Former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter-turned-professional wrestler, Stephan Bonnar, recently did an interview with Sportskeeda to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Bonnar first talked about making the transition from fighting to wrestling, and how its been:
“I mean yeah, I can’t complain. Since I stepped foot in a pro wrestling gym I’ve done House of Glory, a big show up in New York City, IWS up in Montreal, and Impact where I ran that angle that ended with a match with me and Moose against Lashley and King Mo in a steel cage.
“Then I’ve got PCW where I’ve got my debut this Friday, so my goal was to stick to solid indie shows and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve been talking to the guys at MLW, so yeah, it’s going good.”
As far as how much the training between the two sports differs, Bonnar says pro wrestling training doesn’t come close to how grueling it is to prepare for a fight:
“It’s not even close to how miserable it is training for an MMA fight. When you do MMA it’s an obvious kind of fun, but when you have to get ready for a fight, you literally go through hell every day and you have trouble getting out of bed.
“That’s really hard. So, for pro wrestling it’s been more of a hobby. I go in there once or twice a week, and I’m trying to learn maybe one or two more moves a day.”
Bonnar feels good right now physically, but his body was taking quite the toll when he was still competing in MMA:
“My body, honestly, feels the best it has in so long. My main problem, in terms of MMA, is that it was taking a toll on me. Every day my knees would swell up and it’d be ice baths and cortisone injections.
“In pro wrestling, you take bumps and falls, and it’s like taking breakfalls in judo. It’s very similar, and that’s pretty much the extent of it. I feel good.”
You can read Bonnar’s full interview with Sportskeeda by clicking this link here
Check out an interview with Bonnar’s former Tag Team partner, Phil Baroni, who explains how Bonnar ruined the sport of MMA, here.
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