Brandon Schneider announced he will be fighting Lee Cordova, a fighter with a 1-2 Tuff-N-Uff amateur record, on Jan. 15 at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.
The Pahrump mixed martial arts fighter, at 3-3, will be defending his Tuff-N-Uff light heavyweight title (205 pounds). He won the title earlier in the year in a May 15 fight against Mike Florio.
Schneider has a lot on his mind as he prepares for what could be his last amateur fight of his career. At the end of October, Mix It Up Academy, a jiu jitsu dojo run by Robert Wilson, where he has done all of his training, closed down. This left Schneider with no gym to train at for his upcoming fight and has forced Schneider to look around for help.
Schneider is taking the predicament quite well and is not panicking.
“Not having a gym has thrown me off a bit, but it was the people in that gym that were important to me,” he said. “I have two gyms in Las Vegas that I am looking at.”
Schneider said he still trains with one of the two coaches he had out here and still hopes to train with the other.
“I will still train out here in Pahrump doing my cardio workouts here in town,” Schneider said. “I want to be with my old coaches and I am working with Brian Thelaner in his garage at this time and will try to work something out with Robert (Wilson).”
When asked if this would be his last amateur fight, the fighter replied, “I am sure this will be my last amateur fight.”
Thelaner said he thinks it’s hard for Schneider to accept change and he is working to smooth the transition over for Schneider.
“This will probably be my last fight with Brandon,” he said. “He has known that Robert and I could only take him so far and now that Mix It Up Academy closed, our hands are tied. We can only do so much with him now that the gym is closed. I am calling contacts in Las Vegas to get him set up with new sparring partners and a new gym.”
Thelaner said the choice of sparring partners will be better for Schneider in Las Vegas.
“The new partners will open him up more,” he said. “If you spar with the same people all the time you get to know their tendencies. Out in Vegas he will get some new blood.”
Despite all the things going on with Schneider, Thelaner said his fighter is focused.
“We are working on things that Brandon got sloppy with in his last fight,” he said. “I thought Brandon got sloppy and took a few hard punches he shouldn’t have. We will be working on cleaning that up.”
Thelaner added from now and until the fight he will be keeping his fighter focused on the opponent.
“Yes, we will be working on transitioning him over to new coaches for sparring, but right now we don’t want him second-guessing anything his new coaches or his old coaches tell him,” Thelaner said. “We want him to be mentally sound and comfortable with what is going on and we’ve got to keep him focused.”
Although Schneider has a good idea where he wants to train and with whom, he still has other ideas on his mind.
“I would like to open another gym here in Pahrump, where I can train,” he said.
He did admit finding partners and the money to do this will be difficult.
In addition to his conditioning with Thelaner, he has been working out with the Trojans wrestling team.
“I am doing the workout that the team is doing,” Schneider said. “I even wrestle with them. Between work and workouts, I am a tired guy at the end of the day.”
He said although he is looking at training facilities in Las Vegas, he wants to keep his options open and his mind is not confined to staying in Nevada.
He also wants to work on getting a sanctioned fight in Pahrump at the Pahrump Nugget.
Tickets can be bought for as low as $10 at the Cox Pavilion.
-Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @vernheepvt