– Today, I'm training MMA because
I'm stepping into the cage for a full contact fight in
exactly 30 days, let's go! As a lifelong
karate practitioner, I've always wanted to test
my skills in the cage. The only problem is, people keep taking me down. Because when you're a striker, nobody wants to stand and bang. That's why I need to
learn takedown defense as quickly as possible, unless I wanna nap, snap, or tap.
Because MMA is extremely dangerous, and one wrong move can
end your career forever. (wailing) Luckily, my brother Oliver has agreed to help me before,
during,and after the fight. As a professional MMA fighter, Oliver knows exactly what to do. – This is the game plan, week one, learning the
techniques and tactics for takedown defense. – We have three lines of defense and you need to start
at a distance already.
This will be done by your movement, your rhythm and footwork. You gotta have eyes in
the back of your neck and feel whenever there's
a cage panel behind you. Stage two of takedown defense, is framing and sprawling. So that's the actual
techniques you need to know when your opponent gets in close, to fend off and stop the take-downs. Level three of the takedown defense is when you're actually on the ground. Your opponent might have taken you down, but before he establishes a position, you gotta be able to
scramble back on your feet, as soon as you hit the ground. – Week number two, training. So you know what to do, now, it's just to get the repetitions down and really drill, drill, drill, so it becomes automatic. – We will mix the
striking with the grappling and work from the ground to
standing up and vice versa. I'll put some good wrestlers on you, they'll try to take you
down and keep you down and you'll just practice the
movements of getting back up. So maybe the most important thing for you to drill during this short
period of time, is the wall-work.
That's not found in
any other martial arts. It's what separates MMA and
makes it it's unique sport. – We're moving on to week
number three, sparring. So this is when we're really
pressure testing everything you're training and drilling
and the tactics that you learned. Because everything goes so much faster when it's a real fight
compared to training. Even if you train hard your reaction time needs
to be a 100% on point. This week is also where the possibility of injuring yourself is highest. So it's very important to be
smart about picking opponents and how hard you actually go in sparring. This is not fighting, but
training for fighting. – And finally it's fight week. This last week, we'll
focus on active recovery to get you primed for the
fight day and your body 100% ready to go at its peak performance. And then it's time to fight. – After exactly 30 days of grueling training, it's time to see how far
my skills will take me.
Will I be able to implement
everything Oliver has taught me or will I fail and embarrass myself? One thing is for certain,
if I win this fight it's entirely because of my brother and the whole team who helped me prepare. And if I lose, it's entirely my own fault. Because a coward dies a thousand deaths but a warrior dies only once. – Let's have a look at yesterday's fight. So Oliver can provide
his expert commentary. You ready?
– Yeah – Let's go. – Okay, so straight away he
went for these calf kicks and that's a good tactic against someone in a karate stance because
your stance is so wide so he can sweep your leg
just by kicking it, right? And this is smart of
you to switch the stance but he's started kicking
from the other side instead.
– Yeah.
– And– – But it didn't really hurt though but they gave him good points. – Yeah, now he's very
aggressive as you can see it's straightforward and I
think he wanted to take away your distance.
– Yeah. – Because your distance fighter, right. With good footwork and yeah. The most part of the fight ended up here from what I remember. And you got this arm in guillotine and I remember, I told you here to look at the watch.
– Yes. – So this is a way for
you to make it tighter. So you're supposed to turn your wrist. So you look at your watch that
will make the choke tighter and that might have made it work.
But now I guess you gassed
your arms up to the much. – Yeah, exactly. – This looks rough but those strikes are not really effective. I mean, they look good
in the eyes of the judges but I don't think they hurt you. – No, no, and it was funny
when he punched my leg 'cause that didn't hurt either.
– Yeah, yeah. – It was weird.
– Yeah. But on the other hand
that makes him active. So they won't separate you.
– Oh… – He's winning the fight as
long as he's standing here because he has the dominant position. So just by doing these
strikes they're gonna keep him in this position.
– Yeah. This is when I started slapping him on the ear.
– Yeah. – And he didn't like that 'cause he started covering up.
– Exactly, yeah. In this like crowded situation, it's hard to get good strikes.
So I think the slap is
the best alternative because you can still
deliver a lot of force. And if you like smash the ear drum, it causes a lot of pain and
might disrupt his balance too. – Yeah. So now he got the body lock on me. – Yeah.
– And that's why he took me down. But I immediately popped up. – Yeah, exactly, I remember
you had very good scrambles when, oh you got the other guillotine on the other arm, right? Yeah and I remember– – So you told me, look at your wrist watch and I thought you meant pull it this way so I could see the wrist but you meant twist the hand like this. – Exactly.
– Yeah. Yeah, I didn't understand
that if I did that, maybe I could have choked him. – Maybe yeah, because it looked tight.
