Fight camp content on social media almost always shows the highlights. The hard sparring round that went well. The clean combination drill. The post session pump. What it rarely shows is the full picture of what a week of serious fight preparation actually looks and feels like when you are six weeks out from a real professional bout. I want to give you the honest version because I think it is more useful and more interesting than the curated version.
This is based on a typical week for me six weeks out from a fight while training at 10Kicks Gym in Seattle under Coach Stanly Phan. The details vary from camp to camp based on the opponent and what we are emphasizing, but this gives you a realistic picture of the structure and the demands.
Monday
Monday morning starts early. I am up by five thirty and out the door for a run by six. Six weeks out the morning runs are still in what I would call the aerobic development zone. Steady pace, conversational intensity, five to seven miles. I am building the engine that will power the more intense work in the weeks ahead. The run takes me through the neighborhoods near where I live in Seattle. I keep my phone in my pocket and I do not listen to music on morning runs. I use that time to think, plan the day, and ease into the mental space of being in camp.
Morning practice at 10Kicks is at ten. Coach Stanly runs the session and it is focused. Six weeks out we are in a phase where we are doing a lot of technical MMA work, identifying the specific things we want to develop for this opponent and building them through drilling and situational rounds. A session at this stage of camp might be thirty minutes of drilling focused on a specific sequence we have identified from film, followed by situational sparring rounds that put us in positions where we can practice that sequence under resistance, followed by open MMA sparring to finish.
The afternoon on Monday is usually nutrition, rest, and film. I watch opponent footage with my own notes and I might watch some of my own recent fights looking for patterns I want to build on or address. Monday is a full day but it is a productive, energizing day and sets the tone for the week.
Tuesday
Tuesday is a two a day at six weeks out. Morning is strength and conditioning, sixty to ninety minutes. We focus on functional strength movements that translate to fighting: single leg work, explosive hip work, core stability, pulling strength for clinch work. The goal is not building mass. It is building power and durability in patterns that directly relate to what I do in the cage.
The afternoon session on Tuesday is jiu jitsu focused. Drilling from fighting positions, guard passing, takedown to finish sequences, and submission defense. My BJJ has been a significant part of my game since my years training at Marcelo Alonso BJJ and continuing at 10Kicks. I prioritize keeping that game sharp even when the camp emphasis is on other things because your ground game is always in play in MMA whether you choose it to be or not.
Wednesday
Wednesday is my active recovery day. I do not go to the gym in the morning. I sleep until my body wakes up on its own which is usually around seven or seven thirty. I eat a good breakfast slowly, without rushing. Then depending on how my body feels I either go for a hike or a long walk. Six weeks out the hike is often in the eight to ten mile range. I pick a trail in one of the parks around Seattle where I can get some elevation and some time in nature away from the city and the gym environment.
In the afternoon Coach Stanly and I do a film session. Not intense. More of a conversation about what we are seeing and what we want to adjust. I also use Wednesday afternoon to take care of the administrative side of being a professional fighter: responding to messages, managing my social media, and handling anything related to fight logistics and contracts.
Wednesday evenings I try to do something completely unrelated to fighting. Dinner with people who are not fighters. A movie. Something that gives my brain a full shift into a different context. This matters more than most fighters acknowledge.
Thursday
Thursday is the hardest training day of the week. This is our main sparring day. Full MMA sparring, six rounds minimum. At six weeks out these rounds are hard but not reckless. We are training to get better not to hurt each other. Coach Stanly is always present and manages the intensity carefully. Good sparring partners are one of the most valuable resources a fighter has and they are worth protecting. You do not want to hurt the people you need to train with.
After sparring we often do some specific technical work based on what showed up in the rounds. If something was not working the way we wanted it to during live sparring we will spend fifteen to twenty minutes drilling the correction immediately while it is fresh. This is one of Coach Stanly's approaches that I have found genuinely effective. Drilling the fix directly after identifying the problem in a live context accelerates the correction significantly compared to just drilling it cold in a future session.
Friday and Saturday
Friday is a lighter technical day. Striking combinations, pad work with Coach Stanly, and some wrestling without going full intensity. The goal on Friday is quality of movement and technical sharpness without the physical tax of Thursday's sparring. I want to be recovered enough over the weekend to come back on Monday ready to push hard again.
Saturday is an open mat BJJ session. I train with people of different styles and skill sets. Rolling with variety is important because you encounter different problems and are forced to adapt. I also use Saturday as a day to work on things I want to develop for myself, not necessarily what the game plan requires, just things I want to get better at as a martial artist.
Sunday is full rest. I take my faith seriously and Sunday has a specific structure in my life that includes church, family time, and food that I enjoy without worrying about fight camp optimization. Your whole life cannot be fight camp. The people and things outside the gym are part of what makes you a complete person and a complete person is ultimately what shows up with the most character when the moments get hard inside the cage.
