Didion Makes Manager Proud

Fighter profile of Zach Didion by Chad Didion

ST.PETERSBURG - It's was almost 2 months to the day since young talent Zach "Attach" Didion fought.  We've followed this talent for over a year now, we've been through his ups and downs.  I've seen this young man have trials, I've seen him over come obsticales.  I was there when he thought his dreams of being a professional MMA fighter might not happen and I was there when he heard the words "we want to sign you kid."  I can tell you, nothing seemed to set a blaze the fire inside of him like his 1st win in his professional organization Pegasus Cagefighting League.

"2 months man...seemed like 2 years." says Didion.  2 months ago Zach was matched up in his 1st PCL fight against 20 year old Fernando "Pele" Ramos.  Ramos was raw and seemed like he was a long way behind Didion as far as talent.  Mistakes and nervous from Didion resulted in a 2nd round TKO win by Ramos.  Frustrated and dejected Didion searched for answers.  The loss even had PCL owner Julian Cisneros wondering if the investment in Zach was the correct choice.  Zach and his manager Chad Didion sat down, what was their next step?  There was a meeting with Cisneros and the two parties agreed that training, hard training for a number of days was the answer.  So Zach, after thinking he'd trained as hard as he could, was back in the gym now.  No more running trails, no more jumping rope and working on cardio, it was in a professional gym, it was world class trainers and state of the art work out equipment.

The training was intense.  The work outs grueling.  The teaching immeasurable.  4 times a day, 6 days a week Zach was in the gym.  Sparring became more and more intense.  New and better partners were brought before him.  It started out slow, unimpressive, he dropped weights, broke a stationary bike and was repeatedly being knocked down by practice partners.  Something changed.  I can't tell you an exact date or time.  It just clicked.  The cross training got better, got good, real good.  He started lifting more weight, his punches got quicker.  He knocked out 1, then 2 sparing partners.  New fighters were brought in...better, brought there to challenge him.  They picked at Zach's weaknesses, they found holes, but quickly those holes sealed up.  There was just a feeling, this kid's ready.

So here it is, August 4th.  Zach sits in a chair with a towel over his head, just minutes before he enters the octagon for his 2nd fight with the PCL.  "Can't lose.  Won't lose." he says.  "I will not let you down"  Nobody in that room says anything.  I don't really think any of us knew who he didn't want to let down.  Breaking the silence comes "Let's roll!"  Zach stands up.  He looks at me and says passing by "I am a champion...you'll see"

I watched him fight that night.  I watched as he missed with his first combination and he took a straight jab.  I saw the head kick that landed to his jaw, the same head kick that knocked him out in his 1st fight.  I then saw a man, not a kid, a man emerge before my very eyes, regroup and punish Knox Lyndon with rights and lefts.  And when Lyndons arm snapped, for that night, I saw a champion fight in the octagon.

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