Leonidas MMA Blog

I like to push my physical and mental abilities to the limits that God set and until the day I die I will continue to train and learn. I believe that this is the true measure of what a champion will be. When I say champion I don’t just mean the guy with the belt, I mean the champion of life, ones own life, the person who can say that they can handle any situation good bad with the same level of respect and responsibility. Those people are true champions. I see Champions in all aspects of my life…some are teachers, some are students, some are fathers, some are mothers…..but sadly I see a lot of failures as well…some are teachers, some are students, fathers, mothers……for me failure only happens when you accept it. A Jiu Jitsu principal that I truly believe in is not fighting pressure with pressure. I believe in the flow of all things. Failures see obstacles…..champions see a new path…..there will always be obstacles in ones life. ALWAYS. A failure allows that obstacle to detour them from there goal. Champions see a new path to there goal.

I believe that our paths are forever changing and that’s what makes life so AMAZING. If it was so simple as Do this Do that Get this Get that what spice would we get out of life. I for one refuse to allow a little but of pressure or pain to stop me from my ultimate goal of being the best I want to be at whatever I do.

Recovery

…….is hard. And boring. Especially when you’re not sure what’s wrong. Without insurance and a proper MRI, X-RAY ect. It’s hard to know if you’re doing the right thing. One thing is for sure. My body is wrecked more than just the usual wear and tear. It’s letting me know loud and clear. And it sucks.

Most people don’t do a quarter for the things true professional MMA fighters do. Not to say that every Pro works hard or that there is a gage for what working hard is. Some people can go 3 times a day and be fine others 2 truly it depends on the person. I prefer to go 3 personally but not all three are killer workout. I like to run and lift weights in the morning, boxing in the afternoon and Jiu Jitsu at night. That would be my ideal schedule.

Of course that’s in an idealistic world and let’s be honest nothing ever goes as planned 100% right?! I love my schedule when I’m fighting I’ve always known I do my best when my nose is on the wheel (GRINDING!) and when I have too much free time I tend to let things slip through the cracks diet, cardio, weight, bills hell just about everything gets put on the oh I can do it later list. We’ve all got that list. The “Oh it can wait till tomorrow” list. Tomorrow turns into the next day and then before you know it it’s a week later and you still haven’t put those envelops in the mail! But its ok cause “I’ll do it tomorrow”

I’ve digressed from my original topic (like normal) but anyways when you’re not on the grind your not as sharp as you can be. That’s me right now. Sharp as a MARBLE. My hands, back, and neck are controlling my ability to be physical and I hate it.

Now here’s my real problem. I have no insurance. Contrary to what some may think not all Professional MMA fighters make BANK. In fact most of us don’t make Squat! People don’t understand that when you make three grand for a fight how very short that money goes. 10% to this coach 10% to that coach out 20% before you fight ok not bad well deserved from the work that they put in to you. Ok 80/20 split cool but say you don’t win or you get a Draw….ugly now you only made 1.5k and wow did your ability to pay bills just get cut from underneath you. So what’s the first to go? Certainly not the school loans that are costing upwards of $600 a month (Soon to increase thank you Sallie mae) not your credit card bills (Thank you horrible 2 year stretch of decisions/life from 06’-08’) Gotta eat right? So that can’t go………Insurance! Yes that’s something that I can go without right?! I mean insurance is really just IN-CASE-S*IT anyways right hell I pay it and I don’t get hurt it was wasted money right?!...........well now here I am 2 years away from personal health insurance and I can’t say it’s not been a good run…only broken noses, tweaked back, unconfirmed broken hands, ruined shoulders and a inability to look too far to my right…..HA who needs Health insurance………OH HELL I DO!

So now I need to make decisions. The first is to take time off. I can’t tell you the last time I really just took time off and let my body heal. Yes I want to fight more than anything but I want to be as close to 90% as possible (Let’s be honest any athlete will tell you that we’re never EVER 100% and anyone that tells you they are, are full of it.) Right now I’m taking time to rest my injuries and I’m bored as all hell. I’m used to Exercising my body as well as my mind that’s the beauty of Striking/Jiu Jitsu it’s not just a DUH I LIFT WEIGHT I RUN DUH…..not to say that that’s bad just not for me (As you can tell by the tone of writing…sorry body builders still got love for ya!) Hell to be honest it’d be AMAZING if I could just lift weights but I can’t hold them in either hand right now!

