Before flying to Florida on Friday for his training, MMA fighter AJ Matthews took a visit on Alpha Land City Club in Makati to display flashes of his preparation for his upcoming fight.
Matthews put an all-in effort and made sure he is physically and mentally ready for his July 14 fight in the Bellator 181 mixed martial arts tournament at the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
Matthews has scored striking wins in previous Bellator competitions. In 2014, he knocked out Kyle Bolt in the Bellator 131 while two years before that, he won over Charlie Rader by knockout in Bellator 70.
“Monday to Friday I’m lifting weights in the morning, in the evening I’m doing muaythai. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I’m doing jiujitsu. I’m going to gym, Tuesday and Thursday,” he shared.
There are also days he swap in to work out with Coach George Castro.
“You can always push yourself harder and farther than your mind thinks you can and it’s only until you break those barriers that you believe in and then you can just keep going,” says the Filipino-American. His mom hailed from Leyte.
Matthews is leaving for Florida to join the famous Blackzillians training camp and do the rest of his training there.
According to his coach, the only way to learn and expand is to be trained in different places.
Opponent revealed
Matthews also announced that he will square off with Andre Fialho, an MMA fighter from the American Kickboxing Academy with a 7-1 win loss card.
After fighting in the middleweight division, the Fil-Am kickboxer will go back to pursuing welterweight titles where he started.
The 29-year-old fighter, along with his MMA Alliance team, gets a huge boost and support from local fighters, including ONE Championship heavyweight champion Brandon Vera, by having a couple of sparring sessions with them which would help increase his chances of winning his fight in the top MMA organization in the world.
Hyperbaric Chamber
After showing off his skills with coach Castro, Matthews sought recovery session in the Aegle Wellness Center Hyperbaric Chamber at The City Club.
According to country’s leading authority in the field of Sports and Regenerative Medicine Dr. Ben Valdecañas, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy exposes one inside the chamber with high pressure and high concentration oxygen to increase the amount of oxygen the blood can carry.
The HBOT helps the body to recover faster by carrying oxygen to particular parts of the body that could have been injured.
While it’s helpful for athletes, this therapy was initially designed for people who have diseases, have oxygen deprived cancer, and inflammations. “Red blood cells, we all know, carry oxygen from the lungs to the different parts of the body.
Because of the high pressure of the chamber, oxygen itself, dissolves in the blood, in the water, in fluid,” he explains.
The Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy addresses sickness caused by decreasing oxygen tension leading to premature cell death.
This therapy has been proven to facilitate and enhance natural healing and regeneration of the body regardless of the age.
Current evidence-based medical applications include diabetic circulatory problems, wound healing, nerve cell regeneration both peripheral (nerves) and central (brain) for diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and autistic spectrum disorders, as well as for rejuvenation and regeneration.