Top 10 How Many Days A Week Should You Train Martial Arts Top 96 Best Answers

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If you are a brand new student or taking martial arts to defend yourself or as a hobby; you should typically train 2-4 times a week and about 1-3 hours a session.Ultimately, training 2-3 times per week is ideal.

Ramping that up to 3-4 times per week as you progress is even better. But never forget that ANY martial arts training is better than none, and there’s no better time to start than now.So what, exactly, are the elements of MMA training? For starters, fighters generally train four hours a day, five days a week, when preparing for a bout.

How many times should you train martial arts a week?

Ultimately, training 2-3 times per week is ideal.

Ramping that up to 3-4 times per week as you progress is even better. But never forget that ANY martial arts training is better than none, and there’s no better time to start than now.

How long do martial artists train a day?

So what, exactly, are the elements of MMA training? For starters, fighters generally train four hours a day, five days a week, when preparing for a bout.

How many days a week should you practice karate?

As a beginner starting karate it’s best to train 2 to 3 days per week. You may say that you want to train five or six days a week, however you need to ask yourself if you are able to sustain that level training for years to come. As a beginner you still haven’t developed that strong passion for your training.

Is once a week martial arts enough?

Whilst the benefits of martial arts training are well known, you need to practice it often enough for those effects to be enjoyed. The starting point is at least twice per week, which is regularly enough for the benefits to be felt, without any risk of ‘burnout’.

Do Muay Thai fighters train everyday?

At the Muay Thai gyms in Thailand, it is common for fighters to train twice a day, 6 days a week. The intensive schedule includes runs prior to the training sessions and each session lasts about 2-3 hours.

Is training Muay Thai 3 times a week enough?

If you are a fighter, or have aspirations to fight, you should be training five to six times a week. If you are someone just looking to get good at Muay Thai come in at minimum three to four times a week. Nothing usurps time in the gym.

Do UFC fighters train everyday?

That being said, an average UFC fighter trains 1.5-2 hours a day when they are out of training camp, and they do it 5-6 times a week, which sums up to about 8-12 hours of training a week. When they are in training camp, however, they spend a lot more time training.

How many times a week do pro boxers train?

A: Generally, I would say competing fighters spend about 3-5 hours working out 5 times a week. The time is usually broken down to something like this: roadwork (30-60 minutes) warm-up (30 minutes)

How many times a day do UFC fighters train?

Do MMA Fighters Train Twice A Day? Like most professional sports, MMA fighters train twice a day. Sometimes often three times a day. This is the only way to fit in all of the technical and physical training sessions required to compete at a high level in MMA.

How often should you train a martial art?

If you are a brand new student or taking martial arts to defend yourself or as a hobby; you should typically train 2-4 times a week and about 1-3 hours a session.

How long do martial artists train?

The suggested time for training to proficiency in various martial arts based techniques ranges from 2 weeks to several years depending on the course and the level of proficiency desired.

Can you train karate every day?

If you spent 15 minutes every day practicing Karate, over a year you will have spent over 90 training hours! Training a little every day also helps reinforce the concepts taught at our San Diego dojo each week, and will make you better prepared for the next class.

How many times a week should I do Jiu-Jitsu?

2-3 days per week

If you are a beginner or a “casual” Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, aim for two to three days a week. Training around two days a week is a good starting point when you’re just starting Jiu-Jitsu. You get enough time on the mats to learn and work on your technique while not getting burned out or overtrained.

How often should kids train Jiu-Jitsu?

In the end, the key is to slowly integrate jiu-jitsu into your life. 3 days of training per week will do this. By the time you hit brown and black belt, you won’t be able to imagine your life without jiu-jitsu and that’s the ultimate goal. Beyond all the medals you may win.

Is boxing once a week enough?

Remember, every boxer will have started from ground level, so anyone and everyone can work their way up to a good level of fitness: attend classes three times a week and you’ll be fit in three months; twice a week and it will take six months.

Can you train karate every day?

If you spent 15 minutes every day practicing Karate, over a year you will have spent over 90 training hours! Training a little every day also helps reinforce the concepts taught at our San Diego dojo each week, and will make you better prepared for the next class.

How often should I practice kung fu?

Everyone is different, but our standard recommendation is about 2-3 hours per week of moderate to hard training. We know – it sounds like that’s hardly anything at all! But it’s important to remember that in kung fu, more training doesn’t necessarily mean better training.

How many belts are there in Taekwondo?

