Back to the drawing board

39 days left....

Sometime in the beginning of March, I overheard a couple of guys at my BJJ school talking about the mythical Pan American Jiu Jitsu tournament - the 2nd largest jiu jitsu tournament in the world. If you took a look at my credit reports and past dating experiences, you would know that while I may be a white belt at BJJ I'm a freaking Black Belt in "Stupid Decisions", so I decided to enter.

At the beginning of the month, I noticed that I was close to the limit of 194 lbs. I don't know what was worse- cutting weight or being 195lb and 5 ' 6". So over the course of those last month I have ate really well, drank only water and upped the nutritional content in my diet. I also go to the gym in between days of BJJ, so now I am exercising 5-6 days a week. The results? The day before the tournament, I weighed in at 189 (with a 3 pound gi on) and weighed in at 187 at the tournament. So while I still have 30 pounds to go, I am pretty damn excited about where things are going.

The tournament itself was amazing: over 2400 competitors (!) showed up along with many high level guys. I was there on "White Belt Friday", which was also "Main Event Black Belt Friday". This is when all of us newbs show up and make complete jackasses out of ourselves while the black belts show how beautiful our sport can truly be. There were 10 mats and when your weight class is called you checked into the bullpen (warm-up area) and weighed in. Since my weight and health has spiraled out of control over the last few years, I was in the Medium Heavy (181-194 lbs) weight class and received a doozy of wakeup call: The average guy was in great shape and 5 ' 10 or taller. Apparently, some people do like to keep their weight proportionate to their size, though I still maintain I have yet to receive this memo. Even when I weighed in, the volunteer told me to drop a weight class or two.

After all the pre-game festivities you walk out to your mat. I noticed the size of the crowd, the pounding of my heart, the beads of sweat trickling down my brow. I look over and see the expression on Vanessa's face: a combination of fear and excitement. I could fill your head up with BS about how I "Visualized Victory" and remembered some magical quote my instructor told me, but neither happened. I looked across the mat at an unassuming guy and figured my best shot was to kick him in the nuts and follow that up with a chair shot. Alas, it was not meant to be: We traded positions for two minutes, then this is what followed:



Yes, I lost. No, I don't care. It was incredibly exhilirating and made me want to train even harder.

With a little over a month to go, I am counting on being 165 lbs and ready for Grappler's Quest.

2 Weeks til Pan-Ams...

...and 56 days until Grapplers Quest.



So first off, I must apologize for not updating in a while. There have been many goings on in "Jesse World". First off, I have began to write for an upstart website: http://www.fighttrend.com/. We will be covering all news of the MMA world and hope to eventually grow into a powerhouse in the MMA Journalism community. Also- I am 8-2 in picks for the past 2 UFCs so if you think you are better, hit me up and call me out-I ain't scared of you. I have done a couple of stories as well. Check out my story on King of the Cage Champ Neil "Chaos" Cooke. I train with him (By that I mean he physically trains in the same facility as me but I am no where near his class) and can vouch that this guy is truly a beast and a star in the making.



Also, I have been improving so much on the mat. I no longer look like an epileptic crackhead while rolling...not most of the time, anyways. I can actually stay out of submissions and in some cases, even put up a fight. Hell, I even got my first true submission last week. Much of the credit goes to my fellow teammates (especially Scott)- Everyone is always helpful and willing to help a hapless idiot like myself. Even the aforementioned Neil has schooled me a bit- When there was some confusion this Monday over class time and only one other person and I showed up, I was able to train with the champ - How many people can say they scored a private lesson with a champion? Not many, thats who. When you get on the mat with a high level guy, thats when you see the real difference- How in the hell a man that is 6'4 270 lbs can move that fast, I will never know.



I have become so confident that I have decided to enter the "Pan Jiu Jitsu Championships" at the end of this month right here in sunny So-Cal. Since there is no "incompetent wanna-be" division I will be entering the Friday night tourney consisting of white belts. The main reason I am doing this is so I can get those butterflies out of my stomach before Grapplers Quest in Vegas.



Support has actually been pretty good: My GF is impressed yet scared, my fellow students all give me credit for having the balls to enter, and my dad wonders how long it will take before I get my ass kicked, so all in all I'm pretty excited. I no longer feel overwhelmed by training- I actually get butterflies becasue I'm excited. Good butterflies-like when you find out you are getting a tax return, as opposed to the bad ones you get when you find out said return will be getting forwarded to your ex due to back child support...not that I've ever experienced that type of thing.

Unfortunately, I am about 6-7 lbs from my desired division, so I will be cutting weight for the next two weeks. With my sis in from Ohio until Sunday, I probably have one more day of eating crap food and drinking before I have to buckle down. If not, I can always do the "Beyonce / Cayenne Pepper / Lemonade / Enema" diet that seems to be all the rage these days. So tonight after I take her to dinner and profess it to be "My last bad meal" (until next weeks "last bad meal") I need to regain my focus.

So with T minus 14 days until the Pan-Ams:

Weight: 187 (With gi on)
Nothing but straight BJJ, baby.