I've been taking a break from MMA for the past two months to work on my standup fighting skills in preparation for this K-1 matchup in Shandong province. I also bulked up quite a bit for this fight, putting on 10 kg. This is the first time I've fought as a middleweight in five years.
While I felt I gave a solid performance, and landed the majority of the strikes in each round, the judges saw it differently and awarded a split decision win to my opponent. As Turkish fighter Yaya Gulei once said, "If you want to win a fight in China, you must knock him out!"
Time to go back to work and train for the next one.
Time to go back to work and train for the next one.