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Fighting for his future
If your career and reputation are on the line, losing 11 pounds in eight hours can be done, but it isn't fun.In fact, Reshad Woods realized he had to lose 20 pounds in two weeks and, on the morning of the weigh-in for his mixed martial arts fight at the Patriot Center last week, was faced with a do-or-die situation.
The scale said he weighed 196 pounds. He needed to be at 185 pounds.
Welcome to the life of a professional fighter. If Woods was a heavyweight, he wouldn't have to worry about his weight, but by trimming himself down in the sauna for five and a half consecutive hours, eating and drinking nothing, taking cold showers every 15 minutes and then going back into the sauna for another workout, Woods was trying to edge out his competition.
“If I fight at 205 (pounds), of course I don't have to make weight, but guys are coming down from 220 to 230 pounds to come down to 205”, Woods said.
Sitting in a pile of sweat clothes in the corner of the room at the weigh-in, Woods' cheeks and stomach were sunken in, a look of wild depravity in his eyes as his name was called and he stood up and stripped completely naked for the scale.
He weighed in at 183.5 pounds, realizing later that the rules required him to weigh between 185 and 190 pounds and that he had made himself suffer more than he had to.
Woods is tall and lean, with sharp elbows and knees, that can cut a forehead just the same as falling on the corner of a desk.
At 30 years old he knows that he doesn't have all the time in the world to make a name for himself, especially when he fights men that are, in some cases, more than 10 years younger than he is and will have twice the time to watch their own careers become profitable.
Because of that Woods goes for the knockout in every bout.
He's 3 and 1, with paychecks getting bigger and by this time next year, “I should be making a six figure salary because I'm good for sure. I'm knocking everybody out and crowds love it. It's only a matter of time,” he said.
Woods is a trainer and student at the Combat Training Center in Herndon. Hailing from Clermont, Fla., he is the youngest of five brothers and has lived in Manassas for two years.
Last Friday night was the first time the Patriot Center held a mixed martial arts event.
The crowd of 2,000 was mostly college students, a perfect audience for the sport that is quickly overtaking boxing in popularity with its kicks, elbows, body slams, flying armbars and arm triangle chokes; with grown men tapping the mat in submission to a splayed out fighter who is pushing on his windpipe with one fist and smashing his nose with the other.
It is a multimillion dollar industry, setting pay-per-view records in an age where filling boxing arenas has become a challenge.
When Woods faced Adam Lehman in the ring, he had gained back the 11 pounds in water weight he'd lost the day before, but was still weak.
Lehman seemed a foot shorter than Woods, and, since he is also known as a striker, would have to figure out a way to get around Woods' long legs and arms and try to win the fight with a submission, on the ground in a tangled mess of twisted limbs.
It took two minutes and 29 seconds. Woods threw knees and uppercuts into Lehman's face, sending him to the mat. On his back, Lehman shot his foot into the air at Woods, stunning him enough to fall to his knee, but luckily falling right on Lehman and taking him out with a right cross to the left temple.
For five minutes after the bout, Lehman still couldn't stand.
Woods, still fatigued from his self-inflicted starvation, admitted that one day he was going to meet an opponent who would be skilled in both grappling and striking.
He will work harder on his cross training, he said, and talked at length about how he was going to prepare for a fight that he will be very prepared for, next month.
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