Joe McColgan | Cage Warriors 124 Countdown | Energized Show

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What is up and welcome to the latest Energized Show! On this episode we have Joe McColgan ahead of his Cage Warriors LW Title fight. We discuss the countdown to CW124 & more MMA craic. Check it out, enjoy, subscribe for more and as always Stay Energized! Follow us on…

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Kind: captions Language: en [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay what's going on guys and welcome to a brand new episode of energized ross introduce the guests man we have the next cage warriors lightweight champion joseph the spg hunter mccolgan hello how are you doing i'm good man thank you that's that's quite the introduction uh it sounds right other than the fact that joe not joseph but i think you're thrown by the fact that my name joseph has appeared on this zoom length well i was trying to give you you know the name in your passport which i assume was joseph was that it is yes it is okay yeah well you know when you go down the record book you know i mean when you're saying that official documentation when you're selling the contracts for the bail agreements you know i mean joseph i actually don't even know i think it it might be joseph i'm not sure only my mom or wife call me joseph you'll have you're in trouble you'll have to update the to the champ as well now after this weekend this is it that's it and for the people that aren't aware like joe is fighting aggies sardari for the cage warriors lightweight title at cage warriors 124 that is this friday job isn't that correct that's correct yes cageworks124 joe how are you feeling leading into this fight um obviously you've been here before and you're obviously unsuccessful against mason jones what's going to make this time different well i mean uh this time is it's like comparing apples and oranges it's just not the same the last time was just like this to describe it as chaotic would be the biggest understatement of the century it was something i never want to have to experience again the whole entry into that fight week was just the minute i signed for that fight was just it was just terrible um the week of the fight was terrible the fight was terrible the aftermath was terrible um was it incident in particular uh it was just it was a combination of everything and going into fight week is is stressful as it is but then you have everything shutting down and people close to you saying and rightly so listen it's not going ahead and you're trying to cut calories and then you're trying to you're just trying to get tunnel vision to block everything out but everything around just telling you that it's never going to happen so it was just like i couldn't get into the zone and i wasn't really feeling um confident going in like going into the fight accepted because obviously the opportunity you cannot turn that opportunity down but i just did i just knew i wasn't physically prepared to fight probably even a three-round fight never mind a five-round fight against someone who's probably the hardest style match up not the hardest match-up just the hardest styling match-up for me and to fight mason jones i need to be prepared i i i would need a 10-week camp like nothing short of that um but i just saw i just saw the opportunity i didn't want like cage orders down and then one like myself down so i took it and you asked about how different or how it's prepared me going through hardship always makes everything seem a bit easier and and that's exactly it this feels like a breeze i've i've been training for the past 12 weeks for one person aggie said harry um not that i not that i tailor my training camp for any particular person it's the same it's the same style same approach everything's the same for every fight except i've just had 10 12 sorry 12 weeks of being focused in training camp whereas for all other cage warriors fights you don't know your opponent from between four weeks out to two days out from the fight so everything before that you're training yes but it's not the same focus it's not the same intensity as when you have a name there so right now i i'm the best i'm the best version of myself that i could possibly be and what a perfect time to be in this position mentally and physically whenever you're going into the biggest fight of your life the biggest opportunity for all the marbles it's just you know things are just working out great and i can't wait to just display this on friday night joe do you think the cage warriors doing the trilogy series actually really helps the fighters because once one trilogy series is is finished you know you're probably going to be on the next one so you know the date at least you're trying towards so you know when you want to peak exactly um it's it's brilliant for me because i i work full time so i i can't be ready all the time i need the i need to know in advance when i'm going to be fighting so that i can like bring fans some time to focus solely on training and and obviously like because i work in like projects so like there's peaks and troughs and projects so you can kind of know ah this this time like around like may march or whatever i just don't think i'll be able to fight because it's going to be hectic and work so i just