Louie Woods interview · Ireland news

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Okay, so I'm here with Mr. Louis Woods who's going to be competing tomorrow on Chaos Fight Chaos Fighting Championship. Uh the oldest running MMA promotion in Ireland. It's a fantastic card. He's on the main card. He's up near I want to say you're you're third from top. So you're just under the the co- main event, I believe, aren't you? >> I'm third fight after Jake Duncan. >> Yeah. So um thank you very much for joining me, especially with the day before the fight for anyone who's going to be watching this. So, h thank you very much for joining me. How are you feeling just just a day out from the fight? How what's the nerves like? >> Feeling excited to be honest. Um like my like I thought I was going to be a lot more nervous coming in the amateur fighting, but I'm really not at all. I'm more excited. Like I don't know what it is about me, but I'm just not really nervous for it and excited motivated for it. >> No, 100%. and you're fighting on chaos, which is a fantastic show. I believe you're fighting uh I can't remember it's your man Dougen from Combat Jiu-Jitsu. Um when it comes to game planning, do you let your coaches do that or do you do that yourself or do would you get too invested if you look into them more or what way does that work or do you just concentrate on you and your own game plan? >> No, I just fight my fight. Um I don't really look into other people and how they fight. Um, like I'm new to the MMA and I don't know anybody and nobody knows me. So, I'm not going to go around looking to see how people fight and stuff. I'm just going to fight my fight. And my coaches, they'll help me through the fight obviously. Um, especially with the grappling side and the wrestling side. So, it's new to me. But, um, that'll not be a problem for me on the fight day, but they'll help me if it's soon. >> Yeah. No, 100%. cuz like that especially I think sometimes it's better when you come in kind of unknown and you don't know people people don't know you and you can just go and you can just like establish your own kind of style your own game plan rather than worrying about other people because that's what a lot of amateurs will say at the start of the game they get caught up in they get obsessed they look at people and it throws them off whereas as a fighter you want to establish your own style and start put a stamp on that going through but um talk to us about limit valley there there's kind of been like a real uplift in the MMA there the last year cuz I want to say is there what was it Daniel saying was there 12 fighters on the card from Limati uh if I go back to when I started I don't or 14 sorry when I started four years ago I think Leon might have been the only one competing uh in MMA how does it feel to be part of this movement in Limad uh with the MMA team at the minute so it is like I wasn't there from the start well roughly the start like there was the first offer project I think there >> [clears throat] >> six people competing with and um after that there was a second one was the one I was on. Um I think there was I think we had maybe 10 fighters in but like from now where I like from when I started even to now I can see a massive growth in the MMA with Finos. Um, it's great to see. It is great to see like I I wasn't there from the start as this is, but I can imagine like from what they seen from then to now is crazy like just how much has grown in such a short period of time. >> Yeah. And like I said, you weren't there from the fact, but you came in from the start. You've you've came in and and now you are a part of like that 14 fighters uh is brilliant. And a credit to Andy and everyone involved. Dandy Chapman is someone who I've fantastic time for. But talk to us just briefly about the Alpha Project. What made you do that uh to then obviously transition over into competing full-time? What how did it come about the Alpha Project and what made you say, "You know what? I'm going to do that." >> Um I've been doing kickboxing for 12 years. So I have and uh I don't know. Oh, I think it was the other project I done was May and there wasn't too many kickboxers fights coming up at that stage. I don't know what the crack was just just wasn't many tournaments coming up and there's a reo boy in my kos club that was doing a fight boy Patrick Divine and uh he was telling me he was doing it and I was like I'll do it too may as well just give me something to train for give me something keep busy and now I'm keep doing it and enjoy it. So, at what stage of the alpha project did you decide you wanted to compete full-time in MMA? Was it during the middle of it? Was it after it like was it just after it finished? Was it on the fight day? What made you wanted to compete? And do you remember when you made that decision? >> I don't really know to be honest. Like like after the fight, you know, it was an unbelievable feeling. Like I've had a lot [snorts] of kickboxing fights and stuff in different countries and all the rest, but like I don't really know how to explain it because like I kickboxing fights is usually match tournaments, multiple fights a day, multiple sections a day, all the rest. But like MMA is like you're training for one fight, one 10 minute a fight for 12, 8, 12 weeks, whatever, whatever you decide your camp's going to be. And I feel like there's just a lot more work into it. And it just means a bit more to me. Well, like it meant a lot to me that night because I knew I tried hard, I trained hard, I fought hard, I I give it my best and I give back to me. So then that feeling was really good. Like um I still do kickboxing fights, tournaments and stuff, but I'm also