So I started this journey back in November 2009 to get into amateur MMA and see where it would take me. I picked up my new MMA coach, Dave Reeves in January 2010 and my training for MMA began to fall into place along with all the strength and conditioning work that I was already doing with Dino. From the beginning I had the support of Need To Build Muscle as the first sponsor to believe in my abilities and help me out along the way with whatever I needed. I got my first fight out of the way in 2:20 into the first round in Chicago in March and everything picked up very quickly from there. I picked up my manager, Disorderly Conduct and a number of sponsors including LA Boxing Chantilly, PimpIt Fight Team, Dent Clinic and most recently Tap Out and The Gun Store. I took on my second opponent in June in Atlantic City and defeated her at only 23 seconds into the first round and then went into a hard training cycle for the first round of the Tuff –N- Uff 135lb. Women’s Tournament in Las Vegas on July 2^nd.

Tuff –N- Uff is the top amateur show in the country, showcasing a lot of new talent in the ever growing sport of mixed martial arts and taking steps to further the careers of the participants through media exposure and the creation of title holders in each weight class. Tuff –N- Uff most recently put together the 125lb. and 135lb. Amateur Women’s Tournament and chose only 8 women in each weight class to compete for the first ever Tuff –N- Uff Title. I was fortunate to be chosen as one of the competitors in the 135lb. division and took full advantage of all the publicity surrounding the tournament. The first round of the competition took place on July 2^nd where I faced off against Greg Jackson’s female MMA product, Emily Peters-Kagan and won by unanimous decision. Although Strikeforce veteran, Julie Kedzie was in her corner, I was able to quickly dominate every round of the fight and defeat their game plan which earned me a spot in the semi-final round against Jocelyn “Lights Out” Lybarger on August 6^th. Following the semi-final round, I will be training for the title fight scheduled for September 24^th which will seal my record at an undefeated 5 – 0, put my name in the books as the first 135lb. women’s title holder for Tuff –N- Uff, and pave the way for me to smoothly transition to the 145lb. division as a professional MMA fighter. Strikeforce here I come!

It is almost hard for me to believe that I have only been training hard for MMA for 6 months and I am already fighting in Vegas with the likes of Strikeforce and UFC veterans in the audience. What a trip! I have never been the type of person to get star struck by having “famous” fighters around but I must admit it is kind of cool to think that they are there to watch my fight. I would say that this opportunity has opened up many doors for me and has opened my eyes to how big this sport is becoming. There is something about the crowd screaming for you when you win that makes you want to do it all over again and it never seems to get old when random people walk up to congratulate you or to ask how you did. There’s just something about that feeling that screams that this was what I was meant to do, I can be myself and have fun and get recognized for it, what else could you ask for in life.

There are tons of pics from the first round of the Tuff –N- Uff Tournament available at my web site: www.ashleyweakley.com and click on Portfolio at the top of the page. I added a couple of my favorites at the bottom for a sample.

The video is currently available at www.gofightlive.tv but you still have to pay $9.99 to watch it. I assure you I am worth the $10, however if you want to wait, it will be up on YouTube soon.

The Semi-Final Round is scheduled for August 06, 2010 at The Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. If you have a chance to make it out, I will put on a good show for you. You can also watch it live for $9.99 at www.gofightlive.com or just join my FaceBook page and you will get the update immediately following the fight.

Big thanks to all of my fans, family, friends and supporters. I couldn’t have got this far without you. And a special thanks to Need To Build Muscle for hooking me up with the best supplements on the market because I looked ripped in all the photos from the fight! Couldn’t be happier with the outcome!

The Weigh In: 133lbs.

The Face Off

The Fight

The Victory

~Ashley “Baby Tyger” Weakley~

~Proudly Sponsored Need To Kill That Shit Athlete~

The three necessary evils to achieving my goal: a strength and conditioning regimen to make me an animal, a fight training regimen to perfect my technique, and a supplement regimen to keep me constantly improving mentally and physically. I was fortunate to have a very experienced support team behind me that allowed me to just go through the training, stick to the plan, and enjoy the results at the end. Now that I have had a chance to sit down after the fight and reflect on how I got there, I wanted to share some of the program that helped me become successful in my MMA debut.

