The Road to 125 – Week One
We’re getting closer to the fight with Gray Maynard on January 1st, & just finished up another very good week in camp. I got back on Sunday from Ricardo Almeida’s fight in Montreal & got right back into things on Monday. I went up to Phil Nurse’s in the city in the morning, & then I went over to Renzo’s & took John Danaher’s class, & Renzo was there as well. Then I shot over to Toms River & finished with strength & conditioning. That’s what a typical day is like in camp – I’m always on the road. The city’s the farthest I go, though I still go up to Hamilton to Ricardo’s academy, which is like an hour away. It was nice to break up camp a little bit with Ricardo’s fight, & he beat a tough guy in TJ Grant at UFC 124. I think Ricardo has fought his last three fights two or three weeks before my fights & I like it. I like the fact that I get to go & take the whole UFC event in without having to fight. It kinda gets me prepared for what’s to come. & as far as breaking camp to work his corner, that’s just how we roll. I know he’s gonna be in the corner for me & he’s my teammate, so we sacrifice for each other. When he sacrifices for me, that’s the least I could do for him. It’s funny, but I had people asking me, ‘you’re the champ, why are you carrying someone else’s gear?’ But I’m real. I feel like I’m a working class fighter, & that’s what a working class guy would do. & it’s the least I can do – if anything, I feel honored to carry his stuff from the cage because I know he would do it for me. While in Montreal I got to see the commercial for my fight on the big screen, & when they called me the superfine lightweight in the world, it was great to hear that & to finally get that recognition. It definitely adds a little pressure to the next fight for sure, but you have to use that pressure as motivation more than anything. Ever since the second fight with BJ, I feel like I’m getting a little more love, & I’m enjoying it, but as long as my family & teammates treat me the same, then it’s all very good no matter what happens. You can’t get too caught up in what people are saying though, because I’ve got a big fight in front of me. & I can’t truly look at it as revenge; I’m just looking at this as my next fight, & I need to defend my belt against a tough opponent. It just so happens that he beat me & a win would be a perk of the job. Our first fight was almost three years ago, & I watch it a little bit, but I think we’re two different fighters. I watch more of Gray’s recent stuff, but I’ve definitely sat down with my team & reviewed it somewhat. One thing a lot of people don’t remember from around that fight is that I was the first person from the Jersey shore on MTV because they had me on ‘True Life’ even before the Situation & Snooki made it big. A lot of people ask me about ‘The Jersey Shore,’ & the first season I didn’t watch too much, but the second season I started watching it, & it’s pretty entertaining. I literally live over the bridge from where they film it & that’s not acting – there are people like that. But back to the first fight with Gray. They were filming the ‘True Life’ episode for MTV & I was getting married ten days after the fight, but I’m not a big excuse guy. He was just better than me that night. If anything, I would blame the loss on my technical skills at the time or my gameplan, stuff like that. & when it came to the altitude in Colorado that night, I thought I felt fine. It was definitely one of my fights where I didn’t have the same energy levels, but I wouldn’t say it was the altitude. When things aren’t going your way, sometime you feel a little more tired than normal. That was a long time ago though & we’ve both gotten better, so I think this is going to be a great fight on January 1st. Christmas is coming up on Saturday, but it’s still time to work, so this week I’ll go hard, & I go hard right until I get into Vegas. My body’s always pretty healthy, so I don’t truly tone it down too much & being that I don’t truly have to cut weight, my body doesn’t take too much of a beating. But before you ask, that doesn’t mean I’m leaving the lightweight division anytime soon. There are definitely enough challenges at ’55 for me & being that the WEC got acquired by the UFC, there are a lot of interesting opportunities ahead for me, so we’ll see what happens. Happy Holidays to everyone & thanks for the support. I’ll see you back here on fight week. For more information on Frankie Edgar, follow him on Twitter @FrankieEdgar
Original post:
The Road to 125 – Week One
Tags: altitude, city, family, fight, holidays, jersey, mma ufc, ricardo, river