Well, this week of training has been my first week back into the land of fight training. I’ve got 7 or 8 weeks before I fight again and I have a few things I want to achieve along the way. What I enjoy the most about training for a fight is the little milestones you set yourself along the way. At the moment I currently have around (and I have to admit I didn’t weigh myself this morning) 2 and a half to 3kg to lose. This shouldn’t be a problem as I train like a beast, but what is new is the fact that I am fighting lighter than I’ve fought before. In case your wondering I’m normally at 61 kg and this time I need to be at 60kg.

This is  going to make things interesting over the weeks ahead simply because I think I’m probably the only person in my gym that fights this light at present, and so when it comes to sparring most people will keep me on my toes. And of course, this is good. I’ve spent the last week getting my head back in the game and slowly but surely this begins to reflect in other areas of my life too. My diet starts to change, and I avoid alcohol like the plague.

More importantly my  fight mentality begins to develop. You see, I’ve already started to see myself winning, but underneath my developing confidence there is a healthy dose of caution because I know that this kid I’m fighting in April could be another person that beats me. So I work hard. I get shouted at, yelled at and told to do better, to dig deeper.  I have round after round of bag work, pad work and tough sparring ahead. Press ups, sit ups, squat thrusts it seems never ending.Then there’s the running. I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

Today my cousin’s words of a year or so ago are echoing through my sub conscious. Fighting is more mental than it is physical. And I have to say he’s right. You can put  in all the hours possible in the gym, work on everything you need to but if you doubt yourself then you’ve as good as lost the fight already. And when it comes down to it, it’s really about who wants it more.That’s why I’m going to be maintaining my focus in everything I do over the coming weeks ahead. And besides you know what they say. When the training is hard, the fighting…well that’s easy. Have a good week and I’ll see you on the road.