I’d like to start off by thanking  those of you who supported me by showing up at the K-1 Bellagio event and the ones who couldn’t make it but called anyway to wish me luck (you know who you are). I would also like to thank everyone who helped prepare me for the fight; Rick O’Kane (trainer), Peter Cunningham (trainer) .., Mark Parra (manager), Bob Papenbrook (cutman) and everone else who put in work.

I was overwhelmed on how many people bought tickets through me and how many showed up last minute and bought tikets at the event, last I checked the count was 110 people.

I cant go further in my journal entry without apologizing to the promoter Scott Coker for reasons he knows about.

With that out of the way I must say the weekend of K-1 was wonderful but oh so long.

I trained my ass off for this event to be able to shine once more ,but If you ask me, I did’nt shine bright enough. I always have high expectations. I always would like to put on a great show. A knockout victory is great, but that is something I dont go for, it just happens. The day of August 17th I had not warmed up as long as I wanted to and went out a bit stiff which was in favor of my opponent.

The fight itself went by so quickly. I knew I won because I outscored Marco by outpunching and outkneeing him; best of all I walked out of the ring with only a couple little bruises.

I have to say Rick’s training techniques and conditionong methods have settled my thoughts of needing 3 months to heal after a fight. I now heal in about 2 weeks unless I blocked alot of kicks with my shins. Overall, I think my opponent was ………..well,tall. I’ve never even sparred people his height ( 5′11) He seemed an awkward fighter, but he had some tricks up his sleeve.

I dont know as of now when and where my next fight will take place; I will keep you updated ………………….

Shawn

Running @ Griffith Park with Rick O' Kane & Bryce Papenbrook (4-28-02)

It has been a long and sometimes tedious road to the where I am now and to be in the shape that I am in. I have been preparing for my August 17th K-1 Semi Finals fight at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

I had started training for this fight a little over two months ago. Because of the cut on my eyebrow, that I got in the Del Mar Fairgrounds fight, I had to wait a couple weeks after training started to be able to do any sparring. While the cut was healing I focused on other aspects of my training..

I am confident that all of the training has me in the best shape of my career and I believe that this fight has the possibility of becoming, once again, the best fight of the night. I am looking forward to using the skills that I have continued to develop, to show the audience the kind of fighter I have become. I will show that I have a full arsenal of tricks as well as power combo’s that will make this fight the most exciting fight of the night.

///////////////////////////////// enough talk ……. let the games begin ………..

Shawn

K-1 Grand Prix Semi Finals Poster August 17, 2002