Every fighter will talk about their journey as a mixed martial artist and the journey for Andre Soukhamthath started in Woonsocket, Rhode Island and he now calls South Florida home.
The bantamweight fighter is currently preparing for his bout at CES MMA 27 against Brian Kelleher and he will be looking for his eighth win in the CES MMA promotion.
It was a little more than a year ago that Soukhamthath (8-2) decided to move his training to the Blackzilian camp in South Florida and current UFC fighter Sean Soriano played a role in getting him to join the team.
“I have a friend that trains there, his name is Sean Soriano,” Soukhamthath said. “I told him that I wanted to go down there, train, and try it out. I went there on my vacation and I trained five of my seven vacation days. I really liked it and after a while, he came back up to Rhode Island and we did some training together. He really just beat me up and we are about the same size. I saw how much better he has gotten and he actually invited me to go train with him for two weeks before one of my camps. I actually stayed with him for two weeks and I basically tried out for the team for two weeks and I made the team.”
After getting the invitation to join the team, Soukhamthath went back home to Rhode Island and had to make a decision on whether to accept the invitation or remain in Rhode Island. After speaking his to family, he decided he would move down to South Florida after he saved up some money.
It has now been one year since Soukhamthath moved to the Blackzilian camp and he is enjoying life with his new team, along with his fiancé and son. He is enjoying the Florida weather, which he admitted that it did take some time to get use to. In two weeks, he will be looking for his second straight win and take the next step in his career as he meets Kelleher. While Soukhamthath has eight career wins, he has learned much more in his defeats than his victories.
“I lost my pro debut to a good fighter but I should have actually won that fight,” he explained. “I had him knocked out in the first round. I just blew my gas tank and it became a close fight, and he actually took the decision. It could have gone either way and it taught me a lot. I won seven in a row after that. I knew what I had to do. I switched some things up in my training and I made the move that I needed to do. Same thing here after this first lost with CES, I had a lot of things going on and I learned a lot from that fight. I did not change to much but I just realized that I need to be more patient in the cage. I look to rush things and once again, I blew out my gas tank. I definitely value the losses more than the wins.”
When patience in the cage is an issue, how does a fighter correct that? For Soukhamthath, it all starts in the training room and knows he needs to be smart in a fight.
“It’s really hard to work on being patient here at the Blackzilians because they go zero to one hundred every single day and every single practice,” he said. “Really just being smart. I just can’t go into the fight and first fifteen minutes and I think I am going to knock this guy out with one, two, three punches. That is what I use to think. I was just finishing everybody so fast. I am just being more realistic, picking my shots more. I am still letting it go and being an exciting fighter. I am just being more cautious of what I throw and how much energy I spend.”
The CES MMA 27 fight card will air live on AXS TV on January 30 and there will be a lot of eyes on all of the fighters on this card. Some fighters that have been put in this type of situation in the past start thinking about the future of their career, but for Soukhamthath, he is just taking it one fight at a time.
“I am honestly just taking it one day at a time, one fight at a time because I have learned that once you think ahead to much, you lose sight and focus on what is in front of you. I do not want to do that. I am still young in my career and I have a long career ahead of me. I want to make the best of it. I want to enjoy every single moment of it and if the opportunity comes for me to step up to the next level, of course I am going to take that chance. First and fourth most, I need to make a statement with this guy come January 30th.”