Heart, how do you know...

When I think about heart a few people come to mind, but today it's Felipe Puente. I believe heart is most times measured by how many times you are knocked down in life or competition and continue to get back up. I believe in Felipe's case it is the refusal to go down.

Felipe approached his first fight with no fear. Fighting at 135lbs is a tough for a fighter who some might consider small in the 125lb division. That is of no concern to Puente who throughout training camp never mentioned it nor responded to talks about it. He just didn't care and I think the idea that it doesn't matter who you put in front of me, i'm going to fight is exactly the attitude a fighter is suppose to have. Felipe embodies that. As we already knew going in Felipe's opponent was gonna be taller and longer, this one was going to be a difficult task. An extra tall 135lb fighter stood across from us as we awaited the bell. I told Felipe we needed to get right in his chest and not let him use his reach. Unfortunately he was able to get off first and in the first 30 seconds land a blow that bloodied Felipe's nose. His back was to me so I didn't see it until the ref stopped the fight momentarily to bring Felipe to get cleaned up. I was in shjock when he turned around, partially from the amount of blood coming out and partially because Felipe gave no indication that it even remotely bothered him. All cleaned up back into the fight he went. Like a captain of a ship steering into the storm. He fought his heart out taking punishment from the longer fighter but never giving an inch. He would not go down and i'm convinced if the fight went 10rds he would still be standing at the end saying "come on let's go!". That's heart that kept him fighting and that's why all 125lb fighters should be on notice because here comes the immovable object. Felipe "MF'n" Puente!!!