My MMA Strength & Conditioning Program

(this is a general overview, not the whole program)

Programmed and coached by Dino

• 2 – 3 Days per week of long distance cardio (varied times but ran at a slow steady pace)
• 1 – 2 Days per week of sprints (varied between timed sprints – 3 Minute Sprints/1 Minute Walk, etc. or distance sprints – 100 Meters, 400 Meters, etc.)
• 5 Hours of Kettlebell Training per week (varied workouts for strength, speed, etc.)
• 5 Hours of Bodyweight Training per week
• Rest on Sunday (and by rest I mean a long stretch for about 45 minutes and some light cardio)

In my opinion, the strength and conditioning program was what built a solid base for me to be able to add the fight training into my regimen without any significant resistance. I didn’t have to waste any time preparing my body for fight conditioning, which helps out a lot mentally, especially when you are starting something new. Prior to November 2009, I had no experience in Jiu-Jitsu at all, but I knew going in that even if I lacked skill, my strength and conditioning was top of the line, so I could outlast everyone until my technique got better. I think that a good strength and conditioning foundation should be achieved before moving on to more intricate and technique based training. I don’t think I could have asked for a better and more knowledgeable coach than Dino when it came to knowing exactly how to intertwine everything in order to make it work specifically for MMA. He put a lot of time and hard work into preparing me for this fight and I was very lucky to have him in my corner.

My Fight Training Program

(again general overview, not the whole program)

Programmed by Dino and Dave Reeves and coached by Dave Reeves

• Weeks 1 – 8 – Dave had not jumped in as my fight coach yet, I was just learning the ropes of Jiu-Jitsu and starting Muay Thai
  • 5 hours per week of fight training at home (shadow boxing, focus mitt work, etc.)
  • 6 hours per week of Gi Jiu-Jitsu – learning position basics, and basic techniques for passing and sweeping
  • 3 hours per week of Muay Thai Class – more like a conditioning class, but gave me a basic idea of how to combine punching and kicking
• Weeks 9 – 16 – Dave took over as my head fight coach and directed all my training at preparing specifically to fight in March
  • 3 – 4 hours per week of No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu – focused specifically on Jiu-Jitsu for MMA (learning where to throw in punches, etc.)
  • 2 hours per week of Muay Thai Class – giving me a variety of people to work with and spar with when needed
  • 6 – 7 hours per week of private MMA Fight Training with Dave – working on combinations, bag work, combining techniques, sparring, etc.

The first eight weeks was the beginning of the fight program where I basically just wanted to get a feel for Jiu-Jitsu and get some basics of Muay Thai to be able to work at home on some combinations and stringing everything together. By January, I felt that I was ready enough to move on to No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu and start on a hard push to make it to my MMA debut in March. I was fortunate to have met Dave Reeves, who was not only an excellent instructor for the Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai classes, but was willing to spend countless hours working with me privately to prepare me for the fight. He also worked very hard with Dino to integrate the fight training with the conditioning training and the supplement program so that I could peak at the perfect time. He was very persistent at getting me up to speed quickly and kept me dedicated to a very hard training schedule in order to get me to where I felt ready. Because of the intensity during the training, I was confident and able to dominate my opponent in my head before I even entered the cage, and I couldn’t have asked for a better result.

My Supplement Program

Programmed by Nate

Supplements

• Forged Burner
• N2KTS
• Whey To Build Muscle
• Muscle Replenisher
• Better Protein Bars
• N 2 Matrix
• Gear
• Lipoflame
• Lipostim

This was a very in depth program that Nate designed specifically for me to prepare for my fight. I don’t want to go into full detail and give away all of the secrets, but I will give you the basic idea. The first 4 weeks we stuck to a basic regimen of protein products, Forged Burner, N2KTS and Gear to keep my energy level up for the long training sessions. The last 4 weeks I cut out the Protein Bars and the Muscle Replenisher and replaced them with regular protein shakes to lower my carb intake. Finally, the last 2 weeks, I replaced the N2KTS with the LipoFlame and LipoStim so I could sweat more during the workouts and burn off more fat so I would have less weight to cut at the last minute. Like I said, the program was much more involved than it appears, but I don’t want to give away all the secrets. All I know is that with the program that Nate put together, I got results quicker than I ever have before using other products.