Damn this is getting long I bet half the people that look at this won’t even get this far down the blog! Hahaha if you have gotten this far I thank you for listening to the ramblings of an old man.

So any ways I’m now going to take a stand. I am going to GRIND my MIND and I’m working on the body so that can get back on the grind as well. I’m checking out this program called ACE. It’s a program for people how can’t afford health insurance on their own in Ventura County. I’ve still got to finish the application but I’ll make sure to update and let you guys know how it works and hopefully it can help someone that also in my situation!

Ok back to work I’ve got some cool things that I’m learning now and I’ll let you know about them another read!

Thanks again! And by the way I love to hear your comments/concerns/questions so please leave some feed back good or bad but do me a favor keep it clean kids read these sometimes!

Precursor….I don’t read over what I write so if there are any mistakes here…..treat it like we were talking and I was telling you a story…..no English lessons here please hahaha
Wow….almost a year and a half to the date since I last wrote one of these….kinda bad of me but oh well what you can do. So here we are February 2011 and so much has changed but remained the same since 2009. The last two years I’ve had so much growth as a fighter and as a person its crazy. I think back to when I took my first three pro fights back in 2009….crazy…..making TUF 11…CRAZIER…and now the after math….AMAZING…I bet people are going to look and read that last statement and say WHAT?!?! YOU LOST! HOW CAN IT BE AMAZING?!?!?!

If you gotta ask man…..hahaha. I am a life long believer in LEARNING. The day you stop LEARNING is the day you’ve settled. I don’t like to settle. Check that I WONT settle. Going through the TUF experience may have been a “One Shot” for some guys but for me it was just a great rookie learning experience. I didn’t win. My Stand up was bashed by Dana and just about everyone. My cardio was BASHED by just about everybody (Don’t get me wrong I have a TON of supporters and man it would be crazy to think what it would be like without you guys!). I learned more from that experience than I’d ever be able to explain. Fighters know you have a game plan for every fight. The game plans in both fights were to take them down and submit them. I executed the game plans. I did what I was told. During my days at CLU playing for Coach Plemons I learned to not ask questions and do exactly what I was told. I believed in Coach and what he said was damn near LAW…..and we succeeded. If you did what he coached you to do you succeeded. Just about every Rushmen (dlinemen) that bought into his system turned into a monster.

So during my time on the show I bought into that same idea because of the tremendous respect I have for Coach John Hackleman, Coach Howard Davis Jr., Chuck Liddell, Jake Shields, Antonio Banuelos, and Scott Epstine. Unfortunately for me my body wasn’t able to keep up. I never once asked to be left out of a drill or training session, not once did I leave to go get worked on by the therapist and miss conditioning, hell I was sparing the day after my fight because they said so. And I thank them so much for Everything to this day. If I hadn’t done all of that, I would not have learned so much about my body. I was able to see what happens when I don’t listen to my body. I put in 6 weeks of training before the show. Three workouts a day less than 2000 calories a day I busted my ass to be as prepared for that first fight as I could be. But my body wasn’t ready for another 3 weeks of that kind of beating. The training on the show was TRAMENDOUS and amazing but my body couldn’t keep up. By the time I fought Seth I was like Beef Jerky lol body just strung out to dry. I think we had about 3-4 days rest in those three weeks. The thought process was that we never knew when we were going to fight so we should continue the cardio and sparring. I was in great shape when I won that first fight. Unfortunately it was all down hill from there. But you know what. That’s ok. Because of how much it taught me. Now I do a much better job of listening to what my body is telling me. And I have those guys to thank for it and I am thankful!

