Nathan Kelly in the PFL Tournament This Week

Nathan is fighting in the PFL tournament on Thursday night. The UFC is obviously the big one in the MMA world, but PFL, and specifically the PFL tournament, is the next level. To have the skills and dedication to be there makes him among the Elite fighters in the world.

You can catch him on DAZN fairly early Friday morning, I think about 1am.

I’ll give you a really quick synopsis of what it means to be an MMA fighter and to have got to this level.

First of all, almost anyone can be a Pro fighter. All you have to do is take a pro fight. Bingo, you’re a pro fighter. I should know, I was a pro fighter for a while. There’s a lot of them, but few of them do it for long enough to be successful.

Some drop away at the first hurdle- they aren’t willing to put in the hard training.

Some drop at the second hurdle- they aren’t willing to commit to the long-term journey.

Some drop at the next hurdle- their first loss, setback, or injury.

Then others fall at other stages- family changes. They don’t like having no money for example. And if you’re going to be a fighter, you’ve to watch as your mates buy cars and go on holidays while you root behind the couch cushions for bus fare.

And then even when you don’t fall at all of those, you still need good fortune. An opportunity. A chance. A drop out on a card. And when it comes you need to grab it with both hands.

And you still might not make it! You might pick up an injury at the wrong time, or have an opponent drop out, or any number of things that could go wrong. Luck plays such a huge part.

And once you’ve done all of that, and much more besides, you still have to win fights to get to sit at the top table.

That’s what Nathan has done over the 15 years since he first stepped on to my mats.

Tune in on Friday morning!

See you on the mat,

Barry