|
|
Brad Scott: "People are just starting to know who I am"
16 Aug 2010
By Chris Cork
Success in mixed martial arts often comes at a price, and for young welterweight Brad Scott the joy of victory at last month’s Spartan Fight Challenge four-man tournament was cruelly tempered by the pain of injury.
Scott’s triumph in the single-night spectacle held in the town of Nailsea, near Bristol saw him overwhelm Rich Weatherall by first round TKO before returning to polish off David Round via rear-naked choke submission in the tournament’s finale.
It was an impressive display of talent and tenacity, but the physical demands of fighting twice on the same evening took their toll on the 21-year-old prospect who left the scene of his conquest with a damaged knee and a broken hand to show for his efforts.
The hand injury came courtesy of a powerful left hook that dropped Round and opened the door for Scott to finish the fight. But while the powerful punch set up victory for the Melksham-based prospect, it has kayoed his career for the next six months. A snapped metacarpal bone required surgical repair, an injury Scott, 6-1, believes is the product of fighting twice in the space of three hours.
“I don’t know if I’d ever do a tournament again,” he confides. “It’s just the injuries. You get tired, you get sloppy, you start landing dodgy punches, and you end up with a broken hand. Now I’m out [of training] for six weeks and won’t be fighting for six months. It’s a massive pain in the ass.”
Stepping into the cage twice in one night is a daunting task given the incredible amount of strain it places on a fighter’s body. Young and enthusiastic, Scott had no hesitation in stepping up to the challenge. But while his fervent ambition was rewarded with victory, Scott is now left with the frustration of an injury lay-off just as his young career is gaining momentum.
“It’s horrible,” Scott says referencing the enforced career sabbatical. “People are just starting to know who I am, I’m just starting to get a bit of a name for myself, and starting to beat fighters who people didn’t expect me to beat. Then as soon as I get into a rhythm – bang – injury.
“I’ve had a broken foot and broken toes. You can always get away with that; it’s not too bad for some reason. But a broken hand – a snapped metacarpal – is one of the worst things that could have happened.”
Hand injuries can eternally plague a fighter’s livelihood, but Scott – who trains under Stu Pike at Melksham’s Dragon’s Lair gym – prefers to accentuate the positives of the most significant success of his developing career rather than dwell on the negativity of injury, and though his joyous post-fight celebrations typified the exuberance of youth, Scott’s composure in the cage, coupled with his insightful assessment on the significance of winning, suggests a level-headed maturity that will steer him in the right direction as he climbs the domestic MMA ladder.
“I’d watched a lot of [David Round’s] fights on video and he seems to just be able to pull himself through constantly,” Scott says. “I can remember saying to myself ‘take your time, you’re going to have to finish him properly. Don’t get carried away with punching and gas yourself out.’ I saw the opportunity for the rear-naked choke, locked it in and – boom – he tapped out before I’d even got the hooks in.
“I used to [miss opportunities to finish fights] a lot myself. I’d knock someone down then dive on them straight away and go absolutely mental. But I’ve seen people get triangled, almost knock themselves out, and everything. You want to get on them quick but you don’t want to rush it. Get on them, place your shots, look for the submission, but don’t go crazy. Aim for where you’re punching as well, don’t just go wild and hit arms because he’s going to recover. We drill it [in training]. Our coach Stu teaches us to keep calm, to always get the position first, and then go for the finish. Luckily, I’d been through that drill about 150 times.
“When you win a fight you always feel like you can take the world on afterwards. But it always reminds me that the reason I’m winning is because I’m going out on a Saturday morning doing the circuits, or because I’m spending £20 an hour doing private boxing lessons during the day, or because I’m doing three hours training a day, or because I’m doing hill sprints on a Wednesday morning before I’ve got to work 2 till 10. So yeah, [winning] always reminds me to get back to reality and start training hard again.”
A forklift driver by trade Scott divides his time between training to fight and working a ‘real’ job to earn a living. It’s a grueling daily schedule that requires levels of commitment and energy that most people simply do not possess. Scott’s injury, however, prevents him from working for six weeks, and he admits it would be a dream come true to one day be able to give up the day job and become a full-time fighter.
“The contrast between fighting and working is horrible,” he says. “It’s like living a life of what you want to do – doing what you want to do in a dream – then you’ve got to go back to dull reality. When you see people like Dan Hardy, Paul Daley, Tom Watson and all of them you think ‘I want to be like them’. They don’t have to work. I want to just train full-time, go to America to train, to be in their shoes.
“It’s a massive dream of mine to make MMA a full-time job. That’s what everyone wants, everyone who’s in the sport, that’s what we all want. To do this full-time. To live the dream.”
|
|