Fighting in my first smoker October 3rd

**TheMightyMcClaw** · Posted On: 10/02/2009 11:12pm

Originally Posted by 3moose1

You really don't know Mcclaw very well. This is completely OPPOSITE to him.

I can't even tell if you're being ironic, and that worries me a bit.

**marcusdbrutus** · Posted On: 10/02/2009 11:25pm

So how did it go?

**Libertad** · Posted On: 10/03/2009 5:16am

Originally Posted by TheMightyMcClaw

It's going to be three two minute rounds, 14 oz gloves, shinguards and headgear, no elbows or knees to the face.

I think you'll be okay.
Good luck man its always good to see bullies kicking ass.

**hungryjoe** · Posted On: 10/03/2009 6:22am

Originally Posted by Sang

Relaxed determination is the best mindset. Don't go into it angry or thinking its a brawl but you need to be thinking that the only thing that will stop you is a full blown KO. Go forward, be the more aggressive fighter and realize that with big gloves, headgear and shinguards nothing can hurt you.

Words of wisdom from the Sang.

**3moose1** · Posted On: 10/03/2009 11:21am

Originally Posted by TheMightyMcClaw

I can't even tell if you're being ironic, and that worries me a bit.

I've never once seen you be angry, or take any sort of fight seriously.

**riccweee** · Posted On: 10/03/2009 2:05pm

Good luck today man! Hope you come out with the W!

**dwkfym** · Posted On: 10/03/2009 3:36pm

Good luck!!!! My favorite moment in fights is winning but also also the focus and relaxation before the fight, and the climactic build-up the moments before your corners open the door and you walk up into the light..

**3moose1** · Posted On: 10/03/2009 9:35pm

Do you guys wanna know what happened?

Cuz I know.

Yeah, Daddy knows.

**TheMightyMcClaw** · Posted On: 10/04/2009 11:28am

UUYIIAAGH!!
I ended up losing by a split decision, but, holy ****, that was one of the most fun things I've ever done.
My opponent was had a few inches of height on me, which is something I neither expected nor am used to, and that ended up getting into my head a lot. Particularly, I really didn't want to clinch with him, and my clinch game went COMPLETELY to **** as a result. I didn't actually eat any serious knees; but I got thrown a lot, especially in the first round. I would stick my hip into his perpendicular whenever we clinched, which made it very difficult for him to land knees and very easy for him to land throws. I didn't mind getting thrown, because it seemed like a get-out-of-clinch-free card to me, but it looked bad in terms of ring control and all that.
I had also been dropped with a hard knee to the solar plexus in sparring earlier in the week, and that added to my uneasiness in the clinch.
I did this less in the second round, and actually dropped him with a hard knee of my own.... unfortunately, the ref called it as a low blow. I thought it was a body shot, as did my teammates and the gym owner, but my opponent and the referee were of other minds. I generally trust the guy getting hit more than the guy throwing the shot to be the better judge of these sorts of things, so I'm not going to accuse him of pulling a Jason DeLucia or anything. I'll have youtube footage up soon, so you can investigate for yourselves.
I found myself getting into the groove of the fight more in the second round, and did much better in the third. I was able to land some heavy punches, and get a standing eight count. All the time I was punching him, running through my head was the voice of Megatron screaming "Fall, FALL!" in Transformers: The Movie. I also threw a superman punch from halfway across the ring, which I'm pretty sure didn't land, but I was told I got Michael Jordon-like hangtime on.
I also learned something about myself - in high adrenal states, I lose the ability to speak coherently, and instead just grunt in something that my coach said sounded like Danish. The above "UUYIIAAGH!" is a rough transcription of the sorts of noises I was making throughout the entire fight, including when my coach was giving me advice between rounds. I remember him say "Alex, I want you to throw a superman punch right at the beginning of the round" to which I responded "SUPAMAE! IIAGH." Said growling noises also continued when I was actually fighting, and combined with my non-stop grinning and total absence of blinking, made me somewhat unsettling.
So yeah, I had a DAMN good time. Damn damn good.

Cliff notes version:
Round One: I got thrown a lot.
Round Two: I may have kneed him in the junk.
Round Three: I punched him in the head and got a standing eight count.
Adrenaline causes me to degenerate into grunting and growling.
Hopefully there will be vids up soon.

**Sang** · Posted On: 10/04/2009 11:53am

Congrats on not getting owned! :P I'm looking forward to seeing the vid. I'm not the best person to be giving you tips on the clinch but i'll throw a couple in anyway since i've been learning the hard way too.

1) When you turn side on you may feel safer from knees but it actually opens you up for either a big knee (you are creating space) or a half throw/turn which setups a knee of KO proportions.
2) Throws from the clinch are awarded extremely high in muay thai (up there with knees to the head), if you want to nullify the clinch its a better bet to get double underhooks and let the ref break it up than to let him keep dumping you.

Glad you had fun, now go back to training!