don't i don't i don't even think about fighting then um so having the trilogies knowing roughly when they're going to be uh allows me to plan things out and train accordingly so i think it's been a great help and just having during the pandemic uh something to uh for all fighters to aim towards has been massive it's it's you know the pandemic probably could have probably did for a lot of people put everything on hold but for mma everything continued and people improved people got to advance their records so and that's really all because of the ufc and cage warriors nobody else because everybody else came with it later it was ufc and cage warriors doing it definitely definitely was and they were definitely the market leaders in that area yeah and one one thing you sort of touched on comparing the last time you had teleported this time was the chaoticness are you very much a creature habitat like is is the routine that really helps you you know be the best version yourself no because i i can adapt um you know to different situations but i think it was just because everything was just shutting down i couldn't get in the tunnel vision and i couldn't even begin to get into a routine because everybody was just saying like listen this is just not happening and did you have people telling you you shouldn't be fighting no no no okay no no you're too afraid to say that yeah like you know what i wish i wish somebody probably hadn't told me to say listen joe like if you're not if you're not going to be if you're not 100 physically ready then it's not i know what i told them i am fighting anyway so it wouldn't have made a difference um i think yeah you just have to go through these things not only in fighting but in life the to learn lessons and i have learned so many lessons from that one experience and to prove that um they they offered me cage warriors in march offered me the aggie salary fight and i turned it down because now there's another opportunity to fight for the belt and i've said no because i referenced that earlier i knew work was going to be crazy actually just bought a house with my wife which needed a lot of work congrats yes thank you and congrats on what married september was it yes last year yeah yeah things are all coming up john mcculligan right now yeah exactly well i mean that again and even in the september one i knew that i was going to get married i could have fought but i i decided not because i will never commit that fight now until i know that i can get a proper camp i'm not a youngster i'm not one of these guys i stay ready all this no that doesn't that doesn't work for me i need to be able to commit to 10 weeks of training and for me to commit to 10 weeks training it is hard hard work and i'm talking i work 40 hours a week and then i'm training full time on top of that and like so my rest limit and then you have to actually have a life outside of that as well yeah how does the wife take that she uh she's fully supportive of it and like so as soon as the karen lester fight was on she was at home watching the jack run fight going when are you doing your interview you you need to call either one of these you'll destroy both of these guys like in the first round so she was like before even saying well done she's like right right get onto the next one like i mean like who does that you know like so like it's like this her support it's like it's on question like she would never be like oh you're going into training or anything like that it'd be actually the opposite if i was taking a bite and she would be calling me out on it and be like well what are you doing get the trainer do this do that um you know like fight week she's like right right write my list of everything you need to do when i go and do it you know um she's clearing off the mantelpiece there just so you could so you could put the goal there for next week yeah there isn't a list but now that she knows i've dropped the hint the list is coming yeah uh appearance joe it's great that you have such a good support system around it because um that's that's uh something that you definitely need especially with the full-time job as well you do need to support your loved ones especially when you're chasing a goal or dream i suppose that's in all aspects of life anyone who's got like the side hustle or anything like that you know i mean you need to support those people around you and just to get into this this weekend's fight job what do you make of your opponent and do you see him having any aspects that he's where he's going to try and push the fight um i i think aggie's very good uh he is just he seems to be well-rounded um from what i've seen of them anyway i watched the full design fight and i watched like two or three minutes of the jack ground fight so i haven't really watched too much footage on them um it doesn't matter at this stage i'm kind of like i just do my own thing and i think my my style is is a good style to have it's have heavy pressure and excellent take down defense and you know i'm i'm good technical and i throw us into an intent so that's a hot that's a hard style for anybody to go in against and i think i don't i don't need to change that for anyone and it's the exact same here i feel like you know i feel like his his most dangerous uh attributes are his fight iq he has he