Daniel Madrid frustrated that LFA 84 was canceled, but staying ready for post-crisis fights

Just a short time before he was scheduled to face Impa Kasanganay in the 185-pound championship main event of LFA 84 on March 20, Daniel Madrid found out the event had been canceled due to coronavirus concerns.

For Madrid, like other fighters, at first there was hope that the event would proceed as scheduled, but then the week before the show was to happen, it was canceled.

“It was a week before when we started getting rumors that there was a possibility it was going to be shut down,” Madrid told MMAWeekly.com. “Everyone, including my management was saying it was still on, so we tried not to focus on it the entire fight camp, then that Saturday they broke the news to us.

“At first it was upsetting and disappointing, but there’s nothing I did or could do to prevent it. It’s frustrating, but you deal with it best you can.”

Having just around a week left before the show was to take place, Madrid and all the other fighters on LFA 84 were just about finished with their training camps when the plug was pulled.

“It was the last week of training; a couple of days before that we had finished our last hard day of sparring,” said Madrid. “I was just starting my water cut process. It was just more that mental side of getting prepared for it. We were pretty deep into it.”

For Madrid, the focus of his life during social distancing is being with his family and doing what he can, no matter how little it may be, to keep himself athletically active during the layoff.

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“I just try to keep myself busy,” Madrid said. “I’m unable to go to the gym and train at the moment, and it’s definitely difficult, but we’re making it through it.

“We’re doing our best to stay confined to the house and not venture out to the public for the time being. We’re doing what we can inside the house or in the backyard, whatever we can do.”

When it originally came to 2020, Madrid’s goal was to make it to the next level of his career, hoping to use the LFA title as a springboard to that. While the overall goal remains the same, the immediate focus is making sure when he is able to return to the fight game that he’s as ready as he can be.

“We’re hoping they’ll be able to reschedule these fights, but whatever the case is, it’s more of just staying mentally ready,” said Madrid. “Opportunities always jump up when you least expect them, so I don’t want to be stagnant doing nothing, when I can constantly be looking to improve on my own.

“Nothing has changed on (the goals) side of it. I still have my goal of making it to a bigger platform. If that opportunity doesn’t arise right now, then I’m still focused on the LFA and getting that middleweight title.”