– It was tight. – Yeah. – Not tight enough though. And the judge kept telling
me to stop grabbing the cage. – Yeah.
– But it's a natural instinct. When somebody pulls you down,
you wanna grab something. – Yeah.
– It was difficult to not grab the cage. I didn't wanna cheat, but it just happens. – I understand. And if it actually stops
him from taking you down they will give you a point deduction. – Yeah.
– Which is makes you lose the round unless the other
guy gets a point deduction. So in this break here between the rounds I asked Oliver what to
do about the calf kicks 'cause I didn't expect those.
– Yeah.
So what was your advice for me? – Yeah, so if he would keep hitting those, my answer was to just move
the leg back a few times. If he keeps going, then you blitz–
– Yeah. – Forward instead. So when he focuses on the
legs, you go straight forward because straight punches, often
winds against round kicks. – Exactly.
– So you can catch him off guard on the chin–
– Yes. – Like a Nagashi Zuki. – Round two. Now I went for more kicks. Now I wanted to let
loose a little bit more. – Yeah.
– So it's good that you put more pressure on him.
– Yeah. – I try to do the spinning back kick, but then he grabbed my back. – Yeah, so I think he fought smart. He wanted to be like all the way out.
– Yeah.
– Or all the way in. He didn't wanna stay
in the pocket with you. – Yep.
– To feel those kicks. And your back is already bruised from the first round.
– Yeah. – This is the same Kimura throw that I used in my last fight. – Yeah. – And what you need to
do here is to pull it in. So you have control over the arm because it's hard to
control something out here. – Yeah.
– So he wanted to be as close to you as possible. So you can turn your body instead
of working with your arms. – Yeah.
– So his defense is to straighten the arm 'cause he knows if he
bends it, then I can– – Yeah.
– Break it. – It was hard for him to do that here. So instead he moved you against the cage which is also a good alternative. – Yes. – Because you want to hip out towards the way where you
blocked by the cage right now. – Yeah.
– But it's a good idea that you put your leg here. – Yeah, so he couldn't roll out. – Exactly. – And I wasted so much energy and strength 'cause I'm not used to this
isometric tension of grappling.
– Yeah.
– So my arms were so gassed now first from the guillotine
attempt in round one, and now from this in round two–
– Right. – My arms were heavy. – And even if you know the right technique and you can understand
that in a few weeks, you need more time to
develop the physical capacity to do these chokes and strength. than the few weeks you
had for this training. – Yeah. – So I mean, I think it takes years to develop a lot a strong squeeze. – Yeah.
– So I understand you gassed your arms up.
– Yeah.
– And you would have needed your arms active to set up your kicks. – Exactly, that was a problem. Now, I think at this point
you told me to scoot my butt. – Yeah.
– Towards the cage. So I tried to move back. – Yeah, because you need the
cage to help you stand up. – Yeah.
– And I was afraid now when he got into the full mount,
– Yeah. – That he will keep you here,
but you work with your bridges and your hips good. – I actually let him sit
'cause I knew when he punches, there would be a gap for me to throw him.
– Yeah. – Yeah, and now we are standing up again. – Yeah. – And we practice a lot how to stand up. – Yeah.
– Especially against the cage and that was very helpful.
– Yeah. – Yeah, he wasn't able to
control you on the ground for a long time. You pop back up every time. – And I learned from you
that the most important part was this over hook. – Yeah.
– When I'm against the cage, because now he can't really do much. – Yeah. – But the problem is I
can't do a lot either. – I think that the most important
thing with that over hook is that you can ease the pressure. – Yes.
– So if you pressure a lot in here
– yeah. – On my breathing, I get tired
but by turning with over hook (Oliver exhales)
I can breathe. – Exactly, that was a way for me to rest. – Yeah.
– Definitely. – Yeah. So were you tired now
going into the last round? Do you remember that? – My cardio was okay. I was not too exhausted, but
I remember the lactic acid in my arms, especially, but my legs were still fine
'cause I didn't squeeze with those a lot.
– Right.
– And I'm used to moving
around and bouncing, I'm used to striking a lot,
but not this isometric tension. – Yes. – Which is that wrestling strength. – Yeah, exactly. – Yeah, it's way different
mechanics for the muscles. where you're using the body. – Different energy system.
– Exactly, yeah. – Now I was actually,
I thought this was fun. I mean I was enjoying it. – Yeah.
– When it was going on. – That's so good. – I was not afraid or anything.
– Yeah. – And I felt his punching,
they were not too bad even though I don't look too good, you should see what he looks like.
– Oh yeah. – I'm just kidding. (laughing) – I think this is the
round where he clipped you with a good one though. – Yes. – Let's see if that happens. – So, now.
– Here, so you need to use your arms to set those kicks up.
