Oct-4-2009

Kingsbury Gets In The Zone

UFC 104 Official Event T-shirt - White Related Products UFC 104 Official Program Softshell Poly Knitted Jacket - Camo UFC 104/105 UFC 104 Official Event Tee - Black Related News James Te Huna: Last pick becomes a wanted man UFC 109 Musings Better Late Than Never, as Couture Submits Coleman in UFC 109 Main Chael Storm – Sonnen Earns Shot at The Belt Danzig’s Back with A Win; Davis Impressive in Debut Headlines James Te Huna: Last pick becomes a wanted man UFC 109 Musings Better Late Than Never, as Couture Submits Coleman in UFC 109 Main Chael Storm – Sonnen Earns Shot at The Belt Danzig’s Back with A Win; Davis Impressive in Debut

By Debbie Lee

Kyle Kingsbury doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.

No, really. With UFC 104 only weeks away, the light heavyweight recently confessed that he and his coaches have not yet devised a game plan against upcoming opponent Razak Al-Hassan. It may not sound like the wisest move, but rest assured that there’s a method to his madness.

Kingsbury, 27, is no dope. He’s done his homework, watched the tapes – including December’s Fight for the Troops, where a gruesome armbar dislocated Al-Hassan’s elbow – and trained tirelessly with the inestimable crew at San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy. That he doesn’t have a strategy to share (at least not yet) only suggests that he’s been busy working on other areas of his game.

At 6’4’’ and 230 pounds, Kingsbury – a former defensive lineman for Arizona State University’s football team – has always had the physical side of things covered. And in terms of skill, there’s no doubt that working with the likes of Cain Velasquez and Paul Buentello will make him someone to watch come October 24. But if there’s one factor that’s been missing from the equation, it’s mental conditioning.

So, what’s the best weapon in his current arsenal? Audiobooks.

“When I’m not involved in physical training, I’m training myself to be a more positive thinker,” said Kingsbury. “Recently I’ve been listening to ‘With Winning in Mind’ by Lanny Bassham, who was an Olympic gold medalist in shooting. It’s been really helpful in that it teaches you to drown out all of the bulls**t on the side and get in a zone to center yourself mentally. You have to learn from the things you’re doing good as opposed to what you’re doing bad. Because of it, I’ve stopped thinking of worst-case scenarios.”

It’s refreshing, if not commendable, to hear a fighter openly discuss his shortcomings. He said that this Achilles’ heel has had a hand in all of his UFC-related losses – first to Ryan Bader (via arm triangle) and Krzysztof Soszynski (via armbar) on the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter, and then to Tom Lawlor at The Ultimate Finale. Of all people, it was Kingsbury’s own opponent, Soszynski, who helped him gain perspective on the matter.

“No excuses, but I would say that when I fought Krzysztof, I was too busy being worried about losing again after Bader,” he said. “I wondered if I deserved to be there, so much that I wasn’t even thinking about how to beat this guy’s ass. I was just concerned about looking like a fool. When things start going your opponent’s way, you don’t want to have thoughts like that in your head. So after the fight there was a lot of downtime in the house and I had a chance to pick Krzysztof’s brain. He told me that getting the mental game down was always the biggest step.”

It was welcome advice, but Kingsbury said it didn’t truly stick until last December, when he dropped a unanimous decision to Lawlor.

“In hindsight there are a thousand things that I would have changed about that fight,” said Kingsbury. “I had worked a ton in my camp on my wrestling and takedown defense, and I also had more gas by the third round. But Tom was tenacious and I didn’t expect him to come with the game plan that he did.”

In those three rounds, Kingsbury learned that adjusting on the fly would become a crucial skill to work on in the next ten months. “When you’re in the face of adversity, you don’t sit there and think, ‘Oh s**t, again?’ or “Man, I knew this was going to happen.’ There’s no use in worrying about the little things before they go wrong. Someone throws a punch? Have the ability to focus and tell yourself, “Okay, now keep your hands up, tuck your chin in, and move side to side.”

Easier said than done, but if Kingsbury can go into 104 with a clear head and follow his own advice, the win will follow. He’s sure of it, even if there might be skeptics who still judge him based on one season of reality television.

“If you watched The Ultimate Fighter, you might think I’m going in with no ground game,” he said. “Yeah, you can see that I had some weak submission skills on the show, but if you want to think that things are the same, you’d be sorely mistaken. My skill set and my career in general have completely accelerated in the year and a half since I’ve been at AKA. Training with the best in the world, and working on building a well-rounded game in general, I can honestly say that I think I’m going to win this fight.”

Not only does Kingsbury believe he’ll get that W, but he intends to earn it without showing any trace of his almost-year-long hiatus.

“It’s not going to happen – not when you’re getting punched in the face every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the year,” he said with a laugh. “You won’t see any ring rust from me because of the fact that every time someone at AKA has a fight, I’ve been the guy going in there training with him. And having Cain [Velasquez] on the same card has been a blessing because he’s my best training partner. It’ll make all the difference. With that kind of preparation, the experience won’t be as nerve-wracking.”

The San Jose native also said he hoped that fighting in his home state, with the support of teammates, friends, and family, will give him an edge over Al-Hassan. Other than that, a prediction would be hard to call: both are coming off losses and extended breaks, and both possess similar records (7-2 Kingsbury, 7-1 Al-Hassan).

“I would say that we’re close to even money,” he said. “I can’t judge Razak’s skills by the fact that he lost last time, because he’s won most of his fights by submission. As for me, if I had things my way I’d knock him out, period. So our strengths might be different, but no one here is really the underdog. The bottom line is that this fight isn’t going to come down to which one of us wants it more – it’s about which one of us isn’t going to make any mistakes.” All it’ll take for Kingsbury is to be that guy is to “change the attitude and focus on the good stuff.”

For someone who claims that he doesn’t have the faintest idea what he’s doing (three weeks from now), he’s awfully insightful.