Jase Lint is an amateur kickboxer based in Gainesville and he is currently training to fight in the May 25 World Kickboxing Network cruiserweight title in Saint Martin.
Lint will fight French kickboxer Enzo Audoui.
Lint trains under former kickboxer and owner of Full Throttle Fitness Kelly Leo. Leo is also Lints's Godfather.
Before coaching, Leo was a kickboxer who claimed the 1996 ISKA Georgia State Heavyweight title and fought in the K1 World Grand Prix from 2002-04.
Leo said he trained with kickboxing coach Duke Roufus, American kickboxer Rick Roufus, MMA fighter Forrest Griffin, Todd Duffee and Francis Ngannous’ Trainer Dewey Cooper.
Lint discussed WKN and his upcoming fight.
“It's at the weight of 195 pounds. WKN spans across five continents for their competitors. It's mostly a big European organization, not a lot of Americans get the opportunity to compete in that organization,” Lint said. “It's pretty cool that they even offered an American with it being a European-based company.”
Leo explained Lint’s training leading up to the fight.
“Well, Jase typically trains in the evenings, two hours a day. About four days a week, He does morning sessions. He does weight training, three days a week, and two days a week he does technical training. And then on Saturdays, he goes to train with Mr. Trammell and does some work with some of his guys as well. So six days a week, three, four hours a day,”
Lint said he is training his body and mind for the fight.
“Next week's going to be a really hard week just kind of polishing up everything, making sure, everything's good to go. My cardio is at the right place. Everything mentally, because it's not just about being in shape,” Lint said. “But it's also how are you technically? And are you mentally peaking because there's a whole mental challenge where you first start out, the first couple of weeks, you think this is a crazy idea. And as it gets to the week before, you hit this mental peak, where you feel like you're invincible, and then you go into the fight week.”
Leo discussed his process to prepare Lint for his opponent.
“What we typically do is just like in football, you have people in the skybox. I kind of approach it like that. I'm looking from the outside in on what he can do, knowing what his skill set is, knowing what tools he has to beat this guy,” Leo said. “What we do as far as watching the tapes I’ll not necessarily look if they win or lose I look at their habits, and so we start training him to do techniques based on what habits they have that they have taken from fight to fight to fight because a lot of times they don't change with those kinds of things. Then we started developing a strategy around there.”
Lint said he is ready to get into the ring and gave the credit to Leo.
“I feel really mentally prepared, ready to do this, bring it back. And it's a very special opportunity. I'm very blessed to have the guys that paved the way to allow me to do this. You want to come and be a champion, you go to Full Throttle Fitness, where they actually know what they are coaching,” Lint said.
Lastly, Leo discussed why he feels Lint is ready to fight.
“He has all the talent in the world. His hips are super flexible. For a big guy, he can kick you in the head standing right up next to you. It's pretty amazing you don't see that a lot in people his size. We just had to work on his mental state to get him to where he can just push through the adversity,” Leo said. “When he gets to a certain level he’s just got to to sit down and start swinging. You know, this guy's not gonna move. We just got to go. I have different drills that we do. So when he gets out there, he's still staying strong when the other person starts getting tired, he's still staying at that higher level. So going into it with all the confidence that he's not going to get tired, no matter what they bring, he's going to be able to continue pushing, continue fighting.”
