IN DEPTH | EPISODE 02 | ALEKSANDER YANKOV

Summary

David sits down with Compound Martial Arts and DCA fighter Aleksander Yankov for a chat about growing up in Ireland and his MMA career so far. INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/mma_in_depth/ TIK TOK | https://www.tiktok.com/@mma_in_depth

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] okay so i'm in compound martial arts today with alexander yankov he also trains our dca so we're just going to go into your story um you're a one and two pro at the minute so do you want to take us through your career how long ago have did you come to ireland and uh what brought you then into mma yeah so i moved to ireland when i was only 14 and i'm gonna be turning 28 this year so almost 14 years now and uh first i had no intentions whatsoever with any martial arts i've always liked sports but i never you know never got that aspect of martial arts and um when i was 16 17 people from school started like showing with their phones and like oh look at these highlights of there was loads of pride highlights like mirko crocopop van something mad about it you know and everyone was like oh this is deadly so i was like yeah it is yeah i would like to do that and shortly after a youth club where i went to school to in the city center opened up and they they did martial arts once a week so i was like round the goal and i was really skinny and really like light compared to everyone else i i feel like i age later than many of them and um i was able to pick the technique really well so it kind of gave me like confidence boost you know wow like i can i can do that well and i can do the technique and i'm beating people that are like significantly stronger than me and bigger you know they look like men and i look like a boy compared to that and then after that uh i finished i graduated uh school i did my leaving third and i went back to bulgaria for three months i always used to do that like go back to summertime in there so i was captivated i was like i need to do something with martial arts my friend um in bulgaria was doing judo at the time in a in a school and judo and is massive in bulgaria most of the schools have that kind of programs for judo and and it's it's regarded highly so i went there but i didn't know that in summer time all the competitors my age they just go on vacation they go like they go they might go on a camp on the beach site and train there or they just you know take the two weeks two months off and then they start training again so i was literally training with kids and like two it was one grandpa and one granny and i was just learning that so i couldn't really do anything physical it was mostly technique was keeping the ball going you know still had very much a lot of interest about mma and when i came here and i got accepted into dcu i checked um on their sports uh on their sports page that they actually have an mma mma society here and i was like captivate i was like i was a bit shook i was like oh my god college is doing that it's progressive you know i'll tell you a story later on that is not so progressive about that and um yeah that was the first time i met oshie mccabe he was at the stand and he was like yeah you know come join and go from there so i joined with my friends um that's you know i i knew from college and uh yeah ever since like i just started training and i was lucky enough to be like right that's what i want to do and uh yeah uh never been ever since that i've been training there three weeks after my uh my training in there i joined um the irish open nogi and i got bronze with two like sheer sheer madness basically i had very little technique it was just a hard drive and i was like i'll take this down i would you know stay there it was the worst performances of your life but i still got a prospero in the irish open and i didn't know it at the time only now i come back for me it was like oh my god i lost like you know and then i looked at it i was like wait a second after three weeks of training i was like in a white boat division in nogi and i won um i want third place so like relax you're doing well and yeah i was i was really captivated with jujitsu that part of things uh and used to compete like religiously every weekend with college that was really easy to do as well because there's nothing to do on the weekend so you'll be like oh there you go i can go there that i can move around the country and train and do these competitions so i racked up a lot of experience in the grappling set in the grappling scene and actually fought i think i fought my first three or four fights with not never doing any striking uh before the fight or in the fight you know it was just it was just a smoking mirror and pretending i felt dangerous but i had no idea what i was doing oh cool um you actually said that about oshin uh was oshin going to the colleges to look for people to contribute i know he was he was part of this youth so he actually um studied in dcu and at the time when he was studying it was only a kickboxing uh uh it was a kickboxing society and it was a grappling society so he used to go to both of them and he was like oh wait guys there's like mma going on uh you know like where everything is mixed and uh at that time uh the sport had big stigma to its tape uh so it wasn't it i i think it was they couldn't even phrase it as mixed martial arts they had to phrase it as kickboxing and grappling so they merged the two things together and he he was the founder uh of that of the mma i believe andy ryan was doing the classes there for grappling and basically ocean got humbled by a girl on his first day of of in of of um grappling and he's done obviously a lot of stand up with his karate and kickboxing so he was like wow like you know where i can be if i start training that and