UCMMA Adrenaline Rush Exclusive Interview With Jack "The Stone" Mason

For people who don't already know, can you tell the fans about yourself?

I'm Jack 'The Stone' Mason from Essex in the UK (near London), i'm a pro-MMA fighter fighting out of the Tsunami Gym, my pro MMA record is 12-5-0-1. Along with fighting and training MMA I hold down a full time job working in the Financial Sector in London, UK.   I am the current CFC British Middleweight Champion.   I've been training MMA for about 5 years and I had my first 3 fights within about 3 months of starting training! I made the mistake of fighting too early and had a tough time because of it, i fought some tough opposition way too early i.e. Marius Zaromkis (Dream Welterweight Champ) and wish i had trained for a good few years before starting to compete!   Still I've some great experiences from it and I have learnt a lot, and since I joined the team at Tsunami my MMA career has really gone from strength to strength. I've won my last 10 of 11 fights, only dropping one fight to John Hathaway.   I train with some of the best guys in the UK (John Maguire, Pierre Guillet, Robbie Olivier, AJ Wenn) at Tsunami Gym which is one of the best MMA gyms in the UK and absolutely live and breathe MMA!

When did you get involve in MMA and for the fan who wants to get into the sport, what advice would you give?

 

I started training MMA about 5 years ago, I've probably been interested and watched UFC and Pride events for about the past 8 years! I used to kick-box and focus a lot of time on weight-lifting, but that became really boring and I originally got into MMA just as a new way of trying to keep fit. I became obsessed with it from the very first session, there's so much to learn and its definitely an addiction! The gym I train at has such a great team atmosphere and when I finish work I can't wait to get down there to train!   From my experience I would advise any MMA fans who are thinking about trying MMA to just do it! Its a great sport, great way to stay fit and some of the friends I have met through the sport will be friends for life! In terms of fighting or competing my advice would be to just enjoy it, don't dive into fighting too early, find a great club, train hard and become as well rounded as you can be, compete in lots of amateur competitions whether it be boxing, BJJ, MMA or whatever and take the advice from your coaches. Never take a fight when your out of shape or let pride get the better of you, you will regret it 9 times out of 10 I promise!   I've still got loads to learn myself and I don't consider myself as a top fighter, guys like GSP, Anderson Silva and Randy Couture are the tops guys and are my inspiration, I'm just trying to work really hard to make myself as well rounded as possible and dream of being as good as those guys one

Training for a fight is tough going trying to hold down a demanding full time job, you have to sacrifice a lot! MMA is one of the toughest sports in the world and you have to make sure your in the best shape possible in order to compete at a good level and do yourself justice. I've learnt this the hard way!    I make sure I fit in lots of power lifting, endurance circuits, kettle bells and road runs to make up my conditioning routine, I normally do this before work or at lunchtimes. After work I alternative my evenings at either boxing, BJJ or training my MMA at Tsunami. Weekends I normally focus on my Thai Boxing. At the moment I'm really trying to work on my stand-up as I am trying to become as well rounded as I can be.   I usually try and take some of my training camp off work, and this time I spent some time in Sweden training with the Gladius MMA team headed up by August Wallen. They have a great team out there and one of their top fighters Alexander Gustaffson is also in training for his fight at UFC 112 in April so the training was pretty intense   I really up the intensity of the training a few weeks (and normally decrease the duration) out from the fight to ensure I am fight fit. When you know your fit to go the full distance at full power it gives you so much confidence when the fight comes around.

Its for the UC MMA Middleweight Championship, so this is an MMA fight. I am so excited about this fight its unbelievable, I have really put the work in to get here and its been a long road! Its a dream come true and I feel I deserve this shot!   Mark Weir is a veteran and legend in UK MMA and has fought some of the best from all around the world, he has excellent stand up and a good all round game! I remember watching him before I even started training MMA and his quickest ever KO in UFC history (at the time). I am absolutely honoured to fight Mark Weir, he's been there and done it all, he's even been the Cage Rage Champ before, but its my time now!   Mark is a tough fight for anyone and I am looking forward to going out and proving that I am one of the best Middleweights in the UK by walking home with that belt after a tough nights work!

I feel I have really earned this title shot! I have fought on Dave O'Donnell's shows a total of 8 times now and won 7 of these, I've won 10 of my last 11 fights against some tough competition so I feel I really do deserve this shot!!! I already hold another organisations title but the UCMMA Middleweight belt is the one that means the most to me! Its always been my goal to win the UCMMA belt as for me this is the best event this side of the Atlantic, I really hope I can put the hard work into practice and take that belt home! I really feel like 2010 is my year to establish myself as a force at Middleweight.

I normally go to the after party and get pretty wasted! I usually don't get too badly hurt from a fight so recovery is more about relaxing and doing the things I haven't been able to do during a training camp such as eating, drinking and seeing my girlfriend!