Thats true man👍🏻instead of judging why not praises them right?

I remember my first amateur bout in boxing, I got beat and everyone made fun of me, if they only knew how hard it was to take my first steps into that ring. Just used it as motivation in my next fight.

@@aaroncusworth4504 fuck those who laughed,it takes determination and balls to put your ass in the ring,also a lot of hard work is behind any match

Looks like they stepped in a little bit early eh?

No

So Idk if my military training or my time wrestling helped me mentally with crowds, but it actually doesn’t bother me. If anything I feel a little invigorated by the crowd. You can hear them roar when you land a big shot and it’s just incredible

its totally adictive

@@harrisonlayne2352 yep,but its nothing do with military,i had the same feeling,its the tunnel effect and the adrenaline+focus in fight,u just see your fight and just hear the sound of the crowd,and its so good to hear ur name or the crowd shouting

Noticed it as well. Someone lent me a head protection once and I got the same issue. It is getting in your way AND it distracts you. (note it was just training but result was the same) Proper gear makes a lot of difference.

Yeah I went and puked after that fight.😂 We left it all in the ring

sparring and fighting isnt the same, even though physically its the same, mentally its a different pressure you got to adjust to

What you’re saying is absolutely correct, but I hadn’t learned and made those adjustments yet. I was only 6 weeks into training for this fight. You should check out my other 3 fights if you have a few minutes. You can see the progression I’ve made. I KOd my opponent in my second kickboxing match (8 weeks after this), and went on to 1st round sub both of my opponents in my mma matches! ( side note I had only sparred 1 time before this)

That's amazing bro! Pretty good first fight even without much sparring prep. Good to hear that you continued competing.

@@harrisonlayne2352 holy shit this guy is mad lad

thanks for watching my videos brotha! We have one of these every 6-8 and they’re always a great time!

@@harrisonlayne2352 what state?

Everyone gotta start somewhere man

I could say the same myself, this was 6 weeks into my fight training. I have fought twice more since then and if you watch those videos or watched me practice/spar today it’s like night and day. You should try fighting yourself. Then you can really learn to appreciate those pros you’re talking about!

@@harrisonlayne2352 I just started BJJ but I haven’t seriously started striking yet

Nice the grappling work is really important. Lots of guys neglect ground work, especially takedowns. I wrestled for 6 years so I’m more comfortable with my grappling, but I split my training time 50/50. I think you chose the right martial art to start with though. From what I hear grappling takes a lot longer to perfect than striking

@@NgatiDreadz @Harrison Layne here’s my sparring if you want to critique me. I’m not good either lol kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e55mgM-klsWteKM.html

Yeah this was after our first 6 weeks of training. He has stopped fighting though haha

Agree

what do you mean "blue level"?

@@paperblank6196 maybe karate or judo or something

@@blamelagg2340 i would hope it’s one of those, because if a must thai or boxing gym introduced belt levels, then i would leave

@@paperblank6196 haha why?

@@blamelagg2340 striking gyms shouldn’t have a belt system

Thank you brother, it means a lot. I’ve been putting a lot of time and energy into this. I train at least 3 hours a day 6 days a week on top of running my business. I pretty much just work and fight! I should have another XKO fight coming up in the next few months. They just announced 3 upcoming events. I’ll make a video announcement when I get the call!

Hey brotha, to answer your question as best I can this was after 6 weeks of training so I was very new. I went out there and basically adrenaline dumped. I had only sparred once so I found it hard to really get a game-plan going and think out there in the moment. Everything was mostly just reactive. I also felt very tense and I think that mixed with my adrenaline really drained my energy. However....If you look at my page you can see I fought again recently. I went out and treated it like a sparring match. I was a lot more methodical with my approach. I rocked him rd. 1 and then came up with a plan in between rounds. I ended up Knocking him out about 25 seconds into round 2. You should do much better than I since you have much more experience. My best advice is to go out there and treat it like a sparring match. Dont over exert yourself, but be sure to make him pay when he makes a mistake. Also make sure you switch up your combos so they don’t catch on to any patterns...that’s how I knocked out the 2nd guy

@@harrisonlayne2352 You the man! I'll make sure to follow your fights and thanks for the advice

Kinda had the same question, as I've been practicing and sparring for a while, but never tried a competition. Feeling a bit nervous about trying, but still really want to! Harrison, u looked great for only having one sparring session in your locker btw!

@@simonassarskog9600 thanks brotha! yeah honestly the process can be a little nerve wracking. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was nervous the day before or walking into the building the day of. Once you get out there though it’ll feel great. I never felt any of the shots really in my fights. When I would get punched or kicked I would just be thinking “fuck I gotta get those points back” The soreness comes later that night or the next day if you even get any Also I’m not sure if crowds bother you, but I completely tune everything out. So that hasn’t been a huge issue either.

