Ogden fighter Thomas Hughes trains to repeat as national kickboxing champ
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes poses for a portrait Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes poses for a portrait Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kick boxer Thomas Hughes takes a breather after doing "bag work" Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Bang Muay Thai and Team Assassin coach Jarrett Kelton, center, and professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya, left, joke with amateur kick boxer Thomas Hughes after doing "bag work" Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes does "bag work" Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton while being watched by Bang Muay Thai and Team Assassin coach Jarrett Kelton, center, and professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes, right, trains with professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes trains Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes trains Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes trains Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes, right, trains with professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes, right, trains with professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes, left, trains with professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes, left, trains with professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
Amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes, right, trains with professional fighter, best friend and coach Lucus Montoya Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at One Hit MMA in Layton.
LAYTON — For Thomas Hughes, kickboxing training is all about repetition. All the moves, the kicks, knee strikes, punches, strategies — all are repeated and repeated and repeated … and then repeated some more.
“I’ve sat in front of the mirror for hours at a time working on my cross (punch),” Hughes said, preparing for a training session at One Hit MMA gym in Layton. He’s there several times a week.
Repetition training is designed to push Hughes’ kickboxing skills as far as possible. He’s already a U.S. amateur champ who has competed for his nation as far away as Ireland.
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At 26, he’s on the last leg of his amateur career. He’ll be in Las Vegas July 8, trying to repeat as the U.S. 145-pound champ at the North American Open. It’s run by the U.S. affiliate of the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO). After that, there will be international WAKO events, including the World Games next year in Europe.
Hughes is itching to turn pro, says One Hit MMA owner Aldo Oreggia, one of his trainers and the man who will guide his career through Bellator Kickboxing and Glory Kickboxing when he leaps to the pro ranks.
“His style is professional, not too much scoring points, more aggressive,” Oreggia said. Nevertheless, Hughes can use the experience of another year of world-class amateur competition. Hughes agrees and hopes to be competing in Europe next year.
“Aldo will be my manager,” Hughes said. But before that, he wants to fight in the World Games as a U.S. amateur next year.
A TUCKED-AWAY GYM
One Hit MMA is tucked snug in Layton, just behind a pizza business. The gym is packed in the afternoon with mixed martial artists and boxers, veterans and contenders training with novices and amateurs.
Hughes gets into the MMA cage, fitted tightly in the northwest corner and pounds the mitts of MMA pro Lucus Montoya, a training partner. Again, it’s repetition as Hughes moves around the cage, throwing jabs, crosses and hooks.
MATT HERP/Standard-Examiner
One Hit MMA members watch as amateur kickboxer Thomas Hughes does bag work Tuesday, June 28, 2016, in Layton.
Hughes is 3-0 as an MMA amateur, but in the last 18 months he’s transitioned to a full-time kickboxer. “I just understand the sport more. … There’s such a gap between MMA striking and kickboxing,” he said. With kickboxing, “not every single strike has to be a knockout punch,” he explains. As a kickboxer, Hughes moves around more, throws many more punches and probes his opponents for weaknesses.
“You have to incorporate your kicks and your knees,” Hughes said. Clearly an eager student of kickboxing, he shares some of the psychology of the sport. A kickboxer is allowed to clinch for three seconds. But then re-clinch immediately and the three seconds clicks in again, he explains. That in-fight strategy provides more opportunities to score with knee thrusts inside, he adds.
BANG MUAY THAI
Ogden’s Jarrett Kelton, an MMA pro career, is another of Hughes’ trainers. One Hit MMA is an affiliate of Bang Muay Thai, a training regimen started by former UFC professional Duane Ludwig. Headquartered in Colorado, Bang Muay Thai emphasizes consistent training, lots of repetition, and perfecting combat skills, including videotaping training for further observation.
“The technique is clear,” Kelton said. With patience, hard work and perseverance, Hughes’ skills have improved, he added.
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Hughes follows Bang Muay Thai very carefully, relishing its emphasis on repeating a technique over and over, and always searching for ways to improve.
PERSONAL LOSSES
Hughes and his wife, Ashley, have twin boys, Simon and Cohen. The couple lost an infant son, Miloh Thai Hughes, to crib death. There are more personal sorrows. Recently, a brother, Seven, and a sister, Danielle, have died. His oldest brother, Robert Duane, who died at 24, started Hughes in martial arts. Robert Duane won a gold medal at 16 in point-sparring in the Junior Olympics.
“My brother (Seven) was a big supporter in my martial arts, always excited about it,” Hughes said. The family’s LDS faith helps them to deal with these losses.
Fighting at 145 pounds provides a challenge to make weight for Hughes, who walks around at about 185 pounds. Making weight involves cutting water weight.
“I walk at 185 pounds. I diet to 163,” Hughes said. Just before a weigh in, “there’s a water cut to 145 pounds,” he adds. After the weigh in, the lost water weight will come back prior to the fight.
There’s a daily training schedule. An hour of cardio exercising in the morning, followed by an hour at VASA Fitness in Ogden doing rounds of mitts with MMA pro Montoya. At 5:30 p.m., Hughes is at One Hit MMA for training with Oreggia and Kelton that includes Bang Muay Thai, and afterwards, another hour of cardio training.
Twice a week he’ll spar nine rounds for the three-round kickboxing bouts he’ll have in July. Two of his sparring partners at One Hit MMA are Ogden MMA pro Jordan Chandler and Layton amateur MMA fighter Kaecy Raddon.
“I spar Thomas every week,” Chandler said. As a pure mixed martial artist, sparring a kickboxer is a different experience. There’s no need to protect against an MMA takedown, he explains.
Chandler, preparing for an August bout in Ogden, is impressed with Hughes. “I see a more confident Thomas. … He studies the game,” he added.
Raddon, with strong kickboxing skills, is joining Hughes in Las Vegas, competing at 165 pounds at the WAKO USA event in Las Vegas. In August he fights for a state amateur title.
“I spar with Thomas about once a week,” Raddon said, describing it as “more in your face … with a lot more moving around.”
THREE YEARS TO TEST THE PROS?
A pro career is a certainty for Hughes. However, he’s cognizant of the dangers of fighting. He’s promised his wife, Ashley, that he won’t fight too long.
“I don’t want it to affect me in the long run … I’ll make my run,” he said.
The timeline: Three years, says Hughes; then, with a smile, he adds “maybe four.”
One goal he won’t set a time limit on is to have a gym, one where for a small fee fighters can train and trainers can teach. The gym would include a variety of combat sports.
“I enjoy coaching,” Hughes said. He sees training others as another step toward having a complete experience with his career.
Hughes believes everything that we do should be for a purpose. Right now, his purpose is kickboxing and taking it as far as he can.
dgibson@standard.net