With all that said, I learned that I have to listen to my body and communicate to my coaches what I need. If I need a day off I’m gonna take a day off. Speaking of which I’m currently into the 4 day of about the next 30-40 that I’m taking off from training. My body is back in bad shape my hand has never really healed from September when we’re pretty sure I had a boxers break and in a jiu jitsu match a couple of weeks ago I injured my other hand………suffice it to say it’s time to let the body heal. I’m still teaching some mma and jiu jitsu and I’ll let everyone know where soon! ( check out http://www.fabioleopoldograciejiujitsu.com )
Thanks for the continued support and I’ll be posting more up soon to recap the crazyness that is my life! Hope you enjoyed the read!

Oh yea GO FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK….that is all!
Leonidas

P.S.

The funniest thing is still when people come up to me and go “Man, you really need to work on your Stand up!” or my favorite “We should work together I’ve got great stand up I can teach you!”…………Ok. Let’s be honest do I have the best hands? No. But honestly do people really think that I don’t work on it?! Crazy. Crazy!

 

SPARTANS!

 

Leonidas here just checking back in!  I just wanted to update everyone on the Kings recent activities.  Where to begin......

 

On August 15, 2009 I fought my second Professional Fight at an event called Caged Ink at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona California.  I fought a guy named Roberto Barros from Black House (Anderson Silva's Gym) at 185lbs.

 

This was my very first fight at 185lbs it was a test to see how the weight cut would go and how my body would react to such a low weight.  For those who know me I've always been 215lbs or bigger, I believe at my heaviest in college I was 255 or 260lbs.  Earlier this year I was walking around at about 220lbs.  As the year went on I lowered the walk around weight to about 212 and now I've got it down to about 206 when I'm eating right!  When we got to weigh-ins I was a slim 183.4lbs......(LOWEST I've been since o say about 6^th grade!) ............which was great I didn't even have to hit the sauna!  Just a great diet and a hard cardio on Thursday night! Of course everyone that was around me the week before the fight knows that it wasn't as easy as I just made it sound...people think that fighting is the hard part but for me and this fight it was the weight cut!  Luckily my body reacted great and the weight came off right when I need it to! (10lbs on Thursday night and I floated/spit another 3 or 4 lbs the next day)

 

SO the fight was a great fight and the opponent was very talented.  I knew he was going to be aggressive from the moment we had our face off at weigh-ins.  I'm not your typical fighter and hate the "Hands Up" pose and would rather stand nose to nose to I can see into my opponents eyes (and take his SOUL lol jk).  I figured he'd take his fight stance and I'd stand there looking HARD and MEAN.  He did the exact thing I was doing and I had a hard time not laughing!  He came toe to toe with me I mean nose to nose and quickly!  So there we stood two warriors ready for battle.  AND WHAT A BATTLE IT WAS.

 

The first round opened with a huge right hand from Barros, I slipped it and as he went for the clinch I over powered him into the cage. (Let's just say that over powering him was a consistent throughout the fight!)  From there it was a series of Knees and then a spirited takedown from yours truly!  Once the fight hit the mat it was my time I laid on a barrage of elbows (SO cool to throw in a fight by the way, first time I've gotten the chance!) and punches which eventually lead me to pass his guard and take the mount!  Unfortunately it was with about 3 seconds left in the round and their it ended with me on top punching.

The second round didn't quite start the way I envisioned.......I knew he was going to throw the big right hand but for some reason just didn't use my technique and for that I was granted a new nose by his fist!  The shot shook me to a knee but as he rushed in.....POP GOES THE TAKEDOWN!  As I recovered from the right hand that just broke my nose, all I could think about was "How bad am I bleeding? I don't want them to stop the fight for a little blood!"  I had a fight once where my nose was GUSHING and the doc tried to stop it but with a little coxing from my coach and some painful large q-tips up the nose the bleeding stopped and I was able to continue and win! But back to the fight at hand.  My mind was wrapped around the thought of not posturing up (Like my coaching was yelling!) and just trying to hide my nose till I knew how bad it was.  After a bit I was able to recover my mind and get to work.  His Jiu Jitsu was good but I was in control and so ended the second round with me dropping elbows and punches using great top control.

