Posts Tagged ‘pakmma’

5 days later…

Posted on: April 10th, 2013 by admin 1 Comment

I want to tell the whole story of my ONEFC MMA fight and I figured it to be best to start from the end. It’s been 5 days since my fight and I can say that my current existence is defined as desperately trying to put myself back in that ONEFC. I refuse to accept that it’s over and the days are passing, and these cuts, theses badges of honor on my face are going to be healing. I want to keep those moments in the cage fresh, but daily life and routine is working its way in. It’s like a reverse PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) where the situation was so intense, but in this case positive that it becomes hard to move on and let go of that experience.

Everything is sinking in and things have changed, how they have and will change I am yet to see as quite frankly the dust has not just yet settled. But I can tell you this much, MMA in this country is not going to the same anymore. A storm is brewing and it’s exciting me and scaring me at the same time. The success, the exposure, and the recognition I have wanted for MMA in Pakistan, these things I dreamed about and for which people thought me a fool are now here upon us. Let’s see what form it is to take.

Me and my cornermen, Afnan and Mahmood are like war buddies. Our experience at ONEFC together as the first Pakistani representatives in international MMA and on such a grand stage are going to be something that we can understand. Those who have seen it on TV or on the net cannot understand what it is like to really be there.  The first time we heard the BOOM of the drum from the ONEFC theme and saw the cage and the lights and the sound echo amongst 9,000 screaming fans, your blood would chill and you would get goosebumps. It’s really happening you think to yourself…

Us three keep going back to that moment and night and it won’t leave us. I will do my best to give you all my best effort to try and take you there while you read on…

Bashir Ahmad victorious at ONEFC 8

Posted on: April 8th, 2013 by admin No Comments

Bashir Ahmad, MMA Pioneer in Pakistan and founder of PAKMMA was victorious in his ONEFC Debut at ONEFC 8 in Singapore on April 5th. Bashir Ahmad came back from a nasty cut above his eye to win a unanimous decision win over his game Thai opponent Shannon “OneShin” Wiratchai.

More news and backstage info to come soon!

The mental game

Posted on: October 29th, 2012 by admin 2 Comments

“Training is 90% physical and 10% mental, fighting is 10% physical and 90% mental” – Rich Franklin

These words could not be any truer. People seem to forget where the impetus to fight comes from. Fighting can be surmised to be at its most bare, an expression of rage or passion, defending oneself or one’s family, a sinister desire to take with force from others what is not theirs, to right a wrong and to make level a slight to ones honor. These are all reasons why people fight – and it all starts in the mind and how it ends typically ends there as well. The desire to win, to fight intelligently and to be mentally tough enough to handle the highs and lows that come from combat not to mention the daily grind of rigorous training are all accomplished from ones mind.

The decision to write this came at the advice of Joel Bowen, the manager at Team Quest Thailand. After losing a Muay Thai fight I slumped down on a chair and felt like the most worthless person there, I had failed myself, I had failed those looking up to me in Pakistan and I had failed my trainers at Team Quest. I now had a choice, I could dwell over this or I could go back and see what went wrong and fix them. This is one thing you can be assured of here at Team Quest and that is that they don’t take being a team lightly AT ALL. If you put in the work, these people are gonna support you 100%.

So back to the point of mental toughness – this post isn’t about HOW to be mentally tough because that is gonna be something the person reading this is going to have look at themselves and see what they need, be it spiritual strength, psychological counseling (not trying to be funny, sport psychology is legit) or a reaffirmation and belief that whatever you are trying to achieve is within your grasp. This post is about how these things are important, especially in a game like MMA where you need every weapon possible. This post is about how you have the right environment here at Team Quest Thailand to cultivate mental strength via a supportive staff, Thai and western, a lack of unhealthy distractions like one would find in places like Phuket or Bangkok (clubs etc…) and an abundance of extra activities that help nurture the soul like meditation retreats, beautiful nature filled get aways and yoga courses. However in the end it will all depend upon the focus you put into training yourself mentally, if that is something that you neglect than it doesn’t matter where you are, it’s going to end up screwing you.

