Hi All,
Can you believe it is April? I sit here writing this to anyone silly enough to be reading it and wondering “how long was it since the last blog, and how did all that time get away?”.
Time sure flys when you are having fun. To give you a brief run down, lots has been happening as usual. And coaching my butt off doesnt leave much time for Facebook, blogs and alike.
I had been trainng Paul “Sting” Slowinski for his reamatch against Thor Hoopman at KOF 32 a couple of mornings a week. I sort of felt sorry for Thor-he was always going to lose. The last time they fought, Paul had a badly damged ACL and his shoulder had seen better days too. Thor essentially just moved and picked him off from the outside. This time was very different with a rejuvenated and very fit Paul. To say he was aggressive looking for redemption would have been an understatement.
Here is a link to the fight on Youtube-it’s quite short as usual 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7g3j6K5pWE
On the same night our 16yr old teenage prodigy Hunse “Jack” Mutsaers had his first fight on the undercard. Jack took on a 21yr old (yes 5 years older!) taller, heavier (and with much longer reach) oppponent. Unfortunately Jack lost on points. He amazed all by moving forward the entire fight, showed great fitness, determination and heart and put on an amazing show. Even though Jack lost his fight we were so proud of his performance. His mental component was that of someone many years his senior. He is the dark horse and I cant wait to see him mature over the next few years in the fight game.
Straight after the fight whilst relaxing and watching the remainder of the show he turned around to me and said “coach? when can we do that again?” . Win or lose its important that first timers have a positive experience. Its important to the fruition and continuation of the sport. Jack’s next fight is May 13th at the next Knees of Fury.
Here are a few pics of Jacks fights and Bryan’s title win:
Kettlebell courses and the HKC-We have also run another sold out Level 1 workshop here in Adelaide. Another great bunch of trainers. What can I say? The feedback was sensational. Trainers who usually suffer from lower back pain were emailing me days later saying they were pain free and doing kettlebell swings and deadlifts for the first time without damaging their backs through a combination of-hip mobility, correct spinal alignment, breathing and posture and good technique. A couple of those trainers now train regualrly two mornings a week with me!
Also too now we have 4 HKC (Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification) certfified trainers-Joe, Carl, Kylie and Wade. Joe is teaching regularly now, Carl and Wade still train of a morning and Kylie who lives out in the country visits from time to time to train when she is in the “big smoke”. (That’s an inside joke-people from Adelaide who have travelled will see the humour-it’s still like a small country town in many ways). It’s great to see the guys achieving personal goals-it makes my job all that much rewarding and worthwhile.
So, onto Bryan. He is just 20yrs old and has been training for two years. To say he has a troubled life is an understatement. From the Phillipines-he doesnt know his parents, his guardians adopted him while he was quite young, then also split. He is has been in an out of juenile detention and started hanging around the wrong people. You know how this story can go. Then he found training and Muay Thai. And our club-RSDC.
We have mentored him for several years now-supported him in numerous ways-he has lived with me for sometime and is now part of our family and found a way into our hearts. We have got him on track to a carreer in hospitality as chef (it’s a bit like a Steven Seagal movie i can remember lol) and found him work and helped guide him to living the life of an honourable man and to help him earn some self respect. Our relationship with Bryan has had its ups and downs to say the least.
Many people talk about how they are involved with charities. They tell the world and talk big about how they contribute that 10 dollars a week or throw money at a cause. Very few people are prepared to take the risk of being hurt or otherwise by investing their time, skills, money and effort into an underpriviledged individual.
In this instance its a boy with a big heart, who like anyone has lots of potential that has just had a really rough time, thinking no-one loves him, and who needs a second chance. They miss that opportunity to develop a real relationship with someone and all the good and bad that comes from that experience. Donating money is clean and easy. No effort required.
Bryan though is no charity case, simply underpriviledged due to a lack of guidance. parents have alot to answer for sometimes. And to say Bryan has taught me a few things about myself as well would be also be an understatement.
To cut a long story short, we got a phone call for an opportunity to fight in Sydney two weeks out. It was for a vacant WBC Muay Thai Superfeatherweight title in Sydney. It was a rematch against a guy who Bryan had already fought earlier this year (he took a 3 month exodus from our club and lost all of his fights-yes it’s been a rollercoaster). His opponent is an older and much more experienced fighter who has beaten many of the best in Australia. Bryan was due to fight on the same night as Jack and Paul at KOF 32 but his opponent pulled out an hour before the fight, and so Bryan was devastated after training so hard to get back on his feat from some recent personal issues.
When we got the call he was fit. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain from having a crack at the title. And we knew we could beat him. We knew his opponents strengths and weaknesses and his style. If we stuck to a game plan i knew that Bryan’s aggression, mental toughness, his new found fitness (he had never been this fit or technical) and raw power could do the trick. We were in Castle Hill a few weeks later.
The weekend didnt start well. Bryan didn’t listen to me about cutting his weight and dialing in his nutrition during the weeks leading up to the fight. He has surprised me before by making weight but this time i knew he would be over and he came in 650 grams over. I was furious to say the least. A few hours later, dehydrated to the point of passing out in a sweat suit, we gave it away. I thought we had missed our opportunity-fortunately the other camp wanted the fight to go ahead and we paid the weight penalty giving up our purse for fighting in the process. The problem though was now that Bryan was really hungry, tired and dehydrated. It worked into the hands of his opponent. We were an even bigger underdog now.
After the weigh in we went for dinner. I have never seen someone eat so much. Two massive main courses of pasta and a gallon of powerade and water later Bryan was sound asleep.
To the fight-The first round was pretty even, they were feeling each other out-but they would’ve given it to the hometown boy though for sure. The second round, Bryan (trying one of his strategies in the corner to spin him off and nail his opponent in the corner) took too much damage and Joe Concha his opponent was starting to tee off on him and was racking up the points. We were two rounds down.
At the start of round three I asked Bryan to stick to the game plan, start picking up his tempo, kicking alot more and thowing lots of combos. He did exactly that and started landing his shots and his kicks. About half way through he got Joe on the back foot, threw an overhand right that Joe slipped out of the way, but Joe turned his head too far and gave Bryan a split second window that had Bryan land a flush left hook right on the sweet spot (side of the chin) and had knocked Joe out cold. Eyes in the back of the head cold.
The referee took forever-it was definitely dodgy. They gave Joe what seemed a 30 count (rather than the eight which is required) whilst Joe climbed up the ropes trying to regain consciousness. We couldnt believe that they hadnt stopped the fight. Bryan was already celebrating. They took Joe over to the corner. Bryan was over in the neutral corner looking at me for instruction-then finally they waved it over. He was gone. I was furious that they hadn’t called it off at the end of the eight count. Then I was elated.
We had won the Aussie title on two weeks notice, and being the masive underdog. To say Bryan was happy was an understatement. Jumping, screaming, crying and hugging me all at the same time. It was an amazing and emotional moment for both of us.
The announcer (Nick Stone of Bulldog Gyms Sydney) couldnt stop smiling. I looked at him and said “do you reckon he is a little bit happy?” and we laughed. Nick handed the microphone for a quick comment from Bryan where he told me he loved me and my partner Jodie, thanked us for everything and our assistant coaches and went onto say that the $22.50 a week he paid for classes could never ever come close to what he has been given in return. And that’s what it is all about. The things that training can give you are quite simply……. priceless.
Check out the link below and 49 seconds in you will see our boy in action. Left hook KO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL8e2_BJsI4
Till next time.
Matt
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