The third round was good/bad.  I say good bad because I knew that I had won the first two rounds and bad because I was then tempted to play it safe and ride out the victory.  But instead of going that route I decided to sprit across the cage and land a body kick, slip a punch, eat a punch and land a nice short jab that came after a nice straight left hand!  From there it got into a bit of a brawl and since I'm a technique over power type guy (Strategy over Raw Power is the key to success!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I took him back to the mat with a nice takedown that got the crowed going and the again landed a ton of elbows (one which cut him over the right eye) and punches.  As the rounded came to a close he rolled for a kneebar attempt but I saw it coming and transitioned to his back where I landed more and more punches =)

 

The funniest thing about this fight is that Anderson Silva (UFC 185lb Champ) and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Just beat Randy Couture at UFC 102) were in his corner yelling instructions to him in-between rounds!  It was surreal to see to amazing fighters scream instruction, in Portuguese of course, to my opponent!  It was funny but not enough to help him defeat me!   I was awarded a Unanimous decision victory from the judges!  I don't like fights that come to a decision but he was a very tough opponent and didn't give me any real openings on the ground to finish the fight.  I was very proud of this fight and happy with how everything went!

 

I just want to send a special thanks to everyone that helped me train for this fight: Joseph "Hoss" Janik for working my Hands!(Sorry I didn't throw them as much as we were hoping for!)

 

Everyone at BJMUTA (http://www.bjmuta.com)! Brian, Allan, Vince (Who also won his fight that night), Jacob, Dave, Dave, German, Rubin, Donavan and everyone who put some time in on the mat or in the cage!

 

Professor Fabio Leopoldo and Professor Erik Klinger at Gracie Barra Ventura (http://www.graciebarraventura.com) and everyone who comes to class and give me some great training!

 

AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY THAT CAME OUT TO SUPPORT AT THE FIGHTS!  IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME THAT YOU GUYS ARE THERE!  MOM, KRISTEN, MARK, CODY, and the rest of the Crew!

 

Thank you to my sponsors Dan with DANCO Plumbing, CultWear Clothing (http://www.cultwearclothing.com/), Mike at Iron Fist Mfg who makes all my shorts! (http://www.ironfistmfg.com/) and Mark with Neutral Dive Gear who works this site and helps me with marketing and sales! (http://www.neutraldivegear.com/)  Without you guys I wouldn't be making the strides I am today! 

 

PLEASE GO CHECK OUT THEIR SITES!  THEIR SUPPORT HELPS ME REALIZE MY DREAM!

 

Thanks again to all the fans on facebook! JOIN THE SPARTAN ARMY!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Leonidas

 

Hey Spartans!

 

This is Leonidas coming to you tonight to talk about some of the things that I've been doing to get my body ready for my fight this Saturday.  The biggest question I get is how I am able to lose weight and get so "cut up".  Really it has more to do with self discipline then anything.  I always tell people that if I wasn't competing and striving to make a living as a professional fighter that I would probably be about 230 pounds, round, and very happy!

 

Of course that is not to say that I'm not happy now; I am very happy but it takes a lot of will power and restraint to stay away from the foods and drinks that almost everyone else enjoys so freely!  I am a strong believer that people need to take more personal responsibility when it comes to their bodies.  People take for granted how easy it is to put weight on and forget how hard it is to take off.  I haven't had a beer in almost 3 weeks and I couldn't tell you the last time I had a candy bar!  Am I craving those things right now.....YES.  Will I have one....NO WAY.  I've seen too many people be hindered by obesity to allow myself to slip back into it.  I know this might sound like a health food junkie preaching about the values of eating perfect but let's face it, who's perfect?!  NOBODY!

 

I always tell my friends that they don't want to look like me.  It's too hard and seriously why would you want to?  People need to learn to be ok with their body type.  If you are way over weight and know that it hinders your health or one day will, then yeah you should probably start to cut out the things that are obviously not good!  Let's talk about some of those things shall we?

 

BAD FOODS

 

Sugars:  Duh. Now I'm not talking natural sugar like fruits I'm talking straight candy sugar.

Saturated Fats:  Try to stay away from foods high in saturated fats.  Fast food comes to mind.   If you absolutely have to have some fast food, look to get chicken instead of beef.  Avoid the mounds of mayonnaise and BBQ sauce.  Stick to mustard which is very low in sugar and calories for a topping.