In Pakistan, a lot of the guys at my gym from poor backgrounds have this trait inherent in them. Their lives has been filled with so much misery that it had made them mentally very tough, more than any of the people who are reading this are because if you can read this, you had enough resources for an education that probably shielded you away from hunger a life so messed up that a broken appliance could mean cutting down on the amount you eat for dinner at night.

But for better or worse those who have not had this life experience and are interested in fighting it is time to build the fortitude that will make you come out for those final rounds when your down on the score cards.

Why go home? A bit of a rant.

Posted on: October 21st, 2012 by admin 7 Comments

I looked at the calendar today. I have a little more than 8 weeks left here and although I am not even 25% of the way into my trip here I feel depressed about going back. I don’t regret what I have done and I know that what I have done in Pakistan has made many people thankful to me and I have created an entire scene and put Pakistani MMA on the map all these things give me pride and pleasure. But I need to ask myself if maybe I have accomplished what I needed to accomplish and the time has come for me to move on. I took a break of 3 years from my training and it really saddens me when I dwell on how much better I would be if I had spent those three years on training and improving myself than focusing on MMA in Pakistan. But I try not to dwell on it because in the end I have cemented myself as a personality and player in the Asian MMA scene and there are plenty of people who have been fighting for twice as long as I have been training and are not getting the recognition they deserve.

But back to the point, is it time to hand over everything I have created to the next generation of Mixed Martial Artists and move on? I cannot get the training that I need in Pakistan nor the opportunity to fight regularly. I have a lack of training partners that challenge me in Pakistan. Some of the training partners I do have or some that I could call in from other disciplines that would theoretically serve to challenge me are illiterate and unfortunately this lack of education makes it hard for them be the best training partners that they could be. Yes they may have skill and experience but they don’t understand that i sparring and rolling maybe SOMETIMES it’s ok to go light or slow because that’s where you learn. They can’t cast away their ego to make sparring a game of give and take, it’s all or nothing and there’s a championship belt on the line ALL THE TIME. Contrast that to the Thai way of sparring which is very partner oriented, they are not trying to beat each other because they know that defeating an opponent is really important in a competition against someone from another gym. Beating your training partners, puts you at risk of losing your training partners and than what do you have? Nothing. It also puts you at risk of relying only on the things that work for you, I mean you wouldn’t try a new technique you saw on youtube in a title fight, so why would you try it in the gym with your training partner (sarcasm!!)? If you look at top players in Pakistan, whether it be in Wushu or boxing or kickboxing, they don’t evolve, they don’t usually get better with time. They learn a set curriculum in the first couple years of training and that’s it, they know the art, after that they just maintain.

One of the reasons I am enjoying my time here at Team Quest is that I don’t feel that pressure to win, win, win every time I spar or roll. Granted, 60% of that is because I am not a coach here so I don’t feel that pressure, that’s my own ego at work and maybe something I need to reexamine when I go back to Pakistan. But the other 40% is because I don’t get the feeling that the person across from me is trying to beat me, he is trying to LEARN. He is not using me as a tool to gain ego points but is using me as a means of feedback to better his skills. In general at the Muay Thai camps it is like that but to be honest, it is more prevalent here at Team Quest, the overwhelming feeling you get at the camp is that people are here to get better, not to be the most badass guy at the gym but to be better martial artists at the end of the week than they were at the beginning.

So, I want you the PAKMMA community to really comment on this one…Should I come back or do you think it is time for me to start focusing on the next stage? As the face of Pakistani MMA does training overseas ensure my success or can it be done in Pakistan??

2 weeks in…

Posted on: October 18th, 2012 by admin No Comments

I am into my second week of training at Team Quest Thailand and things could not be better. If you read my last post I had set up a training program that I was hoping to follow and so far I have done pretty good and have stuck to about 90% of it, but one thing is for sure, in terms of hours, I have not trained any less. I may have not trained a certain class one day or come later for another but I made it up by doing a class I had not planned on doing and staying after training and doing a few drills of my own for a little while.

