Back in the cage May 30!

It's been a long time -- two years and six months -- but I am returning to the Battlefield Fight League cage on May 30, and I couldn't be more excited.

2013 and the first half of 2014 was rough for my training with the Ultimate Poker launch as well as a series of injuries. But I've been pretty injury-free for over a year and training more intelligently than ever. I've learned a ton about combining strength and conditioning with MMA and avoiding overtraining.

Battlefield Fight League 36 is their biggest card ever with five title fights and the best prospects in British Columbia fighting. It'll be at Richmond BC's River Rock Casino theatre which makes me possibly the first person to both play a WSOP Circuit event and fight in a cage in the same room. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster and the fight will likely also be streamed on pay-per-view via Battlefield's website.

My opponent is Blake Sigvaldason. You can see his last fight by going to 25:11 of this video. As you can see it looks like he is a good wrestler with good guard passing and ground and pound. His record is only 1-3, but he is just 20, and seems to be improving with each fight. And there is a wrinkle: the fight is at 145 lbs, whereas I have previously fought at 125 lbs, so I'll be giving up over 20 lbs. I am very much looking forward to this challenge.  Edit: ack, late opponent change! I am now fighting Ali Wasuk (2-0) from Clinch MMA.

I'm expecting this to be my toughest fight yet, and I'm definitely training like it will be my toughest fight. This training camp will be in Vancouver at Lions MMA, who have a team record of 17-6-1 in Battlefield events. I am confident that with hard work, I will be better than my opponent in every aspect of the game, and I think it'll be a great fight.

So if you're in Vancouver on May 30, get some tickets and cheer for me at the River Rock!

Note: If you do buy tickets to the event, I would appreciate if you forward your confirmation e-mail to jgolshani@yahoo.com while mentioning my name. This will enable me to get a small commission and also show the promoter that I am a draw for the event. (I didn't even get a mention on their Twitter :( )