ever since then he he used to uh coach in dcu and at some stage yeah we we were able to make our own club and you know we're not representing dcu as well anymore but that was our first beginnings yeah that's good the way that you came to there and that's where ocean came true and obviously now you're here yeah um lead us into how when you started doing it did you want to compete mma i know you said that you've done the the competitions for jitsu because you liked it were you planning on competing in mma was that always the plan absolutely yeah i that was the plan it was just jiu-jitsu was something that basically i couldn't um get a fight earlier than that because ocean was afraid for my health you know i was i i was very delusional i was like i want to keep fighting i want to do that and he was like you know we need to take your time you need to take at least a year and a half something like that you know get comfortable but uh i think i annoyed him enough so after eight months he gave me my first mma fight he i've heard from people that used to train before he was a bit like i'm not sure but i think i proved him that uh you know was more than ready you know maybe not uh with technique but with with uh with my mindset yeah your mind so talk is true that like you've gone you've done the gist competitions but when actually walking out to a cage uh getting in the cage tell us what the feeling was like the week leading up to the day of and then walking into the cage and getting locked in there what did that feel like for the first time so weird because i didn't know how to feel so that was a good thing in some ways you know um like i didn't know what to expect i just kept repeating to myself i remember really going into the cage leading up to the fight i'm putting myself in there so you should not have any fear or you should not have any doubt you're putting yourself there whatever happens happens but you put yourself there so don't shy away from it and uh worked with worked wonders honestly like i i still use that mantra to this day and it's one of them like i was actually impressed um now looking back to it that i was thinking like that there have been times in my career later on that i have more doubts than the first young pop alex where he he had that good good intent and had that you know what you're putting yourself in there whatever happens happens just present yourself to the best of the ability and see what how it goes yeah no so he was you're saying that actually uh later on in your career the doubt comes in would that be after you take a loss or something then when you're walking in it wouldn't be sometimes it won't be one even sometimes you get a win but you get you know hurt and you start to realize how vulnerable you are in there and you're the most vulnerable you could possibly be in there because it's not like you're finding a some guy off the street with no you're firing someone that committed maybe 10 years of their life i don't see like two months it's 10 years realistically he's committed to like kicking the bag and doing all the runs just to come back into a cage and fight you so the doubts come from like oh uh you know i mean like am i mad for doing this am i mad like actually for two going all through this but i keep coming back so i must be mad yeah so you must be mad uh yeah actually during your amateur career as well you actually got an injury that you ended up fighting through do you want to talk to us a little bit yeah so um i was i was training in the gym and it was all for forever is young and listening to this if the rounds are finished and you go like in in your ma in your mind you're already cooling down and you go like oh and someone goes oh let's go another round sometimes it's good but majority of the time most of the injuries and i talk to experienced people majority of the injuries happen then because like you're not as concentrated your body's cooled down and yeah i got i got taken down and a a very regular post which will be usually on the post and on this you know in my head i'm like okay i'm being taken down i'm gonna post up on the head and i'm gonna make sure you know i have um i have a post ready to bounce off so yeah i i i got that post but uh obviously miscalculated um the sheer strength someone is trying to take me down with which was another thing as well it's like this guy's not training anymore but he gave me this permanent injury that like like i have to live with it and i have to fight to it which i will but again it just puts you into perspective um and uh yeah i just felt straight away something popped here and i i just saw my bones sticking out it wasn't through the flesh but just i had a tight rash guard so it was really sticking out here i'm like yeah that doesn't feel right um went to e checked it probably should have went to a sports doctor because i went to a e and they were like oh you can move it like this oh you're good i never told them you know i'm you know i'm looking for a sport career here so only like maybe three months after that i went back to bulgaria and my parents were like let's let's go to that show let's we have a sports um we have we have a doctor that we know and um you know he's a specialist and he went and he said like realistically you should have come straight away and we could have done the operation now you just have to live with it and you can strengthen it it would not always it would never be 100 but we can't really do anything because your body has already adjusted itself so you can it would be too much shock for the system to actually go through that that operation now so he just said like write it out and maybe later on in your career you need to replace it when basically the bone will be will um have so much friction that they stick together you know so yeah ouch yeah ouch is