Packers linebacker Clay Matthews started MMA training three weeks ago. His workouts finish with intense 30-second intervals, and on Day 1, he couldn’t get through a minute and a half. Last week, he endured 10 minutes.
“That first day was tough, we started by jumping rope, and just with that I was ready to call it a day,“ Matthews said. “It’s a different kind of shape. In football, you have 30 seconds after you get knocked down to get back up, analyze, and decipher what happened. Here, you have 2-3 seconds. You don’t get a break, you keep pushing.
“Right now, I finish every day with intensity and I think it gives me the confidence to know that in the fourth quarter or overtime, I can run circles around guys.’’
Matthews got hooked in by former Southern Cal teammates Rivers, Brian Cushing, and Thomas Williams, and now he and Ryan Grant have Packers teammates like Nick Barnett, Jermichael Finley, and Will Blackmon intrigued.
That’s how this whole thing has grown, and how skepticism has been broken down.
“I thought it was just fighting to start with,’’ said Matthews, who’s doing MMA training three times a week now, to go with three days of traditional running and lifting. “And I wondered, ‘Why do I need that? If I do fight, it’s a penalty.’ But you truly have to partake to see. It’s not about fighting.’’
Sweet article about NFL players and offseason MMA training.
