Last week we posted the first part of our interview with Tylor Nicholson, one of British Columbia’s most exciting up-and-coming fighters. In that post, Tylor shared his story of how he got into competitive fighting and what his training regimen looks like.
Getting into MMA and martial arts was something that Tylor found to be immensely beneficial in his life, saying: “I didn’t grow up in the best setting, around the best people. I don’t want to say [I was] on my way down a bad path, but I had no direction really.” When he joined a gym, however, Tylor stopped partying on weekends and restructured his schedule around training. He said it taught him discipline, respect and how to regularly be places on time. It also taught him how to deal with a wide range of different people. “You deal with angry people, big workout guys, little kids… with all sorts of people, so you have to be able to adjust to each specific individual that you’re either training with or training.” In addition to helping with his people skills, Tylor says he’s developed a sense of security. He now has confidence in his ability to defend himself and doesn’t have to feel scared or nervous of people attacking him.
Competitive fighting has done a lot to change Tylor’s life, but with talent like his, he has high aspirations for what further changes might look like. I asked Tylor where he’d like to be in 5 years time, and unsurprisingly, he plans on fighting in the professional realm. “I would hope to be fighting in Glory Kickboxing, Lion Fight (Muay Thai), UFC, Bellator – any of the bigger leagues.” But because he’s also a boxer, Tylor can bounce between professional MMA, kickboxing and boxing. Those are some major aspirations, so is Tylor on his way to achieving them? Well, yes. “I’m having my first professional fight in February, so I’ve started with the professional side of it now, and I hope to just continue building [that] up.”
When getting to the professional leagues, it always helps to have professional equipment to train with. I asked Tylor what he uses in his training. “Drako. The company sponsors me… other than [custom Titan gym] clothing items, pretty much everything I use is some type if Drako product.” Drako makes sure that Tylor has everything he needs to train and fight effectively. “I don’t need to go out and spend money on something that is [lower] quality. I’ve brought in a basic Drako curved mitt for example, and then I’ve had people that have said ‘I bought these [other] mitts… for $89′ and you actually touch it and it feels like a kid’s toy.”
As for what items he uses, Tylor says he likes the IIKO shin pads, compression shorts, both boil-and-bite and heavy duty mouth guards, and three different types of gloves (16oz Old Boy gloves for sparring, Bullseye bag gloves for mitt and bag work, and MMA training gloves for live MMA sparring and striking).
Tylor’s next fight is on October 29th where he’ll be competing for the Battlefield Featherweight title.
Written by Wade Findlay
