Long Day Today!

Today was a very long but incredible day in Phuket. We started the day off at a Monkey Farm where I got attacked by a crazy monkey and my friend David got peed on! Well kind of. More on that later... We then went and visited some elephants at the Elephant Farm. After that we went to Kata beach and did a long swim in the ocean. Once we swam ridiculously too far out, we had a diving competition to see who could reach the bottom of the ocean first and bring up sand as proof. David won, to my amazement, and so I had to go back down super charged to seek my revenge. Forgetting how bad my sinuses are, I really jacked up my ears from the pressure. I think we free dove 30-40 feet. So for the next hour after, salt water periodically poured out of my nose every time I leaned forward. 

After that we headed to a spa and did a cardio workout as well as strength training. I worked my legs, which needed it! Then as if this wasn't enough, I went to Tiger Muay Thai in the evening and sparred top ranked pro boxer and former WBO lightweight titleholder Michael Katsidis. We boxed a few rounds and I thought it went really good. I will post pictures and videos of all of the days activities as soon as I can, we're taking the boat out tomorrow so I gotta get up in 6 hours! 

Busted In Phuket!

After 2 days in Phuket, I finally got busted! It was bound to happen eventually. I am not even 100% sure what I did wrong. Thats bad I guess. I think I ran a red light and made an illegal turn. Either way, I had to drive my motorcycle straight to the Chalong Police station to pay my fine. After spending the rest of the night reading "Motorcycle Driving In Thailand As A Foreigner For Dummies" over a seafood dinner, I am ready to obey the laws of the Thai roadway tomorrow!

More updates, pictures, and videos soon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas! 

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! We are now in Thailand and spent Christmas day in a very unique way... 

We started the day off at the Floating Market.... 

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The first thing I bought was a Thai Guitar made of wood and snake skin. I am a horrible musician but that didn't stop me from trying. You can see our Thai driver in the background trying to off himself!











The market was really interesting. The locals try very hard to sell you just about anything. If we had of bought everything that was offered to us, our boat would have sunk for sure. They were very nice though. 

After the market, we visited the Coconut Sugar Farm...

Then we traveled over to an Elephant Farm. We played with some Elephants, posed with some tigers, then watched an Elephant show...

Even after all of these completely random and spontaneous Christmas Day adventures, we still felt we had to solidify an even more random and unique ending to this very memorable day. So for Christmas dinner, we got serenaded by the live singing of a Thai Elvis impersonator. Yes we did...

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THAILAND!

Yesterday we had a busy day as well. We visited a Safari and I got to use my new Canon Rebel XSI digital camera. Here are some of my shots....































After the Safari, we found some tiger handlers and they let us feed and play with a couple baby tigers...



We will continue our journey on to Phuket Island tomorrow and thats where I will stay the remainder of my stay here... More to come!

Off To Thailand!

I leave tonight for Thailand and I am excited! It will be a nice change of scenery and I am looking forward to the tropical climate!

I always say, while in Thailand, that the next trip I am packing nothing but a backpack! I always over pack and you can buy most everything there. Well, I just finished packing my 2nd bag so, again, I am bringing 100lbs of luggage! I will say that this time a majority of it is food which will be consumed on the trip. I have a case of Muscle Milk RTDs, a case of Muscle Milk Oatmeals, A tub of Muscle Milk "Cake Batter" powder, and a case of Morph Bars. I also packed all my supplements and vitamins. Hopefully customs won't confiscate it all! Its hard to find good supplements in Thailand.

During my last fight camp, I must have swam 100 miles inside the 24 hour fitness pool. Since my fight didn't require me to swim any, I am hoping all that hard work will pay off and I will swim dolphin-like in the beautifly clear Andaman ocean!

One cool thing about going to Southeast Asia is that I always manage to get into something thats so crazy, I have to ask myself if I am really doing it... On the last trip it was a toss-up between shooting machine guns next to a mine field in Cambodia and going into the snake pit in Thailand. I think being in that snake pit and having 3 poisonous snakes strike at my hand was the loudest I have ever physically heard my heart beat.

