BAMMA 8

[R. Devane]

There was talk about me getting on the card for this but it didn't materialise. Therefore it looks like I'll be fighting in the New Year - I'm working on a couple of options at the moment.
I'm delighted that I'm still going to be involved with BAMMA 8. I will be arriving in Nottingham a week before it and I plan on getting some good training in. I've trained in Nottingham before so I've already contacted Sonny Dholakia (Paul Daley's strength and conditioning coach) for training and I'm going to send Paul Daley a message too. Tom watson is arriving early and I'm looking forward to hanging out with him. One of the fellas that I've sparred with at Jacksons MMA is fighting Jimmy Walhead - his name is Joey Villasenor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Villasenor

also, I think Goyo is fighting again (he is from Jacksons too and fought on BAMMA 7).

I hear Kyle Noke (ufc middleweight) is coming over too.

Hopefully I'll be of some help to them all even if it is just holding the water

It's great to be a part of this show even though I'm not fighting on it. I look forward to catching up with all my BAMMA buddies and also getting some good training in.

[R. Devane]

Off on Monday for a week. Should be good. I've some good training planned so I'll keep you posted. I'm looking forward to meeting my friends there and to heading to bamma . have a good week everyone

[Deleted]

Fair play to ya Rob that sounds great! Best of luck over there, enjoy it!

[R. Devane]

At the airport and ready to return. too much to write from my phone so I'll post a proper report here tomorrow full of thrills and spills stay tuned

[R. Devane]

Where do I start? Right. I had a couple of days to myself before everyone got there and I got stuck into some gym training and tortured myself. The gym had punch bags which I made full use of as well as plenty of cardio and strength training. I've been training pretty consistently over the past while so I definitely wanted to keep it going. There was a chance of me fighting at BAMMA 8 so I just kept training.

It got very busy as soon as the lads arrived. Tom Watson brought Eric Perez (Goyo) and Joey Villasenor and UFC fighter Kyle Noke up from London. Eric and Joey were fighting so we helped them to start cutting their weight on the Thursday - more gym training!

Kyle Noke, Tom Watson, Neys (Tom’s & my fight manager) and myself went for food and we had a right laugh. After that we decided to walk off the food around the town. It was bloody freezing and we ended up going into a club. There was something different about the night club that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was Kyle that spotted it must have been a gay & lesbian night! We ended up staying until closing. I got slagged by the lads because I thought the music there was really good! It was a funny night and I must have gotten to bed after 4am. Oh yeah, it definitely helped that I wasn’t drinking.

I was up early enough the next day which was the day of the weigh-in and guess what? Back to the gym for more gym training while the lads knocked off the rest of their weight. Goyo was right up to the last second to make weight which was a little stressful. There was a press conference too which was interesting to watch. All the fighters behaved themselves and their was no controversy unfortunately

Goyo and Joey went to bed early to get a good sleep before their fights the next day and to shake off the remainder of the jet lag. After food it was another night on the town for the rest of us. Kyle Noke used to be the bodyguard for the crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin so we had a good chat about pets. The lads over there really know how to party and even though I don’t drink, I found it very hard to keep up with them. Again it was after 4am by the time I left them and they were still going.

On the Saturday morning we were all supposed to meet up with Paul Daley’s strength and conditioning coach Sonny Dholakia to be put through a tough test. I was the only one to show up! I had done the routine before and had struggled so I was happy that I did a lot better this time. It is tough though.

Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley and Tom ‘Kong’ Watson were doing an autograph signing session at a local martial arts shop so after I finished I headed over to meet them. It was very cool the way it was done. There was a queue out the door and each person came in and chatted to them and received signed pictures and jumped into ‘square off’ pictures. They were shown a lot of local support. People showed up that train at the same gyms as Paul & Tom and they still asked for autographs and pictures. That would never happen in Ireland!

BAMMA really do put on a great show but I didn’t see most of the fights because I was in the warm up room with the lads and I helped out in any way I could. I escorted Goyo to the arena and I helped Joey warm up also. It was great to be involved. Goyo dominated 3 rounds and got the decision. Poor Joe got caught very early in round 1 and it was all over for him. He has done over 40 mma fights but that’s the fight game for you. A lot of people recognized me at the arena and I made quite a few new friends. I was complimented by a lot of the fighters (and non fighters) about my last fight. I’m still not happy I didn’t win but I was nice to be acknowledged. We eventually got out of the arena and a load of us strained to stay awake to watch the UFC at a local casino. It’s always very interesting watching the UFC with fighters and listening to their opinions. It was another very late night out.

I had to check out at 11am and I headed straight to the airport. I enjoyed the week and I got in more strength and conditioning training than I thought I would have. Hanging out with fellow fighters and going through their competing process is always good experience for me. There’s already strong talk about me fighting at BAMMA 9 on February 11th 2012. Good to be home though and really looking forward to Crimbo

[stephenlarge]

Great write up Rob sounds like you got good training in last week and it was a good experience. Can't imagine Goyo going right to the wire to cut weight must have eaten too much cake the last time great that he did so well again.

Hope everything works out for Bamma 9