The trainers here are great and though Team Quest Thailandd  is a Muay Thai camp they have full understanding that it’s also an MMA gym and they are altering my pad work accordingly. I have been at MMA gyms where the Muay Thai trainers do not seem to understand that people training for MMA can learn Muay Thai but must tweak it a bit to fit MMA. For example yesterday, one of the trainers, Kru Joe, did my pad rounds using only boxing while he also kicked me. I did no kicks but only did boxing and had to defend his kicks and counter with punches. In a Muay Thai fight that would be a sure way to lose a decision but in MMA punches are equal points and are rank higher in how many KO’s have come about in MMA, so punching a kicker may be a desperation strategy in Muay Thai for round number 5 or when you are outclassed but in MMA it is a path to victory. Training this way has also made me motivated to train even harder because the training has not become stale. I have many times ended up getting sick of the repetitive nature of Muay Thai, hitting the pads the same way day in and day out. I love Muay Thai, but the variety of MMA is more appealing to me in the end when you weight the two side by side.

When I started this post I was going to focus more on a particularly topic and that being of me REALLY not wanting to come back to Pakistan. I do not look forward to not having people around me pushing ME, I do not look forward to having to teach new guys of whom 90% will quit within 3 months cuz they didn’t become a ninja with magical powers and a body like Alistair Overeem within that time period ( One of the most common questions I get as a gym owner in Pakistan is “How long does it take to learn?” You dumbf&*!, how about a lifetime?) I will save that rant for later.

Right now I will leave you with a fascinating story that one of the trainers Ping was telling me over lunch about Team Quest Thailand‘s top fighter Adrien “Kaew” Rubrin. Ping is one the trainers here and also an MMA fighter, he looks much younger than his age of 29 and like many Thai people is constantly smiling and has a youthful demeanor about him and when he talks he looks a lot like Japanese cartoon the way his eyes light up. I really like the guy, and we’re becoming pretty good friends. Anyway, he was telling me that he was still at his old gym Thai Muay Thai, here in Chiang Mai, when Adrien walked in to train. Adrien had left France to just travel as many people do in their early twenties, he had no real plan just wanted to bum around and have fun. Trained Muay Thai for fun and Ping saw that he had some potential. He took him too some fights, all of which he won via knockout and started pushing him go for better and better competition. The people all around him called him crazy and said that Adrien didn;t know how to fight and had only won because he was fighting scrubs, and though he was still winning people did not take him seriously. The big breaks came when Adrien moved to Team Quest. Team Quest although a new gym has some EXCELLENT contacts in Bangkok and get people some top notch fights in Lumpinee if they show potential. Well, apparently on two occasions other fighters who were supposed to compete had to pull out due to injury or inability to make weight and they through Adrien in there just to make sure the fight still happened. Both times he won against people he was supposed to lose against and then people really started to notice. It’s been a little over a year since Adrien started training and he has exploded onto the Muay Thai scene. I will definitely keep everyone up to date with what is going on with him but his story is something that one could make a movie out of and I wish him the best and I wish that Ping and all those around Adrien who have supported his journey get some good for themselves for believing in someone people thought was just getting lucky.

Adrien will be fighting in the Toyota Muay Thai Maraton on November 1st. 3 Muay Thai fights in one day (Equals BRUTAL), this is one of the most prestigious belts one can win in Thailand so if you have access to Thai TV you can’t miss this one.

Training and Recovery

Posted on: October 14th, 2012 by admin No Comments

I just turned thirty yesterday and not only is a birthday a good reason to take it easy for the weekend, but in the beginning weeks of training I need to make sure my body recovers before I start the next week, because each week is going to get harder and more intense.  The body doesn’t get stronger via exercise. It gets stronger during recovery from exercise. Recovery is a part of training. This doesn’t, however, serve as some sort of rationalization for being lazy. If you’re waking up fresh every morning you’re probably not working out at an intensity where planning a recovery periods is important. However, if you’re constantly sore, generally exhausted and getting more unmotivated and emotionally fatigued as the week goes on, (as what can be expected for a professional fighter or someone training in Thailand), then planning recovery is very important.

