Tim Boetsch
UFC middleweight Tim ‘The Barbarian’ Boetsch is scheduled to welcome former Bellator champ Hector Lombard to the Octagon next month in Calgary, Alberta at UFC 149.
Originally both Boetsch and Lombard were scheduled to face different opponents, but with the rash of injuries plaguing upcoming UFC events both fighters were pitted against one another for the upcoming Canadian show. Boetsch was to have faced Michael Bisping at UFC 149, while Lombard was to have headlined the UFC on FOX 4 event opposite Brian Stann.
During a segment on “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo” the former light heavyweight, who has gone 3-0 since dropping down to 185-lbs, Boetsch was asked to comment on all of the fighter injuries over the past few weeks.
“I think a lot of fighters out there are caught up in the super-intense training all the time,” Boetsch told theScore.com. “There might not be enough periodization in their training and they’re wearing themselves down and becoming prone to injury. I’ve run into a lot of guys doing that.”
According to Boetsch, if fighters want to remain healthy and active they can’t go hard at it every single minute in the gym because the human body just can’t handle the physical toll. Not only that, but that sort of over-training won’t help their performance in the ring, either.
“If you want to fight year-round, you need to switch it up, you can’t go intense all the time,” he said. “Typically, there’s five or six weeks that I go super hard before a fight but other than that we’re maintaining technique and doing other things and letting the body heal and recover from the damage of previous training. The recovery phase of training and making sure you’re body’s in peak condition to go hard in that small window before the fight is critical and I think some fighters are missing out on that.”
‘The Barbarian’ earned his last victory in February when he earned a third round, come-from-behind victory against Yushin Okami at UFC 144 in Japan. Along with that win, Boetsch also earned decisions against Nick Ring and Kendall Grove since dropping down to middleweight.
Also featured on Tuesday’s podcast was UFC flyweight Joseph Benavidez, MMA legend Wallid Ismail, Showtime’s David Dinkins, and XFC lighweight Nick Newell.