My health and my opponent combined to make this fight much harder than I thought it would be. Check out the video and let me know what you think in the comments.
I think Quell surprised me, more than anything. He’s an easy opponent to underestimate because of his height and his size. He has shockingly long arms for a shorter man, throws much faster than most heavyweights, and uses an awkward southpaw stance to keep you off balance.
I made the right adjustments in the first round and hurt him pretty bad. I think, in most cases I would have finished him.
For my fans who are wondering why I didn’t finish him, it’s all part of the plan. My amateur fights are an opportunity to expose and correct my weaknesses. Spending more time in the cage means more experience and more footage to watch.
I don’t want to take anything away from Quell, though. He was game for this fight. He came prepared and wasn’t going to just quit. He definitely came to fight.
I also went in having some back pain that was sticking around longer than most training soreness. On the advice of my manager, I got checked out after the fight and it turns out I fought with some pretty severe Rhabdomyolysis. That’s a fancy word to mean I was overtraining to the point where my whole body was breaking down.
The big lessons from this fight:
1) If I’m going to train like a champion, I’m going to need strength & condition coaches and a nutritionist to keep me healthy.
2) My takedown defense still needs work.
3) It’s going to take more than a hard shot to stop TST. I’m coming for the UFC belt. You better have more than hands to stop me!