Eddie Cummings Promises 'New Gameplan, New Ideas, New Set-Ups'

Leglock specialist Eddie Cummings talks about his recent time out due to a knee injury, his upcoming superfight with a New York ‘rival’, and his plans for 2016.

FloGrappling: How are you feeling, how was your rehab?

Eddie Cummings: I’m 100% right now, I’m feeling very good at the moment. It was definitely a rough injury, I injured it twice actually. I tore the MCL, I was training for EBI, and then I tore it again two weeks before. Garry stepped in for me – it’s always great to have high-level training partners who can jump in for you in a pinch.

FG: Looking back at 2015. How do you sum up the year?

EC: 2015 was definitely a big year for me. I competed in a lot of high-end events. In that sense I was happy the way my career started out, however I wasn’t happy with all of the results. Hopefully this year I will get even more matches and better results. But I’ve got some very tough matches coming up, so we’ll see.

FG: You have a superfight coming up, right?

EC: I have a superfight coming up at the beginning of March with Mansher Khera from Marcelo Garcia. He’s a really tough black belt, really great grappler. I’m very excited for this match. It’s been a long time coming, our styles are a bit similar, it’ll be very interesting to see us compete.



FG: How is training going for it?

EC: Training has been coming along well, I’m starting to get my gameplan down, my timing and rhythm are coming back. My cardio is coming back as well, it’s always tough in this room. I’m feeling like I’m back to my old self, and even better than I was before my injury. I’ve had time to research new movements, new gameplans, new ideas, new set-ups.

FG: You’re both young black belts, both from schools in New York, is there any added pressure there?

EC: We’re both fairly new black belts, we’re both from rival schools on paper. There’s definitely added pressure, the match is taking place in New York, we’re both from New York. We’re both fighting in our home town, but it’s more the pressure of fighting against a good grappler.

FG: So what’s the plan for 2016?

EC: We have the superfight, then Polaris – hopefully we’ll get a good opponent for that – and then there’s EBI, the openweight tournament. It’s quite a daunting prospect but very exciting. And then after that, teach a seminar or two and get right back on the competition circuit.

FG: What’s the culture like here in this room? What’s it like to train here every day?

EC: It’s intense to say the least. We all put in very long days here. John Danaher is a very precise and technical teacher, doesn’t accept poor form or technique – ever – in the eight hours or so we’re here. We have a lot of tough training partners coming in here every day, and I think with the technical expectation upon us it creates a high-pressure environment – but we get used to it after a while. We’re professionals and we come in and train hard. It’s definitely an intense culture, both physically and mentally.