Taka Mhandu | Team KF | EFC 89 | Energized "One-2-Watch"

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What is up and welcome to the latest Energized "One-2-Watch" Show! On this episode Team KF's Taka Mhandu joins us live from Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss the Countdown to his EFC 89 MMA Pro Debut this Saturday the 11th of September. We also discuss Starting MMA, Team KF…

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Kind: captions Language: en [Music] energize show up the irish okay what's going on guys and welcome to brand new episode of energize one two watch roscoe introduce the guest man today we have a man who was undefeated in the amateur ranks he turns pro this weekend fighting out of team kf it's the cat takaman do taka how are you doing i'm doing gorgeous how are yours great man great great doing great so what's up man you're over in south africa at the moment you're going to make your pro debut this weekend how excited are you for that um this is probably the most assorted event for a fight in the world especially like since like the whole experience from landing to like kind of getting to meet everybody at the promise institute in johannesburg yesterday and kind of see my opponent everything has been just it's just it's been it's been literally just been a dream like it's actually been like from strength to strength kind of just familiar familiarizing myself with the environment with the people around me it's about when we're working over the next couple of fights so it's it's been it's been it's been exciting today at least yeah you've also gone viral as well over johannesburg as well which is always great ahead of your uh mma debut what can you tell the people who haven't seen it yet like what exactly happened taka yeah so i was at the press conference yesterday chatting to some media and one of them mistook mistook ireland for being in the uk and like and yeah like because i noticed that fro like right from the start and like in my head he had like a long question set like like obviously written out or whatever in my head i was just like i'll just ignore the the other half of the center half a question and just was really focusing like i can't let that slip so like i correct him then i just got him and like first off ireland isn't in the uk and just and he just literally just went down from there and answered this question but it had to be done because like you know yourself let's like did we kind of let the brits have anything perhaps you pro from day one calling out the reporters no messing all over yeah this is this has been a long time coming we've been talking to you for i'd say we've got to two years minimum at this stage we've had our eye on you we have a roy on everyone as you know yourself and but tell us how did your journey in martial arts start so i'm withdrawing martial i started i decided well it started around 17 18 it was just after my dad passed away so i was always interested in mma blah blah blah um like we never really got into like the actual training aspect of it until 17 18. because obviously sorry about that as well i read uh i read earlier on on ross marquis ross yeah ross marcus they right up there earlier and i read that sorry to hear about that as well but sorry that's very much appreciate that but uh yeah so like you wouldn't you never let me do it because i use it i used to get voice and skills and whatnot so he thought that that would be a catalyst for me for so he taught me trying to master us because me going out fighting people when it would have been the exact opposite so i never actually i didn't actually start trying to properly until i was until i met chris actually and now when i was 19. so i kind of went i kind of trained for like a month in one like in a gym in rush and then just glitchy kind of just and it kind of just fell out of the loop there because like it's never it never it never kind of attracted me to stay there because it's never really because when i went to the class there was just like kind of gotta hit the bag like you did like in like there's no technique i do well that's not saying that obviously like it's a good gym but like when i was there like there wasn't any techniques on it's kind of like simple triangles and stuff like that so like he wasn't so it wasn't very engaging they went to and then when when when i moved to chris uh when i joined team kf at the time also svg's all the time about team cafe now um like he literally just like everyone kind of fell into place and like um i like i kind of built my my martial my martial arts skills from there and kind of critically gave me the perfect blueprint between the striking the grappling the wrestling and uh everyone kind of fell in the place from there the house was his choice in the back there here in there yeah the two lads are absolute legends have a lot of time for them um that that is one thing i want to touch on um your frame for this weight class taka is huge like you're very tall i think you're about six one and yeah exactly so like you're very big bantamweight put it this way bass corey santegan's five eleven so like taka's taller than corey sandag and he looks there so what way do you use your body and your frame and just obviously because chris was a taller fighter as well is that really helpful to uh what's called in your fighting soil absolutely like like the main thing i've been focused on since i since i started trying anime was accentuating that wreath around the reach advantage and using my length to my advantage and then at the end of the lens as well there's a lot of power in the thing with shots and with the thing with strokes so like that kind of played an advantage as well so like it was kind of weird because i was expecting myself kind of grow into like a lightweight or whatever but obviously like the world that likes what the world never likes my like my physiology like didn't allow me to get that big anyway so but i think i think that's i think that that benefit me so much especially in my in my amateur career because everybody everyone that i fought was smaller than me at [ __ ] like you said like with harley sanhegan he's five eleven but he's a reaches thing he's like 72 inches or 72 inch or something i'm one's about 75 76 so like they even have that that extra advantage on the guys that aren't too there aren't that much to all of me so i don't i don't have much smalling excuse me of what i am yeah like that's one of the main things that we that we wrote on literally since since they came in was just making sure to like to keep that range and and how to use effectively in our flights on spreading the nail on