We’re just one day away from ONE FC: Pride of a Nation which goes down on August 31st live on ONEFC.com and we thought it would only be right to give Phil Baroni an exclusive Fight Blog hosted on MiddleEasy. The New York Bad Ass will take on Evolve MMA’s Rodrigo Ribeiro in Manila tomorrow, so check out what’s floating through Baroni’s mind in this final installment of his MiddleEasy Fight Blog, created by Phil Baroni. Check out Phil Baroni’s first fight blog here and the second installment here.
I’m happy to be here in the Philippines and fighting for ONE FC. I’m really happy. My life is beautiful. I had a great training camp, and I’m ready!
I was 99 kilos a few days ago, and Mike Swick kept doing the metric conversion on his phone and I was like ‘WTF, are you ok?’ Then I would go eat and drink a ton right in front of him. When i weighed in this morning, he was like ‘you’re only five kilos over, I didn’t wanna stress you, but I was really worried man — especially when they were talking at the rules meetings about the fines and stuff.’ I told him ‘I’m a professional mike, I’ve been cutting weight since the 7th grade. I’ve never missed weight, and I never will.’
Things are really going well here in Manila. I saw all of my old buddies, Pulver, Sylvia, and Andre — talked with the champ Bibiano — the boss Matt Hume and I saw the old Pride ref Shimada Son. There are a lot of familiar faces here at ONE FC.
I had some good training in at the Filipino Submission Academy. Everything is going good.
My confidence is high. I had some great training with the top fighters in the sport — day in and day out. I’m fucking ready as I’ve ever been. I’m fast. I’m really fast. I mean, I’m really fucking fast right now. My wrestling is on. I’m in shape, I’m fit, I’m strong. Did I tell you I’m really fucking fast right now man — really fast.
My body is in perfect working order. I’m fit. I’m ready. My mind is right. I’m having fun. I’m enjoying myself. I’m stress free. I did the work, and the truth will come out in the cage.
Swick has been right by my side, keeping my mind right and my focus positive and in the right direction. He’s been telling me what I need to do in order to be successful and believes I can do it because he has trained along side me and coached me the last few weeks since his fight.
You can say, in the least, I’m feeling confident. When a guy like Swick (who has been through what he has the last few years comes back after over coming what he did) tells you your ready, you look good and it’s your night, you believe him. I did the work, and now it’s time to get paid for it. I’m not talking about money either. I paid the price. I did the work — everything that was necessary to deserve to win. I did the late-night road work. I did the plyos. I did the sprints Saturday morning. I went to church every Sunday. I dieted perfectly. I prayed every night before bed and kissed my wife good night over the phone and went to bed. I sparred hard three days a week with the best fight team. I trained jits daily and corrected a lot of the weaknesses. I wrestled hard. I wrestled really hard. I’m hitting shots and scoring offensively like I was able to in college. My takedown defense is rock solid. I’m a beast and nobody can hold me down. NOBODY. I’m just in a good place right now. I’m about to put my rubber suit on and do a light work out, shadow box, jog, stretch, check my weight and call it a night.
I really like Manilla. ONE FC has us in a pimp hotel. The staff here is super friendly. The girls are cute and always smiling. Everything here is great. I really like Manilla, and all of the guys I have met from this place are friendly and cool.
Everyone here knows Swick and saw his last fight and are congratulating him. The MMA fans here and the support is great. It is far, far better than I ever imagined.
Now, I just have to knock this chump’s block off and call it a trip. Well, my wife will get in a day after my fight, and we will go to Ole Laursen’s Legacy gym in Boracy to train and celebrate a bit here before I call it a trip — a very successful, rewarding satisfying and a few other good words that i can put in this last sentence — trip.
Oh yeah, make sure you check out this edition of ONE FC because I’m gonna fuck this Ribero up in devastating fashion.
