Like the rest of the world, Scotty Hao has found himself without a gym and is training for his next fight, whenever that may be, from home. Unlike some of his opponents, that doesn’t exactly put Hao in a bad position.
The mixed martial arts fighter from Kailua-Kona was traveling twice a week to Hilo to train with Boss MMA, but amid the COVID-19 pandemic, his training is based once again on the west side of the island, with his family to help him, which includes his daughters and his wife Alexus.
Hao is also entering the sports hiatus off a big win. On March 14, Hao defeated Timothy “War” Teves, of Kauai, in Trinity Kings 9 Superfight Championship at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu.
“The fight was pretty amazing,” Hao said. “The preparation for it was the craziest part. We’ve been driving to Hilo twice a week. Right after work, we head straight to Hilo. When I was in that fight, all that time I spent going to Hilo and all that time I spent training and putting in the work actually made a big difference.”
The 155-pound fighter went three rounds against Teves, a competitor Hao admires deeply.
“He got some nice shots in,” Hao said. “I was excited to have someone willing to stand there and go toe-to-toe, and the competitor that he is, he’s the No. 2 ranked fighter on the islands. I was pretty ecstatic to be able to compete with someone at that level.”
Now at home in Kona, Hao has time to reflect on that win and his Bellator 236 fight against Wahiawa, Oahu’s Keoni Diggs on Dec. 21, also held in Honolulu at Neal S. Blaisdell Arena.
“The words can’t even come out of my mouth of how to express how I felt getting out there,” Hao said. “But I didn’t get the big W on that fight, and that was probably the best fight I’ve ever had at that point, and it probably was the biggest learning lesson, the biggest learning curve I’ve ever had.”
Hao lost that fight via submission in the second round, but he said it’s all part of the learning process to become a better fighter.
“What I did was go back to the drawing board, and tried fixed all my mistakes,” Hao said. “I still have a few more tweaks to work out, but we’re getting up there. We’re going to be able to keep up with the caliber of fighters the mainland has out there.”
Hao said what he has been working on improving the most is wrestling.
“Honestly, I’m more of a striker than I am a wrestler,” Hao said. “I have to work on my wrestling, and the only way I can keep the fight going where I want the fight to go is to learn how to defend and take them down, and learn how to get back up and down. Those are a few tweaks I have been really emphasizing on this past camp and are still working on.”
Hao said his win against Teves helped to put him “back on the grid” as a fighter. With the current MMA schedule up in the air, he doesn’t know when his next fight will be, but he hopes that he will be invited back to a Bellator event again in the near future, and be able to represent Kona again in a fight on the mainland.
With stay-at-home orders in place in Hawaii due to the coronavirus, Hao is making the most of his time and training.
“There’s no gym that is open so it’s a little different. Honestly, it’s a little heartbreaking, but at the end of the day I’m really excited to spend time with my family,” Hao said. “My training is with my family, and it’s been like that the past few years before I started going up to Hilo.
“As soon as I get home from work, I go straight to training with my wife, and then we look up some stuff that I need to work on. So I look back on my old footage and see where and what I made mistakes on and make goals and try to meet those goals.”