There are eight belts in Taekwondo, the first being white, which you receive when you commence training. The following belts are yellow, blue, red, red/black, Cho Dan Bo, black/white and black belt. On each of the colour belts you wear stripes indicating your level of attainment on that belt.


How many days per week should you train?
How many days per week should you train?


How often should you be training? – Shugyo

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How Often Should You Train in Taekwondo? | Dojo Life HQ

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How many days a week should you train in Taekwondo

How long does it take to progress in Taekwondo

Can you train in Taekwondo every day

Is it worth training Taekwondo only 1 or 2 days a week

Can you learn other martial arts faster than Taekwondo

Conclusion

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Clash of the Fittest | Men’s Journal

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Why Your Child Should Train in the Martial Arts More Than Once per Week – Tring Martial Arts Academy

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MARTIAL ARTS FOR BOTH CHILDREN AND ADULTS!

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Preschool Martial Artsin Tring

Kids Martial Artsin Tring

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Why Your Child Should Train in the Martial Arts More Than Once per Week - Tring Martial Arts Academy
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How Often Should You Train in Taekwondo? | Dojo Life HQ

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How many days a week should you train in Taekwondo

How long does it take to progress in Taekwondo

Can you train in Taekwondo every day

Is it worth training Taekwondo only 1 or 2 days a week

Can you learn other martial arts faster than Taekwondo

Conclusion

About Me

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How often should I be training? – Martial Arts Explained

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How often do you train and how many hours? : martialarts

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How many days a week should you train for Taekwondo – MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING

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How Often Should You Train Muay Thai? – One Shot MMA

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How often should you be training?

Many new students often ask how often they should be training. There are 2 separate answers to this question. The answers depend on your current goals in martial arts as well as the type / fighting style of martial art you are doing.

If your goal is competitive martial arts fighting, such as MMA or jiu-jitsu, the answer is as much as you can! Top fighters and up and coming fighters typically train 5+ days a week and around 2-4 hours a day. This includes supplemental training such as conditioning and strength training, but a lot of it does focus on their respective martial art.

If you are a brand new student or taking martial arts to defend yourself or as a hobby; you should typically train 2-4 times a week and about 1-3 hours a session. This is a good base for any new student. As you progress, you can increase the amount of time to work on specific tasks or goals.; such as a belt test or demonstration.

The biggest concern for new students is that sometimes they get so enthralled with their new found love for martial arts that they train TOO much and burn themselves out quickly. In the end, instead of remembering how much fun martial arts training is, it becomes a chore and a negative experience.

So, the answer to the question really depends on where you want to go. If you want to fight, you need to train as much as possible. If you want to learn and progress, you need to train enough to keep learning. Your instructor can also help you decide how often you should be training. Use your instructor as a guide on your path of martial arts.

How Often Should You Train in Taekwondo?

We all know that training in any sport takes a while to get good at. But are martial arts like Taekwondo different and if you train more frequently, does that speed up your progress? More specifically, how often should you train in Taekwondo?

Here’s what I know from taking a look:

Most practitioners train in Taekwondo 2-3 times per week. However, for those with the goal of competing at Taekwondo in the Olympics, training four to five days a week, and starting at a young age is necessary.

But those are only 2 examples. Some just want to get fit. Others want to learn self-defense, while others might want to be a Taekwondo instructor.

So in this article, we’ll take a look at the art of Taekwondo and see what some of the most common practices are, and if training more often really helps you get that much better.

Let the fun begin!

How many days a week should you train in Taekwondo?

If you’re not aiming to be an instructor, Olympic athlete, or using it for self-defense, 2 to 3 days a week is sufficient. For self-defense, ideally, practice 3-4 times per week, and 5 days a week for those looking to be instructors or professional athletes.

For us to do justice to the question above, there’s another sub-question we’ll need to address.

It’s one of the most vital questions you could ask. And, the answer will help you with the one above and throughout your Taekwondo career.

The question is: Why are you learning Taekwondo?

It’s a simple question, right? There are folks who pick it up just to keep fit. For some, it’s simply a hobby. While for others, it’s a competitive sport, they’re devoted to it. And, there are those whose aim is to use it for self-defense.

Once you’re clear why you’re learning it in the first place, you’ll be able to decide how quickly you want to achieve your aim.

A person who’s training to compete in the Olympics in a year, and another who’s merely interested in keeping fit, would need different amounts of training.