can he can stay safe and in dangerous situations um and he can steal around he can win the rounds evidently because you know his last two fights have been controversial decisions um you know he's he's like he's like the benson henderson of cage warriors yes he's doing enough to win the rounds in some people's eyes i thought he lost the desmond fight but actually you know what you could swing it either way um although you know what i think it is it was obviously not the same so it was but it's reminiscent of the ghost of them for you in a way where like he was supposed to win so evidently going into the fight that when you see someone put up a challenge against it you're like yeah hold on actually i think he's been in because you're almost up for the underdog yeah i think yeah that that's a fair point um yeah so you are probably biased towards desmond because you're like well the fact he's doing as well as the age like just this is like a massive shock because it should be destroying him there's me taking on six days notice like um i think he took over the fight in the later rounds and it's not because his pace is um increases as the fight goes on it's just that his opponents get a tired and jack and tories for gas now donovan desmond took on six days notice and that's why you know he's kind of taking over the neurons because those guys like i don't didn't have the conditioning of that fight to kind of keep the pace up but so i think that that's his most dangerous weapon is his iq and his ability to stay safe and dangerous positions on the sneaker and in the rounds yeah he does constantly look like he's sort of going at around seven eight out of ten pace while he's at like a steady pace across the round he he does sort of level out his pace quite quite quick from the offset which suits me very well although joe you're a bit of a finisher yourself now i don't think yeah your last five points have seen the scene the first bell no um i i do come out through uh like as i said i could come out heavy pressure i put my opponent on the back foot and i just looked around good shots good technical shots and not always looking for the finish if the finish comes it comes um you know you know it's either gonna come with the hands or i'm going to catch like a submission whenever they they have a bad shoot um a panic shoot and that's that's my view on all my fights on how they're going to go doesn't matter who they are um but for this time i'm conditioned to go all the rounds um if it needs to go all five rounds i'll be there in his face the whole time in the first round right through to the fifth round and i'm confident in that and he's got his hands full as i said he gets himself out of danger but i'm going to put a lot of danger in front of him and he's going to have his work cut out for him i've said previously and you know if i see him going back into his corner and he's like nose nose breathing then i need up the pace and and i have the conditioning two up the pace um so i'm looking forward to it it's going to be a good fight it sounds like it's going to be action-packed from the start as well doesn't it yeah like obviously the the trilogy starts on thursday you're fighting for the toilet fraud and then ian's fighting for the toilet on saturday so it's going to be i think overall there's five or like irish based uh fighters fighting on the card as well we actually we have nearly all of them coming on bar uh we're trying to get still get in touch with our shadow right there but uh come here uh joe what's what's this week look for you like when you head over like who you bring with the team because obviously he's not in front of fans unfortunately like what's that what's the buildup look like for yourself um yeah so just uh today and obviously i'm in work today um but i'll go up and do like a lightweight session tonight uh like massage and then tomorrow just relax uh maybe another boxing sessions go over a couple of things wednesday we'll fly out um and i'll start my wake up wednesday night thursday weigh in and then after that's just the kind of the same old process i am it's in my corner it's my head coach shando and pat and then paul's going to be in my corner as well so he's flying over he's always he's very good to have around he's he spars with me um we can wake out he's actually been injured um yeah he's really badly hurt his shoulder and but he's been up every so every night we do every tuesday we do dog house runs or it's like i'm in the middle and then we have fresh guys coming in and trying to put me away so he's actually been there he's just been coming up anyway and cornering me with pat and shannon though so it's like i've had that process five or six times you know if i've been through the fight you know i've been through the difficulties and like the whole situation is going to be very similar to the fight no crowd no music it's late at night um so i'm very well prepared and i have a good corner team the best corner team obviously i have other coaches um you know adam uh strong and someone who does my uh condition nutrition and stuff like he's he's got me in the flight ship and then he's putting out a plan that's gonna get my weight down and then put the weight back on and then donna my boxing coach who who'd love to have over just you know it's difficult during