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Join date : 2011-11-19
Despite style, Bellator 72's Waachiim Spiritwolf says he's trained to avoid concussions
Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:57 pm
His record might not reflect it, but Waachiim Spiritwolf believes he should be undefeated against Marius Zaromskis.
Next month at Bellator 72, Spiritwolf said he plans to finally prove just that in another rematch against the DREAM champion.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm up 2-0 on rounds," Spirtwolf told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio), of his second fight against the Lithuanian in May that ended because of a controversial cut.
"I got three more rounds, and I’m going to try and finish him in every single one of those."
The third meeting between the two takes place July 20 when the second of Bellator's three "Summer Series" events heads to the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla. The MTV2-televised main card, which follows prelims on Spike.com, features a main event and welterweight tourney finale of Karl Amoussou vs. Bryan Baker, as well as the light-heavyweight-tourney semifinals.
While Spiritwolf (9-10-1 MMA, 0-1 BFC) said he was disappointed because of the controversial ending to their second meeting, the 36-year-old California-based fighter believes he has the right game plan for the 31-year-old Zaromskis (17-6 MMA, 1-0 BFC).
"I was relatively strong and healthy after my fight camp," he said. "If I can go in this fight in a similar fashion, I'm really confident. My focus is getting ready for anything he throws at me and definitely trying to finish him. I think the game plan worked in my last fight. I'm going to just continue that momentum."
The second match at least offered two rounds of action compared to the first no-contest meeting in late 2010 at Strikeforce Challengers 12, where the bout was stopped after just six seconds when Spiritwolf suffered an accidental eye poke and couldn't continue.
"I really had problems with my vision," Spiritwolf said of the injury, which took six full months of recovery. "Fortunately enough I did have complete healing. The vision is 20/20 now, but it would go on and off. I had days where my vision was a lot blurrier than it was the day before, or vice versa. I was really concerned about that."
One thing Spiritwolf said he's not concerned with is his current 1-5 skid that has seen him win only once since May 2010 in an action-filled victory over Jaime Jara in his March 2011 promotional debut at Bellator 35.
"That was a really fun fight for me," he said. "Out of all the fights I've had, that was definitely one of my favorites. Anytime I can go toe to toe with someone and get down, it really is a lot of fun for me.
"It's definitely my fighting style and how I train. I look forward to having as many of those as possible."
One aspect of such a barn-burning back-and-forth battle that Spiritwolf thinks casual fans may misunderstand is how much damage is actually taken in a bout like that.
"We have been having a lot of talk in sports about CTE and brain damage, and for me that's a real serious concern as I'm also a coach," Spiritwolf said. "I want to have a long prosperous career and be healthy. To the average viewer, I just want to make sure they understand that.
"I get a lot of people that are really concerned about us fighters and our health. For me, I'm rarely hit hard enough to get a slight concussion or anything like that. I want to let all the fans out there know that even with guys like me who are brawlers or action fighters, we're still not taking a lot of damage because we are trained the right way and a lot of those shots aren't landing flush."
But Spiritwolf said you can bet he's not going to be afraid to take a few blows to trade for a few big shots of his own this time against Zaromskis.
"I think just like in football it's the impact that makes it fun," Spiritwolf said. "So anytime I'm in a fighter and there's a lot of impact, if I'm hitting him hard or even if I’m rolling with some punches or strikes that he's throwing, it really does make it a lot of fun for me."
http://mmajunkie.com/news/29200/despite-style-bellator-72s-waachiim-spiritwolf-says-hes-trained-to-avoid-concussions.mma
Next month at Bellator 72, Spiritwolf said he plans to finally prove just that in another rematch against the DREAM champion.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm up 2-0 on rounds," Spirtwolf told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio), of his second fight against the Lithuanian in May that ended because of a controversial cut.
"I got three more rounds, and I’m going to try and finish him in every single one of those."
The third meeting between the two takes place July 20 when the second of Bellator's three "Summer Series" events heads to the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla. The MTV2-televised main card, which follows prelims on Spike.com, features a main event and welterweight tourney finale of Karl Amoussou vs. Bryan Baker, as well as the light-heavyweight-tourney semifinals.
While Spiritwolf (9-10-1 MMA, 0-1 BFC) said he was disappointed because of the controversial ending to their second meeting, the 36-year-old California-based fighter believes he has the right game plan for the 31-year-old Zaromskis (17-6 MMA, 1-0 BFC).
"I was relatively strong and healthy after my fight camp," he said. "If I can go in this fight in a similar fashion, I'm really confident. My focus is getting ready for anything he throws at me and definitely trying to finish him. I think the game plan worked in my last fight. I'm going to just continue that momentum."
The second match at least offered two rounds of action compared to the first no-contest meeting in late 2010 at Strikeforce Challengers 12, where the bout was stopped after just six seconds when Spiritwolf suffered an accidental eye poke and couldn't continue.
"I really had problems with my vision," Spiritwolf said of the injury, which took six full months of recovery. "Fortunately enough I did have complete healing. The vision is 20/20 now, but it would go on and off. I had days where my vision was a lot blurrier than it was the day before, or vice versa. I was really concerned about that."
One thing Spiritwolf said he's not concerned with is his current 1-5 skid that has seen him win only once since May 2010 in an action-filled victory over Jaime Jara in his March 2011 promotional debut at Bellator 35.
"That was a really fun fight for me," he said. "Out of all the fights I've had, that was definitely one of my favorites. Anytime I can go toe to toe with someone and get down, it really is a lot of fun for me.
"It's definitely my fighting style and how I train. I look forward to having as many of those as possible."
One aspect of such a barn-burning back-and-forth battle that Spiritwolf thinks casual fans may misunderstand is how much damage is actually taken in a bout like that.
"We have been having a lot of talk in sports about CTE and brain damage, and for me that's a real serious concern as I'm also a coach," Spiritwolf said. "I want to have a long prosperous career and be healthy. To the average viewer, I just want to make sure they understand that.
"I get a lot of people that are really concerned about us fighters and our health. For me, I'm rarely hit hard enough to get a slight concussion or anything like that. I want to let all the fans out there know that even with guys like me who are brawlers or action fighters, we're still not taking a lot of damage because we are trained the right way and a lot of those shots aren't landing flush."
But Spiritwolf said you can bet he's not going to be afraid to take a few blows to trade for a few big shots of his own this time against Zaromskis.
"I think just like in football it's the impact that makes it fun," Spiritwolf said. "So anytime I'm in a fighter and there's a lot of impact, if I'm hitting him hard or even if I’m rolling with some punches or strikes that he's throwing, it really does make it a lot of fun for me."
http://mmajunkie.com/news/29200/despite-style-bellator-72s-waachiim-spiritwolf-says-hes-trained-to-avoid-concussions.mma
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