Why? What you’re really aiming for is an intuitive mastery of the techniques so that you can use them without thinking. When you have this level of mastery, you become swift, nimble, and lethal.

Of course, it goes without saying that how many days you can actually train will depend on your station in life.

If you’re a student or a self-employed person, you may find it easy to walk into a dojo five or more days each week. But, if you don’t have much time, you’ll just have to make the best of the few days you have.

And as I’m fond of saying, ANY amount of martial arts training is better than none.

How long does it take to progress in Taekwondo?

It takes a minimum of 6 months to start to see noticeable progress in Taekwondo. A black belt in Taekwondo will take 4-5 years. Training multiple times per week does speed up progress somewhat, but there’s no substitute for time.

And, truth be told, this is not a long time. If you’re really into what you’re learning, the time would fly.

We often say that each human being is unique, right? And it’s true. Our fingerprints and idiosyncrasies testify to that fact. So, how long it takes each individual varies.

There are folks who only do the minimum required when they’re doing anything, and there are those who do what’s required and even a lot more. Naturally, the rate at which both hypothetical examples would progress would differ.

The quality of the instruction you’re receiving is perhaps the most vital factor in the rate at which you’ll progress.

From what I have been sharing so far, we can infer one obvious truth, what we get from any martial art system, Taekwondo included, depends simply on what we put in. It’s the law of life.

What we sow, we reap. So, if you’d like to accelerate your progress, you have to devote more time to training.

Of course, progress is a subjective word, and it also depends on what you want out of your Taekwondo training. If progress to you means a black belt, that would naturally require years of training.

Why?

It shows that you now know the techniques. It’s not seen by masters as the ultimate because there’s really no end to learning. In fact, they see the black belt as a “beginner” stage in the mastery phase!

Wondering if you can progress faster at a different martial art like Aikido?

That’s exactly what I explored in a recent article of mine. While any 2 martial arts are hard to compare due to their differences, there is 1 key difference here that can cut training time significantly for one of them.

Just click the link to read it on my site.

Can you train in Taekwondo every day?

It’s not ideal to train Taekwondo every day when first starting out. With any form of workout, it is important to have recovery time. But those just starting out also risk mentally burning out by training too often.

New practitioners would ideally train 3 days per week, and then increase frequency as they progress. But it does also depending on a few other factors.

Kids will most certainly burn out and lose interest if going more than 2-3 times per week. But older teens and adults who have busy schedules can also burn out if they put the expectation on themselves to train every day.

So start with a reasonable schedule. You can always ramp it up. But when someone overdoes it and burns out, they rarely return to that practice.

But when the time is right, there are many benefits to training every day.

Permit me to share one of my favorite quotes from Will Durant (often misattributed to Aristotle). It speaks to what I am trying to share in this section.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

In almost any walk of life, the masters in those fields practice their crafts every day, even when it seems as if there’s really no reason to do so.

Some of the most accomplished pianists, for example, wake up each day and play J.S. Bach. Some of the best athletes run each day. Michael Jordan used to shoot hoops daily. It’s because they all know the value of the quote.

So DO challenge yourself.

If you are training 2-3 times per week and LOVE it, and are already in decent shape where recovery time is minimal, by all means, ramp it up!

Is it worth training Taekwondo only 1 or 2 days a week?

Yes, training Taekwondo 1-2 days per week can still enable a student to progress, gain valuable techniques, and become a skilled practitioner. The belt progression may take longer, but a black belt is still possible.

But ultimately, it depends.

If you’re hoping to compete in a tournament in a few months or if you need to be able to defend yourself if you ever got into a fight (and you needed the skills as soon as possible), a day or two may not cut it.

That’s the honest truth.

But, if you’re simply trying to get fit or if it’s just a hobby, 1 or 2 days a week is cool as long as you make the best of each training session.

Plus, you can always ramp up your training later as your schedule allows.

Or if your dojo offers different classes at different times, consider mixing it up. Personally, while most of my classes each week are BJJ, I also like doing boxing and kickboxing too.

Now is boxing better than Taekwondo?

I’ve got the answer for you in a recent article of mine. It’s very hard to compare those 2 as they are so different and each offers different benefits. However, with one of those 2, you can make significantly more progress in the same amount of time. Even if just training 1-2 days per week.

Just click the link to read it on my site.

Can you learn other martial arts faster than Taekwondo?