@@harrisonlayne2352 I'm a kickboxer (UK)and I've been training/sparring/fighting for five years. Considering you only had six weeks under your belt you did really well in there. First 45 seconds and the adrenalin dump kicks in for the rest of the match doesn't it? It is a very fine art to conserve enough energy during 2 minute rounds. Hope you are still keeping it all up!

I’m 6 ft and like a 1/2 inch. I walk around at 178 typically. Both of my kickboxing smokers have been catch weight and my opponent was 10-15 Lbs heavier. I fought at XKO 50 at 185. I plan on fighting at 170 in the future…thanks brotha I’m still training. Should have another fight in the coming months!

They were, but I wasn’t very comfortable with them yet. If you watch my second kickboxing match I set up the knockout with a series of low kicks!

I’m gonna be making a video later today or tomorrow announcing my next fight. Gonna be my 2nd mma match for XKO. Venue is billy bobs in Fort Worth Texas. PPV is $25 I’m gonna be talking to the owner about potentially uploading my last fight on my page, and hopefully this new fight in the future. I just need to get video permissions

I did 2 classes a day at my gym and then I would go run 3 miles at least 4 days a week. the biggest thing to remember when you’re fighting is to breathe. If you’re chaining punches or taking punches you can get off breathing pattern and it can mess you up. breathe through the nose and out the mouth and don’t blow all of your energy at once. I treated my first fight like a brawl and I was gassed af by the end of the second. I treated my second fight like a sparring match, didn’t feel at all tired at the end of the first and I ended up setting a nice trap and knocking the dude out round 2

@@harrisonlayne2352 thank you.. how many time do you spar, do you spar hard or 50%? And do you spar after classes or b4 a classes?

This was after 6 weeks. I’m not sure what normal time is. Probably a few months. This was just an expedited program!

We were just using the gear we had. They’re both different brands if you look closely. He may have been a little more sweaty than I was, and I would also say I connected a lot more, and a lot harder than he did so those could have also been factors. Also you said the face part was less covered on my gear, but my opponent had a big black eye for about a week after, and I didn’t have a scratch so that kinda proves my point about taking more/harder shots!

Aloe Blacc - Getting Started

@@procopio3274 thank you very much!

Yeah it is petty crazy. Luckily we are sparring weekly now. I will say though. As I’ve been training and talking to others I’ve found out that a lot of people are having trouble finding fights. Some ppl have trained 3-5 years never being able to compete. So I’m extremely lucky in that regard. I was just offered my 3rd fight in may. It will be mma this time...no pads!!

@@harrisonlayne2352 What state are you from? 3-5 years to find a fight, there must not be a whole lot of people to compete with?

@@luisdawnfinder3188 I live in Dallas Tx. I wasn’t speaking of myself though. Just others I’ve trained with that told me they haven’t been able to or couldn’t find fights. Some of them I know are from out of state (Oklahoma, California, Georgia, etc) I have met a few guys from Dallas that have trained for years and haven’t fought yet though... I think that just came down to them being low priority in their respective gyms. Too many pros fighting at those gyms I believe the guys I’m referring to came from Saekson and Fortis

Fr? We also spar every training

I don't spar during camp. We work fight specific drills like slipping and dodging and covering kicks to keep my reflexes sharp. Sparring can hurt you and I could overtrain as well.

16 oz unfortunately

This was 6 weeks after! I fought again 6-8 weeks after (second kickboxing match), and then I had my first mma match about 7 months after I started striking. Honestly I would advise pumping the breaks on mma though unless you have a grappling background. I had 6 years of wrestling so I felt really comfortable. I ended up tapping my opponent out (purple belt) in a min and 18 sec

@@harrisonlayne2352 whoah nice man! I ve been training almost a year at kickboxing but sadly no fights yet :/ i wanna go mma after a fight or two but i have zero grappling background damn it

Yeah I’ve met a lot of people that have had a hard time getting their first fight. Gotta be frustrating! Mma would be tough without grappling, but there’s plenty of dudes who get by with an Iron takedown defense. I would at least practice sprawling and head control when you can make the time. My coach is always having me mix in takedowns at the end of our combos to help the other guys get used to it!

@@harrisonlayne2352 Yeah it's pretty frustrating and all that because of the quarantine..! Imagine right now i would have green belt in kick box and i am stucked at yellow because the exams didn't happen 😒 I hope bro we are not late to make it at pro level (UFC, Bellator etc) we are the same age i think

Yessir it is. I just posted our 2nd one ( my match) and we’re having a 3rd in 5-6 weeks!

@@harrisonlayne2352 Train hard and good luck! 💪🏿

Keeps getting better. We’ve added a UFC sized cage and some new railing so we have about 15 more bags hanging now!

