Hey reader,
I trust you are keeping well.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my recent fight at Victory Fights in Brighton on July 16th.
So first things first, you're now reading the blog of the New 70kg Victory Fights Pro-AM Muay Thai Champion Andre 'Radojunkie' Simon. This title was secured on July 16th.
If you want to watch the fight like NOW, then scroll to the bottom but gosh make sure you come back to read the story.
That being said, let's go back to May 21st. It was a Sunday and I attended the KO interclub to corner with my coach Jose and the Fightzone squad. Bare in mind that this was a few weeks after my previous fight at Roar Fighting Championship 23 (RFC23), so I was in complete relaxation mode.
That evening, I received a message from Jose saying that he had good news for me. I am pretty sure you guessed what the news was. "We got a title fight for you at 70kg. It's Kenshiro's show in Brighton on July 16th. You in?".
My response was simple "At that weight, the belt is mine. I'm back in the dog house tomorrow".
Just like that, I was straight into another fight camp. At this point, Jose still hadn't told me who I was going to be fighting against. I think this was to allow me to get back into the swing of training after taking it easy for a few weeks. Either way, it didn't matter to me but I was pretty sure it would be.
About a week later, Jose confirmed my hunch that I would be fighting against Daniel for the Victory Fights Pro-AM Title. I had been speaking to Daniel at RFC23 after finding out his opponent had pulled out on the day and even then I could tell he just wanted to put his hands on someone. After hearing the announcement and thinking back to our conversation, it geared me up and I started to train hard. I knew that whoever was going to be his next opponent after our exchange of words was going to be in for a hell of a bout. Funnily enough, it happened to be me.
I won't go into too many details about my fight camps. If you have read my previous blogs, you know that I have been training very intense since my return and this was no different. If not, it was even worse because I was up against the 'Dark Shark' of Brighton.
Lets time skip to June 2nd, the fight poster had been posted up on the Victory Fights Instagram page. This was my message to Jose;
Don't get me wrong, I was excited I was going to be headlining my first ever show. But as you can see, all I could think about was getting home as I know the show tends to end late. Jose only cared about one thing and we were on smoke from then onward.
One thing I can say that was different about me during this fight camp is that I was so switched on after the fight was announced as the main event. I was going into the Dark Shark's backyard in Brighton, with his home crowd supporting him. Those familiar with Daniel would know that he has been building a name for himself as he has been punishing everyone put in front of him.
I started teaching more classes with Team Tieu. This helped me understand a lot more about my own mistakes as a fighter and a coach but at the same time, it allowed me to address them by seeing other people use the techniques I taught.
My teammates Papito, Sunchai and Nim also had fights confirmed for CFS on July 2nd and MTGP/KGP on July 9th so everyone was switched on. We were all fighting over three consecutive Saturdays, Nim and I were the last of us to go to war on July 16th.
We are going to do another time skip to the fight but this is what happened in between;
July 2nd - CFS 8 Kenneth 'Papito' Cruz vs Nathan Dryden
July 15th - VF6 Post weigh in interview with Ahmed Tijani
So, July 15th was the day of the weigh-in and I woke up at around 8 am about 69.5kg. The fight was at 70kg so I could eat some food. I had myself a small bowl of rice and lentil stew that my mum whipped up, and my usual 700ml cup of lemon, ginger & honey tea. After this, I was on around 70.2kg.
Despite being over, I knew I was in the safe zone due to a number of factors.
I know my body.
It was bloody hot that day around 30 degrees.
I tactically wore a light jacket to keep my body sweating so I could sip on water and not become too dehydrated.
At 10:30 am, Sunchai and I made our way to Brighton from London Bridge, Nim was lucky and was able to do a video weigh-in.
We had to be there at 12:00 pm for the official weigh-in and we arrived well in time. I ended up scaling in at 69.4kg fully clothed, so I can imagine I must've been around 68kg in just my shorts.
Daniel was a little late so we did not get to do the live face-off. But we managed to get the face-off pictures done and the fight was officially going down.
Sunchai and I then returned to the station and indulged in a cheeky Greggs pastry and triple chocolate muffin before jumping on the train back to London.
Like most fighters do after a weigh-in, they head home to refuel. which basically means we spend our time rehydrating ourselves, stuffing our faces and resting as much as we can.
We basically become Luffy for the next 24 hours let's say and eat anything in sight even whilst asleep.
JULY 16th = JUDGEMENT DAY!!!
