Fat people in supermarkets with packets of weight watchers chocolate Swiss rolls in their trolley - balanced carefully on top of the crisps, oven chips and bottles of red pop. If there’s one thing that really gets my back up its people who have no will power. The sort who will ‘treat’ themselves to a cake or a pie or some monosodium glutamate loaded chunk of crap, then moan about how their glands/asthma/bad knees/etc stops them losing weight/exercising.

Now don’t think I’m some sort of food Nazi, far from it. I like a pint I like a curry and have developed an unsettling penchant for Doritos and hummus (possibly the finest foodstuff on the face of the planet). My weight fluctuates hugely. When I dabbled with weight cutting I hovered around the 81 – 82kg mark before cutting and still managed the odd ‘cheat’. My last fight I weighed in at 83.8kg without cutting any weight, though I did obviously watch my diet the week before. Currently I’d guess I’m plodding around at about 86kg maybe a little more. Really I should fight at welterweight as I’m a very small middleweight; I doubt I’m letting a terrible secret out here. The problem is the times I’ve done practice cuts I’ve really struggled at work. Unsupportive colleagues aside, my job is very emotionally demanding and each day is loaded with potential (and actual) confrontation and aggression. This made dealing with the cut very hard as feeling drained and snappy is not the ideal state to be in when handling kids who have emotional, social and behavioural difficulties… after all it is supposed to be them having the tantrums. Fighting is not my job and while I put what I can into it and try to be ‘professional’ I realise I often drop short of the standards some fighters set. I’ll be staying at middleweight for the foreseeable future and rely on competent matchmaking to ensure I don’t get smothered by some beast who’s cut from 93kg plus.

Back to the fatties in supermarkets. Truth is I’m maybe a little jealous of their complete abandon and gluttony; part of me would love to be able to gorge myself on crap day after day. Fortunately there is another (bigger) part of me which would never let that happen as I value my health, mobility and life too much. Fatties is probably unfair a term as it should really apply to about 90% of shoppers, particularly at Christmas, for now we’ll stick with it – it paints the right picture. They still bug me though. I don’t find their appearance offensive as such but the (and I am sure I’m generalising here) apparent complete disregard for themselves and only ever having what they want does offend me. This is true of people in so many other ways – I want to be thin, but eat crap. I want to be fit, but can’t be bothered to exercise. I’d love to be clever, but don’t read. I want to be a fighter, but …..? But what? Train? Is that all there is to it? Training? I think not, it takes so much more. To write a list would be too long but I think one word sums it up.

Commitment.

You make the commitment and nothing is too hard, nothing is beyond achievement. Some people are just more deeply committed than others. The top flight guys in the UFC have commitment. Title holders in the UK have commitment. Domestic grappling competition winners have commitment. Training takes commitment. I know I should and could cut weight with the right levels of commitment to my training, diet and lifestyle. If I did I am positive I’d be so much better a fighter. However, I keep my aspirations logically limited in MMA and I believe my level of commitment suits the level I’m fighting at.

The supermarket fatties can stay I’ve decided. They serve a purpose in that they give perspective to the achievements of all the domestic and international level fighters/athletes/sportsmen. If everyone trained MMA and was fit enough to fight, where would that leave me?!

Probably shuffling round Tesco pushing a trolley loaded with Doritos and lager.