It's official!!

Signed my UFC contract on December 22nd. I am excited. I am fortunate to have entered the largest organization known in my profession. I've been training for 17 years to get to this point in my life. I started wrestling when I was 13 and finished my wrestling career in 2004. After a few years of teaching and coaching intercollegiate wrestling, I started to train in mixed martial arts in 2007. I've been blessed with talented coaches and wonderful people in my life. They have taught me that with hard work and smart training you can achieve just about anything. I've come to realize that you can do anything that you set your mind to with use of God's strength and Providence. Like the quote suggests, "it takes a village to raise a child," I feel that I've been blessed through and through. Now it is time to represent not only myself, but my family, my friends, the Filipino community/aking kapamilya, MMA, and all who helped me throughout the years. Lastly, but who has the most influence in my life, I thank God. With disciplined training and the support of good people, I continue on this path...

WEC 37

God has blessed me with another win! The fight however went another route that a script would have been written for the fight. If a script would have been written it would have read that I would be taking the jui jitsu black belt down and the jui jitsu black belt would be working for sweeps on the bottom. However that was the exact opposite of what occurred. As the fight began I noticed that he was standing south paw. I went for an inside leg kick and before I knew it he had dove in for a single leg takedown. As I stuffed his shot, my back hit the cage and we were in the clinch. Fighting for position I stepped around and attempted an uchimada throw, but that attempt got countered and he ended up on top of me in side control. Now most of you must be thinking, "uh oh!" But I get in that position all the time with the best in the world at the Gracie Academy in Torrance with Ryron and Rener Gracie. I roll with them often so I know that I've prepared and am ready for whatever anyone throws at me. So back to him being in side control.... As he was in side control I got an underhook immediately and worked for a sweep. I then swept him into his guard, postured up, and past his guard to take his back. From there I threw down seeral unanswered bombs from that position. As I threw my first punch, I felt his body go limp and thought to myself, "finish him!!" And that is what happened. The ref stopped the fight in 2:26 of the first round. After the fight people were telling me that they've haven't seen anyone hit that hard from that position before.

The future is looking like I will be fighting in March or April in the UFC. There is another option that I might be fighting in the Philippines in May. Nothing has been finalized, however I will take it day by day and train my hardest until that day comes. I have already been training since the day I got back from Vegas. There are still a lot of improvement that needs to be done and I'm up to the task at hand.

Thank you to all those who support and pray for me... for this is an adventure that I will need strength and grace from God. All I know is that I can't worry about the things I can't control, I can only concentrate on the things that I can control and that is how hard I will work on my weaknesses and make them my strengths until the next fight. I am very determined to work as hard as I can to achieve greatness!!

Punches, Panda, and Freddie

I sparred at Joker's Wild Fighting Academy and I'm starting to mix my wrestling into my striking more and more. Joker has been helping me put all my skills together and has been showing me what techniques to do at what times. It has increased my awareness in a lot of positions. After Joker and I did technique, Erik Apple strolled through the door and we went about 8 rounds of technique sparring at about 70%. I'm starting to see the times I can shoot off my punches and when to clinch. It is starting to make more sense to me as I spar more and more. The vastness of mixed martial arts never ceases to amaze me. There is so much to learn and when you think you have learned everything in that position another series pops up. I'm having so much fun learning and trying to apply all that I have learned.
I also trained at Wild Card again on Thursday with Panda. He is refining my punching power, rather than just punching with my arms I'm getting my whole body into the punch. I feel that my standup is drastically improving. I know I have a long way to go, but I know that my punches are definitely more powerful. After I was done working out I had the awesome opportunity to talk with Freddie Roach. He is very mild mannered, polite, and considerate. He said that I am welcome anytime I want to train. He also said that he is going to start training Anderson Silva. In my mind I was thinking, "Wow, that would be a wonderful opportunity to get to spar the World's best." Can't wait for the time to come. I'm excited for the future and what it holds. (The above picture is myself with Freddie Roach & Tareq)

UFC Dependent on the Fight

I recently posted information (which I deleted) stating that I was going to the UFC win or lose. After checking the validity of the article, I was informed that going to the UFC is dependent on my next fight. My manager said that he was misquoted. I am told the UFC will base it's decision on which heavier weights they will take after the WEC's Dec. 3rd fight. Sorry about the poor information. I jumped the gun a little. In truth, I am not worried about what organization I go to next. Where ever God leads me that's where I'll go and where ever organization I fight for, I will fight with all my heart, strength, and mind. Thanks for your support!

