Preparing for your initial contest frequently involves thorough examination of professional fights and constant practice of different techniques. It’s typical for beginners to experience significant levels of stress. Nevertheless, keeping your composure throughout is crucial for winning in the ring. Every fight you participate in should be approached as though you’re merely training with a colleague, basically just another day at the gym.
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If you start telling all of your friends and family members about your first fight and invite everyone to watch, you will put too much pressure on yourself. It’s best to tell only a few friends that you’re going to have your first fight soon and tell them the outcome afterwards. If you don’t invite anyone, you will be more focused on your opponent and it will be easier for you to come out of the ring as a winner.
Also make sure you have everything you need for training. Get some good hand wraps and a decent mouthguard. Also invest in some decent boxing or Muay Thai gloves, as well as some MMA gloves for sparring when getting ready for the fight.
Finding the Right Gym
In order to properly prepare for your first fight, you will need to train at a legitimate gym. Training in your garage won’t help you prepare properly. Instead, you should find a gym near you that is known for turning people into great fighters. Finding the right coach is also extremely important, as you don’t want someone who just wants to rush you into fighting so you can earn him money. You need to be aware that training at a good gym won’t be cheap, but at least you will learn how to fight properly.
Cardio
Just because you’re learning how to fight properly thanks to having a good coach and a good gym behind you now doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t train when you’re not in the gym as well. Remember that cardio is extremely important when it comes to preparing for a fight. You can have impeccable technique, but if you don’t work on your cardio, you are going to get exhausted quickly and will ultimately lose your first fight.
This is why it’s extremely important to focus on your cardio. Forgetting a certain technique while in the ring is not that big of a deal, but not being in shape is. Focus on plyometrics, high-intensity interval training, circuit training, and super maximal interval training.
Don’t Prepare For a Specific Opponent
Just because you know who your opponent is and you know how he fought in his previous match, doesn’t mean that you should expect him to come with the same tactics. Remember that the person you’re fighting is still trying to figure out who he is as a fighter and that he is in the process of developing his skill set. So what if he mainly focused on boxing in the previous fight? That doesn’t mean that he didn’t take a few extra jiu-jitsu classes since then.
Instead of focusing on the skills your opponent has, you should focus on your own strengths and play your game. You’ll have a much higher chance of winning if you stick to what you’re good at and just focus on being the best fighter you can be instead of playing your opponent’s game.
Another reason why you should never train for a specific opponent if it’s your first fight is that there’s a good chance that your initial opponent is going to drop out of the fight and you will get a new one on a week’s notice. This often happens when you’re fighting at the amateur level.
Another thing that you should never do is judge a book by its cover. It doesn’t matter what the person standing across from you looks like. Sometimes extremely jacked people may turn out to be weak opponents, while average-looking fighters may turn out to be insanely tough.
The worst thing that you can do is let your opponent’s looks get to you. Remember that just because the fighter standing across from you looks tough doesn’t mean that he actually is.
Don’t Cut a Lot of Weight
You may have seen that all of your favorite fighters are able to cut a ton of weight, but that’s not something you should do. Cutting weight is an extremely hard thing to do, and it will cause a significant decrease in your performance. It’s okay to cut a few pounds when fighting at the amateur level, but anything beyond that is too much.
Prepare Mentally
When you’re entering that ring or cage, right as your first fight is about to begin, you need to have a clear head. You need to be relaxed and prepared for anything. You should understand that you’re not supposed to be thinking about anything except the fight whilst you’re in there. As long as you’re focused and have no fear, you will come out victorious.