It’s an awesome feeling for sure, just gotta find a local gym that hosts smokers from time to time. There’s quite a few here in Dallas!

Ahh! Is that James mcsweeney?!

I walk around at 178 typically. Both of my kickboxing smokers have been catch weight and my opponent was 10-15 Lbs heavier. I fought at XKO 50 at 185. I plan on fighting at 170 in the future…although I did just accept a catchweight at 180 Lbs. I fight at XKO 52 next Thursday the 26th

@@harrisonlayne2352 how long where u training before ur first match

Only 6 weeks. My coach had been advertising this thing called “Fight like a pro” where you train for 6 weeks and then get to fight with someone else your size in the program(which is what this video is). That’s part of the reason I was giving up that extra weight. I had about 7 months striking training before my first mma match, but I have years of wrestling so thats why I felt comfortable enough to jump into mma so fast

Im sure you can…they don’t allow reinforced knees or elbows in amateurs, but most everything else is allowed! (Besides dirty stuff like eye gouges and what not obviously)

It’s a smoker. I didn’t know what to call it at the time. I originally posted this for family to see!

I agree, I was only about 6 weeks into my striking training when I fought this guy. I changed a few things and ended up knocking out the next guy I fought in round 2. If you have a spare 5 min you should check it out. The video quality isn’t the greatest (my gf filmed it) but it was a pretty nasty KO!

Also I love your name. You probably can’t, but If you can see the JTAC gorilla on my arm sleeve (forearm) it was actually inspired by Harambe. A few of the guys I went through selection with got gorilla tats too!

@@harrisonlayne2352 That's crazy bro 😂 I can't see it too well in this vid but I will check others to see it better

@@harrisonlayne2352 Sounds good! I will check out your other fight too. What's the reason you went for kickboxing instead of boxing?

I wanted to have a more complete game. I’m extremely confident in my wrestling. I hardly ever have issues getting the takedown. My plan has always been to do mma so I figured kickboxing would help more. Not to mention I had a legend (McSweeney) open up a gym right down the street. Having said that I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on my boxing, and I’d like to compete in boxing at some point in the future!

It is! He’s my coach, this is his gym in Plano Texas!

Yeah unfortunately…this is actually just a smoker so our coach was being careful. If you watch my second fight I knocked a dude out with 16 Oz. gloves and the headgear. I also recently posted my first amateur mma fight (not a smoker)

@@harrisonlayne2352 did you have to wear shin guards for your mma fight?

Nope! Just 4 Oz gloves You can check it out on my page if you want First Amateur MMA Fight kzfaq.info/get/bejne/lbiprdSc2qy2lKM.html

red corner, chest tattoos as sleeve

It’s a catch weight. I weighed in at 174 and he weighed 188. I just fought again at 185 against another bigger guy. Think he was 195. Check it out if you get a chance. The K.O. Was pretty nasty👍🏼

@@harrisonlayne2352 yea i’ll check it out man, if it was a catch weight fight did you cut at all and have a goal weight for the fight? or just fight at whatever you felt most comfortable at?

@@harrisonlayne2352 i’m getting a fight this summer, trying to get a good idea of how it’s gonna go

@@beech6522 I just fought at my normal walking around weight. I’m pretty lean, and I don’t really want to cut weight in my amateur fights. My coach paired us up based on similar size and skill in both fights. I just happened to be the smaller man both times

25. I started a bit late!

@@harrisonlayne2352 better late than never

Yessir that’s my coach. He runs a gym in Plano TX!

Yessir that’s my coach!

Hell yeah , u got a good 1 man

Yessir, that’s my coach!

@@harrisonlayne2352 that’s badass. He was a beast on The Ultimate Fighter

Oh man I know, I watched it again when I started training under him. Ya know he was only about 3 months into grappling training when he went on TUF? He’s a black belt now, and I see him wreck other black belts pretty easily…makes you wonder what could’ve been!

@@harrisonlayne2352 yea bro that guy is a savage

Red corner. Second guy to come out with the chest tattoo, and sleeve

Nah...maybe I should change the title of the video. I just listed it as my “first amateur fight” because it was my first competition. I honestly put this video on KZfaq because I wanted to share it with my friends and family, and it was impossible to send through email...the amount of views and response I’ve gotten was unexpected, but still much appreciated!

@@harrisonlayne2352 best of luck to you in your fighting career

You’re not wrong. 6 weeks of training is pretty early to take a fight. If you have 2 minutes check this video out and see my progression! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mtZ_oc2Au6ucXYE.html

It’s actually not an ammy, that’s my bad. I was 6 weeks into training and didn’t understand what a smoker was. This was our first ever smoker!

Yeah, this is only 6 weeks into our striking training, and we had one sparring session before this so it may look a lil rough😂

@@harrisonlayne2352 KKkk.... But is good man... Keep training... Martial arts change my life :)