UFC vet Chuck “Cold Steel” O’Neil will return to middleweight action on March 11 at CES MMA 33 in Rhode Island. Chuck is keeping us up to date with how things are going leading up to the fight with “The Cold Steel Files”.
It’s finally fight week — and not a minute too soon.
On Friday night at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, R.I., live on AXS TV Fights, all the dieting, training, time and energy I’ve invested in MMA for the past eight weeks all pays off.
I really enjoy MMA, but fighting isn’t an easy sport by any means — and that doesn’t have much to do with the pain and injuries that happen in the cage.
The hard part of fighting is the day-to-day work that you have to put in — and the sacrifices you have to make every day, in every aspect of your life — to get to where you want to be. There are early mornings, late nights — and a ton of grueling hours in between.
Like I said, I enjoy MMA. But it isn’t easy.
That being said, everything suddenly becomes 100-percent worthwhile when the cage door locks and you see your opponent standing across from you.
There’s absolutely nothing in the world that compares to stepping into that cage — except having your hand raised. That’s the absolute best feeling in the world — nothing beats it.
I have a lot of respect for my opponent and former teammate, Dennis Olson, but I’m not getting into the cage to take a loss from anybody. When the ref says “Go,” on Friday night, I’m in there, I’m getting after it, and I’m going to put on a show for everyone watching.
I hope you tune in, and thank you for following along on my weekly pro blog — I’ll see you on the other side!
Follow Chuck on Twitter at @ChuckONeilMMA and watch O’Neil vs. Olson and the rest of the CES MMA 33 fight card live on AXStv on Friday, March 11.