reasons i love the treadmill!

king kong beats down godzilla!

all right here we go....

its been Little while eh, since the last post. so without further adue here's the lowdown on our local blue collar hero's triumph in the land of the rising sun!

to start the fight almost didn't happen due to the small oversight of my inability to travel or set foot on U.S soil(the promoters of the event didn't seem to register that fact!). so a very good friend of mine and one of my supporters quickly called his travel agent and booked me on a flight out of Toronto straight to Tokyo. unfortunately i had to travel alone which is never fun. after many movies and many hours of walking up a very short aisle i arrived in Tokyo. my doctor had told me to try and stay up as long as possible and try to fall asleep on there time, it was hard but the team managed it. we were whisked from the airport in a limousine so already we were being treated well. we arrived at our hotel on a busy street in downtown Tokyo and we quickly settled in and headed to the shoot boxing gym for a media and interview shoot. during this time they interviewed each fighter and we did a short pad session for the cameras ,this was cool! all those years of watching we were paying of. finally we returned to our hotels and were down for the count.

the next morning SAM stout and i made our way over to what would become our main hang out... a Starbucks coffee shop which we nicknamed "the Canadian embassy" here we could joke around and plan our fight strategies. later in the day we were again summoned to the shoot boxing gym for the official weight-ins. this is always sooo cool as you get to size up your opponent and try to mind f&#K with them. anyone that knows me knows i love bugging and ribbing people so this was right up my ally! my opponent looked bigger than me but they always look bigger than me. i knew i was taller and had a significant reach advantage so this would be the basis of my fight plan. we were shown videos of our opponents and i saw that mine had tasted the canvas before so i was intent on sending him there again!

Saturday- fight day

fight days are always laid back for me as i get my mind ready for the night ahead. i usually make my phone calls, read and take a few naps. so after one more trip to the "embassy" we were taken to the event at the kurokun hall which is very famous for K-1 events, boxing, mma and wrestling. the event set up was neat and well designed, i was going to have fun in that ring! we were escorted to our change rooms and found they had t.v monitors in each room so we could watch the fights before ours. seeing as i was fighting kenichi ogata i was the main event so i had all the time in the world to stew in my dressing room. finally the time came for the "road warrior" to step up one more time in front of an audience i wanted to fight in front of for more than ten years!

i made my way down the ramp and into the ring to await ogata never once taking my eyes off of his corner. ogata made his way down to a thunderous ovation from the crowd but this has never affected me, i like being in enemy territory. i may be out maned but I'm never out gunned as this became apparent right off the bat. from the opening bell my boxing was superior to his and as i had planned, my reach advantage played into the match well! my ability to change from south paw to orthodox fighting stances gave ogata fits as he found himself getting hit from all angels. during the closing minute of the 1st round i landed a slicing left uppercut and then a left cross that had ogata crumbling at my feet. i ran to the neutral corner and watched as the referee began to count. the crowd was dead silent. as ogata rose on shaky legs i moved in to finish him but just as i was to pounce the bell rand and a very shocking up kenichi ogata went back to his corner to contemplate what the hell had just happened to him.

the second started off like the first with me pumping my jabs in his face and ogata bombing in with hard low leg kicks. by this time i had found my ranges with my favorite weapon of choice... my push kick. this keep him off me as i hit him in the chest with it and finally hitting him square in the jaw with it! the crowd by now had realized ogata was in a battle and started to turn up the heat heading into the third round.

the third started with a crushing push kick to ogata's face and jaw which when landed made a sickening sound letting me and the crowd know that his jaw had been broken. this was when he really started to push a quick passe as he surely new he was way behind in the scoring. as the round wore on we waded into one another throwing bomb after bomb at each other, neither wanting to take a backwards step. the crowd were on their feet and were so load i couldn't hear my corner. so with my back against the ropes i dug me heels in and finished the round swinging at ogata's face with every "bad Irish" intention i had left. i love fights like this as i think it brings out the "dog" in you and your opponent. there is no other sport in the world that tests a mans courage and reserve quite like fighting.

as the bell rang to end the fight we were greeted with a standing ovation from the Japanese crowd. we embarrassed each other warmly after and nodded respectfully to each other good fight. the announcer made his decision and awarded me a unanimous decision and ogata respectfully accepted his defeat. after the fight we were whisked in to a corridor to do an interview with sky television and Fuji television and were asked what was next. i said i would love to fight in the K-1 max but shoot boxing was the promotion that brought me to japan and i would love to fight for them again and they had first dibs on me if they wanted.

after the interview it was time to kick back, eat and party our asses off for a job well done. the partying lasted well into the next two days but that is a story for a different time!

until next blog
love, respect and believe