Feb-2-2010

A Hungry Mac Danzig Makes His Vegas Return

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By Thomas Gerbasi

If you were looking to get away from it all, Los Angeles probably wouldn’t be the destination at the top of your list, but for lightweight Mac Danzig, a return to his old stomping grounds after nearly two years in Las Vegas was just what the doctor ordered.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Danzig went there for reasons related to his fight career. In fact, after he dropped a hard-fought three round decision to Jim Miller at UFC 100 last July, his third loss in a row, Danzig left Vegas for a break from the non-stop 24/7 grind of fight life.

“This was the first time in my career I took more than a couple weeks off from training,” said ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ season six winner. “I actually took three months where I didn’t train and really didn’t do much of anything in the realm of fighting. It helped me heal a little bit physically, but for the most part it was to clear my mind because I had gotten to the point where I was very burned out.”

That’s not surprising considering that Vegas is the fight capital of the world, and that training in the lightweight shark tank that is the Xtreme Couture gym means that practically every day is a fight with guys who are teammates, but also fighters looking to climb the same ladder you are. And while steel sharpens steel, these sessions can also lead to a feeling that if you’re not on top every day during sparring, you’re falling behind.

“Vegas is very, very saturated with fighting, and there’s not really a whole lot to do outside of the gym,” said Danzig. “And the training is also extremely hard, almost in a way to the point where it’s detrimental at times depending on how you take it. A lot of the training sessions, it’s really hard sparring, which I like, but it just becomes a survival race the whole time. You’re in survival mode and constantly fighting live with these top guys in the world – Gray Maynard, Tyson Griffin, Martin Kampmann, Mike Pyle – every day, day in, day out, plus a whole host of other guys. So it’s good and I like that aspect of it, but what was happening was that I would get so burned out that between fights I wouldn’t want to see the inside of the gym and wouldn’t want to get back in there. It was bad for me because in between fights I wasn’t in the gym and I wasn’t working out and I wasn’t progressing. So what I was doing was taking one step forward for the training, and then two steps back in between the fights.”

Add in the losses to Miller, Josh Neer, and Clay Guida, which followed a 2-0 UFC start for Danzig, and it was obvious that something needed to change for the 30-year old Ohio native. So he went back to Los Angeles, his previous home, spent time with his daughter and became a civilian again.

“It got to the point where I was so tired of not even just fighting, but the idea of competing in any way, shape or form,” he said. “Day in and day out is a struggle and you’re constantly butting heads with somebody, it’s constantly combat, and I finally got to the point where I didn’t want to be competitive. Just the idea of playing chess with a friend at home, I didn’t want to do it. The idea of trying to beat somebody else at something, I was completely sick of it. So taking that time off, it helped a lot.”

Eventually, Danzig decided that it was time to get back into the gym, get in shape, and resume his fighting career. He joined up with the PKG Fight Team in West Los Angeles, and began on the road back. But things didn’t exactly start out as planned.

“Even when I had an injury I would be working out in some other way, but this is the first time in nine years. that I took that much time off – not just from watching fights and training, but from exercise in general,” he said. “It took its toll on me, and the first few weeks back were rough. I wasn’t feeling it and I was thinking ‘wow, after three months off I’m still not sure if I really like doing this anymore.’”

Danzig stuck with it though, and as his body got back in fighting shape, his mind followed, and the hungry contender returned.

“Once I got my cardio back a little bit and started sparring and feeling that competitive feeling again, I really started to enjoy it once again,” he said. “I started to watch fights again, I started to watch all my boxing videos again, which is a big inspiration to me because I’m a huge boxing fan, and when I started sparring, it was a slow transition, but I’m feeling good again and I’m feeling hungry, which is something I haven’t felt in a while.”

And though the PKG team doesn’t boast the all-star lineup of the Xtreme Couture gym, Danzig has no complaints about the new group that will prepare him for battle – which in this case is Saturday’s UFC 109 return against Justin Buchholz.

