fight! 04-18-08

I wrote this already on a forum so I'm just reposting it:

"Pretty much every kick landed. When they say he checked the kicks, thats a little misleading. He lifted his lead leg that he thought I was kicking to but both times I connected hard to his rear base leg (which is probably why it looks like he trips on video).

I only threw one head kick and it didn't land. The other high kick was to his shoulder which was a body kick that he covered. I train to blast the arm if they defend the kick to the body. The other kick I threw to the body connected very well. Going into the fight I knew that Casey has a habit of lifting his elbows high so I was looking to kick him in the ribs.

He eventually started to retreat so I followed and landed a hard right hand. Snatch you might find this funny but when I landed that first right I thought to myself "Good, I didn't break my hand on that one".

From there I was trying to find my openings but he made it difficult. He got a single on me which I started to defend but I thought it would be a great opportunity to throw that jumping knee thats becoming more popular. The knee did land just not very solid, though it did get his head to pop up a bit which is probably why I was able to pull guard. I wanted to get a submission in this fight anyway so I was fine with letting it go to the ground.

I pushed off the fence and defended some strikes. Then, I hit him pretty hard with a right hand from the bottom. He put his head low and I threw and elbow back which connected pretty good. I then noticed that I had his right arm trapped in a perfect position to start working the rubber guard. I went to control his head in order to flick my leg up and thats when it happened.

My thumb went deep into his left eye and I felt it scratch his eye ball. He immediately backed off in my guard and instead of continuing the attack I stopped fighting and told the ref that I got him in the eye.

I feel really bad about what happened and the last thing I want is for anyone (above all, Casey) to think that it was malicious or intentional. I was having a fun fight and had no reason to cheat.

I can see how it may have seemed as though I was celebrating what happened. I was just having fun in the cage. What that guy doesn't mention is that before any of that happened I was over there checking on Casey and apologizing about the accident.

I went out there to put on a good show and the backflip was just a part of it. Sorry if you thought it was disrespecful. It wasn't intended to be. Sorry about the long post. I just wanted to clarify things."


So there was a bit of a fuss over this backflip I did after the fight when I was just playing around and a lot of the facts about the fight were wrong. So, I posted that to clear things up.

It was a fun fight. I felt really strong and focused going in. I don't get nervous before fights. Also, I think that after the fight started, this was the clearest my head had ever been in a fight. Usually you get so caught up in the excitment that you don't really realize that you have even started til you get hit. Fortunately I was really in the moment and aware of my every action. It was that clarity that allowed me to be the first one to hit and make everything I threw count.

I have my favorite fighters and I always try to think before fights what a particular fighter has that makes him so remarkable. Before this fight, I had been watching a lot of video on Ramon Dekkers. So, I tried to relate to his fighting spirit. He's a little guy that hits with everything he has everytime. I like to fight that way too. Dominant and aggressive, but reserved and thoughtful when that serves me better. Its a fine line. And, the only way to be successful is to train it so fully that it becomes so much a part of you that you don't remeber a time when you couldn't do it. And knowing that, I can say that the next time I fight will be even better.