right yeah because obviously after the body tries to heal itself and that's obviously what happens to you and you can't well you can undo it put it like you said it'd be too much shock but you were actually going into fights as well with that as well yeah uh so how you were switching stances you were saying yeah i had i had basically i had um i fight with kieran clark in i believe cage legacy three or two lined up and then this happened but i had that fight lined up for some reason it was very long it wasn't i don't believe it was two months in advance it was longer than that or maybe my memory is bad because that happened the injury happened i started kind of you know maybe gave it two weeks of to rest and then started strengthening it started lifting a bit of waste to make sure it's it's getting comfortable and it's not you know it's not too weak and i didn't do any grappling for that fight and then i was like right so i cannot um obviously lost that fight with kieran clark now i believe three and all or four and all in bellator so yeah and he's finishing lads in a very very you know uh serious manner with elbows and ground and pound from top so he's he's not a good fighter that i just i i i knew i was injured and i knew like you know uh probabilities are even probably if i wasn't injured it would have been really really hard fight i just wanted to get in there and experience someone with that kind of um that kind of accurate you know and then obviously him doing really well in pro it's it's really good in its inspiration you know it gives you a part of what you can do you know um and yeah i just said to myself so right i can't do any grappling they're going to kickboxing anyway it's lucky i'm really bad at that so let's do some stand-up um stand-up fights because at least with the grappling i couldn't put under under hooks i couldn't do anything that's when it was actually most fatigued but with uh with with striking where i can you know jab or i can cross with that with that hand it didn't seem to get as tired and i can keep it up and and go from there i think it was the tiredness comes from prolonged um tension it doesn't happen from you know in and out one two movements uh but i couldn't i was southpaw and i couldn't do that in the south pole because my shoulder was kind of getting really low even if i wanted here in my head it's at the the hand is up but it's actually here and my coach keeps saying it like hands up i'm like they're as up as i could possibly have them so i had to switch to orthodox because then my shoulder is in front so it can kind of protect me better and uh yeah i just went on a two-year uh kind of adventure in the kickboxing k1 scenes um and i believed it like eight fights and at the end of of it got a national sk belt from it as well so after that i was like right out that was a good story that was a good chapter let's get back to improving putting that into the mma arsenal and improving basically my grappling and my wrestling to fit up with my striking that's good that you actually went that route and done the kickboxing to to bring in with your grappling that yahoo here uh compound um i want to ask you dca when did you join uh dca or were they always a part of your training i actually no i i joined them um before covet hit um it was for a while and i was still an amateur and i just joined them and i used to do a lot of their friday uh sparring sessions because therefore all gyms are invited uh free of cost and you can go in there and have uh rounds with you know uh like high-level professional my tie fighters so you can really see what you know they they would really show you what you need to work on um so i was doing that for a while and i really really liked it it was it was great um great and then obviously covet head at the time i knew they were doing some secret training but it wasn't in that gym it was in a different place and that was too hectic for me too hard for me to train out there um i got a kid at that same time so i couldn't really do it as well uh covet came up with no one knew exactly like oh is this actually for real obviously now we realize it wasn't as as badly as everyone said it was but you don't know that until it actually some time passes um and yeah after after everything was lifted and they went back to the gym in fishboro i was able to return there and been there there ever since and be there for a long time as well you know kali kalimatan's really good and then obviously oh sheen did austin push you to go yeah ocean ocean is i think it's an og in that sense because he's always thought about that he's always telling go there go go train there he doesn't have any issues with me going to train in other places if he thinks that that's that is gonna be the best thing for me he he doesn't have that sense of uh um oh like we need to just keep you here i think that's where you like you cut off the wings of of your fighter and yeah they're the best maybe in the room but like you're just the best in in a room you're not the best in where you could possibly you know i mean you're not gonna elevate your skills uh and obviously this being an mma gym and doing kickboxing mma uh grappling and wrestling uh he realized you know he realized like if he divides his time in all these three things it's not going to be the same as for example kali that divides his time only into striking so he's okay with that he he was the one to be like you need to go there you need to train there if you want to have good good uh good striking so uh i took his advice and it's working well um uh akali is was in my corner for my last fight and the fight before that and they seem to work really well together there you know there's no hiccups um khali is taking the striking side of things then after that washing takes the cage side things and