Former baseball great, Jose Canseco has admitted that he didn’t prepare properly for his mixed martial arts debut last year against giant Korean, Hong Man Choi in the DREAM Super Hulk tournament, something he intends to put right the next time he steps back into action.
Speaking via MMAJunkie Jose Canseco said:
“I just wasn't ready. I had no business being in there. But you know what? I conquered my fears. The guy is 7-foot-2, 360 pounds. That's one of the first times a guy has actually made me look small. It was amazing how big the guy was.”
“Two or three days before the fight, I tried to say, ‘You know what? My knee is really bad. I'm going to have a knee brace on. Why don't I just come down and be one of the announcers or talk about the fight or be there as one of the judges?’ They said, ‘No, no, no. We created this thing around you. You've got to come, and you've got to fight.’ I said, ‘Well, can I fight with a knee-brace on?’ I could barely stand on it. They said, ‘Yeah, you can fight however you want - with a knee-brace on, long pants.’”
“Ironically enough, just before the fight actually happened, one of the rules guys checked my knee, and I had a metal knee-brace on. He took it off. I was like, ‘They said I could fight with this on.’ The judge said, ‘No, no, no. You can't.’ I had to take it off. I threw a kick right before that fight, and my knee went out of place. I think my gameplan was just not to get killed. I said, ‘Listen, either he's going to knock me out really fast, I'm going to try and knock him out right away, or my knee is going to give out.’ I told myself, 'Go ahead and run away if I can land a solid punch.’”
“People have to understand, he's a real giant. His skeletal structure is different than ours. He's 7-foot-2, 360 pounds. His face and his bone structure is so much denser than ours. I took a shot at him, and any guy my size would have gone down. I hit him decent, but I didn't get him solid enough to knock him off his feet. The man is incredible. I want to come back, and I think this is perfect timing. We're both about the same age. I'm a little bit heavier than he is. We both have the same fighting experience. We both have the same martial arts background. And, of course, you've got football against baseball. This is perfect.”
“I have great respect for all the fighters, mixed martial arts and martial arts, in general. I don't see why two ex-athletes who were great at their sport at one time, who follow martial arts, who respect martial arts greatly, can't go in there and do an incredible, entertaining fight. It's going to be about the closest, most realistic – same age, same shape, same sports background – I think it would be incredible just to find out who's the bad boy of sports.”
“If the Gracie family would train me – and I met with them last week, and they seem pretty interested – I think it would be a great fight. I'm willing to train under the Gracie family or whomever would train me. I'm willing to put in the time and sacrifice the hours and put up a good fight. I don't want to go into the MMA world with Strikeforce and embarrass anybody. I will not fight under the Strikeforce banner unless I am completely trained.”
Canseco has made it clear that he wants a shot at former NFL great, Herschel Walker the next time he steps into action. Whether he signs with Strikeforce or not is the big question that needs to be answered first
