14 seconds to fame

Most people’s impression of time is pretty distorted and if you’ve ever tried to count twenty seconds and see how accurate you are, you may already know this.

One young man who can probably help you if you ever needed to count to say.. Fourteen.. Is my next guest – ShurikenNZ MMA‘s own fresh-faced assassin Luke Fruean!

Credit: Xavier Wallach Photography – Luke Fruean makes history with his 14 second arm-bar submission

I catch up with him below.

#TheUW – I’m here with Luke Fruean from ShurikenNZ MMA, one of the young up ‘n’ comers on the NZMMA scene. Luke had an excellent showing at Proving Grounds MMA Event back in July in Auckland in his 1st MMA fight in the cage!

#TheUW – Thanks for joining me Luke, 1st of all – AWESOME result for you at The Proving Grounds MMA Event, you ended up making your mark on ShurikenNZ and New Zealand Mixed Martial Arts history while you were at it with a 14 second arm-bar finish in the very 1st round! I was lucky enough to be cage-side covering the event too and it was amazing to be there! Tell me a bit about the training and preparation that had lead to that moment and how that felt!

Prep for the fight was hard! I started intense training six weeks out, six days a week, sometimes twice a day.

I would get up before work and go for a light 5km run, that was hard to juggle as I work ten hour days. Jason, my stand up coach and Paulo, my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach had me well-drilled and ready.

It was a very humbling experience to get the win so quickly [smiles].

Credit: Xavier Wallach Photography – Luke Fruean with coaches Paolo (middle left) & Jason (outside right) after his 14 second arm-bar submission.

Watch the full fight replay from Shuriken NZ’s website.

#TheUW – Tell me a bit about Shuriken NZ and what you guys are working hard to achieve over there on The Shore – I understand the gym recently moved premises?

Shuriken New Zealand is a great dojo, ever since i walked through the doors i felt welcome and right at home.

We’re all working and training to be the best! I guess just like everyone else, our coaches push us to our limits, we have everything we need in our dojo to be successful – Excellent coaches, great sparring partners good vibes all round and we’ve recently moved from Birkenhead to Wairau and a much bigger and better premises.

Credit: Shuriken NZ – New premises in Wairau, North Shore

#TheUW – Awesome. Tell me about your attitude to things as a young fighter and what you see as the role of an MMA fighter these days in terms of influencing young people and leadership.

My attitude to things is just to give my all and my very best! [smiles]

That’s all we can do really.

My goal to help youth would be to get guys in less fortunate areas off the street and into the dojo to train. There is plenty of talent out there coming from first hand experience also coming from a tough up-bringing.

Credit: Shuriken NZ – Post-workout shot

#TheUW – Who do you hold as your own role-models in and out of the sport of MMA.

My role model would have to be my brother Ina Manase.

He also trains Mixed Martial Arts out at Auckland MMA in Pakuranga. He’s come a long way in his life and always makes me give my best!

Another role model have to be Jarryd Hayne who plays for the eels in the NRL, hes the man [laughs] and has always been my favorite player as my background in sport is Rugby League.

Credit: Luke Fruean – Ina Manase & Luke

#TheUW – Obviously you are a young-starter in the sport, but that’s becoming a lot more common. What would you say to any young guns looking to get started or to any parents that are interested in enrolling their kids in MMA. I saw that you guys are offering MMA classes to youths down at Shuriken NZ?

Yes I’m just a new-comer at the moment, out to gain some respect and challenge my self I guess!

I’d say to anyone wanting to get into the sport the first step is walking into a gym and giving it a go. I was once that boy sitting in the crowd watching my brother fight thinking ‘I can do this’ and now i am [laughs and smiles].

Yeah, Jason  has a new teens class going and for anyone out there wanting to learn Mixed Martial Arts you couldn’t ask for better coaches than Jason and Paulo Sorriso one of the best in NZ and founder of Sorriso BJJ puts on awesome classes for all ages and fitness levels.

Credit: Shuriken NZ MMA – Youth Classes

#TheUW –  That’s great! You guys are really putting together a strong and healthy fight camp!

#TheUW – So, where to from here for you, my friend? What’s on the horizon for you both in and out of the cage? 

Keep training hard for the next show in November and also keep on the grind at work – (I’ve) got to pay the bills [laughs] and hopefully MMA could do that one day! [smiles]

#TheUW – Well you’re definitely doing everything possible with the support of your coaches and training partners to make that happen!

#The UW – Well, hanks heaps for catching up with me and doing some #QnA! If anyone wants to catch you or follow your career, how and where can they do that???

No worries brother! [smiles]

Add me on Facebook ‘ Lucas James Fruean’ and give ShurikenNZ and Sorriso BJJ Facebook pages a like!

Credit: Shuriken NZ & Sorriso BJJ

#TheUW – Support your local! Chur!