For the past few years, the repetitive monotony of the daily routine of Jason Day’s life had begun to eerily parallel that of Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors from the movie “Groundhog Day”.
He would wake up each morning at the crack of dawn and go to work building houses for his parents, who owned a home-building business in Lethbridge, Alberta. At lunchtime he would rush to the gym to get in a one-hour weight and cardio workout and head back to put in another six to eight hours of heavy labor on the jobsite. At the end of the workday, as the rest of his employees packed up and headed home, Day hopped in his car and drove across town to punch the clock at the Canadian Martial Arts Centre. There, he would spend two or three hours sparring and running through drills before heading home to plan the next day’s work, squeezing a few hours of sleep out of what was left of his time.
The sound of the alarm clock’s buzzer would begin the cycle again the following morning.
Having handily defeated crafty veteran Alan Belcher in his Octagon debut at UFC 83 last April, Day figured the disproportion between his work and training schedules were not an issue. Two months later, a TKO loss at the hands of The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 light heavyweight winner Michael Bisping at UFC 85 disproved his theory. For the first time in his seven-year mixed martial arts career, the 27-year-old found himself at a crossroads.
Realizing that his lackluster training had left him stuck in a rut and spinning his wheels while fighters who had made fight preparation their full time jobs progressed and improved, Day made a difficult decision. He had to quit the family business.
Despite some reservations about breaking the news to his parents, who had based their lives around their company, Day says he did what he felt he had to do and that they took the news better than expected. Building houses was just a job; fighting was their son’s career and his passion.
“My parents were one hundred percent supportive. They basically sold the company so I could turn all of my attention to fighting. The top guys in the sport are in the gym all day long – that’s their living and they take it very seriously. That’s something I wasn’t doing. You’re not doing yourself, the UFC or the fans any favors if you come in less than prepared for a fight,” Day says. “I used just go to the gym and work really hard and spar every day. I didn’t have the time to work on improving specific areas, I was just relying on the skill set I had and I made up the difference with how hard I worked.”
Another epiphany Day experienced after the loss to Bisping was that he had been neglecting his mental fight preparation. Sure, he had confidence in himself and exuded an air of unflappability in the cage even when he was put in dangerous situations, but the time he spent on a daily basis actually thinking about fighting was minimal.
“When I was building houses, ten hours a day I was thinking about what wood I had to order or what plans I had to pick up from City Hall; I was never thinking about fighting because I was too busy,” he recalls. “When I got off work, I would go to the gym and train and think about fighting for two or three hours. After that I would go home and plan for the next day at work. All I do now is think about fighting. It’s a little thing, but I’ve been amazed at the amount of improvements I’ve made as a result.”
Quitting his job was not the only change Day made. Selling his house and packing up everything he owned, he moved 140 miles away from Lethbridge to Calgary to start fresh in a new city with a new camp. He admits the decision to move away from his friends, family and former team was a tough one to make, but says he quickly became certain that he had made the correct choice for the betterment of his burgeoning career.
“I spent some time to find out where I wanted to go. I moved to Calgary because it wasn’t too far from Lethbridge and my boxing coach was there. I met some really great people and I decided that I’d stay there and that I would travel when it came time for my training camps,” Day says. “I’m building an army behind me. I have a new jiu-jitsu coach, strength and conditioning coach and Muay Thai coach and I also hired someone to coordinate my training. I think you’ll see the results of a lot of the improvements I’ve made in my next fight.”
That next fight will come against The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 middleweight winner Kendall Grove on March 7 when the two meet at UFC 96 in Columbus, Ohio. Day will have an ace up his sleeve, or at least in his corner for the bout in the form of his newest trainer, WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres, whom he has spent considerable time with in Chicago preparing for the fight.
Assuming the role of Day’s head trainer, Torres has passed on some of the effective techniques and unique training strategies that have contributed to his nearly spotless 35-1 MMA record. Besides taking a lot away from the time spent with Torres in the gym, Day is hopeful he can learn from the champion’s analytical approach to the sport.
“Back in Calgary I don’t get a lot of MMA training that combines every discipline I work on. When I come here I get Miguel to put everything together for me. He’s got an incredible mindset and I’m hoping that by training with him, I will be able to develop a view of the game like he has,” Day explains. “He’s able to analyze his opponents and see the bigger picture. He’s really helped me improve a lot of my weaknesses.”
Known for his frenetic work ethic in the gym and no-nonsense, no-frills approach to fighting, Day says the group at Torres Martial Arts Academy welcomed him into their gym with opened arms.
“Miguel has a small camp here with a great group of guys who really like to fight, train and grind it out. There are no attitudes there. I fit in quite well because that’s the type of fighter and person I’ve always been,” he says. “I’m actually staying at the gym. I’ve got a small place upstairs to sleep – nothing fancy. That’s all I need. When you leave the building you have to walk by the mats and you start to feel guilty so you can’t help but train.”
Besides working his way up the UFC’s middleweight ranks to a coveted title shot some day, Day's long term goals are continuing to grow as a fighter and keeping an open mind to learning. Having recognized that his routine had become stagnant and, as a result, so had his progress, Day says he’s confident he’ll be more receptive to similar problems should they arise in the future.
“I never want to stop learning. If I ever get complacent with my training and think that I know everything, I’d be making a really big mistake. I don’t think there’s anybody in this game that knows everything there is to know about fighting,” Day says. “My goal has always been to improve every fight and I think I’ve done that. I just think that now I’ve got everything in place to improve at a much greater pace. I’m taking the steps that are going to bring me to a whole other level as a fighter.”
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