Ultimate Blogger Stout: Frantic fight week

So here we are — fight week finally arrives and I’m itching for Saturday to hurry up.

Monday was my last day training in Las Vegas and we’ve cut my workouts down to one a day, as opposed to two a day. This last week is pretty easy as far as training goes and we keep it simple with pad work, drilling and specific workouts to keep my timing on.

I left for Vancouver on Tuesday morning and from there it will all be about keeping my weight in check and making sure I’m fully prepared for Saturday night. I’m right on schedule, I’m feeling great and I’m ready to rock and roll.

In addition to bursts of training, the UFC plans to have me doing a little media tour on Thursday and then after the weigh-ins on Friday Shawn Tompkins and I will be hosting a fundraising event at a place called Chop House in Vancouver. We will be raising money and awareness for anti-bullying and abuse against women. Gilbert Melendez, Stitch Duran and a couple of other guys will also be down there that afternoon, so feel free to drop by if you’re in town that day.

I like to get involved in as much charity stuff as I can and get a real kick out of doing it. Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki and I run a kids program at our gym (Adrenaline Training Centre in London, Ont.) and we place a strong focus on anti-bullying. We really see it as an important thing and we love the idea of utilizing the position we are in as fighters and athletes to do something positive and productive. It allows us the chance to use our profession in order to spread the word a little better. It’s our job to tell these young kids that they shouldn’t be out in the streets picking fights and that they shouldn’t be bullying their peers.

It goes without saying that I get a lot of attention when I fight in Canada and I’m sure this week will be no different. There are not a whole lot of guys in the UFC from Canada, so I am very lucky in that respect. It is my responsibility to represent Canada in the UFC and I try to do so to the best of my ability, both inside and outside the Octagon. Whenever the time comes to fight in my home country, I look to lead by example and really put on a show for the fans.

All that promotion can get a little hectic and stressful, of course, if you let it get that way. You’ve really got to make every spare minute and hour count during fight week and rest up where possible. I’ll spend time with a few friends from Vancouver during the downtime and will just look to forget about the upcoming fight. I’m not the type of guy to sit by myself and over-analyze things too much. The fight is happening on Saturday and I’m glad it is happening. In the meantime, though, there’s no point getting worked up about it. The fight will happen when it is supposed to happen.

The research and preparation is all completely done now, and besides, it’s too late to change anything at this late stage. If you’re not ready and confident during fight week, then something went badly wrong during training camp. I’ve watched all the videos of my opponent, Yves Edwards, that I need to watch and I’ve gone over the game-plan time and time again. I know each of the moves and strategies off by heart and no amount of further research is going to help at this stage. I am ready.

I believe Yves represents a great step up in competition for me, and I was really happy when this fight was first proposed. He’s a respected veteran in the sport and he has a great name, so it was a real honour for me to sign for that fight. I’ve been watching Yves for years, ever since I first decided to become involved with the sport myself. Despite the fact it’s an honour to fight him, I’ll be doing everything in my power to beat him come Saturday night.

It wasn’t hard researching a guy like Yves, simply because he’s been around for so long and there is so much footage out there on him. I’ve watched many of his fights live, and the ones that I hadn’t seen were provided to me by the UFC. I had something like 15 of his fights to watch and I think I’ve now got a good grasp of what he’ll be bringing to the table on Saturday night.

Given that we both love to put on Fight of the Night type showings, I think there’s a great chance that we will be walking away with that bonus again on Saturday. Yves’ style matches up really well with mine and I can’t see anything but an all-out war between us. We’re both very technical and athletic strikers and we both love to fight at a frantic pace. This is going to be an interesting fight tactically and I’m sure it will also include plenty of fireworks and exchanges.