couple times to have everybody over and you know you only have three corner man and then quarantine in the hotel and stuff so um what who i've got right now is is brilliant um and you know who i have back home with my coaches and the people around me is also amazing like it's perfect for me so i'm really happy with everything my prep and and who i've got coming over just yeah just last one for me joe uh like obviously you're doing a job like as well as doing this for a full time and like like commend you so much because like a lot of people do one or the other but doing both is unbelievable because everyone knows how difficult it can be to get out of bed sometimes but like are you are you focused on like it's your dream to win the title this weekend then like eventually like get move on move on to a bigger bigger shows and then you could make fighting your full-time career and not have the job in the side or are you enjoying the having living both lives um i wouldn't say i enjoy living both lives it's it's really hard it's hard work but i would never want to be in a position where i have to rely solely on on fighting as an income yeah because i i think i i just even even in the ufc like how much you actually getting paid whenever you take tax and pay coaches pay management fees pay train of these payment payment paul come over as well he's not cheap he's not cheap at all you know especially especially if he's got the blonde hair going yeah and died normally before he comes over that's one of the rules but listen you don't i don't think you earn that much money in the ufc so from a financial point of view i've never been driven financially when it comes to mma so my goal is to to win this belt and that has been a dream of mine since like since day one really and as i turned on my trucks cage warriors was the show he had car mcgregor and everything fight one cage one of the titles it was like oh my god like even when i was going down the corner like going down with my teammates karma i was still an amateur and car was fighting on cage wars i managed to get sneak in backstage and i was watching graham giving the interviews and i remember thinking [ __ ] hell this is just i mean isn't paul redmond was there one nope joe duffy was there and i thought oh look at all these guys this is unbelievable and i know like i've kind of worked my way up and now i'm in a position where it's like i've surpassed all those previous goals that i had set and ever imagined you know reaching them and though i'm here fighting for the world title um a second bite of the cherry and you know it's just it's a dream come true anything that comes after this is just icing on the cake but it's just that i can have the cake without it as well you know so if like the ufc doesn't come then it doesn't come i'm not going to be right about it i've achieved a lot in this sport and um i'm really happy with everything and like i said at the ufc company if she comes i'll grab that opportunity with both hands but if not still avi i want to put something out there that's right obviously joe you in the toilet this weekend ian wins the toilet this weekend as well dave ian to fight rhys mckee you to find a reds are on in like a cage warriors dublin like if that was the the main in the coming like that would absolutely blow the roof off the kip ross so to make it that one there but yeah well like you can have all the money in my pocket if you want for that one because uh that is absolutely legendary although like i don't like fights where i like both fighters fighting each other yeah i don't know who to cheer on but like as a special freud mma like that's the elite of the elite yeah and also um shout out to you and paul you as well um he's uh obviously rehabbing that shoulder um you know i feel like he's very unlucky he's the unluckiest man in cage wire as well with that the view chinch and sherry a five five now because obviously he was looking at the winner of that but now that's thought it's probably kicked down the road and so who knows when he gets a a total challenge but uh get well soon paul i i know he'll be watching he's an absolute legend and joe tell us tell us this friday night how does joe mccall and end i'll put his hand raised by any means necessary i'm going to go out and i'm going to put it on aggie um and if the finish comes it comes and have a dozen and it's going to be five rounds of hard work five rounds of hard pressure throwing bombs keeping technical and just doing everything i can in my par to win that with that fight and i i am supremely confident i sit here probably i am supremely confident that my abilities to get this job done there you have a cause uh this fight goes down on ufc if i pass correct correct me and card kicks off at 8pm so you'll be on around 10 pm uh by 10 30 yeah 10. perfect well get make sure you're tuned in from 8pm watch the whole card it will absolutely be gangbusters from the start to finish cage warriors always always is because if you are watching this video and you have enjoyed it make sure to head over to joe mccolgan on instagram make sure to give him a follow follow his journey before he lifts that cage warriors lightweight title it could be a wherever you win moments so make sure to be part of it and and if 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