MMA AMATEUR JONATHAN WOOD INTERVIEW
Posted on | March 9, 2007 | 1 Comment
Jonathan Wood: Amateur MMA Fighter
By: Rich Bergeron
Jonathan Wood will step into the cage for his next battle on March 17th as part of the Cage of Honor St. Patty’s Day Bash. He’s looking forward to putting his training to the test.
“I been in Kenpo Karate since I was 18, so it’s been about 6 years,” Wood said about how he got started in the sport. “I got to talking to some people about wanting to do it, and I went to the library and did some research. I seen it on TV, and I ended up finding the Cage of Honor out of Nixa, Missouri. I sent ’em all my info, and they got right with me, and I got a fight scheduled. I’ve been in it since November of 2005 as an amateur.”
He carries a record of 2-2-0 into his next match and hopes to break .500 and move on to greater accomplishments in the sport.
“My ultimate goal is to become a pro fighter. I just want to train, fight, and keep fighting. If it takes me to bigger places, great, if not, that’s great, too,” he said. “I’ll fight until I can’t fight no more, and when I’m done I wanna start my own gym and possibly start my own cage fighting business.”
Asked about what he loves most about the sport, Wood responded, “I love the training, the pain’s great. I can’t get enough of that. I just like training with different types of people. Everyone’s different, and you can learn a lot of things from others.”
He hails his intense workouts as the key to preparing for his fights. “Conditioning, conditioning, conditioning,” he stressed. “I do a lot of sparring with different weight classes, and that kinda helps me with sparring with the heavier guys. That gives me a little bit more strength out of it. That way it’s a little bit easier for me. I used to spar with a 185-pound guy, and when I went to fight I could just bridge out, and I had no problem getting out of tight spaces.”
He said he’s always been a fan of martial arts and considers Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee as role models.
“Outside the ring I’m a certified nurse’s aid,” he said. “I really enjoy helping elderly people as much as I can. It’s a pretty good way of helping people.”
Looking back at his career so far he recalls one fight in particular that stands out as the most frustrating. “My toughest fight was definitely my second fight. I went in there not really prepared, and I paid for it,” he recalled. “It lasted about 18 seconds into the first round. The guy threw a jab, I parried it down, and then he threw a right leg kick. When he did that I dropped my hand, and he came over with the right cross. He broke my nose in 7 places, re-arranged my septum, and caused a hairline fracture in my left eye socket. He hit me once, I fell down, and he got on top of me and hit me a few more times before the ref jumped in to stop it. That was probably the roughest fight I’ve ever had. I learned a lot from that one.”
His amateur debut was much more gratifying. “My first fight was my favorite. I went in there well trained, my cardio was great, and I was fighting against a Jiu Jitsu guy. We went through the first round in a standup battle with strikes back and forth. The second round went 38 seconds or so, and the guy took me down and had me in a headlock. I was just kinda working my way out of it, and he reached up and grabbed the fence. I got behind him, took his back, and got him in a rear naked choke to end it.”
He’s a big fan of the sport of MMA and studies both local fighters and the major stars out there to improve his game. “There’s a couple local fighters that I like pretty well. Rodney Gordon, he’s an excellent guy, and he’s willing to help anybody. He’s an excellent fighter, too. He’s a good striker, and he’s got a good ground game. He’s a champion in his weight class. I’ve also been working with Tyler Stinson here at the gym. He’s the middleweight champion for Masters of the Cage,” he explained. “I’m also a big fan of Chuck Liddell and Cro Cop. I love Liddell’s unorthodox style. It’s just amazing how he can come from anywhere and knock somebody out. And with Cro cop, that leg kick of his is amazing.”
Wood is just plugging away with training and trying to maintain a complete game to take into the cage with him against his next opponent. “I’m just trying to work on my standup, because I think this guy’s more of a standup fighter,” he said. “He’s 6 foot 3 and weighs 155 pounds, so he’s obviously a tall, skinny guy, but I don’t know whole lot about him. I heard he’s got a decent ground game, and I’m working a lot on that here at the gym.”
To find out more about Wood check out his MySpace profile at: http://www.myspace.com/jmadwarrior