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Posted by Mika Frankl
I had a chance to sit down with amateur Mix Martial Artist John Sparks coming off of his submission win at the Jackson’s MMA Series VIII vs Greg Chavez. Jon is a up and coming Mixed Martial Artist training with the Jackson’s/Winkeljohn’s MMA team. As an amateur Jon has a record of (4-3).
Question: Out of the four Victories you’ve had were does this last one rank in terms of your performance?
Answer: This is actually rank as one performances going into the later rounds. I feel the best performances comes with a 1st round finish. I got a couple I finished in under 2 minutes and those where really good performances, however when you go into late rounds number 2 & number 3 that when you can feel what kind of a fighter you actually are what you can do when you’re that exhausted.
Question: How did you get into MMA?
Answer: Same way as everyone else watching old UFC videos. Royce Gracie watching this little 155lbs man going in bare knuckle brawling with there with all these 250lbs wrestlers and Samoan guys and just tearing them up. And just winning everything. And that what gets people thinking yeah maybe I can do this.
Question: You started off as a striker,with a Kickboxing back round so what was it like for you transitioning to the grappling aspect?
Answer: So yeah I was in kickboxing for a few years before I started in MMA. There was a big big transition one of my very 1st fights it was actually inside Clovis, New Mexico and I got knocked out cold cause I hadn’t trained any ground. I had trained for a kickboxing fight cause I was a kick-boxer by nature. That actually made me realize I really need to work on my ground. I got in the gym started working a lot on my ground and was able to start winning more fights. I’m a kick-boxer by nature but I can win by submission.
Question: How is it being a amateur and training out of the Jackson’s/Winkeljohn’s gym with all the great fighters? And then what of competitiveness like with all these high level fighter in one place?
Answer: It’s amazing the best fighters in the world and the best coaches in the world. Getting to train with all of them. That’s pretty much the best training your going out to Jackson’s MMA. You’ve got all different types of levels from right were your at to people above you to six different levels above you. Theirs everything you need.
Question: What’s it like fighting for the Jackson’s MMA series and being able to fight at the HardRock in front of family and the home town crowd?
Answer: It’s awesome it’s perfect especially when you got crowd cheering for you. It’s great you invite friends and family to come out watch you fight and try to see if to jump to that next level. Pretty much all the fight cards I been on have been bigger one inside New Mexico and it’s kind of nerve racking a little bit walking out in front of all those thousand people and you got to go toe to toe with someone inside a cage, but once you in there and you realize oh yeah that’s what I been training for.
If you want to hear more check out the entire interview below.
