With less than 80 days to go until he steps in the Octagon, JOE editor Mike Sheridan talks us through his preparations for his MMA debut…
There’s something about training with your iPod and imaging yourself walking out to some epic entrance music in the UFC that any red-blooded male out there can relate to. You don’t even need to be into MMA for it to get you goin’… just a bunch of people cheering your name as you step into a locked cage, ready to go mano-a-mano is more than enough…
For me personally I’ve been a fan of the sport for years. My older brother has a black belt in traditional jiu jitsu and from my teen years i was surrounded by it. While I really enjoyed watching the UFC any time it was on, I never really thought seriously about taking part in it in a competitive capacity; I’d hit a punch bag occasionally after work as part of staying in shape – or after a stressful day- but that was pretty much it terms of my partaking in any combat sport. Well, planned, I am from Coolock…
When I was in my early 20s I took a few months off after college and went to live with a mate in Sunderland. He had a class apartment and car and lots of free time and we lived it up like well-off students; so naturally enough I put on about two stone. Those “Jaysus, these jeans are tight fitting” thoughts crossed my mind a lot… really I was just eating too much crap, not exercising and turning into a bit of a fat f**k.
Then I started running; first with 20 minutes on the treadmill and then it just snowballed. Soon 10k runs were replaced with marathons and marathons replaced long distance triathlons and those with ultramarathons. After running around 130 miles consecutively last year with my mate Brian for Special Olympics Ireland there was nowhere else to go in endurance sport for me; not that would be anywhere near as impressive anyway.
Then I’d simply run out of excuses, at 31 years of age I wanted to properly get into MMA. Being that this was me and I can’t ease myself into things I decided I needed to have an actual fight at an event to motivate/terrify me into training as hard as I possibly could. So I went about setting one up…
Now this fight is happening and I have three months to train for it. Luckily I’ve got a great coach in the incredibly well-respected Owen Roddy of Primal Gym in Charlestown and I’ll be making a documentary on MMA in Ireland that will culminate in the fight that I’ll have on September 14. If it sounds mental it’s probably ’cause it is…
But I’m not trying to be a tough guy or “make it” in my disconcertingly advancing years, rather explore what goes through the mind of these men and women as they put their necks (quite literally) on the line in a cage with someone who’s been trained to do as much damage as possible until the ref stops it.
I’m loving the training with Owen; mixing up BJJ, Muay Thai and (my favourite) Wrestling has been a revelation. The one-on-one sessions pushing me and enlightening me in equal measure and the classes extremely tough. In two weeks of proper training I’ve gone from 86 kilos to 79 – while watching my diet carefully.
This is a world that is extremely misunderstood; and with Owen over the coming months to the fight I’ll be doing my best to educate people on it as much as I can while keeping folk up to date on my training with Owen in Primal Gym.
Wish me luck folks…
