Being a professional fighter is a crazy thing. It involves a lot more preparation than most people realize. I usually start camp about 10 weeks out. "Camp" involves stepping up my training and getting in the gym twice a day with strength and conditioning between that. It really is a full time job, except in my job I have days that I get bloodied up, beat up, hurt and sometimes don't perform to my ability. Fortunately when this happens in the gym I can regroup and come back the next day ready to prove myself again. When it happens in the ring....that's your one chance to shine and you don’t get to come back the next day and show what you've really got.

Let me start off by saying, I had a great camp and I was more than prepared to beat Francis Carmont. My coaches went above and beyond to ensure I was ready for everything he would bring to me. I have a great team (Factory X) behind me as well as great management and sponsors. With that being said I'm the only one that can step in that Octagon on fight night and it's up to me to put it all together. Being honest with myself I can say I didn’t do that this past Saturday. I'm not a takedown fighter, the game plan was never for me to go in and put him against the fence and try to wear him down. The game plan was for me to run out, take the center and throw hundreds of punches like I always do and beat him down! I know I'm a better striker than what was shown. I just wasn't able to close the distance for some reason and get him into the brawl I wanted.
I'm disappointed that I lost but I'm more disappointed that I didn’t go out and have the crazy entertaining back and forth FIGHT that I always shoot for. The next time I step in the Octagon I'm not going to fight to win, I'm going to fight for a bonus. Everyone knows when two guys step in that ring, only one man can walk out a winner and the other a loser. I want to win more than anything but I'm not going to dwell on that anymore. Losing happens but if I lose again I can guarantee it won't be boring. I'm going to walk out knowing that I did everything in my power to win and more importantly, to make it an exciting fight. I would rather have a .500 record and remembered as a fighter like Wand or Chuck Liddell then have a record of 100-5 and remembered as a guy that always played it safe.

Now the question is “What's Next?”. My next fight, I'd love to fight "Crazy" Tim Credeur! Stylistically I think we match up great for the kind of fight I want. He brings it and so will I. I haven't seen him fight for a while and I think he is due to get in there again soon.

So Tim Credeur if your reading this, Let's Do It!