{"id":1728,"date":"2012-03-03T15:41:27","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T21:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2012-03-03T16:08:14","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T22:08:14","slug":"i-met-my-goals-but-lost-the-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/2012\/03\/03\/i-met-my-goals-but-lost-the-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"I met my goals but lost the fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>quote of the night:<br \/>\nMatt (co-worker, drunk at that moment): &#8220;You might wanna start practicin&#8217; with thugs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>lol<\/p>\n<p>Takayo Hashi is a fantastic fighter. It was an honor to fight her, and I&#8217;m grateful to Jewels for putting the fight together.  When I&#8217;m at 100%, we both tended to stalemate in sparring sessions in practice, when we used to train together.  <\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m especially disappointed that I lost against her, and I&#8217;m upset at the circumstances surrounding this fight.<\/p>\n<p>Well, I&#8217;m not sure how to begin&#8230;.<br \/>\nMy previous knee injury was weighing very heavily on me.  I&#8217;d already accepted the fight&#8230;.I wanted to show that I could fight through it and win anyway. The pressure crushed me like a ton of bricks all throughout February.  Who knew if I&#8217;d ever get a chance to fight her again?  I&#8217;d backed out of the fight against Akano on New Years Eve due to sickness for this same match-maker.  Abe-san said, &#8220;Do what you are capable of doing with all your strength.&#8221; No guts, no glory.  I was determined to win anyway. I&#8217;m always hurt anyway.<\/p>\n<p>As the Pocahontas musical lyrics go, &#8220;To be safe we lose our chance at ever knowing what&#8217;s around the river bend, waiting just around the river bend!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I read the sports\/mma psychology book &#8220;A Fighter&#8217;s Mind&#8221; by Sam Sheridan and it helped, but it was mental end emotional torture.  I didn&#8217;t want to lose to her, more than anything.  I ended up going into the office and doing extra work on my days off because I didn&#8217;t want to be alone. \ud83d\ude21  <\/p>\n<p>I swam like a crazy woman whenever I could make it to the public gym- four times a week.  Gosh I hate swimming now.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pool.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pool.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"pool\" width=\"379\" height=\"445\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1734\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI lifted about 4 times a week, and did push ups and stuff in my apartment every morning, too. But I think through dieting near the end, I actually lost some of the hard-earned muscle I&#8217;d gained. AGAIN. I&#8217;m so mad at myself. ~_~;  I weighed in UNDER.<\/p>\n<p>Ayaka gave me some elastic tape yesterday and I wrapped it up&#8230;it felt great!! My knee didn&#8217;t hurt too much during the fight.  I&#8217;m NOT saying &#8220;Oh I lost because of my knee.&#8221;  That doesn&#8217;t sound too nice.  She deserved her win last night.  It&#8217;s no excuse because at the end of the day, I accepted the fight so I&#8217;m responsible for it.<br \/>\nI KNOW I could have won. But it wasn&#8217;t my night.  I tried hard not to go to the ground, but when Hashi got me there, she dominated me all over the place on the ground.  She&#8217;s really good on the ground.  She earned her win.  I should have done better.  I should learn more reversals. I need to get physically stronger.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/GBR0303_jewels_10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/GBR0303_jewels_10.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"GBR0303_jewels_10\" width=\"500\" height=\"379\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1731\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nSo she won the decision.  I couldn&#8217;t implement my ground game on her.  She was the better woman last night.  She trained hard for it.  We both suffered for it in our own ways.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/GBR0303_jewels_09.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/GBR0303_jewels_09.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"GBR0303_jewels_09\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1732\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now.  I had goals.  And amazingly enough, winning was third down on my list.<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve had fights were I wasn&#8217;t satisfied with my performance.  When my fights start, I seem to lose my ability to do sideways movements, like side-stepping or hooks. I get tense and just do one-two and rush straight in.  That&#8217;s not how a pro-fighter should fight.  It&#8217;s sloppy and wouldn&#8217;t make me the first woman to fight in the UFC. <\/p>\n<p>And I wanted the voice in my head to SHUT UP.  I used to have a silent mind, but during my last few fights, my own voice pipped in and started narrating.  Like, &#8220;Oh she got you! Don&#8217;t let her do that!&#8221; or &#8220;You&#8217;re losing!&#8221; or &#8220;Time&#8217;s almost up!&#8221;  or &#8220;What are you doing? Come on you can do it!