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Interview with Ian 'The Machine' Freeman by Jimmy Boogaloo Team IronLife.com Staff Writer
guys… I was knocking my opponents out with left hands and right hands. One of the guys, who I assume was a bouncer, said, ‘With hands like that you should work the door, make yourself a bit of money.’ It was something like £10 a night back then.
So I started working the doors; all the tough guys who were coming to the pub, I was knocking them out, one punch and that was it. I decided to put my skills to jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts and try to learn how to fight a bit better. Then I was beating all the black-belts in the gym, so I went to a different gym and beat all the black-belts there because I wanted to test myself… and the rest is history after that.
J. Boogaloo: What is your approach to training MMA fighters who are just starting out?
I. Freeman: Not that I do it anymore, I don’t have the time to do it anymore… Abdul Mohamed, he’s my best protégé, as it were. He came to me with some great wrestling skills. Excellent, but it just wasn’t enough to win him a fight. His ground and pound skills were pretty weak, his submissions skills were terrible… he could escape some submissions, if he used his strength and his size, you know…
What I would advise people to do is to learn how to defend before you learn how to attack. You know what one of my pet hates is? It’s when a fighter is in side control, the person on the bottom always re-guard’s them. Why do you re-guard? Why not escape? Get out of there, get on top of them. I hear the corner men shouting ‘Re-guard! Re-guard!’ Fuck off, man! Re-guard? He’s still going to punch your head in! Re-guarding in not a sign of defense, it’s a sign of panicking. As far as I’m concerned, you should escape.
To read more click here: http://www.ironlife.com/forum/showthread.php?t=71565
- From Ironlife.com with a little editing from us (color, etc...)
(3/28/06) |
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