Rick “The Ghost” Bitz speaks out following professional MMA debut

But Bitz doesn’t link the two distinctions together.

Instead, he says it’s a fitting name paying homage to his entire MMA journey — from day one of training in downtown Medicine Hat, to his MMA debut at the Canalta Centre four months later.

“It was me coming out of no where and playing this game,” he says of his self-proclaimed nickname. “It’s the entity that came out of no where, and is just doing it’s own thing.”

Masked with two black-eyes, a swollen nose, and what he believes might be a sprained right hand, Bitz spoke to CHAT TV for the first time since his first career fight last Saturday in Fight Night: Medicine Hat 3.

He lost early in the second round by TKO, suffering several blows before the ref awarded Grande Prairie’s Randy Mahon the victory.

Bitz was asked to speak following the fight, but respectfully declined after receiving medical work.

Although his professional record is now blemished with a single tick in the losing column, he’s proud of his performance and calls it a valuable learning experience.

“It was definitely overwhelming,” the Medicine Hat product continues. “There’s a lot of little factors to it that you mentally can’t absorb until you’re standing there. Things like how bright everything is, and how illuminated the whole atmosphere is.”

Bitz continued to say he felt as mentally and physically prepared as possible. The difference was his lack of experience.

Now that he’s gone through his first pro bout, the welterweight understands what to expect the next time he tangles in the octogon.

“There were a lot of little details that came into it that I really had to work through,” he notes. “Ultimately that put the skillset on the backburner. You’re mind doesn’t really cycle what it should be doing when it’s overwhelmed with the new details of it’s surrounding.”

Bitz acknowledged God’s role in his fight for a number of reasons. He says not only did God protect him from enduring serious injuries, but he’s quick to defend the result of the fight, and how it can be interpreted as a success.

“People might turn around and tell you ‘if God was really with you, he would have made something amazing happen and you would have came out with the win’, but it depends on what a win is to you,” continues Bitz. “We did win. We won in a lot of different ways.

“We’re healthy, we’re good to go, we’re good to play, and we raised some money for a good cause. That’s a win-win to me.”

Bitz donated all of his fight earnings to David Dale’s campaign in the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride. Dale is one of 36 riders who will cycle across the nation over 18 days, raising money for kids cancer research.

“It’s very much needed,” he says. “That was our goal. It was as well to see what the ring was like and to play this game as a fighter and to develop myself into something I once wasn’t. But ultimately it was to get up and move and do some good things for some people that really need them.”

Bitz says training with Bryan Anderson at Now & Zen Martial Arts Studio will pick back up next week.

Although he couldn’t give a definitive day to when his next pro bout will be, he says it could come as early as this fall.

“There’s a couple talks about some fights that could happen in September,” he adds. “I might jump into one of them, or I might just take it a little longer and see if I can really perfect my game and my skill set.”

Regardless of when that next fight may be, Bitz says he’ll come far more prepared mentally now that he has the experience of going toe-to-toe in the ring.

And although he can’t promise whether the ref will raise his hand or not, “The Ghost” will surely leave a lasting mark.

by Mitch Bach

Rick “The Ghost” Bitz speaks out following professional MMA debut

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