I am glad it was my birthday though because based on how I feel today, I think one day of recovery could have been enough and I could have trained today. That being said, I don’t know if the one extra day of training could have made for an inadequate recovery over the weekend and then a terrible upcoming week of training. What’s done is done and I should enjoy this weekend and the crap I am going to eat because I made a pledge that after my 30th birthday, I would eat sweets only once a week –FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. I am sure it wont be like that to the T, but bottom line is that it’s time to be even more careful about my diet than I already am, because what you do in your early 30’s will decide whether or not you will be competing after age 35.

Back to the point, which was about training and recovery. I have two days of recovery this week so I am going to push a little bit harder next week. This is how I’m planning my upcoming week here at Team Quest Thailand:

Monday –

0900 – Core and balance training (More about this class in a bit)
0945 – Cardio-respiratory training for MMA (aka fight conditioning)
1300 – MMA Fight Team Training
1430 – Grappling
1600 – Boxing for MMA padwork/Sparring
1800 – Rest

Tuesday –

0730 – Muay Thai Training
0900 – Flexibility Training
1430 – Grappling
1600 – Muay Thai Clinch for MMA

 

 

Wednesday –

0730 – Kickboxing (K-1 style padwork)
0900 – Core/Agility/Balance training
0945 – Cardio-respiratory training for MMA (aka fight conditioning)
1300 – MMA Fight Team Training
1430 – Grappling
1600 – Boxing with takedowns padwork/Sparring

Thursday –

0945 – Conditioning for MMA
1430 – Grappling
1600 – Muay Thai Clinch

Friday –

0730 – Muay Thai and Boxing padwork
0900 – Core/Agility/Balance training
1300 – MMA Fight Team
1430 – Grappling
1600 – Kickboxing with takedown padwork/Sparring

Saturday –

0730 – Muay Thai
0900 – Flexibility training
1430 – Grappling

So this is my schedule for this coming week. I will be planning out my schedule week by week depending upon how I feel the week before and where I think I need more work or what I see working for me and what doesn’t.  This schedule is also going to help me remain disciplined as I have now publicly posted it and will be upheld to it!

The 0900 class that is based around core/agility/balance is a class that in fact I will be running as a trial class. It’s all going to be based around things I am learning in my master’s degree in exercise science. Will be posting videos about the class and the concepts we’ll be covering week by week.

Finally, this is sort of a trial to see how I can tweak my training to best prepare me for MMA. One of the issues I have had in the past is that trainers often times don’t want to try anything new and refuse to go out of the Muay Thai box. Obviously, if I am to excel in MMA I cannot simply train for Muay Thai just as someone who is learning boxing for MMA cannot take takedowns and leg kicks out of the equation. So we’ll see how successful how this trial is.

So the training begins…

Posted on: October 10th, 2012 by admin No Comments

By the end of today I will have officially been in Chiang Mai one week and will have completed my first full week of training. Right now I am at the stage where I am trying to figure out what the best schedule is going to be for me. Basically at the moment the schedule is as such –

7 am – 9 am Muay Thai

9 am – 10 am – MMA Conditioning

1 pm – 3 pm – MMA (Fight Team Only)

3 pm – 4 pm – Grappling

4 pm – 6 pm – Muay Thai

If one were to train all day that is going to end up to be 8 hours of training a day. Although I plan to try and work my way up to about that many hours I have to be very particular about how those hours are broken down. Unless you’re a superhero, have some ridiculous genetics or are on steroids I do not think it is possible to do 8 hours of hard training in a day without eventually coming down with an injury or illness or simply breaking down your bad so bad and so regularly without rest that you will not experience any gains.

I have been to Thailand 6 times prior to this trip and on two occasions I went hard into training thinking more is always better. Both times I ended up sick within two weeks and feeling more and more worn out as the weeks passed by. I have since learned that a little bit of patience in the beginning will pay off later.

One technique that have learnt and one that any aspiring MMA fighter should utilize is monitoring ones heart rate. I take my heart rate every morning and when it seems to be higher than usual I know that it is time to back off a bit and let the body recover.

I personally think that a person can do a maximum of 1-2 hours of hard training per day and the rest should be technical. Not only is figuring out when to do hard sessions and when to be technical a challenge in logistics but there is also the very important issue of SLEEP. I have been averaging a total of 6 hours of sleep per night. That is definitely not enough to recuperate fully and I have to not only schedule my training but also naps. For example on two occasions so far I FORCED myself to sleep in so I could feel fresh. I have had sleep issues in the past but have been able to get away with it since I owned by own gym and trained at my own schedule. It’s going to be different here.

