Training with Ganyao and AHSC
May 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Updates From Mark
When I arrived into Oakland on the night of May 14th, I felt an overwhelming sense of comfort. I was home! Stayed at my parents house, got up in the early morning to head to Fairtex where I trained with the world-renown Muay Thai trainer Ganyao. He has always been there for me throughout my career. I didn’t get the chance to train with him for my last fight. When I arrived his first words were, “why you fight so stupid! Why you so stupid!” It was awesome to see him. He will always point you in the right direction. He put me through seven rounds of pads with kicks, punches, elbows, and knees. He also showed me technique that I needed to concentrate on. During the time I trained with him, I felt sharp!
On Saturday May 16th in San Francisco over 90,000 people came to commemorate the cultures, food, dances, artifacts, clothing, and the people of the Asian Community. This event is known as the biggest outdoor Asian American event in the United States. Major streets and intersections were blocked off. The air was filled with the aroma of barbeque, everywhere you turned there were booths setup showing off their different cultural items for sale. Books were being offered to educate about different Asian cultures. At 11:15am I was able to speak about the recent happenings. I also enjoyed the boxing ring with Muay Thai and mixed martial arts exhibitions. As I stood around the ring I took pictures with friends and fans and was interviewed by Myx. Myx is the music channel of ABS-CBN and is currently one of the most popular music channels in the Philippines. It is also a part of Studio 23’s program line-up. I was privileged to meet Joey Guila, a well-known Filipino comedian was there to show his support. I remember watching him perform stand-up comedy at another Filipino festival.
After spending about 3 hours at the festival, I headed out back down to So Cal for Jason Lambert’s fight. When I arrived into Ontario, Jason was in good spirits and was ready to go. It was a long night of fights. There were 12 fights on the card with performances in between. The event started at 6pm, Jason didn’t get into the cage till 11:45pm. It was great fight. Lots of action from every aspect of MMA. Tons of scrambles, combinations of punches and kicks, and ground and pound action. Jason’s great at throwing his combinations. The only difference in the fight was the takedowns. Matyshenko had 3 takedowns to Jason’s 1 takedown. Although Jason nearly ended the fight, Matyshenko was able to weather the storm and get through it. Now its back to the gym to train our weaknesses and make them our strengths. Champions aren’t measured by how many wins they have, but how many times they pick themselves back up after loss!
