Eating and living clean is the secret to success for Ev Ting

New Zealand-Malaysian star Ev Ting is getting back to basics ahead of his clash with Japan’s Daichi Abe at ONE: Masters of Destiny in Malaysia.

The 29-year-old has been a mainstay of what is arguably ONE Championship’s most talent-rich division for over five years, where he’s experienced plenty of success in establishing himself as one of its toughest competitors.

But Ting’s mettle has been tested in recent times, with two straight first-round losses — albeit to two of lightweight’s premier stars in Shinya Aoki and Saygid Guseyn “Dagi” Arslanaliev.

Battle-hardened and savvy enough to realize not to panic, Ev Ting is putting his faith in his abilities and his trainers at Auckland MMA to get him back in the winning circle at the Axiata Arena on July 12.

“A big thing for me was just keeping a good circle of teammates and my coaches and just staying clean with my diet,” Ting explains. “All of that really helps. It causes a chain effect where one good thing happens after another.”

Clean living has been a huge focus for “E.T”, who says it’s the foundation for everything else to move in a positive direction.

Lifestyle on point, technique on point.

“When you’re eating so clean and only fuelled off the food that you’re eating you get into this mindset of wellness, everything just becomes clear. If you eat junk you feel sluggish, you make bad decisions,” says Ting.

In contrast to his past two bouts, Ev Ting believes eliminating those bad decisions will go a long way to ensuring he has his hand raised against Abe on July 12.

“It’s a mindset thing — I just need to be a lot more ready in all aspects. I can’t be trading shots anymore, I need to be executing from the first second,” he says.

His opponent is in a similar predicament. Abe — a durable, judo-based martial artist with some considerable power on the feet — is desperate to get back into the win column after three-straight defeats.

Abe presents a serious challenge for Ev Ting, but the Kiwi is confident that he’s aligned all of his stars for a display that will make the rest of the division stand up and take notice.

“The goal is to mix it up — to strike, wrestle, jiu-jitsu — mix it all together to find a flaw or a chink in his armor, and then from there I’m just gonna explode and execute,” Ting concluded.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 6/24/2019.