[div class=”notice” class2=”icon”]The following is from an article on MMA-Japan, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div]
Now that you’ve made your MMA debut, how does it feel?
I love MMA. I’m 100% focused on my MMA career now. I am so thankful to everyone who supported me. I trained every day in Muay Thai, BJJ, Boxing, and Wrestling. I did 5-6 hours of hard training 6 days a week for our 8 week training camp. I would like to thank the leader of the Evolve Fight Team, Chatri Sityodtong. He gave me a huge opportunity and he gave me all the guidance. I would like to thank all of our BJJ world champions. I would like to thank all of our Muay Thai world champions. I would like to thank my Evolve Family for the love and support.
You’ve competed in a plethora of combat sports, did MMA differ quite a bit from Thai Boxing and boxing?
MMA is the greatest high. I’ve had over 60 professional boxing fights. I’ve had over 60 professional Muay Thai fights. But so far, MMA is the best. My goal is to become world champion in MMA. My body is 25 years old because I don’t smoke or drink – never have in my whole life – and because I train every day. I love training. It’s not work to me. It’s in my blood. I’m a fighter and this is what I was born to do.
Daniel shot in for a take down and actually went for a leg lock – were you ever worried when the fight went to the ground?
I was worried because I had a bad injury on my left knee – I hurt it quite badly a few weeks before the fight during our MMA cage training session. We almost had to pull out of the fight. At one point, we had decided to pull out. So I was actually concerned about my left knee the whole fight. I train with our BJJ Black Belt World Champions every day. And most of the purple and blue belts at Evolve MMA cannot submit me. So I was not afraid of Daniel’s ground game. I’ve been training in BJJ for the last 2 years.
