Keith Alden made his pro debut in 2012 when, by his own admission, he wasn’t ready. ONE Championship had been formed a few months earlier, the sport was suddenly exploding into the mainstream and fighters were throwing themselves into professional competition with scant regard for the relative risks and rewards. At the time Alden had been training part time at Evolve MMA for around three years, but decided to go it alone and compete at Malaysian Fighting Championship 4 in Kuala Lumpur without telling his trainers. The fight finished in a draw and it wasn’t a performance that the Irish featherweight could be proud. “I wasn’t ready at all and I wasn’t happy with the draw but the fight taught me a lot of hard lessons. I jumped into it without telling my instructors, without getting the right advice on weight cutting, without a game-plan or proper camp, and it showed.” Interestingly his opponent that night, Muhammad Hanif bin Zainal, would go on to fight for a few promotions in the region like Dare and the now defunct Legend FC, but for Alden it was an experience that would inspire him to take a more serious approach to his training, “I didn’t give as good an account of myself as I should have and the cage is a crucible, it’s unforgiving
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Keith Alden Learned From Early Mistakes to Become an Ultimate Beatdown Title Contender – MMA Weekly