Your first fight - How to prepare and perform, 5 keys to success.
Welcome to this all new beginner guide by us here at fight central. Today I want to talk to you about the most essential things you need to be doing as someone that is going to have their first fight soon, whether that be in boxing, K1, Muay Thai, MMA or your first jiu jitsu competition. I’m here to give you all the keys to success as well as giving pointers on good products for these preparations. First off, let’s imagine you are training or about to train and your coach pulls you aside and tells you that they have a fight lined up for you if you want to fight, of course you tell them yes that you’re eager to get in there, and now it’s time to start preparing.
Weigh yourself
This is going to happen most likely before the fight is announced, and you are going to need to weigh yourself and talk to your coach about what weight you want to fight at based on how much you weigh now. Through my experience, I would recommend fighting at a weight close to your own so that you don’t suffer through a brutal weight cut and immediately gain it all back. The first reason for this is because it is unhealthy, depriving your body of water or under eating to a significant amount is not something to be done often or as a reliable method. It’s important to control your weight through smart eating choices and staying sufficiently hydrated, although this might sound silly, it’s completely possible if you stay on top of tracking your calories and nutrients, or maybe hiring a nutritionist would do some good. I know professional fighters that go through fight camp with meal prep services and they are not killing themselves two weeks before the fight trying to lose the weight all at once.
Below I have put links to some products that could certainly help your nutrition in and out of fight camp.
🔗: https://amzn.to/40WlTX1 - A fitness watch to track your runs, calories, sleep, and any exercise.
🔗: https://amzn.to/3ZtEDMJ - A good source of Creatine, something I believe is very beneficial for all athletes.
Get on top of cardio.
Considering this is your first fight, or one of your first, you are going to need to dial in on cardio exercises, specifically those that prioritise explosiveness and endurance, as the fight will demand you to be 100%, constantly, for up to five rounds. Although this might sound daunting, I assure you that you will be completely prepared if you follow through with exercises such as these:
Hill sprints, or sprint intervals, to improve your cardio and explosiveness, give maximum effort for 15-30 seconds up a hill or fully sprinting, then take a break of 1-3 minutes to recover.
Assault bike - this air bike that some of you may have seen before is great for building strong fight cardio, as the harder you push, the more resistance you get from the bike, do a similar circuit to the sprints I mentioned, pushing as hard as you can for 30-45 seconds, then resting cycling at a slower pace for 2-3 minutes.
Swimming - a very underrated cardiovascular activity, swimming fast laps will surely build your cardio up, especially in positions of strain or when you are not breathing, such as when tensing up and absorbing punches.
Running - although not necessarily the best way to improve fight specific cardio, running is an old-school exercise that boxers and fighters alike use ahead of their fights, this helps build endurance over long periods of time, as well as doing wonders for your mental discipline as you push through discomfort for long distances.
These exercises can be extremely beneficial, compiled with your training, they will have you ready for any fight you’re given, I would recommend dedicating 2-3 days a week to these kinds of exercises throughout your fight camp.
🔗: https://amzn.to/4fXttFh - Hoka running shoes for your sprints and runs.
🔗: https://amzn.to/3OkkDFF - A pair of swim trunks
🔗: https://amzn.to/4fVVRYg - WHOOP fitness tracker
Training
The most important thing everyone needs before their first fight is to actually train, and train hard, an important thing is to establish a fight camp, going to training 5-7 times per week, including sparring sessions and technical drills and pads. It’s good to identify point of weakness at the start of fight camp and increase points that are already strong in your game, including gaining knowledge about your opponent, for example, is he a southpaw or orthodox? Does he use a lot of kicks and stay at a range or is he close up a lot of the time with punches? How tall is he? How did previous opponents do against him? - The most important thing is not to overwhelm yourself, take things one training session at a time with a clear vision in mind. Drill the things you want to use in the fight that you’re already good at as well as improving cardio and strength. My advice would be to work very hard for about 2-3 months before the fight, at the amateur level, you would usually find out a month or a few weeks before the fight, so go hard until around a week before the fight. In this week, no hard sparring sessions, no very hard training, prioritise flowy and technical sparring rounds, drills, pads and shadow boxing, and about two days before the fight, relax and let your body recharge so you can give 100% and dominate the fight.
🔗: https://amzn.to/4etvPup - a pair of fight shorts so you have style and strength.
🔗: https://amzn.to/3UUsxZY - Some wraps to protects your hands in the fight. Do damage to him, not yourself.
🔗: https://amzn.to/3CGNbXg - Protect your teeth with a good mouthguard, you don’t want to lose any teeth.
Rest and recovery.
Throughout your fight camp, it is important to balance training hard and resting, you will not be able to output your best day after day without adequate rest and recovery from these intense training sessions. For example, after a tough training session, it is important to refuel with food and adequate hours of sleep, it is also important not to overwork yourself, ideally, during fight camp you should feel ready for each training session and not constantly tired and sore from previous workouts. This decreases the chances of injuries as well as letting you stay in prime fitness for the camp. Tools you can use to recover effectively are recovery rooms, cold plunges, saunas, massages, and sleep. Taking myself as an example, when I was in Thailand in the middle of fight camp, I would go to train at 8am until 10am, the go home, eat and sleep until my next session later that day, also a 2 hour long session. On days which I wasn’t training, I ran and used skipping rope often to develop a bounce in my stance, but i spent most of my time in which I wasn’t training sleeping, or sightseeing and relaxing until my next session.
🔗: https://amzn.to/4fB7LqX - A foam roller to massage out muscles and loosen joints
🔗: https://amzn.to/3ARNnme - Tiger balm - an anti inflammatory and heat treatment balm for your muscles after training (magic)
What to do in the actual fight?
This is the part you have all been waiting for, that is the question, what do I do in the actual fight? There are a few things to consider, for example, you want to be aware of your surroundings and have good ring control, like backing your opponent into the corner but cutting off the ring space so he can’t get out will let you score a lot with punches or kicks, as well as catching the judges’ eyes because you’re demonstrating good composure and defence. Another thing to be mindful of is staying composed, you do NOT want to come in swinging wildly trying to take his head off in the first because you will gas out quickly. Stick to your bread and butter, your standard and most drilled strikes and techniques will come through here, remember to stay calm and stick to what you know, you will not regret it. Before the fight, make sure you get a good warm up, but don’t tire yourself out, you don’t want to be going into the fight not warmed up enough and you want to catch the flow quickly.
Good Luck and thanks for reading!