Krav Maga typically sees practitioners master that art in 2-3 years compared to Taekwondo taking 5 or more years to master. But many other martial arts, such as BJJ or Karate, can take longer than Taekwondo to earn a black belt.

As I have shown in some of the paragraphs above, the time it takes to learn any martial art is not set in stone. It’s a combination of many factors. So, what we’re dealing with here are “average” durations.

But I also don’t want you focused on how quickly you can do it, or how fast you can earn a black belt. As they say, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. And if a school offers a black belt in 2-3 years, run, don’t walk, to a different dojo.

That said, it’s true some arts would take you a shorter time.

As I mentioned, Krav Maga is one where you could become a master in 2 to 3 years. The reason is that there are no complicated moves to learn. The techniques employed are clear, simple, but deadly. In fact, if you’re devoted, after 12 months of training, you’re already a lethal weapon.

Boxing is another example, although technically it’s not a martial art.

Like most arts, you’ll need years to become a master. But, if you get a great coach and you practice daily, you won’t become Mohammed Ali or Tyson in two years, but you will become deadly.

Its main benefits are that you learn how to dodge and defend yourself, and above all, you learn how to throw punches that could make an Alpha male cry. In fact, you would be able to knock out many macho types.

Taekwondo is one of the martial arts that takes the shortest amount of time to learn. So, you probably won’t find many that take a shorter time.

Taekwondo Follow Along Class – White Belt – Class #1

Watch this video on YouTube

Conclusion

In the preceding paragraphs, we learned about how many days one should train per week in Taekwondo.

But we also looked at how long it takes to progress if training a day or two each week is worth it if you can train daily, and whether there are other martial arts you could learn faster.

Ultimately, training 2-3 times per week is ideal.

Ramping that up to 3-4 times per week as you progress is even better. But never forget that ANY martial arts training is better than none, and there’s no better time to start than now.

Wonder how Judo compares to Taekwondo?

I compare both of those in a recent article. Both are Olympic sports, but do the similarities stop there? Are there any techniques that overlap? Which one is better?

Just click that link to read it on my site.

Photo which requires attribution:

Clash of the Fittest

They possess nicknames like “the Dean of Mean,” “Rampage,” and “the Muscle Shark.” And they know that at any moment they could be leveled by a punch or a kick, have their teeth knocked out by a knee, or feel the excruciating pain of a joint being dislocated by an inescapable submission lock. But for mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, it’s what they endure before the bout that really makes them want to puke. In the last two years, MMA has become a sports phenomenon akin to the NASCAR boom just a few years back. Bouts hosted by the sport’s three main organizations—Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Bodog Fight, and the International Fight League—are filling arenas worldwide and drawing record audiences on cable TV and pay-per-view.

Fighters, like NASCAR drivers, are burgeoning entrepreneurs, producing their own nutritional supplements and clothing lines as well as starring in big-budget Hollywood movies. And while its fighters still compete for purses that would be chump change to top boxers, MMA is supplanting boxing in the hearts of more and more fight fans every day. Indeed, HBO, boxing’s longtime home, is reportedly in talks with UFC, MMA’s biggest organization, to bring the sport to the network. It’s the kind of coup that would certainly further ring the bell on boxing’s popularity.

Yet despite meteoric success and potential breakthroughs, MMA is still scrapping to overcome its controversial past. It has yet to be sanctioned, for instance, by the New York State Athletic Commission, and it has received scathing criticism from the pro boxing “establishment” (such as it is)—which largely still regards MMA as a passing fad and a barbaric sideshow. “A bar fight” is how HBO boxing commentator Jim Lampley reportedly described MMA competition. And WBC juniormiddleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. boasted that any skilled boxer could knock out a UFC athlete. “UFC fighters can’t handle boxing—that’s why they’re in the UFC,” he said last spring.

It may be easy to dismiss such comments as the last wailings of a desperate sport, but the notion that boxing remains the “sweet science” is still ingrained in the minds of many disbelievers. “Ironically, MMA is often viewed as the least complicated sport,” says Greg Jackson, who runs one of MMA’s winningest fight teams, out of Albuquerque, N.M. “People think, ‘Oh, you just get in a cage and swing,’ but it’s not like that. It’s like playing three-dimensional chess.”