I was going to get into about what training is like here but instead it has turned into a bit of self-talk for myself. So I will save it for the next blog post, but I can tell you this much, the trainers here are good and they are understanding of how foreigners learn, the management here is made up of some real Thailand veterans (will have a separate post about them because they really are going to shape TQT into something truly special) and the MMA instructor has quite honestly exceeded my expectations in terms of knowledge and teaching ability. So that will be the next post and this weekend will have the first in our video series out!

3G MMA holds Karachi’s first MMA Smoker

Posted on: July 23rd, 2012 by admin 2 Comments
A typical Sunday evening in Karachi usually witnesses people going out with friends or relatives, chilling in their homes, watching TV or worrying about what Monday might bring. But on 15 July 2012, it was a different Sunday evening. Karachi witnessed its first ever Mixed Martial Arts event held at THIRD GENERATION MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (3G-MMA) near Nipa Chowrangi. It was titled “3G -SMOKER” and showcased fighters mainly from 3gMMA and ACT-ONE MUAY THAI. Also, there were fighters who train independently or are trained in traditional style of Martial Arts like Karate and Taekwondo.

The show started with the demonstration of Martial Arts Skills performed by Sir. Nadeem and his students then founder and head trainer at 3G-MMA Ovais Shah performed spectacular skills by breaking ice blocks with elbow strikes and kicks and my favorite; breaking a tile with his thumb.

Hammad vs. Irtesam
The demo got the crowd warmed up for an exhibition grappling match between Irtesam and Hammad. These two brothers who are 14 and 12 respectively are deaf by birth but love mixed martial arts and especially grappling. They both showed great skills that left the crowd in awe. The match was of two three minute rounds; one with more submissions wins the fight. Hammad won that match 2-0.

Qasim vs. Khizer
For the main card, the rules were simple, 3 x 3 minute rounds with no elbows or knees allowed in any position. The first fight was between Qasim of 3G-MMA and Khizer who is a Black Belt in Bando-Karate. This was a one side affair from the word go Qasim was the aggressor who repeatedly landed devastating blows and referee stopped the fight in the first round.

Ali Usmani vs. Asif
Next up was a fight between Ali Usmani of 3G-MMA and Asif of ACT-ONE. This was a see-saw battle it was ASIF who drew first blood with a couple of right hands that dazed Ali but Ali came back and took the fight to the ground, landed a few strikes before securing a rare-naked choke. There was a bit of a controversy as after the fight, Ali in the heat of the moment celebrated with some obscene gestures that left Asif’s corner protesting. So for the sake of the sport the decision was reversed to a No-Contest.

Shahid vs. Ebad
Third fight of the main card was a Muay Thai Fight between Shahid of 3gMMA and Ebad of ACT-ONE. It was a good fight to watch as Ebad was trying to push the pace as Shahid was keeping things technical. Shahid started landing some good counter strikes that started to take a toll on Ebad and eventually the fight was stopped by the referee. Shahid won by a TKO.

Hassan vs. Fayyaz
Next fight was another Muay Thai fight between Hassan of 3GMMA and Fayyaz of ACT-ONE. This was a battle of attrition as both guys matched well against each other. Both guys landed good technical strikes, Hassan used his reach where as Fayyaz tried to get inside and do his thing. The fight went the distance and Judges Sir. Nadeem and Sir. Gohar Gul along with the referee Ovais Shah called it a majority draw.

Daniyal vs Vohra
This was the fight of the night. Daniyal of 3gMMA and Vohra of ACT-ONE locked horns for an MMA fight. They both seemed well versed in striking and kept things technical but when the fight got to the ground vohra seemed to be in command and applied 3 guillotine chokes in 2 rounds of fighting but was not able to finish Daniyal. Daniyal survived this ordeal for 2 rounds, Vohra was carrying an illness coming into this fight which took its toll on him and his corner stopped the fight in the start of the third round. The heart both fighters showed is commendable.