spreading the hell outs to jon jones at the bantamweight division there we go like that's it that's it you're saying you're saying you're hearing a freehander for us now you're in it for us now the order is john jones there we go oh oh i love the attacker and i suppose that's another thing you have a very uh strong finishing rate in your amateur career i think you have four finishes um uh all with that the l hands defeat all by tko or knockout and do you feel like that is something that you know your opponent's gonna look to stop and do you think he might underestimate maybe your ground game yeah actually it's funny enough to bring up the ground game because the ground game is something i've been releasing i've been developing a lot it's like it's obviously like in the beginning like like i didn't have that much confidence in it because it was more i taught myself more about marvel striker but as time went on and especially in the last year and a half of grappling this took such a big jump it's city where it's it's it's on power almost striker now offensively and defensively so like you'd not be surprised if you see a little bit of that coming up in this fight now as well shout out to tom king the the k and the kf um what what's it like to have such a knowledgeable coach in jiu jitsu in that gym all right it's like it it's it's actually it's crazy like you know i mean because like you're learning from the best and you learn just correct techniques from the very from the very beginning so like we don't know anything about what works in mma and in bjj so literally everything that we're learning is literally incorporated into the like the mixed martial arts aspect of it so in do the time work with the nogi and stuff like that because him and chris go back and forth about like what like whether christine doesn't work whether tom thinks this might work and i never mean so so everything is issues orientated um to to work in mixed martial arts so it's it's deadly having time and steadily having christian time working together like like two minds that are expertise in the wrong fields coming together it's just it's brilliant yeah taka also like we want to know a bit more about you as well what's it like just in the sort of day-to-day life for yourself like do you do you keep like a book that you write down exactly everything you're sort of training and eating or like what sort of did what are you doing behind the scenes to give yourself that extra edge in the cage um like i don't know because like you usually like because everything is kind of just done to attain now because like i have john that kind of john carroll um is my ssc coach so he kind of tells me like what what's the right feels to eat and want to be kind of putting my body in like the right man's right the right amounts of water and sauce and stuff like that to keep me to keep me going show my day-to-day training because it's something it's very it's very vigorous so like deal with two three sessions a day especially during camp so like that intensity like you need you need to be refueling your body the right way and then like on a daily basis like like when i like whenever a chris kind of shows a technique or or whenever i learn something i replayed in my head throughout the day or throughout the week whatever and so like that and so that's so i can implement it straight into my game so whenever they're on rounds or whenever or whenever around and whenever you learn something everybody's always everyone's always like everyone's always wide to what you're going to do but if you're kind of set up in a different way and you've kind of if you think about it if you think about it a different way to get to the same place it kind of it kind of gives people it um kind of kind of kind of blinds those people a little bit so like i usually like when i first started i used to write stuff down and used to write all techniques down but like as time went on i just saw like a minute walk out the gym i was sitting on the bus like that like my eyes wide open just replaying it with rain and i am and sometimes like like like i've been going to sleep and like i'll be thinking about what began on the fight and like i noticed myself just full-on tensed up and i'm like just a deep breath just to relax and bring myself back bring myself back to reality and kind of try to get myself to sleep what i am yeah it's just my small it's more just like just playing it out in my head and constantly just thinking about it and just seeing everything and just and kind of just trying to keep on top of things as well and um in terms of like the training it's very it's very structured like there's like everything is done everything is done according to the way that i showed it and it's on a way to be braces like chris has a schedule done for us monday to sunday so you know on this day you know there's this day on that and then like and then you can take a rest you can take a rest day whenever you want throughout the week if you're feeling a bit beat up so like so like you usually like like the rest day if you're if you're inviting cam people like like a day pad or something like that come down hit a few pads move around and kind of work on what you've got working what you're gonna be doing the fight so like it's not too it's not too intense then the next day and you bring it back up so so everything is everything's just done to it here yeah that sounds absolutely incredible i like how him ross by the way unbelievable people always ask us taka you know what's the best gym in ireland or what what's the gym to look out for and i i know i always say it's sort of weird because obviously you know spg you know they have the most pro fighters but i go you know in three or four years time you know team kf spg charlestown uh spg cork spg um w24 like they all have they all have so many people on the rise i think the next wave voyage may in the next two or three years you'll see so many guys in the in the in the upper echelons of of world martial arts from ireland i think there's a lot of hot prospects and i suppose that leads into one of our shout outs for the show uh shout out to the irish imac team uh who are going over to prague and we have some incredible athletes going over there so a lot of them will probably end up going pro and hopefully that they bring home a lot of battle so shout out to all the guys over there hopefully hopefully they bring it back foreign and um yeah like and i'm sorry i'm asking correction one thing i know paddy's gonna be happy with this but uh he actually left us pg so he's a whole line martial arts now so paddy's product that they'll get a little a little small there