Losing a five round decision sucks, but being put on medical suspension sucks more. Since I’m not allowed to workout, you’ll have to do it for me. Push yourselves.
Box jump 30
KB snatch 20
Backward sled pull 60 meters
Ropes gone wild 20/20/20
While this workout is running on The Rhino Den, I will be in the final preparations for my Strikeforce middleweight title fight with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza on August 21st in Houston. Therefore I feel this workout needs to be a real winner.
The Filthy 50:
Fifty repetitions of each exercise for time of:
Wall Ball (20 pound ball)
Pull-ups
Push-ups
Box jumps
Sledge hammer slams
Burpees
Air squats
Kettlebell swings
Time to beat 14:45
Middle of the pack 17:30
Last man 28:04
FIGHT! magazine is awesome. We’ve developed a great relationship with them over the years (mostly through heavy drinking, cat juggling, and playing bacarat with Danny Acosta) and in this latest issue they printed a one-page article entitled “Five Minutes with Tim Kennedy” that’s pretty cool. If you’re an MMA fan, you have to check out FIGHT! Magazine’s website because they’re awesome and subscribe because it will make you infinitely smarter. It’s easily the best MMA magazine in the universe and chicks will dig you. Almost as much as they dig shooters.
Did anyone catch me on Inside MMA last week flipping tires outside my gym in Austin? Yeah, I know…it’s boring. This workout was after a leg workout, so it incorporates a lot of legs and full
body movements.
Four rounds for time of:
Row 300m
20 scissor jumps (Left leg forward in a lunge, then jump so you land with your right leg forward in a lunge. That’s one)
Time to beat: 6:09
Middle of the pack: 7:02
Last man: 9:35
It’s Independence Day, people! Go out and exercise your right to blow something up. BUT…do your workout first! You have to have access to a pair of ropes to do this one. If you don’t understand the exercises, check out the video at the end.
20 Bar dips
20′ Single arm rope whips
20′ Double arm rope whips
20′ Double arm rope flips (gapplers flip)
20′ Scissor jumps
50m sprint out, 50m sprint back.
As many sets as you can do in 15 minutes
Number to beat – 6
Middle of the pack – 4
Last man – 3
Esther Lin of Strikeforce catches Tim Kennedy seconds after his submission victory
Tim’s practically asleep in the locker room, only an hour before his fight – a spectacular juxtaposition to the intensity that Cyborg Santos has been maintaining for the last two hours next door. Top ranked 145 pounder Brandon Garner, striking coach Jason Webster, UFC Fighter Jared Hamman, and I are passing the time talking about new movies coming out. I honestly believe that the rest of us have more nervous energy than Tim does.
When we’re thirty minutes out, Tim starts to warm up, doing a few rounds with Brandon on the pads and then some pummeling with Jared before deciding he was warm enough. We watched on our closed circuit television as KJ Noons’s hand was raised in his decision victory over Conor Heun. The Strikeforce handler arrived at our door and we were instantly moving.
No matter how many times you walk out to the cage as a corner, it is always surreal. The air is electric, excitement and nervousness fill your stomach, and everything happens faster than it appears on television. The crowd only exacerbates those feelings.
Tim walks through the fighter port, and Brandon, Jason and I walk around through the corner entrance, meeting Tim at the cage door. He strips off his War Eagle Flag shirt and hat and I collect them as Big John McCarthy checks him off and Brandon and Jason raise his banner.
Tim Kennedy is staring across the ring at Trevor Prangley, his toughest challenge to date in an Olympic Wrestler who has never been submitted and has spent the last few months at the world-renowned American Kickboxing Academy. On Tim’s banner, right underneath the Ranger Up emblem sit two giant logos: The Green Beret Foundation and Soldiers’ Angels – two military nonprofits that Tim is proud to support.
Seconds later the fight begins as we are ushered to our corner area.
Tim pushes a frenetic pace, attacking Trevor. Both men connect and Tim has a small scratch above his eye. Brandon, a phenomenal corner, lets him know it is nothing. They lock up and Trevor nails a perfect Harai-Goshi Judo Throw, no doubt mastered under the tutelage of Dave Camarillo. It is a sight to behold. I hold my breath.
Tim is nonplussed. He rolls through, regains his balance and works back to his feet where he gains the clinch and hits Prangley with a great hook and peppers him with dirty boxing against the cage. Prangley, known for his tenacity, uses his Greco/Judo skills again and throws Tim a second time. Tim easily rolls through but this time completes a takedown and gets on top.
As anyone who has ever had the (mis)fortune to roll with Tim knows, once he gets on top, your life is a freaking nightmare. Tim rapidly works through guard to half guard and then to mount, the whole time punishing Prangley.
As expected, Prangley rolls to his stomach and stands up. Against most fighters, and in fact, all of the thirty other men that Prangley had met in the cage in his pro career, his power and wrestling would have saved the day and returned him to his feet.
Tim submitted him for the first time in his career with an incredibly technical rear naked joke from a standing position at just over three minutes of the very first round.
It happened so fast in fact, that we in the corner didn’t realize Prangley had tapped until Tim threw his hands up in joy and we saw that Trevor had slumped to the ground.
The underdog had won and in dominant fashion. Tim’s true fans cheered as he represented us well. The doubters were silenced and nodded newfound approval and respect. And the trolls that like to bash him for his military service…well…they can Derelick my balls.
After years of fighting part-time in between Special Forces training and deployments, all while amassing an 11-2 record, Tim finally had the chance to fight fulltime as a member of the Texas National Guard. In his first outing he dominated a top ranked fighter that most experts believed would destroy him.
I gotta tell you…it was kind of awesome.
Please reach out to Tim in the comments section here, on his facebook page, or write him at tim@rangerup.com. He’d love to hear from you.
Anyone who’s spent a minute with Tim Kennedy in person or reading his latently sadistic workouts here on the Rhino Den knows what ludicrously good shape he’s in. We all secretly hate him for this, but since he’s a professional athlete, we guess that’s being fit is a good thing. Muscle and Fitness magazine, the premiere health and fitness mag in the world, took notice of Tim’s…abnormal…workouts and wrote a feature on him. This eight page layout shows Tim teaching killer techniques that every guy can use and provides ample eye candy for he ladies, so check it out.
Military Spouse magazine knows a dedicated wife when they see one. So it’s no surprise to us that they featured Ginger Kennedy in their latest issue. Tim Kennedy may have left the Army, but his trransformation from Special Forces Sniper to full time fighter only poses new challenges for his bride instead of washing them away. The boots might be hung up, but the glvoes are just getting worn in.
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