 

These foods are typically going to be the worst types of things you can over-indulge on.  Does this mean that you should never again eat that #1 from In-and-Out animal style with animal style fries again?!?!?!?!  Maybe! HAHAHA, no it just means that if you're looking to cut down some unwanted weight, maybe you should let that meal be your big once-a-month cheat meal!  I'm a firm believer in the cheat meal.   It's like a reward you get to give yourself for doing so well on your new eating habits.  That's a great way to put it "Eating Habits".  Who wants to go on a diet?  NOBODY!  I hate hearing about how people try all these new diets and they just can't stick with them.  That's like a smoker going cold turkey.  One, it's crazy hard.  You've gotten accustomed to allowing your body to feed off of bad foods for so long that just moving to an absolute perfect diet is INSANE.  Two, how many people fail at that?!  Most, from what I've heard.  It took me a long time to work my way into this body and I'll be the first to say that it's CRAZY.  But then again I am a guy that's getting locked inside a cage to do battle with another warrior for a specific period of time, or until I choke said individualJ! 

 

Here are some basics that I think people should follow to help them lead a healthier lifestyle.

 

Eat 6 small meals a day.  Three actual meals and three "Snacks" meals.  Meals consist of a lean protein and some vegetables.  Salads are and can be amazing you just need to find out what "healthy" things you need to put into them!  Snacks should be things like a piece of fruit, some yogurt, cottage cheese and fruit, Cliff bars.  All of these things, eaten in moderation are great fillers to hold you over to your next meal!

 

Eat every 2-3 hours.  This is hard to do.  It involves planning your meals for a day.  I feel a little foolish when I carry my big Igloo container around with me to work but you know what? It keeps me on track and allows me to do what I need to do to reach my body goal.

 

Have a cheat Day.  Not an eat-everything-you-want-all-day-long day but a cheat day.  Today have that burger for lunch, but instead of animal style fries just have normal fries.  Instead of having a large pizza to yourself, split a medium pizza with a friend.  And importantly, don't forget to snack between meals!  People get into the habit of having a HUGE cheat meal and then not having anything for five to six hours and then WHAM they are starving and on to their next over eating session.  Keep the Cheat days moderate and don't allow yourself to go crazy.  Again it all comes down to self control!

 

Set a Goal.  Make it realistic.  "I want to lose 30lbs in 2 weeks and keep it off!" Not realistic.  Typically they say the average person can lose 0.5-1 pound a week.  To be on the safe side make it a goal to lose 0.5 a week.  Know that your body is going to Peak and Valley while you're transitioning into your new healthy eating habits and that some weeks you might not lose any.  Stay solid in your resolve to not just lose weight but to gain mental strength as you work through the plateaus of losing weight.  Not everyone loses weight the same and your body may react differently to certain mixes of protein and carbohydrates.  Don't believe the HYPE.  Not all carbs are bad!  Vegetables are a great source of carbs, and when was the last time you heard that veggies were bad for you?  Again they are something that you need, but consume in moderation.

 

Please note that I am not a doctor or specialist on how to eat healthy.  I have been an athlete my entire life and I am just now figuring out to fuel my body to perform to the best of its abilities. These suggestions are what works best for me, but your body might be more in tune to a different eating plan. 

 

As I ramble on toward the end of my healthy eating rant, I just want to let everyone out there know that they are beautiful, handsome, and amazing in their own right.  Don't allow anyone else's insecurities bring you down.  Stay strong to your goals and don't be hindered by people who achieve the look that you want, in what seems like little effort.  Everyone knows that guy/girl that can eat fast food every meal and still have a rock hard stomach, but hey if you're not that person don't hate on them for being lucky!  Do what you have to do and be content to know that you're doing the best you can and that is a great accomplishment in itself. 

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this Blog and please come back as I will try to post as often as I can!  Check out my sponsors and show them love for they are helping me make my dreams come true!

 

 

Leonidas

"Give them NOTHING.....But take from them EVERYTHING!"