later on but um yeah i guess we're over your job you know what's even worse is trying to make me go moral oh actually a long voicemail congratulations hma hma that's the one that's the one yeah there's a lot of like just like it seemed like the um the origin kind of stagnated a little bit like there wasn't many guys coming through there wasn't there wasn't many prospects coming through well there was but it seemed like they just like they just took a halt or something i don't know what happened but if you look at the amateur scene now it's absolutely popping like so many guys coming showing now we're serious and the talent goes on around the country and uh it's exciting to see now so like hopefully now we get a couple more guys in the ufc and um and like even the guys in the gym that are trying with some of the guys come back coming up like there's something just chill 17 year olds got brandon and dom and you want to check these guys out they're ridiculous like to like to have insane cardio and like they want you to learn from chris so everything that now is is that it's just the right stuff so like they're giving everybody trouble to get mutual so like that they're gonna be two guys to watch out for when eventually whenever they break up the amateur scene too well that's exactly where we're doing these shows i get energized wants to watch this to promote the talent coming true in irish and may like i mean like we're looking to be the best irishman podcast in the country and then trying moving into europe if not the world but you never know yeah you yourself going into this game making your debut this weekend on september the 11th uh at efc 89 like you have to go in with the intensity to go all the way to the ufc to the very top become champ become the john johns of the bantamweight division or else like you're or else like if you're not if you're not fully into anything you're you're won't step out exactly yeah like that's actually one of the things that my dad was obviously excited was younger one of many actually because he just get in trouble a lot but he also said never do you want to have hardly like and if you want something you have to go in there you have to give your role and like it's not pointing to another point of view gonna get like going out and trying to do something and try to be second best like you always want to be the best you always want to be and like you always want to be the best and not even like not even forever for everybody else you want to be the best that you can be for yourself and now that you've put you put in all the world that you possibly can leading up to whatever you want to be doing and like that's where this podcast is kind of blew up on that last word because the work that you guys have is incredible yeah what's going to blow up now with you winning there on the weekend as well that's much more left field sort of entry into a pro debut than most of the royal athletes yeah definitely like are you such a big option you know getting getting to make a professional debut with uh with an internationally recognized organization like like a efc like it's crazy that i actually have this opportunity but um it came about because of pender as you know has been managed me now last couple of so he got in touch with him and um and he kind of like just like like from god from being undefeated and mma and me to wanting to come back towards towards the bible where i'm originally from like it was actually just a perfect fit and like it would like um before i would have thought that would be on the cage and that and that but like i think this is the bet this is the perfect fit for me now especially for whatever was the point i am in my career and like i think these guys are going to build me up to where i want to be and hopefully eventually get to ufc then because like there's some tough guys here and then they're internationally recognized i think they put a couple of guys into ufc as well so i think this is this just played out exactly the way that should have and um i'm grateful for really really grateful yeah drinkers do [ __ ] is uh from the ufc i think he's on the feed in the ufc at the moment he's an absolute killer yeah also like we all know like after reading stage right up the way you you see chris as like a father brother as a coach and like there's a massive team spirit in team kf and like on the new gym it's it's been amazing things like one thing we have to ask you before we let you go obviously is like ian gary leaving the team and myself and ross were massive uh fans of team kf and everything that's been done there and then we were looking at the new way of eating going in and obviously like he's not part of the team anymore is there any like what's the team been like since even left or like is there anything you can sort of say or like not say or yeah obviously like there's a bit of adjustment here because there's a bit of shock to all of us all but like at the end of the day like the show goes on the train doesn't stop and like everybody has their own careers think about so like everyone's been focusing on folks themselves and team was really kind of kind of confidence transgender and now especially with the younger guys coming through so you can kind of see like this it's like it's solid we're everywhere the team is solid yeah we're family so like everything's just everything like everything's gonna move on the way that should yeah exactly and you know what we don't like to like pick swords between anything and obviously you know there's uh so obviously there's two sides to every story and you know what like a lot of that should be left between the people who are involved i always i think that but just uh just to finish up on that how did you feel when he left the team um because you were obviously friends with him before fighting yeah like i was friends with him in school yeah and like the boss made a decision for him to not be it's not be there anymore and like that was like obviously like like even nailed it like i haven't talked to you so like he's he's off to his own life i'm not living my own life so yeah i have my own creator to focus on and uh wishing the best but like he's just he's not part of the team anymore that's that's that's that that's the way it is so tacky you're competing this saturday on efc89 september 11th it's definitely not to be missed um can you tell the people at home or listening right now how exactly or what the situation is with saturday and how can they tune in yep so the situation from saturday is i'm actually going to put up a post i'm going to meet with the matchmaker tomorrow i think and he's going to fill me in on on the