going to keep doing MMA as well and grappling tournaments. >> Yeah, it's it's it's it's a bad one. Like like I said, you with kickboxing, you see this match, you could have so many uh fights a day. You could have them multiple days in a row. Like was that strange feeling preparing for just one fight over the space of what is it? 12 weeks I think the alpha project is it? >> Um >> what was that? Was that kind of a strange feeling just preparing for one fight for that length of time? Uh what were the positives and negatives from it? Was it like you well you tell me basically? [sighs and gasps] >> Um sorry I sort of got lost that question. >> Well is it strange was it strange the other way you said like for kickboxing you'd be competing for a tournament and you competing a couple of times a day. Was it did it seem a bit weird like doing a 12week camp for just one fight to then not know after that when you'd be competing again? Whereas in kickboxing, I'd say you'd have multiple things lined up week after week. Was it was it strange or did it did you seem you focused more in on your training then for those 12 weeks because it was just the one fight that you knew and you knew obviously you wanted to be the best Louisie going forward into that fight. So did you find did you find it strange just preparing like for that length of time for one fight? >> Oh, it was definitely weird. Like there usually is a lot of kickboxing. Like I know you can have a lot of MMA fights in a year, but there's more kickboxing tournaments in a year. And say you're in two or three different sections in kickboxing. You can lose your first fight. It's all right. You've got another section. You lose that first fight. It's all right. You've got another section. But like knowing in MMA that this is the one fight you have, this is the one. Like this is the fight that matters. It is different. It's more nerve-wracking obviously. Um, but that makes it more exciting and more valuable I think. >> Yeah. I think it's cuz it's like that like you train for 12 weeks and you could go out and have a three round war. You could go out you could finish someone early and and that's the thing and especially that that's why I hate when I see Joe when when a fight is uh finishes obviously exciting when a fight finishes early but I always feel for the per opponent that got finished cuz I'm like that person put in 12 weeks of work and they didn't get to show kind of what they were capable of. So, like I think it adds that little bit more pressure. And then with with obviously chaos as well is a is a fantastic show. It's you've got that event feeling in MMA. I know obviously kickboxing there are events, but like with [snorts] MMA like every all eyes are on you. Like said kickboxing there could be if you're doing tournaments it could be on mass. I know there is kickboxing events. Uh what do you make of the kind of event style of MMA? Do you like it? Is it different to what you're used to? >> Oh, I love it. like a class some balls for it is um like I remember that feeling like it was six months ago since my first MA fight. So it was like other ones planned but they just didn't fall through of me getting injured. The last one I was supposed to fight in case conflict um but I got injured the big four and then the other ones I supposed to fight but never run through people pulling out but I still remember that one feeling from six months ago in purchase I think it was. >> Yeah. just like the walk out and everyone watching you and everyone cheering you on like you don't really experience like you experience that in a kon tournament but like not as much like nowhere near as much like you've got your your team supporting you but this year you've got like everyone coming to watch you all family friends your team obviously just everyone you know is coming watching you it's great >> yeah and especially was that in the is it park is that the one that virt where they've got the the VIP section upstairs so when you're coming Now you've got people above you all around. You've got people all around the cage. Um and then you've got the bar and then obviously the MMA crowds are a bit more rambunctious, a bit more like kind of they're having a few scoops. They're enjoying it. They're really you can feel the atmosphere. Could could you feel the atmosphere as you walked through the door at first? Could you just did it like hit you when you came out? Just the atmosphere in in the building. >> Oh, I just the walk out song. Like I couldn't even hear my walk out song with the the crowd just roaring and shouting just echoing down the hallway while I was walking through. It was it was great. It was scary like but I loved it. I got some Greg. >> I'd say I'd say that it's a feeling that not many people will get because I think it's only like 0.1 or 5% of the the population actually do combat sports. Um but not many people experience it. you've experienced it and it brought you back for more and it's going to it's bringing you back this weekend uh on Chaos Fighters Chaos Fighting Championship. I'm going to let you go. I want to thank you so much for taking this interview so close to the the fight which is tomorrow. Is there anything you want to say before you go or anyone you want to shout out my coaches um all my teammates for pushing me and we're all pushing each other through the camp. Um that's it. and family and friends obviously that's been supporting me over the camp as well. >> Yeah, perfect. Perfect. Can't wait. I'll actually be commentating on your fight tomorrow. So, it be a pleasure to meet you in person and commentate on your fight. Thank you again for your time and best of luck tomorrow and I will see you then. Thanks very much, David.