Unai Caro wants to be back on the international muay-thai scene. It is an ambitious challenge, although for him it is nothing new. The 29-year-old from Sestaotrá was European champion and played two World Cups in Japan and Spain. However, two severe eye and knee injuries kept him out of the ring for more than two years and made him hit rock bottom. All this has been a great learning experience for him and now he has returned to the stage “mentally better than ever”. Of course, he does not do it with half measures or with shooting fights. He will do it in style. This Sunday he will fight in Milan against a former world champion like Michele Antonio to win the ISKA intercontinental title.
– How do you feel to face this tough fight?
I feel very well. I am very strong physically and mentally I am better than ever. The fact of overcoming the injuries and everything I’ve been through in that time has made me relax, see everything differently and try harder and better. In this sense, a physical trainer named Walker has helped me a lot, with whom I work now and with whom there are also Athletic players or footballers from big teams. It has been great for me.
– On Saturday he travels to Italy, that same day he has the weigh-in and on Sunday he has to fight. Do these displacements influence the strict preparation they have for combat?
This is a sport where there is not much money, so we travel with the shortest possible time. This time I’m traveling the same morning as the weigh-in, so I can’t lose weight that same day. I have to do my homework first and be quite dehydrated on the plane, but I’ve moved up to welterweight and I’m doing well, so this trip doesn’t influence me much. It’s not like when I went to Japan, I went five days early to adjust to the conditions and jet lag.
– Almost three years ago he suffered an eye injury and a knee injury that left him in dry dock for a long time. How did you experience that situation?
It was the worst moment of my life. I was very low and had emotional depression. Especially when the eye thing happened to me, which was the first thing. I had a really bad time there. Then I faced the knee injury in a different way. I wasn’t so down anymore, I felt stronger for having gotten over the eye. Although you have to get the good side of everything. It has been very good for me to have more patience because I have always been very hyperactive. I have grown a lot mentally both when it comes to fighting and programming my daily life. I do everything with more calm and head.
– As a result of the Olympics, the importance of psychologists in sports was valued more. In your case, did you resort to it?
Before all this happened to me, I had already tried being with a sports psychologist and the experience was very good. Although, in my case, I am a person who talks a lot with my father, who is my teacher in this, and my brother, who is my partner in the gym. They have been the ones who have supported me and this is how I best express myself, with whom I identify the most and who give me the best advice. They are the ones who have done this function with me.
– After more than two years of hiatus, he had a fight in November and now he is launching himself for an intercontinental title. Without filming fights, a priori everything seems very risky.
The fight I had in November was going to be a shoot, but the rival had a very good level and in the end it wasn’t. Now this opportunity has come to me and, as always, I have moved forward. It is because of the ambition that I have and the desire that I have to get to where I was before the injuries and where I think I should be.
– How do you propose the fight to be able to win this intercontinental title?
I must face the fight with patience and resolve it with a clean blow. I have to wait for the right moment, keep my distance so he doesn’t get to me and try to win by KO. We fought in Italy, we know what Italians are like and, if it’s not by KO, it’s very difficult for them to fight me for points.
– You have made it clear that you want to advance by leaps and bounds. What is your goal for this 2022?
I have a lot of ambition, but now what I prioritize is to enjoy each training session and face each fight as if it were the last. Always with my sights set on winning the world title, although without obsessing and without rushing. That’s what I’ve learned from injuries, to savor every moment much more.