grappling on on the on the ground so yeah it's working really well so far yeah no it's good i actually like that because a lot of times james would be like no you're just this gym like you see that true out here is loyalty to a gym yeah and it's not that you're disloyal it's like you said oshin wants to see the best for you so he's going to specialize you're grappling here and holly's going to specialize your striking and like what a person to learn after striking as well yeah holly you see the amount of mma fighters that he actually has on board and he's a muay thai gym not an mma gym so what's it like having the two of them in your corner like it's it's very good funny enough a lot of people say that um cauli is very um you know um up there and frantic and then ocean is very reserved but i see them both have similarities because they're very reserved when they have to be but if someone is you know if they have to speak out they will speak out and i think that's where um like ocean maybe shows up and is more relaxed but he's not i've seen him if he would call out someone if he has to be and same with colleague he's very relaxed and he's very caring but then if someone if some if someone uh says uh something that he doesn't agree with and or something that's out of line he'll speak out so i see them they have very very very big similarities even though they're portrayed in two different ways to from the community they they have both these things you know like you can't just be like this guy that's super positive or you can't be this guy that uh just like goes mayhem all the time you know um but yeah they have both things and and they work really well together they have like washing has a very a lot of knowledge on the striking part of things as well so um it's just quality fine-tuning that little details that you know he that he can you know have that in his arsenal and then vice versa ocean is really good with the cage control um systems and and the grappling he he uh time and time again he does very very well for a small gym that's open for two years our juniors are getting really good spots third second places as as a whole in um in big tournaments you know competing with gyms that's been there for years exactly so it's it's good to see you know um it's both motivating from both gyms you know uh the grappling side in here uh there is a kickboxing like group that does a lot of kickboxing as well but again you know the reality is uh you know they're doing it for three four years while i'm not sure for how long cauli and craig has been together or stefan or aaron brown they serve renowned names like really really strong names in the in the um [Music] on the scene in ireland and worldwide as well so they you know i mean the experience you can get from them is much different you know they can expose you as i said before and they can really show you like you don't have to give them two chances you know i mean they're gonna take they're gonna take the first one so that's really good to see because it kind of just elevates you need to like they're not gonna stop uprunning for you so you need to catch up to them and that's that's that's where the whole growth and how ocean told me you need to go there if you want to improve your striking work yeah no it is good i like that that ocean done that and that you are training both because you've got two great coaches then in your corner going into fights um i want to go on to then your first pro fight yeah so we talked about what it was like for amateur so when you made your first pro fight it was on clan wars i believe yes uh ryan shelley ryan shelly yeah so when you were going into that fight how were the nerves how was everything different to your debut it was horrible i'm i basically didn't i wish i i took my i took my advice more at the beginning as my of my amateur career just made me now looking back at it it felt like maybe because i knew too much it's like i just put too much stress on myself and uh physically i could i could i'm not no shadow of the light i was in a very very good condition you know um i trained so much for that fight physically and i felt like oh because i'm going to take this physical uh i think that physical um box so much you know that's it it's wrapped up and and then obviously the fight i think got rescheduled two or three times it was two covert times um um that that kind of you know all of a sudden a two month camp became a three or four month camp you know with like ups and downs and whatnot and oh my god this is actually better that this fight is happening on this time and then oh my god this is actually worse than it's happening now because things happen out it was things were happening outside my life at the time so it was in my opinion it was obviously good that i got to it but it was very very bad it was it was by far probably my worst experience uh and performance and yeah it was just mentally bad to see yourself getting there going through all the hard work going there with the game opponent and not giving him the game you know what i mean like he was there to fight and i wasn't and it was a bit poor from my from my part yeah but obviously you learn from that and you go on but especially with the likes of the culvert the back and forth it was very uncertain times as well so yeah i'm not gonna excuse myself you know that was all in my control you know what i mean i feel like it was if i had a better mind of a frame of mind i could have i could have dealt with that no issues like that that shouldn't be an issue issues arise all the time in life you just have to deal how you know you have to know how to react to them and i i did not react in a positive manner and i pay the price you know i don't know how the fight would have turned out if i showed up and i was game as as game as ryan but