The Project Blogs: “Writer to Fighter”

Posted on | May 19, 2009 | No Comments

Pampering The Project

(Editor’s Note: Jeremy Luchau has been a journalist for 10 years and over the last four years wrote a column chronicling his training to become a mixed martial artist. This is the fourth Volume of the Writer to Fighter series)

By Jeremy Luchau

There’s things that come up each and every week that really prohibit me from getting that grueling and intensive training camp that the pros get.

But hey, that’s all right, because I’m a fulltime dad and work a great job at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino as an Entertainment Coordinator. I’ve got other responsibilities and priorities in my life.

When the Palace Fighting Championship’s “Validation” came to fruition on May 8, I had to take a little time off the training schedule. And one week latter I found myself in a similar position as Gretchen Wilson put on a show May 15 and Ramon Ayala did his thing on May 17.

It was a busy, but exciting two weeks for me and I still managed to stick to my diet for the most part and keep my weight down at 170 pounds and also stick to a pretty strict training schedule.

I worked out three times a week with strength and conditioning coach Steve Novencido and VQ Fitness in Hanford, Calif.

Then I would either head to the Team Ochoa training facility and work with Jacob Jeff and Mike Martinez in Lemoore, Calif. or travel to the Lemoore Farmboyz wrestling practices to work with a pair of excellent wrestlers in Alex Perez and Nick Sierra.

My broken toe is healing up nicely and I’m feeling pretty strong at this part. These next two weeks I will spar some pretty tough rounds and do a lot of strength training.

Novencido has my whole workout program scheduled daily up until fight day. He wants to make sure my body peeks at the right time. He’s also asked me to make sure that I take care of my body a little better this time around, asking me to get massages etc.

I’ve done my best to kind of pamper myself, getting massages and pedicures to help with my feet. I know a lot of fighters that I’ve spoken to say they get both pedicures and manicures – as strange as that sounds.

The one thing that I still struggle with, though, and will probably bite me in the butt down the road is proper rest. I’m really only getting roughly six hours of sleep at night because of work and then training.

There’s only so much time in day for me to get everything done and each and every day I forget to do something.

It’s a real test for me to try and organize myself and my kids, work and training. And at the same time make sure I take my supplements at the right time and eat when I’m scheduled to eat.

It always amazes me that the casual mixed martial arts fan thinks just anyone can do MMA. That fighters just sign a fight contract, train for a few weeks and then hop in the ring or cage and fight, collect their check and then go party.

If it was only that easy?

Cage Combat matchmaker Richard Goodman also phoned me this week with some news.

“Jeremy, I have your opponent locked in,” he says.

“Kenny Florian,” I joked.

“I wish buddy, No, Carlos De Soto from Hanford said he would like to fight you,” Goodman replies.

I of course accept.

I don’t think I know anything about De Soto really. I immediately text Mike Martinez, because this guys trains at every gym all over the nation and ask him if he knows about him.

And as I guessed, he did.

“De Soto fought my boy Joe Morales from Samurai Dojo in a show earlier this year,” Mike explains. “This will be a good fight for you. You guys will match up pretty well. That’s a fight I would take if I were you.”

Next step was to look him up on Sherdog.com and see if I could find any info. There wasn’t much to go off of really other then that he lost to Morales at a Pure Combat Event in March of this year – TKO punches in two minutes, eight seconds of the first round.

Whatever the case, I still need to just keep improving my game. Focus on myself and getting myself ready to fight again after nearly a year out of the game.
These next two weeks will be a big test for my body, and me as I’ve worked pretty hard the last two months to get back in shape. So, I will push my body to the limit and hope to see some great results.

Another big help over last couple months was that my management team led by Kailin Hwang secured some pretty great sponsors in Status Apparel, Old Firehouse, Pure Tan, VQ Fitness and Crossfit, IronNovi, SCA Car Audio, Cassies Closet and Ashley Reed and of course JLive Entertainment, who’s founder Joey Perez has been a sponsor of all my fights from the start.

Also, for this fight I’ve got some help from Michael Bruno and the Fairtex crew and most importantly another supporter from the start Elite Fight Company.

I’m always looking for some additional help, so if you know anyone that wants to be part of the Project Team, let me know by email

project23@tmail.com