A Fighter's Number One Priority

When preparing for a fight its important to remember your NUMBER ONE GOAL as a fighter...

And that is to take your current skill level and be able to best translate your abilities under the intense pressure of a FIGHT. The ABSOLUTE BEST WAY to do that is through actual sparring - hard sparring - with various scenarios, being put in awful positions and best simulating the type of PRESSURE you are going to feel during a fight. In other words, you gotta practice your sport and everything involved to the upmost degree, and become as efficient as possible in all facets of the game. This should all be a no brainer, but some people for lack of a better term, get it twisted.

So we now know that everything else (namely your strength and conditioning) is SECONDARY, but still largely important. It does not matter HOW MUCH you do, but rather its WHAT you do. Remember, you're already training takedowns,grappling, and striking maybe several hours per day - you don't have much left in your reserves! And while everyone freaks out about their conditioning before a fight, you should be getting MOST OF THAT from your actual fight training.

Leading up to a fight, your main goals are maintain your strength and power while getting in condition. Its important to remember the phrase "All Else Equal.." ...meaning, all else equal, the better technician will win, all else equal the better conditioned fighter will win, all else equal the stronger fighter will win, etc, etc. In other words, don't neglect one thing for the other.

Throw in some strength work - using a HEAVY sandbag, or some HEAVY dumbbells or barbells, or some WEIGHTED calisthenics.

Keep your lactic acid tolerance through the roof by mixing in some SHORT energy system finishers to your strength sessions.

2-3 strength & conditioning sessions are all a fighter needs.

And above all, your skill practices COME FIRST and FOREMOST. Get strong, get in condition, and never be the guy with less technical skill.