at least i would have been proud about myself going in there and doing my best not you know just going in there for the i don't know for and not even experience but just for the just to be there for the sake of it just to make your pro debut you know i didn't pick a i i i believe i was on prospect mma i was uh i was the one that called out ryan because i knew ryan has trained since a young age and i knew he's going to be a really really hard test for me for my first fight and uh i'm all about that i'm not excited about getting someone and being like oh fight this guy you know and there's a line a list of people that have beaten him you know that's not really interesting to me maybe that's a bad approach i don't know but to me that that's the true approach i want to test myself with people that are battle tested and they're coming to fight because if i can beat them my honestly my i can honestly say wow you did this you know what i mean and um i can honestly see how my my um um i want to say motivation but how my skill improves but if i go there and like he's been beaten by half the country and i go there and you don't learn anything no no no no not at all and or i put my record at amateur and then i'll be like oh my god i have six in a row you have six in a row with people that's trained for two years like what are you doing in that cage in that you know yeah you're only fooling yourself exactly and then padding your record you came back though and you run clan wars again for your second fight and you won run us through that fight a little bit yeah that was you know i just wanted to make a statement that uh you know i mean what uh what what happened the first fight was just a once off and uh everyone can have that kind of night you know things just didn't sit like fire the way they should and uh you know um it didn't go well whatsoever but then the second fighter said right i'm not gonna like shy away from it i'm not gonna be like oh what if this happens again it won't happen because i'm in control the the the only good thing out of that fight that happened was like right like you were in control and you didn't put yourself you know you didn't put yourself in the best scenario to win that fight so let's let's take a step back put yourself in that mind frame so that it took a year off uh really after that performance was close to i wasn't i wasn't gonna quit but it felt like what am i doing you know maybe i'm over my head with this but then i had a chat with myself and then actually months after i had with a really close friend i had a chat as well the first chat i had with myself is like right if i stop now that's going to be a reoccurring team in my life things will go hard and i'll sh like you know you know something will go wrong and i'll shy away from it and then i'll have to what am i again i'm going to have to find something new to do you know uh something that i have true passion for again i'm not sticking around just because i've done it long enough i have true passion for fighting i love fighting uh i love going through the whole process um i love being nervous before the fights i love going to the cage and you know looking my opponent into into the face and and then after that scrapping at the end of it you know that that's very exciting for me and that's you know i knew from the beginning i want to do that and it still hasn't changed um so i forgot where where i was going with this yeah no we were talking about obviously your second fight you came back and you won it and you won it quite well um so you obviously redeemed you change your mindset which is good and it's good to see that you're very honest about that you said you were thinking of maybe i'm in overhead because at the end of the day you're you're a person like all of us like you're still a human being although you do stuff that like a lot of people don't do um but the tasks that like those thoughts go through for the same yeah they're the same but i like your approach saying that whatever i do in life or whatever you do in life there's gonna be obstacles in our way and you just have to try and overcome them so obviously you overcame that one you won that in emphatic fashion and then you fought martin quite recently as well yeah where the first round was was was going it was your way and then you went into the second round and then obviously how did you summarize that fight how did you feel after that basically uh it was a sweet and sour sweet this hour obviously we took that fight on um i believe three weeks notice or three and a half something like that but i was i was i was still in a good shape because of my last fight i still kept training because i didn't have any injuries i just felt like my elbows bit for some reason every time after i elbow with my left one it just balloons that's a balloon my elbow is a balloon yeah but yeah it's like i don't know why the right one doesn't have that but my left one always balloons up so i just had to like i just couldn't um punch that much because i couldn't rotate it fully and i couldn't elbow with it but i could do anything else i had my left knee i have my right knee i have my left kick right kick right side so i kept training um anyhow and then that fight arouse obviously it was a 70 it was that's not my natural weight and you know i mean i would maybe only if for short replacements and stuff like that look to fight at that weight but realistically i'm a very very small 70 kg uh you know i mean these people that professionally couldn't maybe there would be 86 kg at that stage you know before they cut and uh yeah that that's it's just uh it's it's not my weight it's just um the fact is you know um felt felt like martin was beatable opponent we still do anyway even even though he had the he had the win over me uh two weeks ago but um yeah i went