(A victorious Jay Gladden, courtesy of Sherdog)
On the 6th of March, Jay Gladden (5-0) will fight at the Liverpool Olympia on the OMMAC 4: Victorious bill. He caught up with FIGHT! to tell all about his next bout, his team and more.
“I can’t wait,” Gladden beamed. “I’ve got a tough opponent and training is going great. Also, I love fighting in front of my home crowd, friends and family. It’s a great feeling getting the win!”
His opponent is the tough Irishman Ronan McKay who, despite his unflattering 4-8 record, is deceptively good and in his last fight he submitted Lee Chadwick via triangle choke. On his foe, Gladden said, “I’ve watched a few of his fights and he’s a tough fighter with solid stand up and a dangerous ground game, especially off his back. He’s had more fights than me and has been a lot more active over the last two years. These are the type of fights I want and need right now.”
He continued, “I’m ready to beat him in any area though. On the ground I’m rolling with world class guys and sparring with some of the UK’s top fighters every day, so we’ll see what happens on the night.”
Jay’s last fight lasted a mere 20 seconds; a submission win over Steve Caddy at OMMAC 3. He, as you may expect, was happy with his performance, but in some ways is rueful that the fight didn’t last longer.
“Yes, I was happy with my performance, and no I suppose,” he admitted. “I had a year off with various injuries and work issues, so it was good to get back in the cage and get another win. But, it would have been better for me to make it last longer and would have been a great fight to show off my stand-up as that’s where Steve wanted the fight. But, as they say, a win is a win!”
Gladden also revealed that there were mitigating circumstances which led to the fight being so short though.
“Honestly, I only found out I was fighting him one hour before the show started,” Jay noted. “I had a no show on the night and Caddy was warming up another fighter who was on the show and said he’d fight. He hadn’t weighed in and we didn’t know anything about him, so that’s why I took him down early to see what his ground game was like.”
Obviously, this reaped the due rewards, as a rear naked choke finish kept the bout short and sweet. This meant that the Liverpool man has never been the distance, and he intends to keep early nights coming. When asked if he makes a point of finishing bouts, he declared:
“Of course. Letting the judges make a decision on who won has changed so many fighters’ careers. Right now, at the level I’m fighting, I hope to finish all my fights to prove I’m ready to keep moving up the levels.”
The undefeated man is part of the ever improving stable that is Team Kaobon. The success of this gym has exploded in the past year, with fighters such as Paul Kelly and Paul Taylor joining mainstays such as Terry Etim in the Liverpool domain.
“I’ve been part of the gym for five or six years now, when MMA in Liverpool was only just taking off,” Jay pointed out. “Everyone, especially Colin, has put so much time and effort into making Kaobon the best camp in the UK, and it’s great to see how everything has come together over the last year! We’ve moved to a new gym, have around 30 active fighters [in MMA and Muay Thai] and over a hundred people training in the night time classes.
“Every fight we all know that whoever the opponent is, he has nothing that we haven’t seen thousands of times in the gym,” he carried on. “Colin makes sure you’re always ready to do five, five minutes rounds easily, so as long as you keep your head and stick to your game plan each fight should be another win.”
To finish off, Gladden had some thanks to make. “Quick thanks to my coaches Colin, Briga and Shane for all the time they spend helping me progress, and to Chris Zorba for all the hard work he puts into every OMMAC show that I fight on.”
Tickets for OMMAC 4 this weekend can be bought at http://www.ommac.tv.
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