I will be posting blogs, pictures, and videos as often as I can so check back!

New Post Fight Video Blog Uploaded!

Book Signing In San Jose This Monday!

I will be doing the Nationwide UFC Octagon Book Signing this Monday in San Jose, CA. If you are in town stop by and check it out!

Monday, December 15 - 7:00 pm
Barnes and Noble
2200 Eastridge Loop
San Jose, CA

Post Fight Thoughts...

As I sit here on my laptop in my hotel in Raleigh, I am still in shock of the experience that I had last night. It was amazing fighting in front of 10,000 service men and women in support of such a great cause as the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. 

I have always been a huge fan and supporter of our military and last night I got to take part in a huge campaign of support. If the numbers are correct, the show raised over $4,000,000 for The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund!

The fight obviously went the way I wanted. So I am very happy about that! Its always a great feeling when you pour your heart and soul into a training camp and it pays off. I trained so hard for the last 3 months and worked on so many things to improve my boxing and speed.

I definitely gotta thank my team, AKA, I couldn't have done it without them! Wheetsie, my boxing coach, has spent countless hours with me since the Davis fight working on my boxing and speed. Javier Mendez has also logged the hours holding mitts for me. Dave Camarillo has been amazing with the progression of my ground game and Bob Cook is just the best overall cornerman/advice coach out there. My coaches and teammates at AKA are the best in the business!

I also want to send a shout-out to the best wrap and cutman in the business, "Stich"! I only trust my hands to you man!  

So right now, its 8am here in Raleigh and I am still awake as usual post-fight. At noon, Koscheck and I will be heading back to Fort Bragg to meet with the Special Forces soldiers for a special (Non-UFC)appearance where we will do a signing and give away some gifts. We will also be meeting up with the Golden Knights to setup a skydive with their team. We will film the days festivities so be sure and check out my YouTube page in a couple days to see the videos! We will also post the behind-the-scenes video of this fight as soon as we can... YouTube.com/Officialswick

Friday I head back to San Jose but will be leaving for Thailand sometime in the next 10 days for some R&R and training. I will be posting videos and blogs from Thailand so be sure and check back here and the YouTube page!

Thanks for all of your support! 

 

Fight Day...

Well, its finally fight day! I am very excited! Everything has went good and today, the match finally arrives...

Its 3:15 now and I am set to head to the venue with Koscheck at 6:45pm. In the next 3 hours I will just relax at the hotel and carb up.

The UFC said its going to be a full to capacity 10,000 seat venue filled with our heroic military personnel. Thats going to be such  great feeling walking out knowing that all the men and woman cheering are our brave soldiers who fight our horrific battles overseas in the name of freedom! 

I will try and post my post-fight thoughts here as soon as I have a chance after the fight.... 

I want to thank all the fans for their support! You guys have stuck by me through my ups and downs and I plan to reward you tonight! 

Fight Week At Fort Bragg...

Sorry, I haven't updated in a few days. I haven't been on the net much. Koscheck and I arrived here on Saturday. We meet up with some friends from the base here and have been getting good training and weight cutting in. Tonight we had a short workout and tomorrow we will do our final weight cut.

Weigh-ins are tomorrow at 5pm, which is a little later than usual. I did very good on weight this time and am right on target.

I will update more before the fight! 

Last Hard Day...

Well, today was officially my last hard day of training! Only a week till the fight, so now its just technique, cardio, rest and recovery. It is a good feeling when this point in the camp arrives, especially when you know you have put in the best fight camp yet. Its good to be finally finished with the grueling training days, its good knowing the kind of shape you are in, its good knowing that in less than a week you will be back in the ring, and finally its good knowing that the gloves and shin pads are coming off! Its about to be for real and no holding back! I can't wait!

We will leave for North Carolina on Saturday. I can't even describe in words how excited I am to be healthy and fighting again in a week. I guarantee this will be my best performance yet!

I will try and post another video blog tomorrow or so on the YouTube page. I know its been a while, I have just been so busy.