in there and i said like he's going to be he again we're going to northern ireland it's going to be his city he's going to be his supporters just straight away had that mindset that i'm going to go in there and beat him in his own town and the first round went really well second round went really well and then in the third in one minute uh after the third round has rung that's where he got me um i just in all fairness now looking in retrospect um i again i'm gonna blame myself because it's that's the only thing the coach advice was don't um don't engage in grappling with him the only way he's gonna beat you is uh with um with the submission with the submission he's gonna try to engage your grappling but again the first two rounds have shown us that you he can't take you down and he's just taking cumulative damage you know at some stage of you know i felt like the elbows were connecting very very well and he was trying to hide his um his his head between my legs which basically guarantee he won't take me down like the there's very little leverage when your neck is is curled up like he won't be able to take a human being down like that you know so he was accepting staying in there and taking shots so it was on me basically to keep it standing and uh i just saw uh his legs being really close and i think my instinct kicked like oh there is a takedown but again that was just like uh almost like a flying spider web since like i'm going there with someone that like he he has a lot of submission wins and he does like that that looked like the only way he could have a win over me so yeah also the the sweet part was the two rounds before that and what i was doing to to a guy that was heavier than me you know and then just the the bad part you know obviously the the sour part is the fact that uh i made that decision and i paid the price for it yeah it just shows that just as a single lapse it's just like it's a game of inches really really it's like a simple lap like that you think right i've got to take down here then all of a sudden exactly but that's another thing you said it right that was my mistake my mistake was i connected my hand actually i don't believe i even connected my hands but i had i had them wrapped up i had my head on the right side and i said right i had that takedown when you start thinking you have something it's when you're you're you're not gonna have it so uh looking at the fight back and and from what i can recall that was my mistake i didn't drive enough to have my head under his armpit at that stage you know the mainstream my head stayed uh low on his hips at all times and again props to him he was feeding it that way but again if he you're moving backwards and you're feeding that head downwards if someone truly drives forward you're not you know what i mean like so it was my thing aha i got that takedown and then the head getting wrapped up and uh he has massive legs and that's one thing once he wrapped the legs around me in the clothes guard and uh he had like three i remember it clearly it was three adjustments i was like on the first one was like it's not there second one it's not there and i'm still controlling it on the third one his adjustment was so well that like uh usually you know um i i was on his right hand side or left left side of me and i had my left hand and i would usually bring my left leg close to my hand and start driving basically uh a lot of people think you know you need to make you need to have actually a bigger neck and bigger shoulders you have to make them as big as possible and that's how you're going to escape because then his hand is not truly wrapped around it and i just couldn't do that because his legs were um were so in the way and his three adjustments that i was saying that every time i'm trying to drive with that left leg to create that wasn't happening and yeah at some stage i had no air so i had to step out and then it was over unfortunately because obviously team tours are quite well known for the bjj and yeah so again that was like a very very big big upset from me for the fact that i had the coaches they told me exactly what i had to do and it was the right thing to do on the feet he had good low kicks going his way but apart from that i believe he was very tentative and again i was treating it with respect because he was throwing lots of bombs but i you know what i mean i felt like um for the duration of the fight i was controlling that standing uh standing and i was being a bit more patient and more relaxed obviously majority of my um damage came from the clinch but that was his decision because he was trying to drive to me uh otherwise than that i would just try to stay in the middle and try to bang it out but when he he he goes for takedown i have to defend it and obviously attacks him with some elbows and some knees look to reverse at some stage in the first round i i connected well with the knee to the head i felt that was that was good i felt good for the fact that i didn't blow myself out to try to finish him i thought that was um i take that as a good thing rather than you know gassing myself out in the first and then let's see you know because i i came out knowing he's 70 kg he's fought 70 kg for long periods of time like i'm not gonna be able to shut down his light just like that you know and uh i just need accumulative damage rather than anything else and and just short bursts and continuous bursts and and and to see uh to see victory like that and i would have if i i believe if i didn't go for that takedown but it is what it is yeah it can't be changed yeah but you've all you've also got a fight booked coming up a case conflict yeah scott harvey is your opponent yeah how are you feeling about this have you changed anything with your camp or is it more the same uh have you looked into much