The mixed martial arts journey for heavyweight Adam Milstead started when he suffered an injury while playing college football and saw an ad for a free 30 day trial of mixed martial art training.
At that time, Milstead was not doing anything as he suffered an ACL injury and decided to give it a try. He was struggling at that time and he needed something to help past the time.
Two months after starting his training, he took his first amateur fight and ended up scoring a victory. Following the win, a coach told him that he had a bright future in MMA. Since that moment, Milstead has been addicted to the sport.
The professional debut of Milstead (5-1) ending up coming in May of 2011 and was defeated by Dane Bonningson by TKO. Since that defeat, he has put together five wins in a row and all of his wins have come by stoppage in the first or second round. Just like nearly every fighter, Milstead has learned more from his lost than his five victories.
“I tell people that you learn more from a lost than a win,” Milstead told The MMA Report. “It’s not about the techniques you did, it’s about how much fight you have. How much willingness you have to get back to the gym and get better. I lost that fight on Saturday and I was back in the gym on Sunday. I was just in there hitting on the bag and was getting through my head what I did. What went wrong. It made me realize that I may not have the professionalism at that particular time to compete at the level, I still had the heart and mindset. That really thought me to push the boundaries that I thought that I had. That lost made me realize how bad it feels to lose and makes me to never feel that again. What is so cool about it is that it’s fresh in my mind. That is a moment I will never forget.”
The other major lesson that came from his pro debut is that you can not make any mistakes in a fight. In his pro debut, he decided to throw a spinning strike. He missed the strike, landed wrong, and his opponent capitalized. As he joked with The MMA Report, he has no plans of throwing a spinning attack again and will be looking for his sixth professional victory tonight when he meets Lewis Rumsey in the co-main event of Gladiators of the Cage 18.
Rumsey (11-12) does not have a good record and has dropped five of his last eight fights. However, Milstead knows you can not underestimate anyone in the sport and explained why Rumsey is a tough opponent.
“Lewis Rumsey having a 11-12 record — it doesn’t look like he is a good fighter, but man this guy is tough,” Milstead stated. “I have seen him take some serious blows. He has gone three rounds with a great UFC fighter. He is hard to finish and at the same time, he loves to brawl. He has that ability and opportunity to be able to knock anybody out at any particular moment. I took the fight because yes, I should win these things and I should be able to put him away. But at the same time, I know he is going to be able to push me and give me the fight I want.”
One of the major keys for Milstead tonight is to fight smart and if he is able to do this, he believes he will walk away with his sixth straight victory. If he ends up with another stoppage victory, it could be the fight that gets him a call from a promotion like UFC, Bellator, WSOF, or Titan FC.