Sure, as in boxing, the occasional fightending haymaker provides a memorable finish, but a big punch is only one way to win an MMA bout. As the sport’s name suggests, fighters must develop myriad skills culled from a plethora of martial arts styles. And any of them could yield a fight-ending highlight. Boxing, Muay Thai kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and wrestling are the major cornerstones of the sport, and punches, kicks, knee strikes, elbows, and submission holds are all viable tools to secure a win. “You have to be skilled in so many areas, and you have to have incredible physical conditioning on top of that,” says Jackson.

MMA is drawing competitors from other sports seeking to ride its wave of popularity—and cash in. But because the sport is so new, they often underestimate how di.cult it is to transfer their specialized skills to the Octagon. “I see guys who are black belts in traditional martial arts walk in o the street, and they’re getting beat by guys who’ve only trained in MMA two months,” says Mark DellaGrotte, an MMA trainer based near Boston.

“Our guys train in real, combative martial arts.” Earlier this year, former NFL wide receiver Johnnie Morton threw his butt into an MMA ring and was carried out on a stretcher after being knocked cold in just 38 seconds. Ex–New York Giants running back Jarrod Bunch was also beaten in the first round of his cage-fighting debut. So what, exactly, are the elements of MMA training? For starters, fighters generally train four hours a day, five days a week, when preparing for a bout.

“There’s no way you could humanly do more,” says Jackson. “They’ll also do 45 minutes or more of just strength and conditioning.” That might include performing power cleans for 30 reps, which teaches their bodies to be explosive even in highly fatigued states, followed by a 15-minute treadmill run as part of a circuit without rest. His athletes also work on kickboxing, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu at separate times throughout the day. In jiujitsu training, a fighter will practice taking on a fresh opponent every few minutes until he’s sparred with all his training partners—or collapsed from exhaustion.

Many fighters train their necks to be better shock absorbers against strikes and choke attempts. Jackson’s team uses machines that put resistance on the neck muscles when doing a nodding or headshaking motion. For an even more sportspecific challenge, they’ll do what Jackson calls “equilibrium training.” Fighters will place a hand against a wall, bend at the knees, close their eyes, and begin rotating their heads in a circle as fast as they can. “Then you take your hand o the wall and shadowbox through it,” he says. “So when you’re in a fight and you get rocked, it’s not this ‘Whoa, where am I?’ deal. It’s, ‘OK, I’m going to relax and work through this feeling of I can’t feel my legs.’”

DellaGrotte’s fighters, which include top UFC lightweight Kenny Florian, have a similar method of inhibiting the flinch reflex. “It sounds silly,” says DellaGrotte, “but when they’re taking a shower, I tell them to look up at the stream of water as it goes into their face. I have them start with the water on their chest and then shadowbox while moving forward. It’s very di.cult not to blink, but the more you do it, the better you get at not blinking when punches are coming at you.”

Training that pushes the bounds of safety is viewed as a must for building a champion’s hardened-warrior mentality. “We have mountains for every occasion,” says Jackson, referring to the New Mexico landscape surrounding his camp. His facility sits at 5,500 feet, but to really train his fighters to breathe under duress, he takes them to an 11,000-foot peak for a three-mile jog.

“Then they sprint until they can’t move anymore,” he adds. This is about when the puking begins. Jackson’s goal with all this is simple: to expand a fighter’s threshold for pain and suering. “We always want to out-suffer our opponents in training, so that when other people are sucking wind and dying in the fight, we’re used to it,” he says. “I always ask my guys, ‘Would you rather be on the mountain or in the cage?’ I’ve never gotten ‘the mountain’ once.”

Matt Hughes, a former two-time UFC welterweight champion, thinks of MMA training as “running a marathon while riding a bull.” Fighters need to be explosive, strong, technically sound, and mentally impenetrable—and above all else, resilient. “My saying is, ‘Cardio is confidence,’” says Hughes, who’s come back from near defeat to win fights in the later rounds. “I don’t enjoy running, but I might run five miles in one day. If I can do that, it shows me that I can do anything.”

Like most of his colleagues in the sport, Hughes’ only fear is showing up to the fight out of shape—not defeat, injury, or embarrassment. “I think I’ve got the tools, so I just have to sharpen them up. Being in the fight is like clockwork. Everything just seems to happen—and if you have to think about things, it’s too late.”

Hughes’ opponent in UFC’s upcoming pay-per-view battle Dec. 29 is Matt Serra, the 33-year-old current welterweight champ. Once a journeyman mid-card fighter, Serra has risen to MMA star status with his participation in Spike TV’s hit reality show, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). In season four, when former UFC talents were pitted against each other for a once-in-a-lifetime title shot, Serra emerged as the winner. A heavy underdog, he went on to obliterate thenwelterweight champ Georges St-Pierre in the first round of their bout last April.

