minutes were painful after that it wasn't so bad. Feeling great today so the ice bath must have done something.

[neomage2021]

Wasn't planning on really doing much of anythign last night at practice except light bag work grappling and technique, but Koe Stevenson is back in town and was around last night.

Couldn't pass up the opportunity! Got in 3 solid 4 min rounds of grappling with Joe. Afterwards talked to him for about 10 mins about the fight. Gave me some good advice on mentally preparing. I'm pumped up now. NOt training the next few days is really going to get to me. Haven't trained today and my body is wanting to do something. getting aggressive

[neomage2021]

Just got a call from the promoter. My opponent dropped out. Only guy he could find to fight me on short notice would be a catch weight of 160 lbs. Guess I don't need to cut....

really f'n pissed! Guy doesnt want to cut weigh on such short notice. don't know his name or record at the moment

[neomage2021]

Found out this will be my new opponents first fight and that's about all I know about him. Guess i'll meet him tomorrow at the weigh ins.

since I don't have to cut I have been refueling my body with plenty of good food. Current weight 162. I'm sure tomorrow I'll wake up below 160.

No working out at all today. If i feel I absolutely have to do something I will probably just get on the stationary bike and go slow.

[neomage2021]

Weigh ins are almost here. I'm ready to throwdown tomorrow. I really wnat to finish this fight KO,TKO, or submission.

I'm on weight and ready to to. Normally walk around between 165-170. 159.6 right now. Wish the fight was at 145 where I feel a lot stronger but i was planning on being 160 come fight night anyway.