Jonny Parsons Opens Up On "Bad Habits" Behind Three-Year UFC Hiatus
Jonny Parsons talks about his bad training habits that cost him a 3-year-long break.
UFC welterweight Jonny Parsons returns to the Octagon on Nov. 7 to take on Brazil's Jose Souza at Meta Apex in Las Vegas.
After making an exciting debut in the UFC in July of 2023, Jonny went over three years without competing. In his debut, Jonny, aka 'The Sluggernaut', finished Danny Roberts, a UFC vet, in a back-and-forth battle. The fight even won the fight of the night honor. Even after making such an impressive UFC debut, what kept Parsons from fighting again for 3 years?
Parsons revealed those reasons to me in a recent interview with Combat Sports Fan Page. The American fighter pointed out that the bad habits of not working smart and pushing his body too much in his early career didn't translate well when he got older, and that he went through some lingering injuries that could've been prevented if he had trained smarter.
Jonny: "Being a young fighter, you could pick up a lot of bad habits. I think I had a lot of bad training habits, and they just really started to stack up in my early 30s. And I believe I just took a little too long to correct those things. And you know, just suffered from some injuries and some lingering injuries that could have been prevented with just like, smarter training, more emphasis on strength and conditioning."
The 35-year-old also mentioned his Muay Thai background and its inherent grinding training style.
Jonny Parsons Is Training Smarter Now
Jonny Parsons earned his UFC contract by winning a hard-fought decision in Dana White's Contender Series back in 2021. However, that Danny Roberts victory is his lone UFC appearance in these five years. To explain his change of mindset from then to today, Jonny gave a really good example:
"Whereas maybe before I thought, 'All right, if I want to condition my kicks, I should throw a thousand kicks a day.' But maybe your mind can handle that, but if your body can't handle that, you're just damaging yourself trying to thug it out and just throw those kicks and throw those repetitions, but I think you need to make sure your body is strong first to be able to do that, where I was just mentally trying to grind through, but at the same time, my body couldn't handle it."
Jonny Parsons Won't Repeat His Previous Mistakes
'The Sluggernaut' expressed his disappointment with his previous approach and missing out on big opportunities. But the man has vowed not to make the same mistakes again and believes he'll be prepared for short-notice fights after this one.
"So, I'm disappointed in myself in that aspect that, like, if I just would have been more mature and took better care of my body, I could have got some big fights immediately after that fight. So, I'm not going to make the same mistake again. I'm going to go out there. I'm going to get a big win, big finish, and then I'm going to make sure I'm prepared for any kind of short-notice opportunities that might pop up."
The 9-3 welterweight is all set to square off against the 24-year-old Jose Souza and test out his new approach. Be prepared for an action-packed fight between these two knockout artists.
