I had three simple goals at this competition: one was to make weight after dropping more than a stone and a half since Christmas; the other was to not do anything reckless and survive for a full five-minute round; and the final one was to watch and learn everything I could.
First up, I made weight with something to spare. It may sound like a minor thing but it was a battle for me and this part of competition discipline is totally new to me.
My first fight saw me taken down quite quickly, but I recovered and worked my way to turtle, then I took the opponent down and worked my way to guard After this, we both fought for position and I spent most of the fight in guard and had a choke attempt and a kimura attempt. I turned the latter into a sweep and ended up in mount, before we had another positional scramble and he worked to a sort of side mount but couldn't pass to full mount. The bell went and I won the fight by a point but I could have easily lost it. With about 30 seconds to go, I heard my opponent's supporters telling him he had to get points to win so I desperately defended for all I was worth. My opponent was ridiculously strong and both his strength and his speed took me by surprise. He was also kind and gracious in defeat.
My second fight similarly saw me taken down quite quickly by a very strong and fast opponent. But I recovered from an attempted head and arm choke, then felt my opponent tire as he'd put everything into this submission. I scrambled an escape and felt like I was about to pressure him into letting me go, then something popped in my ribs. I struggled on for another minute or so but the pain meant I couldn't move when I needed to and he eventually tapped me with an Americana.
It took me a few minutes to get off the mat as my ribs were in agony. Fortunately, a quick trip to the paramedic, some painkillers, then a freezing gel from a team-mate pulled me through so I could watch the rest of the day.
The pain was almost certainly worth the experience, though.
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