© Marc Wickert
www.knucklepit.com
7 Mar. 2007

On April 13, 2007, Carlos Newton's Dragons will be facing off against Don Frye's Scorpions in Uncasville, Connecticut. And despite still being unsure of who his opponent will be, Dragons' middleweight representative Brent Beauparlant says all systems are go from his end.

"This morning I went to Muay Thai, tonight I'll probably just ride the exercise bike, and tomorrow I'll wrestle. We'll see what's going to happen tomorrow night," says Brent in his lead up to the event.

Beauparlant is known more as a light heavyweight in IFL competition – although he did fight Matt Horwich at middleweight – and he is determined to drop down from light heavyweight again without losing too much power and retaining his fitness. "The main thing I do for cardio is running: I don't think you can bring the weight down properly without it. And as far as trying to emulate a fight, you have to do sprints.

"I keep the running and the jogging separate. In the area where I live (Quebec), nobody knows what MMA is, so I'd get kicked out of the gyms if I did any MMA training around here – I'm serious, man. Because of the winters… The gyms are pretty well developed in Quebec, so I'll do the treadmill. And there are a lot of universities in the area; I just go to them and do indoor sprints. Running outdoors would burn out your lungs because it's too cold."

Brent has always been a big believer in doing weights, calisthenics and gymnastics for match strength, and he performs a combination of these exercise systems to reduce his body weight. "Yeah, I dropped from 205 to 185, and if you start to lose weight without doing bodybuilding or whatever, you get that bitch's body – you know 'bitch tits'? Well, you get a bitch-tits body where you are all saggy if you drop weight without doing a bodybuilding-type routine. You have to be complete in the package.

"My background is gymnastics, so I'm going to start doing gymnastics again at least once a week. The weights also, at least twice a week – it's just a good workout. Everyone tells you that it's bad for you, but it's fine; it doesn't hurt your performance or hand-speed."

Brent, who have you been training with lately?

"I've just been training with guys in the area – they're all amateurs. But come April, my wife will be on maternity leave for a year, so I'm going to start training in Montreal again."

Will that be with guys like Georges St. Pierre, David Loiseau and Patrick Cote?

"I think so, but everyone's on a different schedule with various organizations they're fighting for; inevitably, I think I'll start to train with those guys again. And with the bigger city there are always more MMA guys around."

How many sessions do you do a week?

"Twice a day, six days per week."

Do you do specific fighting exercises, such as wrestler's bridges, heavy-bag slams etc?

"I have specific fighting exercises, but I don't do wrestler's bridges – terrible for your neck. But because I've always been around Soviets, my background is Soviet gymnastics."

Your family is from the Ukraine.

"Right, and it's a different way of training. It all comes down to the same thing, but with us it's more push-ups, more handstands, dips, chin-ups… more body-weight exercises. And gymnastics is tough…the apparatus…"

How often do you do Muay Thai sparring?

"Between once and twice a week."

How intense are the sparring sessions?

"It really depends on the week: Sometimes we'll get a bunch of guys who just want to bang, and then you'll get another bunch of guys who go light – it really depends on the week. Sometimes there'll be twenty guys, and sometimes there'll be two guys. That's why I'm looking forward to moving to Montreal."

Does Carlos run through a game plan for each fight?

"Yeah, when we meet up. We generally see each other a few days before the fights, and it's all logical: He'll ask me what my game plan is, and I'll explain it to Terry Briggs – he's like the brains of the operation, and he was also Carlos's coach. Terry would be like the puppet-master, the guy in the background. We run through what's going to happen, but the strategy is generally pretty straightforward."

On April 13 you take on Dwayne Compton, and you're both dropping down from light heavyweight to middleweight.

"But I'm not sure it's going to be Dwayne Compton – my opponent's already changed twice."

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