As many of you have heard, we had a bit of a change up at the Blackzilians recently. Mike Van Arsdale has parted ways with our camp and Mario Sperry has stepped up into the head coaching position. Mario was one of the founding members and head coach of the Brazilian Top Team during their rivalry with Chute Boxe.
The dynamic of the gym hasn’t changed at all, it’s still great. Everyone is still doing their thing knowing exactly what they have to do. Mike was a great coach, but people leave businesses all the time. Everyone is still working hard and looking to win titles in the future.
The training has been great as we’ve had to get Melvin Guillard ready for his fight with Donald Cerrone. Since his fight was coming up a lot of the focus has been on him, but at the same time I’m working with him since I also have a fight coming up. We have enough coaches so that everyone can get the looks they need in practice.
We like to keep things as together as possible and that’s how it works. Since we have people fighting so much, we don’t have to take away from a fighter who is competing later. Everyone is getting in the same work and it’s working out great for us.
Even though it’s easy to get caught up on my improvements, I’ve decided to only focus on my flaws and where I can get better. I’m looking to capitalize on it. Some things may be improving, but I’m looking to get everything better.
Danny Castillo presents an interesting stylistic matchup but I’m not just focusing on his wrestling. I come from a wrestling background also and I’ve faced better wrestlers than Danny. I’m just going to go out there and fight. You can’t really focus on one thing because if it doesn’t happen then you’ll be stuck.
In preparation for Danny Castillo, I’m at practice three times a day and then relaxing at home either playing video games or napping. My focus is completely on Danny. My mind never goes off the fight, ever. Once I have that contract signed, it’s me thinking about Danny Castillo—what I’m going to do to him and what his flaws are. It’s after the fight that I’ll turn my mind off.
With three weeks until the fight, I’m staying hungry and mean in practice. I need to keep my mind on it and, then, we’re in crunch time.
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