– Yes. – Because when you throw
a naked kick like that he just backs away and you miss. – Yeah. – Oh that's when he–
– That's the one yeah. – But he didn't follow up on this. – No. – I think a more experienced fighter would have put more pressure, then he could have finished it right there
– Yes. – Yeah, definitely. And now, I think he
started to unload on me 'cause I could feel that
he got way more aggressive. Maybe he thought that he
was gonna win or something, I don't know. – Maybe because he knows it's
just like two minutes left. – Yes. – So, and then the whole fight's over, so. – Yeah and one judge actually
gave the second round to me.
– Yeah. – So, maybe he thought that
he needs to compensate now and go even harder. – Yeah. – And it was funny, his corner. They were shouting "disengage!" – Yeah, I remember that. – Yeah, so they wanted him to step away. – That's interesting, yeah. – They didn't like this position for him because there's nothing
happening, I guess.
– Right, and probably they
were afraid of this choke. – Yes. – Already caught twice. – Yeah. My back looks so red. – Yeah. – You told me to get a high clinch, somewhere at this point, I remember. 'Cause I heard everything
you said all the time, but I couldn't really get it to work. – Yeah, it's good thing you ended up right in front of me here. – Yeah. – Yeah, I remember this arm
I told you to put a frame. So, I wanted you to get it under his chin, so you can lift his head
up and turn him around. – Yeah, I forgot that, I should have tried to turn him around. – Yeah.
– Exactly. That way I could escape from this position and do more strikes. – Yeah. – he got that takedown, yeah. I should have spread my legs more, right? – Exactly, turn the hip. – Yeah. But then we got right back
up, just like you taught me. – You have good wrist control. – Yeah.
– So it's hard for him to get a good hold of your legs.
– Yeah. Now I tried to do the front kick to the face.
– Yeah. I tried to shout that a few times, but everyone was shouting so,
I don't know if you'd hear me but you had the same idea. – Oh, he tried a question mark kick, wow. He just kept backing away all the time. 'cause he could see those kicks coming. – Yeah.
– Yeah. (fans cheering) – That's why you need to
set 'em up with your hands. – Yeah. – So, make him think of the
hands and then follow up with the kick. – Yeah. Now he's trying to punch my leg again. – Yeah. – Maybe that gave him a few
extra points at the end, I don't know. – Maybe. – What is the most important
lesson we can learn from this? – Well, first of all, I think
it was very courageous of you to step in there against a guy
with so much more experience. – Yeah, he had like a
dozen fights already. – Yeah, I think 13 fights
or something like that. So I think this fight was
like fighting experience versus martial arts experience.
– Yeah, exactly. – Because you have been
training your whole life but not for fighting. – Exactly. – This guy hasn't been
training for that long but specifically for fighting. – Exactly. – So yeah, that was an interesting… – Yeah.
– …matchup. – And it was a really fun challenge. I enjoyed it, I learned a lot and I love to challenge myself.
– Yeah. – Because it makes you grow. – And I mean that's the
most important thing with the amateur fights. I think people who put too
much focus on the result, they cheat themselves
out of the experience because the focus should
be on the process goals and not the result goals.
So, unless you are a professional and wanna make a career out of it, then it's important to win. – And that's actually why
I was happy for him to win. 'Cause, this is his thing. – Yeah. – I'm not supposed to win at this. I'm just this Karate
Nerd who goes in there. – Yeah. – And it was kind of
almost disrespectful for me to even be fighting this guy. So, I was happy for him to win
because he deserved to win.
This is his thing, this is not my thing. And I had fun anyway, 'cause I didn't really care whether I won or lost, but for
him, I bet this meant a lot. – Yeah, I mean he's younger
guy and he's pursuing a MMA career.
– Exactly. – So I bet so. – And maybe one day when he's
in the UFC he can look back and say, "Hey, I fought The Karate Nerd. – Yeah, and he was very
humble after the fight, he came to– – Yeah he came up to me in
the locker room and he said, "He loves my videos, he
watches it all and–" – That was cool. – And he said that his elbow really hurt 'cause when I was kicking
and he backed away I kicked his arms instead. He was like, "Your kicks are so powerful." – Yeah.
– Too bad, I didn't kick his face though, but you know, hey… – Yeah. – That's life. – Yeah.
– How did you feel to not be in the cage but to be outside? – Yeah, well, I mean it's
more nervous when someone you really care about fights
than when you self fight because you're not in control anymore. – Exactly, yeah. – And you know, even
though you didn't win, I was very proud afterwards. – And as always train hard,
good luck and have fun and big, thank you to Oliver.
– Of course. – Even though I didn't win,
you did everything right. And this was completely my fault. (Oliver laughing) – You win some, you learn some… – Yep..