“I got back in the gym with a good bunch of guys down here in LA, a lot of young up and coming guys with a lot of drive and I’m enjoying training for the first time in quite a while,” he said. “It’s more of a family atmosphere where if someone has a fight coming up, we’re all working with that person and giving them the best training that we possibly can. That’s what works for me the best and that’s how it was before I moved to Vegas and where I found a little bit more success, and hopefully I’ll get on track because of that.”

Now comes the fun part or the hard part, depending on how you view things, and for Danzig, that’s breaking his losing streak this weekend. And no, he doesn’t need to be reminded that a fourth straight loss would be a crushing setback and that his UFC stint could be riding on the result of the Buchholz fight. He knows what’s at stake and he’s fine with letting the naysayers blurt out what they want to about him. It doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is what happens when the Octagon door closes.

“I’ve had a whole lot of fights, I’m a veteran, and I’m dealing with three losses in a row for the first time and yeah, it’s hard,” he admits. “One good thing though, and it’s unfortunate that it’s had to come to this for me to feel this way, but I can finally say that I’m not worried about the perception of the fans anymore. I don’t let that bother me, and I’m not worried about what people think of me as far as my status in the sport goes. Once you achieve a certain level, you start to pay attention to the things that people say and you’re in the spotlight and being considered as one of the better fighters in the weight class. And then when you fall off the way I have a little bit, the fans and the critics take a big bite out of you. Now after three in a row - and in none of those fights did I get completely destroyed or outclassed - I feel like this is my job, I’ve got to do the best I possibly can, and I’ve got to enjoy it while I’m doing it. I’m not really worried about what people think or if they think I’m a top level fighter anymore. I’m just gonna do my job and I think I’ll probably end up turning everything around for the better in the process.”

To do that, he must turn back Buchholz, who has plenty of incentive of his own after losing three of his four UFC fights, including two in a row. Win or lose though, the Alaska native always comes to fight, setting up what should be an entertaining scrap for the Spike TV audience that will see this preliminary bout before the UFC 109 Pay-Per-View broadcast begins. Danzig is confident of victory.

“I expect him (Buchholz) to be a hundred percent improved from the last couple fights that he’s had,” he said. “The last few fights I’ve seen of him, I haven’t really been impressed with the way he fights, but I’m sure he’s watched tape of himself and he said ‘this is what I need to work on.’ And I know he trains with a good tough group of guys that have a good work ethic and I expect that he’s fixed a lot of those holes that are in his game. But when I see him and I watch the way he fights, there’s only so much that you can change in five or six months between fights, and I think that his style is a good matchup for mine, and when I look at him and I see him fight, I feel very confident in my ability to beat him.”

He’s even going to have a portion of his old team with him on fight night, giving him a bit of that home game feel even though he’s now coming into Vegas as an out of towner.

“It might be a little strange, but I think I’ll feel comfortable because I’ll have Gray (Maynard) in my corner, he’s been one of my best friends and training partners since I started going out to Vegas three, four years ago,” said Danzig on his return to Vegas. “I’ll also have Gil Martinez, my boxing coach from Vegas, in there with me, and I’ll feel the way I normally do when I’m out there. I’ll be comfortable, and even though I lost my last fight there, I enjoy fighting in Mandalay Bay, so I don’t think it should be a problem at all.”

So if you think the losses prompted a change of scenery and a shot to Danzig’s confidence, you’d be wrong. The change of scenery actually brought him back to what made him fall in love with the sport in the first place, and with that peace of mind, he’s ready for war.

“Something had to change with my mentality and my drive and motivation for training,” he said. “I always trained hard, it’s not like I ever slacked off in a training camp for any fight, and I really love the sport, but I was I loving competing? No. Now there’s a lot less stress and a lot more hunger now, and this is the best I’ve felt in a couple of years going into a fight, so I’m happy. Everybody just needs to find their groove and their niche, and I think I know what it is for me.”