Going The Distance: Duggs' Rough N Rowdy Journey
My Rough N Rowdy journey came to an end Friday night. What an adventure it was. The training started just a month before the fight, but I made the decision to fight way before then. The idea came to me the night of RNR 17, where the fighters participants in the heavyweight fight were booed out of the ring and rightfully so. So little physical activity is expected of us big guys and they couldn't even work up a sweat. Knowing that they were going to be paid for that performance made me angry. I was let down and I know others were too. The next heavyweight fight had to be better and there was only one way to make sure that at least one of the fighters gave it his all. I had to fight.
The next week, I told Devlin I would be interested if they could find a good opponent for me. Someone my size with no fighting experience. We are a rare breed, but I was sure there were some out there. Around July 4th, I got word there was a Canadian who fit the bill and was interested in fighting. He was supposed to fight in the last RNR, but had issues with his passport and couldn't make it. He had since resolved that issue and said he was ready to fight. He released a video around July 4th calling out any Americans and I accepted the challenge, which began the next great battle between USA and Canada.
Before training even started, we hit an issue. Alex Bennett was already fighting in the next RNR and Dave didn't want to pay for another fighter, especially someone who Dave believed "doesn't move the needle".
I already stated I was fighting for America. I couldn't back out now, especially over money. I was fighting either way.
Training started on my 34rd birthday. I don't celebrate my birthday, but I'll remember how this one went. There was so much water.
After a couple weeks of training, I was finally able to sit down with Dave and discuss potential compensation.
At this point, it seemed like everything was coming together. I knew who I was fighting, we had a solid theme, and how much money I made was up to me. Unfortunately, in releasing training videos to promote the fight, I may have shown too much. The Canadian went silent and deleted his social media. I still wanted to fight and keep the USA vs. Canada theme, so I asked for a Canadian to step up and one did: A 440 pound Canadian by the name of Steve Young. He wasn't quite my size, but still a big guy. My only concern was the fighting experience. I haven't been in a fight since 7th grade. Zero fighting experience in any capacity in or out of the ring. Word on the street (twitter) was that Steve, although he had never fought in the ring, had played rugby for over 10 years and was involved in beer league hockey. I played rugby for a year at FSU (Developmental team because I was not good) and so I know someone that's been playing rugby for a decade has had his fair share of fights. That didn't matter though. I initiated the challenge and there was no backing down.
Training went well. When I first began, I could barely do rope work for a minute without having to take a seat and catch my breath. By the end, I was able to spar for multiple two minute rounds and I knew I had the cardio to go all three rounds. RNR is 60% cardio and 40% fighting. We would soon find out how much of the fighting I had.
We flew in on Thursday for the weigh in and I didn't really have strong emotions one way or another. I think I had decided that I had done all I could up until that point and whatever was going to happen was going to happen. There was no reason to be stressed or worried because the fight was only going to be three minutes and before I knew it, I would be writing this blog. We checked in and went across the street for lunch. When we came back to the hotel, I saw Steve checking in. He was much bigger than I thought he would be, but not intimidating at all. It was a lot of size, but not as much muscle as I was expecting. Based on the video, I assumed he was fat strong, where he was strong, but all the fat covered the muscles. He looked more like an offensive lineman that let him self go after an injury: still large and strong, but not explosive. He smiled a lot at the weigh-in, which you can't really judge on it's own because it could just be him being a nice guy or he could be crazy. It's a coin toss, really. What was surprising was how much weight I lost.
The Canadian brought a large group of people with him, which I thought was cool, at first. That means he has a good amount of friends who and are willing to drive down to support him. You gotta appreciate that much. Half of the people he brought were nice enough. Unfortunately, that left a good amount that were not so nice. Before the fight, a few of them came up to me one at a time to bother me, ask me unnecessary questions, or try to provoke me. I'm pretty sure they even paid a random local girl to come up to me and try to intimidate me. One of them even threw a beer at Stu Feiner on the walk out. None of that made a difference in how I felt walking into the ring or how I fought, but it was definitely not nice and makes me question the stereotype of polite Canadians.
The fight didn't go the way I wanted it to. Steve came out fast and strong and used all his weight to get me against the ropes. I don't remember much from the first round besides getting punched in the face repeatedly and getting back up after being knocked down. I didn't expect or plan on him being a southpaw. That was surely not a deciding factor in the fight, but it didn't help me. I trained and sparred with right handed fighters and now found myself trying to time these left meat hooks. He was better at throwing punches than I was, but I was better at taking them. If the judges were scoring based on how hard I got hit and kept moving forward, I would have won via unanimous decision. I do remember one thing from that round vividly. With about 10 seconds left in the round, he exhaled loudly as his arms fell limp. I could tell he had just given me all he had. That was the worst of it. I lasted the first round. If he couldn't catch his breath before the second round, I might have a chance. Unfortunately, I just couldn't figure out the punches in the second. I kept getting hit in the face, each time with less power, but I just couldn't get any good shots of my own in. By the third round, barring a lucky shot by me, I knew he was going to win. I kept swinging, again with not many landing, and after a third minute, that was that. I went the distance, but he got the win.
Overall, it was a great experience. I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone else, but I'm glad I did it.
I may not get in the ring again, but training and exercise will continue. This is just the beginning.