On February 2, 2014 we will embark on the 48th Super Bowl and just one week prior UFC on FOX 10 will go down from the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Josh Thomson compares his fight camp to an entire NFL season
Why might one compare those two you may ask? The training camp for UFC on FOX 10 main event fighter Josh Thomson lasted nearly as long as the training camp did for those players playing in New Jersey at Super Bowl 48. However his camp was much more gruelling.
Thomson recently spoke with MMAjunkie Radio regarding his camp for this fight and his answer may be surprising.
“It’s been a long camp. Falling into focus, falling out of focus, falling back into focus. This has quite possibly my worst camp ever in my whole career, but before people want to criticize and say I’m looking for a way out, you’ve got to remember, I said the same thing about the first time I fought Gilbert Melendez. That was the worst camp I had up until this time.”
On this week’s episode of Sucka Radio, “The Punk” explained the connection to the Super Bowl and why he was unable to get his head in to this fight camp.
“The NFL season started September 6 — I started this camp October 2, I fight one week before the Super Bowl. That means I’ve been training the whole time the NFL season has been going on.”
Football players train for a 17-week season, plus the playoffs — while Thomson is training for a single fight. It may not seem like it’s much more than what the players are doing, but as he walks us through what exactly his training looks like you will think otherwise.
“The NFL players, they do one padded practice a week, then they do meetings, walk-throughs and things like that and their game-plans. I do two padded practices a day for six days a week, so I’ve been getting punched and kicked for about 15 or 16 weeks. It’s just been a long camp and when you start putting it in to that sort of mentality you get people to understand. NFL players complain about it all the time — so it’s just been a long camp.”
Remember, Thomson was expected to face UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, however that fight was cancelled and his camp still continued for this upcoming bout. The lack of motivation wasn’t the problem, it was the right peaking times that came in to play.
“You hear fighters peaking too soon. What would happen in a camp as long as it was, I’d peak and then I’d dial it back, then I’d peak and have to dial it back. So when you do that, you’re constantly wondering ‘OK, did I dial it back too much. Am I going to peak again, am I going to be able to peak on time.’ You don’t want to over do it and you don’t want to under do it, so that’s the only thing. Normally in a straight eight-week or ten-week camp, you’re normally peaking at the same time that you have for your whole career, so you’ve got it dialed in. When it’s such a long camp, that’s when you start having problems.”
We will see how this camp really affected Thomson, this Saturday night live on network television at UFC on FOX 10.
For more on UFC on FOX 10 check out some of our other posts HERE and listen to the full interview on this week’s episode of Sucka Radio HERE.
