(Jimmo is a full-time fighter and part-time Matthew McConaughey stunt double.)

Undefeated in the past four years, at 13-1 Ryan Jimmo is one of Canada’s most promising MMA prospects. The Big Deal is in the thick of training camp for a championship bout with fellow Canadian Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 — a fight Sherdog.com has deservingly named one of this month’s 10 Tussles Worth Watching — on February 25 in Edmonton Alberta and has graciously offered to write about his preparations for the biggest fight of his career, via a weekly training blog published every week leading up to the fight right here at CagePotato.com.

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10 days left!!!!

Fight time is looming very close. The final preparations are being put into place, small mistakes are being corrected and game plans are being polished.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on my weight the last few days. It’s been fluctuating between 225 to 228 pounds and I suspect it to be around 222-223 by the weekend. Less than 20 pounds should make for a rather simple and painless cut. I expect to be around 230 in the ring on February 25.

The last two weeks prior to a fight are a hectic time with training, interviews and people wanting tickets. You also have to factor in the fact that your body is worn down from a lot of training and more prone to injuries at this time. Taking care of any previous injuries is also on the agenda at this point. Nothing sours a fight more than if you’re in the ring feeling less than 100%. All the “go-hard-retard” mentality has to take a back seat in the final weeks to ensure you’re at peak performance come fight time.

Intensity is still required , but you have to pick and choose where to put it. I have a little system I use that is based on risk versus reward numbers.

If an activity has a benefit of 9 but a risk factor of 8, then at a reward of 1 it’s probably not an activity that’s optimal in the last few weeks before a fight. You need to find training methods that have a benefit of at least 7.5 with a risk factor of 4 or less. These kinds of numbers make more sense at this stage in the game. Most of the work is done and you’re not going to have some sort of miraculous improvements this close to the fight, so why risk an injury? That’s not to say improvements CAN’T happen, just that they will come in smaller increments.

Discovering your skill and potential is kind of like being a paleontologist and digging up dinosaur fossils. The fossils(skill and potential) are there, but first we have to find where they’re buried and then you have to dig them up. We start by clearing away large chunks of dirt and rock at first until eventually we are dusting away fine grains of sand and dust with a delicate brush.

There’s a reason were called mixed marital artist: Were artists, and we show the world our sculptures in the ring or the cage. Our visions are not just our views on fighting, but also how we see ourselves and the world around us.

I think it’s very important for fighters and people involved in the sport to be good diplomats of MMA. Let’s face it, mixed martial arts is still in its infancy and considered a fledgling sport when compared to other major sports like baseball, football, basketball and hockey. If anyone involved in any of those sports behaved like some MMA practitioners and people in our industry have been known to, they would be fined and suspended. It’s almost like we’re still the little brother and have to misbehave to get attention. On the other hand, sometimes people like watching a train wreck, so it gains us attention.

It’s nearly impossible to force our mainstream growth to increase any more than it is, but I’m hoping as we continue to progress, we’ll grow out of the “teen” years and begin to behave like adults, so to speak. This is something that has to happen as a group, or a large portion of the group to sway public opinion and switch our growth in a new direction. I think people like GSP, Randy Couture and few others are beginning to tilt the scales in a positive direction as far as portraying MMA in a positive image and setting a new standard for behavior for us as athletes and representatives of the sport. Lets just hope it continues.

“We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true, rather than what feels good.” -Carl Sagan

Ryan “The Big Deal” Jimmo

*Be sure to listen to Ryan on Friday’s edition of The Bum Rush Radio Show.