So the day was finally here, the time I would be headlining my first show and for a title. I guess you could say the pressure was on, as I was going into the fight as the underdog for sure.
After my usual morning ritual on fight day, I went and bought the sweets as we are the sweet tooth gang, before heading to the gym. I arrived around 12:45 pm but I was starving so I went and got a cheeky Nandos for the team and I. I got "The Great Imitator" just in case you wondered if I stuck to my no meat during fight camp diet. We were due to leave at 1:30 pm but did not leave until about 2:30 pm as we all ate and spoke about Sunchai's fight the week prior.
As we head for Brighton, we ended up driving back past my place so we stopped off to restock on water and pick up some ice poles/popsicles I had in the freezer. Remember, it was 30+ degrees. Inside that car was like a sauna even with the AC on.
We arrived in Brighton and found parking in the car park. To our surprise, it was about £20 to pay for up to 12 hours or some madness. Daylight robbery right?
As per usual, we arrive and go to the rules meeting, then we chill out and prepare for war. I know I have not mentioned her for a while but remember that my teammate Nim was also fighting today. She made her way down with our other teammate Beth hence why she has been missing from the story until now.
NOW IT'S SHOW TIME!!! First up, NIM!!! This was her first time competing in a decision fight with the Fightzone squad. It was the first time I had seen her genuinely nervous in the time that I have known her. Asking lots of questions, eating lots, fidgety and unable to calm down.
She lost her fight against Shamima Islam from Kenshiro Gym on points. Shamima was in trouble in the last round but she did control the first two which secured her the win.
Despite Nim being nervous before she jumped in the cage. When she left, she was a whole different person. I saw someone that was ready to immediately jump back in there and go again. She had faced her fears, and what's most impressive here is that she did it in front of her opponent's home crowd.
After the fight, I went to sleep in order to spiritually prepare myself for my fight. Once it was time for me to get ready, I played my usual pre-fight grime set, F-Radio Vol.5: Ghetts Bday Set. #IYKYK
I stretched, and started shadow boxing, while Sunchai and I basically bounced off each other spitting every bar word for word. Jose had still been upstairs watching some fights but entered the room to an already in-tuned Andre Simon.
We did some drills and I did some sparring rounds with Papito to psych me up, but before I knew it, I had been sat down fully geared up rapping Soul Tape 2 by Fabolous word for word for about 10mins. Just casually waiting to be called up to go show Brighton who I am.
Finally, it was my time to go collect what was mine and we had the longest walk through the venue to get to the area where the cage was. It was literally like walking a marathon.
Jose gave me the usual pre-fight pep talk, he even said "If you don't switch on now, you're gonna get smoked by this kid.". That I believed, but I was so in the zone my response was along the lines of "I don't want you to stress just watch me.". As my intro music plays Sunchai looks me dead in my eyes and says "Stick it on him.".
Andre ' Radojunkie' Simon VS Daniel 'Dark Shark' Vortiah
I purposely hadn’t sold any tickets so I could focus solely on the fight at hand. I knew lots of my global supporters would be watching the fight on PPV via MMATV. To my surprise after securing the win, I sat on the canvas next to my corner then all of a sudden all I could hear was someone shouting out “MWAD”.
I instantly noticed the voice and looked up to see my younger brother Gerie in the crowd. #brotherlylove
So the part in the video where I lie down and look up. That’s who I’m looking up to! 💪🏾
He hasn’t missed any of my fights excluding my two last-minute bouts in 2018 up in York.
With all the post-fight celebrations and pictures taking, it was time to head back to London after what seemed like a never-ending day.
Erm, that's it for the Victory Fights retake but I thought I would finish it off on a different note so keep on reading.
I guess it is safe to say that the people I usually spend the most time with had not seen or felt me be this focused and serious before. Not that I really care when I am in that kind of zone, but now I feel as though it made people sometimes feel uncomfortable. I was in such a selfish state of mind that no one could annoy me, drag me into confrontation and most importantly, eat meat or drink alcohol.
As you all know, I now stand firm with my no meat diet during camps.
That being said, I have applied the above statement to so much of my life this year that I am clearly seeing changes. It is also one of the reasons why I stress to all of my clients and students that if you want to achieve anything you must first learn to become selfish and make plenty of mistakes along the way. You come first, everything else comes after. If you are reading this and you are not either a client or a student of mine, this also applies to you if you have something you want to achieve.
Results come to those who stay consistent with themselves and work for it.
Peace and Love.
Andre
Great content keep up the good work brother 💪🏼