PhotoCred: Drake Riggs
“Even better performances than last year” Chris Wade on 2022 PFL season goal
Chris Wade takes on Lance Palmer at PFL 2 for their 2022 season. This fight transpires at Esports Stadium Arlington in Arlington, Texas on April 28th.
I spoke with Wade at the virtual media day ahead of this one.
Chris Wade
If there has been a learning curve across Wade’s multiple seasons with the PFL
“I’d be lying to you if I even told you what the structure is. I’m just so focused on one fight at a time that I quite honestly haven’t even taken the time to look at how it all rolls itself out. I just know that if I go in there and focus on my opponent each time, those things will take care of themselves.”
“It’s ingrained into me because it’s my fourth season with the PFL. So I’m used to fighting real quick turnarounds now every six weeks or so. I’ve proven to myself that I can make the weight with just that little bit of time in between. Now it’s just about constantly streamlining that process. Last year, I would make the weight and I think that hurt me in the finals. Making the weight was like oh my god, the work is done. That’s the hard part. Then I would kind of binge and gorge. I would be kind of a wreck with my stomach the next day.”
“So I learned and I got with a nutritionist now. Guys from home, they kind of said if you structure things more rigidly, you’ll probably feel better the next day. So we got a program to rehydrate and to come back up in weight. Instead of just putting everything I can find back into my body because I want to. I think you’re going to see even better performances than last year. Because I’m taking that recovery much more seriously this year.”
Making a top takedowns Reddit thread for 2021 and if that’s an aim for this year
“No, because there wasn’t really an aim last year. If you look back at the fights, not that this was a good thing, but I got so in my own head about how I felt. Why wasn’t I even coming back at ’55? What was wrong? What did I do wrong? It was like finishes and just actions. So I was like alright, I’m not even shooting takedowns anymore. If you look at last season, I did grapple when people shot in on me.”
“But it was all counter grappling and then I would take advantage of it from there. But I didn’t even shoot almost any shots. This year, we got back to like what are you doing there? You’re taking away a huge piece of who you are. Now we’ve kind of seamed everything back together. Now I think with the matchup especially coming up this week, you’re going to see some really cool scrambles. Trust me.”
