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9th June 2018
08:22am BST

"I probably struggled a little bit with not being selfish enough. But, when it's all said and done, you have to be a human. You've got to live with the choices you've made in those instances. If not being overly selfish has maybe held me back in my career, I'm alright with that. "I'm sure my wife could tell you more about that than I could. There's ups and downs. Getting humbled makes you a better person, so you bring that home with you."[caption id="attachment_162666" align="alignnone" width="500"]
Image credit: KSW[/caption]
"Coming close to the fights is where things get a bit more difficult. I don't lie about this - obviously I get anxiety and all that kind of stuff about the fight. You're kind of worried, probably a little bit scared and then you're at home and you're kind of taking that out on other people. "I just don't want to underperform. I know how good I am and at times, I haven't shown it when I've underperformed. It's always about the performance. I'm not worried about getting hurt or anything. I know enough about the sport, I've been in a billion corners."
"I do a lot better now, but back in the day, I used to wake up at 3 am staring at the ceiling and stuff. I like talking about this because I think a lot of young guys pretend it's not happening to them. Just accept that it's happening and get on with it. You know it's there." "I know the feeling, so it's like, 'Oh that's that thing.' 'That's that.' 'Oh, I know this thing.' 'I need to pee a hundred times before the fight. That happens every time.' It's normalised, almost. Being in it, competing regularly, making a similar situation in the gym helps."[caption id="attachment_162667" align="alignnone" width="500"]
Image credit: KSW[/caption]
"Sometimes I get the guys to spar where they come in and don't talk to each other. There's no friendliness beforehand. One gets geared up one end, the other gets geared up the other end. I'm in the middle for the rounds. Or when a new guy comes to spar and you don't know anything about him. "It does have to be normalised, you see it in young lads, I see it all the time when they're performing, they're just crippled."
"I started as a professional athlete at age 25. I have no business doing what I did in this sport. No business at all. Getting into a professional sport at 25 years of age and carving out a niche for yourself with people knowing your name and all, I'm very happy with how things are going for me." "I fight because I enjoy fighting. I fight because it's my passion and it's what I enjoy doing. If I went home after this fight and was like, 'I didn't really enjoy that as much,' I don't think I'd do it again. I don't need to do it, I do it because I love it which is a really kind of pure thing to me. That's important."Up next for Fields is a clash against former UFC fighter Wagner Prado (13-3) at KSW 44. If Fields is victorious, a crack at light heavyweight champion Tomasz Narkun will likely be his next bout. KSW 44 takes place in the Ergo Arena, Gdansk on Saturday 9 June. Feature image credit: KSW
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