to like do you study your opponent as much have you seen much coming up this actually uh before that i i vaguely maybe studied my opponents but this time i'm gonna try to really do it just take any uh advantage i can possibly have so over the time when we the fight got announced and and and now basically i've i've done some film study on him on what he likes to do how he likes to set up um set up his shots uh because he's he's grappling predominantly i believe he's a brown belt in brazilian jiu jitsu and he looks to take you down and smother you and so yeah i'm very excited because he's another really really good test and again this is people so my first fight obviously it was ryan shelley's first fight um but he's been doing taekwondo since such a young age and he's been on the competitive scene you know i mean he's had more levels above me um in in competition side of things uh then dylan douglas another he was a pro before me for a long time and um he's uh and then martin zimbala that i think had eight fights eight pro fights before me and and uh now obviously now scott harvey he had one fight but he's he's had some serious names um that he has beat on the amateur scene in in in northern ireland and in uh here and uh yeah like just very very excited to test myself against someone that's uh as strong as a martial artist as he is yeah it's it's a good venue as well case conflict to a good good show so how are you feeling about going and fighting in that venue have you seen what the atmosphere is like i've seen from videos i've seen i've seen the show they made in during the cover times that was outdoors and that was like oh my god this is legendary it was i believe in a like a place for concert i was like how did i not like i i at the time i wasn't in a good mind space so that's why i was working really hard for one year to keep training keep the physical things going but really work on myself and apologies my uh my mental side of uh preparation uh about fighting and uh yeah and then my my i had a hat uh i believe uh um one of the guys from here from compound martial arts they fought on their next show and and ocean was like we need to get you in there like the atmosphere the promotion is so professional the the the management are very very solid and very very accommodating towards the fighter so he was like well we need to get you in there and here we go here we go i can't wait to see if i uh after i know you're only going to look at scott but you're planning on getting another fight in before the end of the year yeah yeah yeah i'm i'm trying to have one or two now like uh so far i've been very lucky with the fights obviously i had two this year that i haven't been too banged up from them or i haven't been too injured so i could go back straight to training and kind of wrap up and have like you know after two three months i can have another one uh and go from there and so yeah uh so so far i will look later in the year though but at first right now it's all all about scott harvey and thinking about that fight because it's a true test he's going to come and he's going to try to implement his game on me and i believe i believe he's going to try to grapple with me quite quite hard it's going to be a glorified grappling match and uh working with uh ocean on the systems with not being taken down and also working in the clinch with kali i feel it's it's going to be an issue where scott now will have to realize right game game one doesn't work so i'm very excited to see his game too game three ff because the narrative of his fighting has been so far he he strikes he looks he looks to land they want to he looks to go to the body switches up so he lulu buys you in that idea that uh i'm going to the body i'm going to the body and then he shoots so when you shoot and and if the guy stands up straight away or he reverses you where does that leave you i'm very excited maybe we want to see a new side of of him we haven't seen before but i'm ready to test that and as i said i'm very excited for that fight um because again it's with someone that has a renowned game and uh i can i can test my skills against that you know i like what you said that you want to see this part too because usually when you've got grapplers like that you never see their part two and they never get to show it so he might be also excited if he can okay take you down to say right okay let's see can yeah let's see can i strike with this guy exactly absolutely and makes it more interesting that is that is the interesting part in the end of the day i can say like i know i'm going to beat him he can say i know he no one knows that on that day i'm going to show up and i'm going to see who is going to beat who you know i have confidence in my skills um i'm i'm in a very good space now mentally where like i feel really really relaxed in in the cage whatever happens so for whatever it's worth you know i'm going to tax you for a taxi for your health and then go from there perfect um is there anything you want to say before i let you go i've really enjoyed it samsung thank you so much for your time is there anything else you want to say first and foremost thank you for taking that time and and making sure you know young pros and amateurs are getting that exposure i believe it's it's very good for us and you know you're doing a good thing with yourself and uh yeah i just want to say thanks to all the people that i train with from compound martial arts and from dca because they're pushing me on the daily basis of being my best side um best best martial arts as they could possibly be and to call you up to ocean thank you as well you're very understanding coaches you're very uh great coaches in your own sense you know uh and uh yeah that's it i think we can wrap it up perfect thank you very much my pleasure thank you