Lewis Corapi, who works in the financial industry in downtown Boston during the day, recently caught up with ProMMANow’s Dustin Banks to talk about his “work-life balance” and his fight with former CES MMA Lightweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter bad boy Julian Lane at CES MMA 36 in Lincoln, R.I., on June 10, LIVE on AXS TV Fights.
ProMMANow: What do your coworkers say when you tell them about your passion for MMA?
Lewis Corapi: (Laughs) They usually ask me what’s wrong with me! They wonder what kind of person voluntarily gets into fist fights for fun (laughs). Once they get over the initial surprise, most people I work with are very supportive, which I really appreciate.
How do you balance your two jobs?
There’s really no magic formula — you just don’t sleep a lot. During the week, pretty much every hour I’m not sleeping is spoken for, and I’m either working or training. It’s tough sometimes, but there’s really no short cut. Thankfully I can catch up on sleep on the weekends (laughs), but there’s really no balance at all.
Is this the biggest fight of your career?
Absolutely. At the same time — and this is cliche — but every fight you’ve got coming up is the biggest fight of your career. This is definitely my highest-profile fight. Julian has been in the UFC system, where he has a bit of notoriety, and is the former champ for CES MMA. But, like I said before, every fight has to be the biggest fight of my life. Otherwise I’m getting my ass kicked.
How is this fight going to end?
I see a TKO in the third round. I think he’s going to get frustrated, flustered and will start throwing bombs, which is really going to open him up. Third-round TKO — that’s how I see it playing out.