Mike 'Quick' Swick - Thailand, Health, and Expansion

Mike Swick: Expanding the AKA Empire



By Steph Daniels

It's been 17 months since we last saw UFC staple, Mike Swick in the Octagon. A veteran of the very first Ultimate Fighter season, he's one of the last of a small handful of fighters left with an active contract from that era. Plagued with injuries and a chronic, debilitating esophageal illness that had been misdiagnosed, he lost a couple years of optimal health, which no doubt factored in to some unfortunate losses in the cage.



These days, Mike has been living the good life, having relocated to Phuket, Thailand to oversee the construction of his dream, AKA Thailand, a super gym that is about 1 week away from completion. His health issues are a thing of the past, and where he once walked around at an unhealthy, almost sickly 170 pounds, he is now a strapping 215 pounds, training daily, and biding his time to a training camp for his own return to action.



In a recent interview with MMA Sentinel Radio, Swick gave details on the new AKA gym, his health, estimated return to UFC activity, and recounted the golden era of MMA sponsorship and the impact TUF can have on up and coming fighters. He also very kindly provided a 50 picture photo gallery and some training videos for our readers to check out. Here's what he had to say in this broad scope interview:



A Dream Realized



This gym is my baby. I've been working toward putting together a gym here for quite a while, and my dreams and aspirations for what I wanted just got bigger and finally, we just built it. It's my dream gym and it's what I think would be a perfect fight camp. I'm trying to put all the elements together to make it a one stop shop for everything you would need to prepare for a fight or attain your fitness goals. We have a two story fitness building, a 5000 square foot Muay Thai facility with a mountain backdrop, the big MMA building...there's a lot to do.



I've been with AKA for 12 years and I'll be with them forever, so it's a great fit for all of us. I partnered up with Javier Mendez, and we built what's probably going to end up being the biggest, craziest AKA gym ever. When the showroom is done, it's going to be a shrine to AKA with fight posters, photos, magazine articles...it will be a testament to what a successful, dedicated team can do.



A Permanent Move



I live here permanently now, I moved here. I visit America now [laughs]. I've been here since the beginning and I've worked on every single part of this project. From concept to design to construction, I've had my hands in all of it. I'm heavily involved in the business end, to handling the trainers and curriculum and matching everything up. It's a lot to do, and it requires a permanent commitment.



Now, we're training and for the last few months, we've been running fight camps. I'm training, running the gym, planning the next phase of the construction; it's full time, and I can't be gone from here for very long...





Read the rest --> here.

Note: this piece is long so I cut it off at about 1/4 of the way. Read the rest of the piece by Crooklyn HERE. There's about 50 pictures from Swick and I've included the training videos below.





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Statistics: Posted by Johnny Denver — May 5. 2014, 08:31 — Replies 0 — Views 12

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