Hamza vs. Abid
Next fight was an MMA open weight fight between Hamza of ACT-ONE and Abid who is trained in Karate. The fight only lasted one round which saw Abid trying to use his reach and size against a smaller and lighter opponent but as the fight went to the ground hamza secured a deep triangle choke and Abid tapped eventually.

Akif vs. Imran
The main event was between Akif of 3gMMA and Imran who is a trained boxer. The fight started with both fighters respecting each other’s power. It was evident that Akif was using his kicks a little more against Imran who is predominantly a boxer. In the first round both fighters landed a few strikes; Akif tried to take the fight to the ground but Imran stubbed every takedown attempt. As the second started Imran was looking to be more aggressive, when they engaged Akif clipped him with a right hand as Imran tried to move away Akif landed a devastating kick right on Imran’s chin and left him knocked out cold.

This event was the first of its kind in Karachi and the credit goes to Ovais Shah and his team for organizing such great event.

Shaheen Smoker June 16th

Posted on: June 9th, 2012 by admin No Comments

On June 16th at Synergy MMA Academy (www.club-synergy.com) amateurs from around DHA, Lahore and possibly from outside of Lahore will be converging to test their skills in a friendly non-competitive atmosphere where safety and experience are the first priority.

Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA fights are on all the card.

If your interested in taking part or even coming to watch please contact 0334-413-7706

Registration is 250 PKR. All entrants will receive a certificate.

This is the official path to Pak Fight Club and where you can get your professional career started.

Summary of ONEFC ONEASIA Summit

Posted on: June 5th, 2012 by admin No Comments

From the 1st to the 3rd of June 2012, One Fighting Championship held the ONE Asia Summit at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino in Singapore. Industry leaders from across Asia, (over 150 from 20 some countries), were flown in for the three day meeting to discuss the growth of the sport in Asia, and network with other industry leaders who many knew only over the internet.

Representatives from Pakistan, Bashir Ahmad and Zain Shah of PAKMMA and Pak Fight Club respectively, were in attendance at the summit.

The first day of the summit was mostly people arriving at the hotel and getting settled in. In the evening, a cocktail party was held where the attendees got together to break the ice and get to know one another. Throughout the entire summit, business cards were being exchanged at every moment. The cocktail party, as well as the rest of the summit, was MC’d by History Channel’s “Human Weapon” host, Jason Chambers.

Day Two of the summit lasted from 9 am to 5 pm, during which time experts and guests from across the industry, ranging from gym owners, sponsors and promotion leaders, gave talks on various subjects regarding business matters related to MMA. They also discussed how to build the sport in Asia and how to get people to work together for a shared goal of creating a proper infrastructure for MMA.

After the presentations, the entire group of attendees went out for dinner at a private dining hall. The relaxed atmosphere gave the ONEFC network the opportunity to grow even more tightly bound as a team, and as posted on PAKMMA twitter, it “Became less like a network, and more like a family.”

The final day consisted of one more panel discussion, before the attendees were broken up into two groups to have more informal discussions on creating opportunities for gyms and fighters and on creating an amateur circuit. After this, there was lunch and a final wrap up by ONEFC CEO Victor Cui.

So that was the cut and dry synopsis of the summit for you PAKMMA fans out there. Now I will get a little more informal and tell you a more personal account of the experience and give a shout out to the great people I met at the summit.

First and foremost, big thanks to Victor Cui for making this happen. The summit was all expenses paid and was held at the nicest hotel in Singapore. I would have stayed at a homeless shelter if that were the requirement to make this sport grow, so to be taken care of so well means a lot.

The people at the summit were great and were all very passionate and supportive of what we are doing in Pakistan. Everyone understood the trials and tribulations we face, and we as a community I believe have earned their respect. For that, I thank you guys and the entire ONEFC network. Although I (Bashir Ahmad) may be the face and pioneer of all this, without you I am just one weird dude who decided to leave America to start MMA in Pakistan.

For all you people reading who want to get filled in on how this started, you can start by reading this.

“How did you end up in Pakistan?”

Then you can contact me and add a story about us on your website! ; )