situation the car but i was presuming that oz because i think i was meant for the feature premium so i would have been on about three to four o'clock or this time so um i think with a little change i might get bumped up to the main cards which starts at four o'clock on pay-per-view and um i'll be able to get more information about the pay-per-view and you can find that on my page on thursday definitely um when you do get the information definitely hit us up with a message and we'll share whatever information you need shared first of course and as always we are always supported in order to make but uh last thing we need from you taka is we need to know how you're getting it dawn come this weekend come this week if there's a finish coming anyway there's a 100 finish column and like now i've become more of a complete mixed martial artist it could come from the ground it could come from the fee but i am i'm like i just i i see i like i think i think especially the four ounce gloves now i think i think the power is really going to come through and you're going to see that one punch part one punch knockout power come this saturday because i even like i've got to try on the glows and stuff right the promise of and that they're so small and i think that's going to play such a big advantage into my into my game but i am in terms of me predicting that it's going to be done in the first round but whichever whichever way you finish it's just going to be it's going to be up to a wait for it to fall down you can see the excitement of his face when he's going to throw the gloves on the man's ready oh my gosh i could just picture i could just make the session after with the three lads you know oh my god just wait till you okay joe i'm posing to eat like because because we might talk to nelson mandela square earlier on and i gave her a big huge field heart and i was just saying i was walking through just like just gauging like it meant taking a little mental notes of what i'm gonna be eating like whenever i finish so like i think they have like two pizzas is like it's like a tenner or something so i'm gonna get two pizzas krispy kreme and then a load of beer a lot of beer and then attack actually just uh we're talking about that you actually are fighting in in africa would it be also a goal to fight under the efc banner in zimbabwe at some stage absolutely yeah like if i ever get the opportunity that i'm definitely going to be like i'm definitely going to jump on that straight away but i am i think i'm not going to get a chance to actually go office about this fight so i think i am if hopefully to get me back for the end of the year because my uncle and so crappy moving back from dubai um for the last couple years and i haven't really connected with i haven't really connected with that sort of my family in a while so it's going to be good kind of hopefully to have a shot like to have a show on december but i'll be honest i'm going to fly over there with a christian call and kind of kind of reconnect my rules as well which is going to be it's going to be extremely extremely cool no i'll be unreal you got to take a small like that would be unbelievable yeah literally like it's just because like even the way it is played out like it was like i'm an issue johannesburg is about it's about 40 kilometers away from zimbabwe so like i'm as close as i was almost close to home um as i've been in like 12 years yeah 12 years and 23 nails the last time i was there was was that when i was when i was 11. so it's been 12 years now so i'm initially i'm looking forward to just kind of just seeing everything kind of just seeing my nanny and seeing where you're going to see my cousins and stuff like that it's been it's been a long time well so you're saying as well never underestimate the power of the irish flag behind you as well absolutely absolutely also as we really back our own and we'll be definitely backing you to the hilt attacker and you know you're gonna go out there and show what seven years of hard work and dedication and put that on display in the debut and you know what it's the start of new beginnings for you you know i mean you leave all the amateur career in the past it's almost irrelevant uh except say you're undefeated in amateur career when you stay on the field in the program as well all that stuff doesn't matter anymore and i gave you this one as well i have an irish solvers in batman blood and i'm looking forward to coming out there and just proving everybody right and proving all my family right and everybody support me there you have a boss mom do you have anything else left to add in no that was a little tiger thanks for coming on the show i just have to give you a few couple shows as well before we wrap things up kerry taylor obviously won over the weekend as well and also there was not one picture with her all the bells after like what is it look we were searching for hours we won't get into that like with this for a different podcast uh also this weekend as well there's a charity boxing event going on in galway we just sit down in conway and i'll foreign on the show the promoter that's on this saturday as well um and also shadow will fleury fighting this saturday as well and palahan for an uncombatted global on friday we have conor dominoski fighting as well from margie and the saturday too they're going to flown around a little bit too but uh cameras back up this week and that's going to smash the two so two and a half on the f on the international scene for kf this weekend eft as well no he's fighting on a polish promotion babylon over here with another one so uh sometimes when called so make sure to check that out too we're about for that one conrad and then attacker obviously we're gonna leave the last word to yourself because after all you are the energize one two star of the show anyway thanks very much for having me online appreciate the chat and um i look forward to look forward to winning on saturday and obviously shout out for the lads in black at home zimbabwe back home in ireland too yeah any sponsors as well obviously long combat team kf team logistics evolution fitness john carroll you know yourselves i love you guys thank you very much for having me with me there you go there you go there you have a bosmo so guys if you are watching this video at home make sure to follow tack and make sure to follow the energy show if you haven't done already give it a like leave a comment below share it and as always energize the irish and sustain you guys a couple of times i've seen a couple of clips i think you're doing some interviews with dylan moore and then that i i saw so keep going keep up the good work guys