British lightweight Paul Kelly has just won his fourth UFC bout – a unanimous decision over knee-happy American fighter Rolando Delgado.
Prior to the fight, we hooked up with him to have a crack at some of ball-breaking training he puts himself through to prepare for a scrap in the Octagon. We spent the day running, lifting weights, sparring and wrestling with him and all the other hard-as-nails fighters who train at the Wolfslair MMA Academy in Widnes, Cheshire.
It confirmed that a) being punched in the face by a professional fighter – even if he's only playing with you – hurts like buggery b) doing six days of this kind of training every week for the twelve weeks running up to a fight (that's what Kelly typically does) requires a dedication to training that you won't find in many other sports and c) Paul Kelly was made by the same factory that built the Terminator.
Want to try a UFC workout? Here's a conditioning circuit performed by Kelly's Wolfslair stablemate Michael Bisping.