Training and Wildcard Gym

Here is a summary of my last 2 weeks or so:

I have been training 2-3 days a week at Joker's Wild Academy with Mike Guymon, and 2-3 days a week at the Gracie Academy in Torrance. What is great about training at both are that Ryron Gracie shows me incredible jiu-jitsu, and Joker helps me put it all together and shows how to incorporate my wrestling into jui jitsu, which he calls wrestlitsu. Mike is not only a fighter, but he is a tremendous coach. It is amazing the amount of knowledge both have at their disposal. I started with both of them about 2 months ago, and when I first began they submitted me at least 10 times in a half hour. Now, I am submitted maybe once during a session. A couple of Sunday's ago, I went one-on-one with both Ryron and Rener Gracie. Both switched in and out on me for 40 minutes and they submitted me 5 times. That was an amazing feeling. These are multiple world champion jiu-jitsu champions, and I am learning a world of knowledge from them.

Last week I went to Las Vegas for the SEMA show, and got to train at Couture's gym. I saw some of my old college teammates there getting ready for their fights as well. They are both fighting on the Dec. 3 card with me. Then I went up to San Francisco and got some great training in with Ganyao and Tareq at Fairtex. We worked my hands and Muay-Thai all day for 3 days.

Yesterday was a great experience. One my dad would love to have seen! I went to Wildcard Gym in West Hollywood. If don't know about this particular gym, let me break it down for you. Pretty much, this gym has trained numerous amounts of World Champions in boxing. With the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, (which by the way I might score some tickets to their fight), Evander Holyfield, James Toney, just to name a few. Panda AKA Juan Carlos Martinez held mitts for me and tightened me up more and also taught me how to put more power on my punches.
The day before I sparred Tareq, Ralek, Rolland, and Jared Kwitty (another great fighter and friend) just in boxing. We went 5 rounds of 3 minutes. Tareq then led us through drills for 4 rounds. Immediately after we rolled and drilled jui-jitsu for 40 minutes then I rolled with Ryron. In the first minute he tapped me in a leg lock, taught me how to defend it and didn't tap me for the 15 minutes thereafter and we were gettin' after it. Scrambling, rolling, defending, you name it, we were rolling hard. I'm learning so much that I can't wait to train each day.
Tareq Azim, a personal friend of mine was my hook up with both the Gracie Academy and Wild Card Gym. He trained there in the past and then moved up to northern California to be with his family.
In between training sessions, I try to lift 2 times a week, I do some type of cardio other than mma 4 times a week, I coach at Fullerton 1-2 times a week (where I get my wrestling), I run a wrestling club 2-3 nights a week, and I am a full time dad and husband. I drop the kids off at school every morning, pick them up sometimes in the afternoons, and go to soccer and birthday parties every weekend. I am busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Since my move to SoCal I've met so many great fighters and have been befriended by many great coaches and trainers. I was hesitant of the move, but now I think it was meant to be. I am excited to see what the road holds for myself and my family.

Sand Hill and Training with Ryron

Today I woke up at 5:45 threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth, gathered some workout clothes and jetted out the door not knowing how beneficial today was going to be. As I got to my destination which is located at Manhattan Beach, I walked up to a pit filled with sand and as I looked up there was a sand hill approximately 200 yards high. Immediately I thought, "wow, what have I gotten myself into!" Ryron says to me, "run up first or walk up?" Not knowing what kind of workout we were going to do, I responded, "walk up first." As I was walking up my legs began to burn and each step got harder and harder. I stopped for a split second to relieve the burning and Ryron yells, "DON'T STOP!!! You stop in the fight you are going to get beat." So I trudged onward. This workout consisted of not only walking which in itself is a great workout, but we sprinted, lunged, carried each other, and a kill on the hill type exercise. This exercise consisted of hand fighting up with one of us facing the hill and the other with their back facing the hill, the one facing the hill tries to pass as the other tries to prevent the pass. Upon passing you switch and the exercise resumes. This sand hill workout lasted an hour. Immediately after we went back to the Gracie Academy to train jiu jitsu. After rolling for over an hour and a half straight, he taught me all the areas I needed to improve and forced me to figured out positions and how to fight out of them and also how to setup submissions. Today was a very beneficial day. I learned so much and very excited to implement what I learned. Looking forward to training with him tomorrow!!

Training

I just found out that I am most likely going to fight in Vegas on Dec. 3. My opponent is a jiu jitsu black belt, which I feel is great for me to test my skills. I have been training both with Ryron Gracie in Torrance who is amazing at jiu jitsu, and with Mike Guymon in Lake Forest who is another fighter who is like-minded and with his experience in the cage he has put all my skills together more efficiently. Both have become a great friends to me. I am learning a ton and am looking forward to my training camps coming up. I am anxious to get back in the cage. I am ready. I am focused. I am determined to be a champion.