&#8221;  Even though I try to encourage myself, the voice is still audible and distracting. Maybe Barb Honchack remembers I was screaming &#8220;You can do it!&#8221; audabily to myself during our fight, probably in her ear while she was clinching me. lol<\/p>\n<p>Before the fight, I was able to quiet the voice!!  It took so much effort.  People say, &#8220;You should meditate&#8221; but you can control your mind whether you&#8217;re sitting down with your eyes closed, or standing on a train staring out the window.<\/p>\n<p>I controlled my mind, for 99% of the fight.  It was very quiet.  I was zen.  And I COULD SEE the distance! (well, more or less. I can&#8217;t see too well without my glasses) I was able to throw hooks! HOOKS!  and move, and I didn&#8217;t tighten up.  I did some moves I learned in practice! And I DIDN&#8217;T TAP to that choke. It was sunk in really deeply and I couldn&#8217;t breathe, but there was only 15 seconds left. I decided that I&#8217;d rather go unconcious than tap out, but when the ref said &#8220;Give up?&#8221; I tried to say, &#8220;No,&#8221; but no air would come out. lol so I waved my hand. lol  Then the bell rang. Yay.<\/p>\n<p>Hashi was physically stronger.  AGAIN I&#8217;M LOSING ON STRENGTH.  AAARG I&#8217;m TIRED OF LOSING BECAUSE OF FREAKING STRENGTH.  I HATE physical training, it&#8217;s so boring, especially since I&#8217;m usually doing it alone.  Apparently the strength training I did since October wasn&#8217;t enough, and I lose some strength through dieting AGAIN.<\/p>\n<p>*sigh*  What&#8217;s the point of it all?  MMA isn&#8217;t fair.  Just because you train hard, doesn&#8217;t mean you&#8217;ll win.  Just because you win, doesn&#8217;t mean you&#8217;ll have a good performance. If you train your ass off, you get hurt and then can&#8217;t perform during the fight when you need to.  I feel like I can&#8217;t reach the elite level of athleticism I need to. I&#8217;m off the top ten list.  What the hell is the point of me doing all this unpleasant strength training and stuff, TRYING to be a pro fighter?  I feel like I&#8217;m treated like this is all a &#8216;hobby.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve lost five in a row.<\/p>\n<p>I feel something is broken.<\/p>\n<p>*sigh*  So what do you do if something is broken?<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\ude42 You fix it.  So, looks like I have only ten more months to become a champion. *laugh*  <\/p>\n<p>I walked out the ring totally dazed&#8230;..I lost&#8230;.but I did it!  I didn&#8217;t know how to feel.  I recognize my achievements, my failures.  I wish &#8230;well, no good wishing for things I can&#8217;t have.  I&#8217;m staying in Japan, I don&#8217;t know what team to join- there&#8217;s no ideal ONE team-, I don&#8217;t have a full-time coach.  There&#8217;s no such thing as an easy fight. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s called a &#8216;fight&#8217; and not a piece of cake.  Which I am totally going to have after lunch today.<\/p>\n<p>Max:  Let&#8217;s down some CALORIES and BULK UP!<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/roxy-and-max-pizza.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/roxy-and-max-pizza.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"roxy and max pizza\" width=\"527\" height=\"395\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1729\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nWell, both knees hurt now, so looks like I&#8217;ll be doing major upper-body weight lifting starting, oh, today maybe. No time like the present. I only have ten months to become champion.<br \/>\nMy co-workers took me out for dinner after the fight.  This, my friends, is an okonomiyaki-style pizza at Amataro.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still searching for the right answer.  But this won&#8217;t be the last time I fight. Because I had this breakthrough- one step closer to becoming the pro fighter I want to be. If I hadn&#8217;t&#8230;I dunno.  But I just want to get stronger.  I accomplished my goal that I&#8217;d posted earlier on twitter: I met my challenges head on with my eyes looking forward and my head high, and struggled with all the strength my body would allow me.<br \/>\n<strong> I was absolutely terrified.  But I did it anyway. <\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;Always do what you are afraid to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/team-kawasaki.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/team-kawasaki.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"team kawasaki\" width=\"593\" height=\"499\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1730\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nIt really meant the WORLD to me that my co-workers and friends came to my fight.  Actually, surprisingly, I couldn&#8217;t really hear Megumi and Ayaka in my corner too well&#8230;but I could hear my American colleagues hollering from the stands, &#8220;ROXY ROXY GOOO ROXY!&#8221; lol Yay loud Americans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>quote of the night: Matt (co-worker, drunk at that moment): &#8220;You might wanna start practicin&#8217; with thugs.&#8221; lol Takayo Hashi is a fantastic fighter. It was an honor to fight her, and I&#8217;m grateful to Jewels for putting the fight together. When I&#8217;m at 100%, we both tended to stalemate in sparring sessions in practice,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fight","category-7","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}