Zach Calmus showed out in his prior bare knuckle fighting foray in Sturgis and aims to keep that trend going in the promotion’s return to the market this weekend. Zach Calmus returns to fight in Sturgis for BKFC 79 with his prior BKFC Sturgis bout seeing him secure a sub-one minute knockout over Ryan Shough at BKFC 63.
Appearing on Bare Knuckle Bowker to touch on this return to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to fight Corey Willis on August 2nd, Zach Calmus said,
“Yeah, I’ve training hard regardless. Regardless of who I’m fighting. Corey Willis is just a name, Zach Calmus is just a name. Then we put the work in behind us and I guess I just want to do the best that I can and that’s what God can allow me to do. So, I really just worked as hard as physically possible in this camp. I had a lot of great sparring with UFC-level fighters like Yuri [Panferov], the Russian Polar Bear. We were sparring… [also worked with a former] WBC world champion, he sparred with James Toney back in the day in California. Great coach.”
“What I’m trying to tell you is, I’m getting knowledge that has been passed down through history. I work with some real, real fighters who have world championships, real lineage, real history. I’m with the best coach in all of Connecticut and all the world, in my opinion. He’s worked in famous camps. He’s worked with great fighters to get to that level of fame. To get to that level of fighting, you have to be a great coach.”
“So that’s all l I have to say about that. I have the right people around me or nobody around me which is really the best when you’re all alone and you can just think about the game plan, ignoring all kinds of distractions. So that’s really what my biggest asset has been in this game is that I went back to our basics and just kind of like shut out the world after KnuckleMania because that was a tough loss. I didn’t want the fight to get stopped, but I’m not a referee. They saw something that I didn’t… I moved on. I drove home that day.”
Zach Calmus and the road back to Sturgis post-KnuckleMania 5
When delving into the process of rebounding from his disappointing setback last time out in January of this year at KnuckleMania 5 against Pat Brady, Zach Calmus stated,
“Like, I got back to the hotel like late at night or whatever. But we got home, me and Paula. I was just happy that I got through it with my life. You know what I mean? I’m happy that I went out there and fought at Wells Fargo Center and I didn’t get knocked the f**k out. You know what I mean? The guy that I fought was a beast. I’m not taking nothing away from him either. Pat Brady is a savage and he’s no joke. So it was a tough loss for me, but I didn’t even throw any punches.”
“I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. So I didn’t win the game. This is chess, not checkers. You have a game plan, you got to stick with it. That’s what I didn’t [do]. I just went out there and I fought like I was on the side of a bar. That’s not a good thing when you’re at that level because then you just go out there and you’re like I’ll take one to give one and you’re just f***ing rolling through a process. That’s dangerous.”
“People get hurt that way. So the mindset is no matter what happens in my life, no matter what falls out, no matter what the f**k, I’m going to train every f***ing day. I don’t care how I feel, it’s what I do. That really worked well for me. I got back to the basics and I sparred. I sparred, like I lost count how many rounds.”