After the fight we will be posting a lot of stuff up on here and the YouTube page. I plan to leave for Thailand in late December and will be posting daily from Phuket with pictures and video updates from the trip. I am excited to get back there!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I know I am a little late but I had a super busy day! It was pretty much like every other training day except at the end, I had some turkey. A lot of turkey actually...

I started the day off at the gym as usual. Fitch, Ron and Javier all broke free of Thanksgiving festivities to come in and help Koscheck and I train. Javier kindly put us through a 16 round workout that would surely take away any guilt from our evening meal plans.

The rest of the day and evening was spent with Mary's family. That is where I engulfed myself with a guilt-free Thanksgiving meal. I also went on to lose a "Boys Vs Girls" game of Scene-It. I have watched every movie on that damn game but am never in a state of mind to guess them from half blurred pictures, quotes, and clips on a moments notice. I save that fast paced thinking for the gym and ring. I did somehow guess Aeon Flux from a still photo which was suprising even to me, considering I have never even seen that movie.

Less than 2 weeks to go....

Focusing Through The Controversy...

Hey Guys, sorry I haven't posted in a few days... If you've seen the Internet lately, you know all the controversy that's been going on at the gym. Its been a crazy last few days with the situation plus media all over the gym. I have just tried to lay low and focus on training and my upcoming fight.

As for the fight, I feel really good! Training has been great! Working a lot with Koscheck, Fitch, Pat Minihan, Nate Moore and Nate James. Today was my final workout of the week, I'm taking the WHOLE weekend off! Trust me, I need it! Koscheck and I were on the chopping block today, having guys rotate in on us every round during sparring. I finished up with a long roll with Dave Camarillo. It was a great week ender and I plan to just lay low and rest this weekend.

Tonight is the Strikeforce event here in San Jose, so I am going to head down there and support my teammates Bobby Southworth and Luke Rockhold. I am also excited to see the Joe Riggs fight. He was in the gym last night and looked ready. Aside from the ring time we shared in the octagon at UFC 60, I have always liked Joe. He is a really cool guy and one of my favorite fighters to watch.

That's about it for now, I will try and post a weekend update if anything cool happens. I know you guys don't wanna hear about me laying around the house playing poker and Call Of Duty 5!

Weekend Update...

What a great night of fights this weekend! That was an action packed UFC show! I was sad to see Randy lose though, he's such a warrior and just great person. Kenflo kept his momentum going with a very nice win over Stevenson. And of course the Riley/Gurgel fight was amazing!

My training is going great and I am in record shape for this one. My resting heart rate is dipping into the 40's so that's always a good indication that I am where I need to be. I am healthy and feel very strong, fast, and explosive. These are the qualities I plan to use to my advantage on December 10th to give me, and the fans, my best and most exciting fight to date.

I will try and post a new video blog this week on my youtube page. I know its been a while, I have just been so busy with training. When I get home, I just eat and sleep!

I will also be heading back to Thailand right after my fight for training and vacation. I will be filming a lot of new stuff on this trip so this blog and my youtube page will be updated daily with all of my adventures. I do plan to get back in the snake pit and gain more experience as a snake handler as well as some lessons in handling Crocidiles. I am also thinking about trying some exotic foods, scorpions perhaps... I also plan to do something else that I have always wanted to do but I won't spoil that just yet! Should be interesting...

Here is a small clip from the Inside MMA show I did with Randy, Mask, Bas and Kenny...




Time for bed, tomorrow starts another long week of training! 24 days to go!

Hosting UFC Party This Weekend In San Fran!

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Our Wedding Photos!

Here are some of the professional photos taken at our wedding by Jarvis Photography. They did an amazing job capturing all the great moments of our ceremony. This is just a few of the 800+ they took that day! we won't get the finalized and edited CD with all the pics for another few weeks but I figured even raw, these were amazing!

The wedding was held on September 13th, 2008 on South Lake Tahoe. We choose Edgewood as our venue and it was the perfect choice!