Last night did not go so well. Fight ended at the close of the first
round. At the moment I am still
not entirely clear what the actual decision/reason was. I don’t really remember the course of
events after the middle or so of the fight. I took a couple good right hooks to the side of the head,
evidence of that in lumps, tenderness and purple/bruised ear on the left side
of my head. The inside leg kick
was landing, but I wasn’t linking that to anything else. Instead of taking advantage of him
being off balance and closing in for a follow-up combination, I think I was
glad that I bought myself a moment to try and get my head together to avoid
another hook. Looking back I
needed to try and counter that hook, spent so many rounds and pad time working
and coming in on the punch to counter with the straight right or the 2-3-2, but
just couldn’t bring myself to feel confident enough to step in and throw with
the fear that the right hook was somehow going to double up. As I think about it now I am pretty sure
the straight right would have been clean down the middle. Must have been really frustrating to be
in my corner after all that work to see me hold back that combo.
As
the fight came to an end, I’m not sure what exactly happened. I was pretty sure the round had to
close to over, thought I heard the 10 second bell. Then the ref was in front of me; I thought he was directing
me to the corner. I asked him
something, either; is the round over and I think I say him waiving off the
fight so I tried to ask why the fight was over. But I stress I think that’s what happened because I am
really not sure. Then I realized
there was a fair amount of blood coming down my face, mostly my nose. I don’t really remember from there to
the locker room. But it was straight
to the bathroom to bleed all over the floor. Between myself and Shojin (fighter and training partner) who
was the fight before (broke his nose) the bathroom looked pretty nasty. Possible murder scene and the cheap
bathroom towels did not help to absorb anything. Later one after we were cleaned up and head back together,
Shojin was trying to clean up the mess we had left, but started leaking out the
nose faucet, dripping once for every drop he cleaned. It seemed to sum up the night. After a little while, everything comes back into focus. Spent some time getting myself cleaned
up. Went out had a beer. Felt much better.
I’m
trying to figure out why I didn’t counter. I know was backed down a bit by the power. I was expected him to be quick, but was
rocked pretty early by one of the hooks and was afraid that if I got hit with
another it might not put me out, but was going to leave me badly dazed. I was also waiting for the left
straight to follow-up, might have but the right side feels pretty clean so
either it didn’t happen or it missed.
I am used to counter punching, but when the power in his shots backed me
down, I wasn’t confident enough to risk the counter. On offense the leg kick was working great, the one head kick
was good, but didn’t press the punches or take advantage of him being off
balance.
The
other thing was different was that I wasn’t looking forward to the fight. It was different in the prefight. Usually the week before I get really
nervous/anxious about a week to a couple days out, but as the day draws I also
get excited and look forward to stepping out there. This fight I was excited. It felt more about getting it done so that I could move on
to the next thing. Like it was
something that I do, I’m going to keep doing, but this one just didn’t feel
like something I wanted, more felt obligated, to myself and for the people I
was training with. I think the
biggest disappointment comes from letting down the coach and the team. You want to represent your team and
show what you and the gym can do.
Getting TKO’d at the end of the first round doesn’t really do that very
well. It happens. I would like to find a way to get that
fire back that I had at the last fight.
I think need to change my training a little. I wanted more diverse training partners more proper MMA
focus to bring the Muay Thai and BJJ together. I definitely do not want to finish on a loss.
Maybe
with school and the job pressure and everything else it was too much. I don’t know, but next term with school
winding down, working a martial arts job, and less distractions I can get my
head back to where I want it to be.
