Fighters Only

Issue 051

June 2009

Exploding onto the MMA scene in 2005, Chris ‘The Polish Hammer’ Horodecki has quickly risen to the top of the lightweight division, collecting 12 wins in his 13 career fights.

Fans began taking notice of the baby-faced lightweight in his impressive debut fights in Quebec, Canada, where he dismantled his first four opponents. Horodecki’s MMA prowess truly began to be shine when he signed with the now-defunct IFL. His win streak continued for another seven fights before he suffered his first loss.

Horodecki has since rebounded with another win but has had to put his MMA prospects temporarily on hold while he recovers from an injury that held him back from his Affliction debut. Meanwhile, Chris continues to train at Xtreme Couture in Toronto. It’s never complete without a mix of tunes, keeping the energy high and helping him focus on the task at hand.

How important is music to your training?

The key to a good training session is music that motivates you and gets you going. It’s easy to come in on a down day, but once you put on some good music, it gets the blood flowing, and you can turn a long day into a more enjoyable one.

What kind of music is it that gets you to focus?

I prefer more relaxing music or something with a groove. I like to be relaxed in training, because that’s how you want to be in your fight. You want to move the same way in your fight as you do in training. I usually listen to rap, hip hop or techno. Sometimes I’ll listen to hard rock if I need to get some aggression out.

What kind of visualization do you do when you listen to this music?

I only visualize with my entrance track, to get me excited for an upcoming fight.

Is your choice of entrance music very important to you?

My entrance song has a lot of meaning to me. I’ve had the same entrance song since I was 17. I couldn’t use it in my IFL fights, because we used a generic song, but I’ve used it for all of my other fights. It’s Ray Sefo’s entrance song. I’ve always looked up to him, and wanted to emulate him. I thought this was a good way.