We experimented with the combinations of the supplements until we found exactly the combination that worked for me. This was an excellent supplement program that I went on that not only made me leaner and stronger but kept me mentally focused during the long training days at the gym. I definitely like the effect of the LipoFlame and LipoStim stack during the last 2 weeks before the fight, it made making weight a lot easier, and when I needed to cut weight, it helped me sweat it out quickly so I didn’t have to suffer in the sauna suit too long (thank God). These are certainly the most effective supplements I have ever taken and would recommend them to everyone. They don’t have the bad after effects or the crash at the end of the rush, and the protein products actually taste like the flavor and not chalk. I was very lucky to be able to take advantage of this amazing line of products when Need To Build Muscle decided to sponsor me for my MMA debut. I will say that I felt stronger, leaner, faster, and more aggressive than ever before and it clearly paid off in the end. So in short, I hope that as long as I am beating people down in the cage, Need To Build Muscle will have my back, and I will be able to deliver an aggressive and exciting performance every time.

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself before I start spewing information about my training and life in Women’s MMA. I suppose I could go into a long winded explanation on why I fight, but the truth is much more simple, I am just an adrenalin junkie with extraordinary athletic abilities who likes to test my limits every chance I get. I tried to sit down and write out a long detailed description and over-analyze every aspect of my training for your reading pleasure but I found it to be far too extensive and quite frankly, just boring to read. My first interview from when I began boxing kept flashing into my mind as I was trying to write and it made me laugh. It was right after my first boxing match in 2004 and I was doing a live podcast interview with I don’t remember who, but the first question came out, “So Ashley, being a woman, what made you want to get into the sport of boxing?” Answering truthfully, my answer was simply, “I wanted to box so I could fight legally.” There was a long awkward silence and I thought maybe I got disconnected, but after the host came back on stuttering, clearly forgetting what the follow up question was supposed to be, it suddenly struck me that wasn’t quite the response they were looking for. . . . .oops. It was one of those things that you remember forever and reflect on later and just laugh. Needless to say, that is not why I decided to get into MMA, and given the opportunity to answer that question now, “What made me want to get into MMA?” I would have a different response. I would say I missed the consistent hard training, driving toward a goal, pushing through the pain, and mostly the adrenalin rush I get when the cage door closes and I can feel my heart beating out of my chest, not out of fear or nerves, but out of excitement and the desire to defeat my opponent, and at that moment, the bell rings, and I know, This Is Why I Fight!

There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you put everything you had into every aspect of preparing prior to entering the cage. I have been training 3 times a day, 6 days on, with 1 day off to prepare for my first MMA fight on March 13, 2010 in Chicago, IL. Thanks to Need To Build Muscle, Inc. who is sponsoring me with an incredible line of supplements, I do not feel over-trained in the least. (As a side note my favorites are the N2KTS before workouts and the Better Protein Bars as snacks throughout the day.) On a daily basis I do strength, conditioning and fight training and I feel faster, stronger and smoother than ever before which I typically judge by the way I feel when I spar. Recently, I found that I wasn’t thinking about each movement and the proper response to it, my body was just flowing on its own and responding effortlessly without thought. To me, that is the ultimate payoff to pushing through all the hard training and long days at the gym, knowing that you have worked so hard that your body knows how to respond before your brain even knows what happened.

At the end of the day it is the effort that I put into training that makes it worth it. It is the look on my coach’s face when he tries to act disappointed that I lost another sparring partner because I beat her senseless, but he can’t help but smile. Likewise, it is the look on my sparring partner’s face when she’s leaving and says she will see me next time, knowing that I will never see her again. It is the “You’ll put your eye out” speech my parents give me every time I tell them I am fighting. It is the undeniable pleasure in my boyfriend’s demeanor when I defeat my opponent. It is the friends that are willing to travel across country just to watch me, even though I am still an amateur. But ultimately, it is the feeling of victory after beating someone down until they no longer have the will to continue that reminds me why I fight.

I must say that with a little more than 4 weeks to go until my fight I couldn’t be more pleased with the amount of support that I have received from my sponsor: Need To Build Muscle, Inc., my coaches: Coach Dino, Dave Reeves, Larry Lindenman, and Leo Dalla, and my family and friends that have stood beside me during my whole fight career. Having such great people behind me makes it easy to focus on my goals and continue driving forward so that I can put on a victorious performance for everyone on fight night. I will close my first post with a quote from Bruce Lee, “The attitude, ‘You can win if you want to badly enough,’ means that the will to win is constant. No amount of punishment, no amount of effort, no condition is too “tough” to take in order to win.”

A great inspirational quote and words I live by, this is why I fight!

~Ashley “Baby Tyger” Weakley~

Next Fight Date: March 13, 2010 in Chicago, IL. Don’t miss it! As soon as I have venue information I will post that up as well!