Issue 082
December 2011
Some people may say it’s good to have a lay-off and heal the body, but I don’t buy that. I’ve never seen a guy take time off and get better. Coming back from a long lay-off – in my case almost 14 months – is never simple.
You have to re-learn the fatigue factor, the exhaustion, the soreness, and get used to just flat being uncomfortable again. I’d forgotten how uncomfortable it was being in that position because of the stress you are putting on your body 24 hours a day. It’s a good feeling, though, re-learning the process, but you stumble through the early days back.
When I was out, from August 6th last year, I didn’t train, but I did ‘practice’ every day, twice a day. I didn’t really start training until preparing for the fight with Brian Stann. People say that time out can heal the body, but I’ve never seen a guy take a lay-off from any sport – basketball, tennis, whatever it may be – and come back better than he was before. You need to be consistent, and this sport moves fast, and it’s competitive and cutthroat, and as capitalistic as it gets.
Therefore, you’ve got to evolve or you become extinct. And you’ve got to stay fresh. The best I could do was show up for practice, twice a day every day for a year. But that isn’t training. Training really only began when my next fight was announced.
I’ve been working with Athlete Bay, a Skype-based deal with lots of athletes from several sports and we chat to fans. It has been called Twitter with video, which is perhaps pretty apt. I do have a Twitter account, allegedly [61,000 followers, following none]. However, I’m not prepared to admit I even have a Twitter account.
People have been asking what I learned about myself in my year out. I learn stuff about myself all the time. Was it a rough year? No. No rougher than the year before that, or the year before that one. This year will be a rough year. So will next year.
I look for trouble. I’m in politics; I’m a leader within my community. I’m constantly jumping headfirst into fires and dealing with them. That’s how you improve systems. You jump into them, and help work them out. There are leaders within communities who do these things, and I do it. I stub my toe a few times, and it makes big news.
FIGHT HYPE…
People say I hype fights. I don’t. Zuffa are in the fight promotion business. I just walk to the ring in short pants with a mouthpiece, put my hands up, and fight. When I say things about my opponents, I’m not making anything up. If I don’t mean it, I won’t say it. There are some guys who I genuinely want to step into the ring with. Everyone reading this has someone in the gym or the office they’d like to have a fight with. Well I can. I can step in against guys in the same office as me. And I want to, and I’m not going to keep that a secret.
Some of these guys talk about ‘respect.’ How is it respectful to lie? How’s it respectful to come out and say ‘yeah, I think he’s a great guy’, when you want to stick a knife in his back. That’s not respect. That makes you a liar. That’s the opposite of respect, the opposite of sincerity.
That’s the opposite of what we stand for. I’m not going to make something up. I never said a word about Nate Marquardt or Yushin Okami. I wasn’t a big fan of Paulo Filho, or of Anderson Silva.
And I’m not going to bow to your face and stab you in the back. Let the other guys do that. And they like it, or they don’t like it. But that’s the way it’s going to be. I don’t manufacture conflict. I’m not going around making things up.
People talk about gameplans. That’s a bunch of crap. What am I going to do? Sit around with a bunch of guys with eighth grade education, saggy pants and gold teeth and talk about a gameplan… Nah, it’s a bunch of crap. It’s a fistfight. There nothing more simplistic. Short pants, mouthpiece, walk to the ring when they call your name, put your hands up and fight to the best of your ability and accept the result.