St-Pierre had won the title by knocking Hughes silly a few months before, so a Serra-Hughes bout became an instant big-bucks matchup. But the two men had more reasons to clash than just a big payday (six figures for both fighters).Serra began developing a dislike for his opponent during TUF season two, in which Hughes coached the competitors, including a student of one of Serra’s two Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools near his home on Long Island, N.Y. Serra claims the student fighter was bullied by Hughes during a rough training session.

Later, when Serra himself competed in season four and Hughes made a guest appearance, he says Hughes played mental games with the fighters and tried to instigate an argument between Serra and the show’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach. After that, Serra vs. Hughes was on: They have criticized each other in interviews, and to add to the momentum of their nasty feud (which they agreed to settle in the Octagon), they were chosen to serve as opposing team coaches in TUF’s sixth season.

Says Serra, “I think Matt is genuinely confused as to why I have a problem with him. He never really did anything to me, but I don’t like the way he treats people.” Serra often calls Hughes a bully and likens him to a stuck-up high school jock— not to mention “a big furry chipmunk.”

Hughes, 34, seems more diplomatic. “I wouldn’t call myself a trash-talker,” he says. “I just speak my mind. I don’t think Serra is one of the top-10 welterweights in the world.” Though he admits to sometimes trying to “get into people’s heads,” Hughes maintains that it’s only gamesmanship and not personal.

Hughes does have an issue with how Serra carries himself as champion. A devoted Christian and classic middle American (he’s from rural Illinois), he has accused Serra of being a bad role model for younger fans of the sport due to his tendency to “cuss” in interviews. “I try and lead my life like I’m in front of a class of fifth graders,” says Hughes, a father of one young boy and a teenage girl. “He doesn’t do that. He’s being seen as a thug, and I think it hurts the sport.” Serra, arguably more a sharp-tongued New Yorker than a potty mouth, retorts that he encourages his nephews and niece to watch Hughes on TV so he can point out to them Hughes’ arrogant behavior. “I say, ‘Look, kids, see how he’s acting? Don’t grow up to be an asshole.’”

Having one of the most recognizable names in the sport and a long trail of beaten foes behind him, Hughes is the favorite over Serra. But he’s not taking his opponent lightly. Though he won’t be preparing with his usual team (he left Iowa-based Miletich Fighting Systems, which has backed him his whole career, so he could stay closer to his family), Hughes says he’s as hungry as ever and will be fit for battle.

He’s about to open his own training center, HIT (Hughes Intensive Training), near his home in Granite City, Ill., and he vows that “every day, I will train with guys who want to hurt me.” When not in the gym, he’s rolling a tractor tire along the acres of his family’s farm to build up shoulder strength, or smacking it with a sledgehammer until his hands blister to develop his core. Though he claims he’s never done neck training, the 170-pounder’s collar measures a massive 18 inches.

Serra continues to train on Long Island with the crew that helped him win the title. He performs a heartbursting circuit routine (described at right) to build his conditioning. “There’s a dierent wind for each thing,” he says, “the kickboxing, the wrestling, and the jiu-jitsu. You can have the heart, but if you don’t have the lungs, you’re screwed.” Just as he did for his fight with GSP, Serra anticipates doing upwards of 80 rounds of sparring, focusing particularly on his stand-up striking.

“Hughes is a better wrestler than me,” says Serra, “so I’m not going to bust my ass trying to get him to the floor. If anything, he’ll have to try to take me down, because I’ll be beating him standing.” Undoubtedly, Serra’s kickboxing skills shocked the world when he outpunched GSP to win the title. “Hughes is an egomaniac, so he might think he’s going to stand up with me. But the second he gets hit, he’s going to go right back to trying to wrestle. Hughes is good at being the hammer; he’s not when he’s the nail.”

Hughes doesn’t deny that Serra’s power is a threat, but if he gets Serra to the ground, Hughes believes he can finish the fight. “If things aren’t going my way, then I think back to what got me into this sport and what got me good,” he says. “And that’s taking people down and beating them up.” As for Serra’s devastating jiu-jitsu skills, Hughes thinks his wrestling is the perfect counter for that, too. “I think I’m going to pick where the fight goes. And the longer it goes, the better off I am. I’ll be in better shape.”

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