29 Mar EnsonInoueIsWritingABook
The book is coming along great. Here’s a sample:
UFC 13 Royce Alger
May 30, 1997
Augusta, Georgia
UFC 13
In my career as a fighter I’ve always fought in the unlimited weight class, but for the UFC I was offered a fight in the 200 lbs. class. Now for the first time I had to cut weight, a total of 11 lbs. Since the fight was all the way in Georgia, the East Coast of the States, I decided to break up the travel and instead of going straight from Japan to Georgia. I stopped in Los Angeles for a few days. In Los Angeles I trained with a good friend, fellow martial artists, Burton Richardson. He helped me with some strategy and helped me touch up my striking. After getting a few good days of training in, I headed off to Augusta, Georgia. When I got to Georgia I was still 2 lbs. overweight, and because I wasn’t used to dropping weight, even 2 lbs. was a big task. 2 days before the weigh-ins I didn’t eat or drink anything. The day of the weight check I was still worried about my weight, so I just sat in my room with my sweats on, under the covers, with the heater in my room set on high. Then, 2 hours before weigh-in time, I went downstairs to the training room with my brother and hit the pads and sparred for another 40 minutes.
Finally it was time to check my weight. I guess I was so worried about my weight and wanted to be safe that I actually dropped too much weight. I was 2 lbs. under, and my official weigh-in was at 198 lbs. I was drained but very relieved that I had made the weight. After weigh-ins, there was no time to rest. We went straight to the press interviews and picture taking. All the interviews were revolved around Royce Alger, and I got the feeling that I was already counted out, with everyone assuming Royce was going to be the champion. I was in a 4-man tournament that consisted of a judo expert, Al Leninger; a Pancration fighter, Guy Mentzer; NCAA wrestling champion, Royce Alger; and myself, the world Shooto heavy-weight champion. The alternate was a street fighter with a wrestling base named Tito Ortiz. At this time in the MMA scene, the wrestlers were dominant so that is why Royce was a heavy favorite. He was also Mark Coleman’s boy who was the reigning UFC heavy-weight champion. Royce also had some Golden Gloves boxing experience in his past, so he was a very well-rounded fighter. Everything leading up to the fight in the press conferences, interviews, and commercials was Royce Alger this, Royce Alger that. In the pre-fight interview, I was asked, “How does it feel to be going up against someone of Royce Alger’s caliber?”. And my answer was, ” I hear Royce is one of Dan Gable’s most ferocious wrestlers, so I look forward to meeting his aggression head on head.”
When we got in the arena, I was in awe at the set-up, and still had a hard time comprehending that I was going to be fighting in the pioneer of MMA, the UFC. 2 fights before Royce and I were going to fight, we were called to be on stand-by in a warm up area where there was a small mat area to warm up. What was very awkward was across the way from my warm up area, I could see over to Royce’s warm up area. I wasn’t interested in seeing Royce before the fight so I tried not to look over there, and just focused on my warm ups but………….
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