Fighting fit back crosses sports
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday March 30, 2011
THE brutal nature of Ultimate Fighting Championship-style mixed martial arts and the beautiful game are not a natural fit, but for Broadmeadow's Josh Piddington there are benefits in crossing the two sports.The centre back flies out for the US on Saturday for a four-week holiday, where he plans to spend part of his time in Las Vegas watching a UFC training class.For the past two years the 24-year-old has studied mixed martial arts at Adamstown's Evolve Cross Training."In terms of fitness it's helped my soccer dramatically," Piddington said. "My reaction times and overall fitness have been much better."I've always enjoyed watching it, and I had the opportunity to go over there and see how they do it and wasn't going to give it up even though it does inflict on how many games I play this year."Piddington will miss four matches for Magic and is expected to return for the May 1 match against Valentine Phoenix at Cahill Oval.Due to the extreme nature of MMA Piddington said he has no immediate plans to step into the ring for the his first fight."Originally I thought that would be the idea, but with the competition I've got for positions at Magic I'll just keep my focus on football for the moment," he said.Before Piddington leaves he must get past Magic assistant coach Robert Virgili."Chilli wasn't too happy about it on Saturday and told me he'd wrestle me on Thursday at training and if he wins I can't go to America," Piddington said. "I think I might be safe."
© 2011 Newcastle Herald
