Blog Article 2: Jesse’s First Fight
This week our focus is on DMT student Jesse Howard, who on Tuesday 12th March stepped into the ring for the first time. I sat down with Jesse on the day of the fight to hear about how he came to be here and how he was feeling.
How did you come to be training at DMT?
I first showed up at DMT in 2013 for a week. I loved it and decided I was coming back. I returned five years later, which was much longer than I planned, but it was still the plan.
The things that attracted me to DMT especially were: the island is beautiful, the training is top notch and the people that show up are the kind of people I want to hang out with. You hear people saying there are tougher gyms, or there are gyms where they train you harder, make you run every day, don’t let you have water, that kind of thing. That’s not what I want. But what I love about it is you can come in at any level. You can come as a complete beginner, as I did, but you also have really high-level fighters that are training there all the time. That and the fact that their web presence is amazing, you get replies in perfect English and know that the language barrier won’t be a problem.
Had you done other martial arts before?
Growing up I did Kendo, but that was when I was really young, it didn’t really stick. I had a Jiu Jitsu and wrestling background but no stand-up striking at all. I felt like my ground game is pretty good but if you started throwing punches at me I wouldn’t know what to do; so I had an unease and fear that I wanted to get rid of.
Can you outline the process you went through, from telling the trainers you wanted to fight up to the fight camp itself?
I mentioned it a few times to the trainers, that I wanted to fight in the future. They were like, ‘yeah, okay,’ they took it in a relaxed way. But when I said ‘I want to fight soon,’ there was a pretty dramatic shift. They wanted to know how much I was running; I started doing a lot more privates; I was given different exercises during class. They would be more deliberate in who they’d pick for me to spar with.
The Thai training method is rather drastic in that there’s not a lot of rest. But then my fight got cancelled, due to an issue with the promotion, and because I had to do a visa run I ended up getting lots of rest before the actual fight.
How are you feeling?
I was a lot more uncomfortable and nervous preparing for the fight that got cancelled. I was having moments of incredible adrenaline, I would be thinking about what I wanted to do in the fight and would just feel it all dumping into my system. Even though it sucked to have that fight cancelled, I think it helped, as I’m a lot more laid back for this than I was for that one. I’m still nervous and still having to consciously slow my breath when I get to thinking about it. But I’m excited.
There’s a lot of fear. I’m not too worried about getting injured – my profession doesn’t require that I have working limbs – that would be nice though. But I don’t want to embarrass my trainers or embarrass myself. That’s my biggest fear, but I don’t feel that’s going to happen. The wai kru right now is actually scarier than the rest of the fight. If I get knocked out I get knocked out, but I don’t want to forget a bow in the wai kru and that mean that I think my trainer is an asshole.
Is there any advice you would give to the Jesse that arrived here last year?
I would have started privates sooner. I was in really bad shape when I got here; I was 24 kilos heavier than I am now and was wheezing when I walked up stairs. So I wanted to wait on doing privates until I was fitter. Those first months were very good for my weight loss and cardio, but I feel that my Muay Thai experience has increased leaps and bounds since I started doing privates.
Otherwise, I would just say to listen to the trainers; it’s not like I didn’t do that but I would give that advice to everyone. Drink lots of electrolytes, listen your trainers and know that your shins are going to hurt no matter what!
Fight Night
Come fight night, I arrived at the stadium to find a huge posse of DMT students and trainers present and buzzing with excitement. Jesse’s fight was scheduled to be third, right after DMT trainer Laan.
As soon as Laan and his opponent got going, it was clear Jesse’s prep time would be over soon. Laan is known to be an exceptionally skilled fighter, and he quickly brought down Jomhod Gym’s Kulapkaw with an effortless-looking series of low kicks and a beautiful head kick. Jesse’s corner told him to get ready quickly.
Jesse’s opponent was Petchnakhon, an experienced and well-built Thai known for two things; throwing lots of elbows and gassing out quickly. If Jesse could avoid those elbows and keep the pressure up, he stood a fair chance of overpowering Petchnakhon when he started to gas out.
Having a strategy is one thing; executing it is another. Petchnakhon threw the expected elbows from the start, and hit Jesse with a fair few of them; his timing was often off though, his strikes glancing off rather than hitting home, allowing Jesse to power through and land punches or move into the clinch. Elbows can cut like knives, though, and Jesse soon had a cut across his forehead. Thankfully, it wasn’t deep enough to stop things, and the fight went on.
By the second round Petchnakhon was looking tired. By the third, he’d clearly had enough. Around camp, Jesse is a relaxed and friendly character, who can be relied upon for a seemingly endless stream of obscure facts, funny stories and filthy jokes. In the ring, though, he had turned into a monster. His game face was like a rudely awakened Easter Island head, and as Petchnakhon slowed down Jesse surged forward, firing knees at an exhausted Petchnakhon, who by now was repeatedly showing his back to Jesse – which earned him more than a few knees to the ass.
The referee called it. Petchnakhon wasn’t fighting back – Jesse had won. Soon afterwards, he was out of the ring, smiling and bloody and being presented by his friends with a congratulatory wooden penis. He and Petchnakhon posed for pictures together, then we watched the rest of the fights and went out for burgers and milkshakes. A couple of days later I caught up with Jesse again.
How was the experience of being at the arena and getting ready to fight?
Getting ready was a little surreal, some times I would be super-nervous and could not believe I was doing this and at other times I felt raring to go. It was crucial that I had the trainers and an experienced corner to keep me grounded, and to tell me when I needed to get amped up. Mentally, the difference between going to a fight and being in a fight reminded me of bridge jumping. A bridge doesn’t look very high until you make the decision to jump, and then it changes to something intimidating.
Was being in the ring as you’d imagined it?
It was much more intense than I thought it would be. But at the same time all the nervousness and all the prep leading up to it, all that stress went away after the wai kru. Once you touch gloves the die had been cast, you know?
Some stuff played out like I thought it would; the injuries not hurting and the time-dilation are familiar to anyone who has done stupid but exciting stuff before. What did catch me off guard was my emotional reaction to my opponent. During the fight I wanted to crush him and cause as much damage as possible, but immediately after it was over I felt a huge sense of camaraderie with him. We had just gone through an intense experience together. We took pictures afterwards and I shook hands with his wife. It was like a switch turning on and off.
Would you do anything differently with hindsight?
I wish I had focussed more on clinch training. I felt myself slip back to my wrestling roots and can tell that I missed some opportunities to land knees (you could hear the trainers saying the same). I’m glad I put in the time running, and I’m glad I started sparring with my mouthpiece in, as it changes your breathing a lot.
Are you planning to fight again?
One hundred percent. I love the whole thing. I know it happens differently for different people, but for me, having a fight focusses me during training and gives me a reason to push myself in all areas. With out that I feel I would go too easy or find excuses to do other, more comfortable things.
Any last words?
I would highly recommend that anyone who is on the fence go ahead and do a fight. There is nothing like it, and the immersion you get into the Muay Thai culture and scene is so much more in-depth when you are fighting. Win or lose, I feel like it is a wonderful experience that pushed me forward both physically and mentally.
Recent Comments