One of our guys had his first fight last night (he won!), so I ended up at really amateur fights last night. There were probably 20 fights on the card and I would say that only about 6 or 7 of the guys were actually prepared to be in the cage.
One kid actually took his first hit, put his hands up and started to run away. I don’t think he’d ever taken a punch before. It was just upsetting to watch. Most guys had no idea how to escape the mount and a few guys actually started crying. I realize that getting up there in itself is a big nerve racking deal, but I don’t understand why any camp would let their guys fight when they are that unprepared.
Is it just that their gyms are that bad? What’s behind that? How do you guys determine when some one is prepared enough to take a fight?
I’m a good fighter. I’d feel confident taking amateur boxing or muay thai fights at 185-200 lbs, and I’m working on my jiu jitsu. I’m not great yet, but I’m not helpless either.
I still haven’t taken a real MMA fight, because I (and my coach) don’t think I’m ready on the ground. It disgusts me that guys who couldn’t take a punch or who haven’t got a clue on the ground are taking fights, and that their coaches are letting them. I’d like to play the video of these kids out in front of the gym where they were “trained” to warn off other fools.
I’m a good fighter. I’d feel confident taking amateur boxing or muay thai fights at 185-200 lbs, and I’m working on my jiu jitsu. I’m not great yet, but I’m not helpless either.
I still haven’t taken a real MMA fight, because I (and my coach) don’t think I’m ready on the ground. It disgusts me that guys who couldn’t take a punch or who haven’t got a clue on the ground are taking fights, and that their coaches are letting them. I’d like to play the video of these kids out in front of the gym where they were “trained” to warn off other fools.[/quote]
this is how i feel…
maybe it’s just my competetive nature, but i’d rather feel that i have a chance to win (or dominate, ideally) than fight just to say that i fought.
I disagree. Coaches that let guys like this into fights are going to get someone hurt. A large contingent of young, untrained, bitter fighters is not the sort of PR the sport needs.
We police our own, or asshats like John McCain call it human cockfighting and we get shut down.
being a competitor myself, I find this story just unbelievable! Whoever the coaches of these guys were should have their butts whooped. When I had my first fight offered to me, I was told outright by my coach, NO you will not be taking it because your not ready. And I’m so thankful that I have a coach who cares enough to regulate me and keep me in check. And on another note, what organization did your friend fight in? If I was the head of that org. I’d be asking some serious questions to the coaches who’s fighters were blatantly unprepared.
I think it’s a problem in ANY amateur organization. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I like to think I’ve got good technique, but when we have a amateur boxing tournament around here, there’s guys with 4x my experience with terrible technique and I can’t fathom why.
I’m starting to think perhaps it’s just a case of there being many trainers who should not be trainers.
Such a bad thing to happen, I can’t understand why a trainer would do that, if only because it will look really bad on him and reflect badly on his teaching. In our gym we spar hard weeks before a fight, my instructor has pulled guys out at short notice cause they’re not ready and will just get hurt. If you want to build a reputation as a decent gym this is the right thing to do.
Even with the popularity of MMA, there are very, very few good schools out there. There are so few that even very mediocre schools can look like they are good.
On top of that, the mentality of fighting is something I think people just have or don’t have. Some people just can’t take getting hit.
how many people are qualified to give tattoo’s or even hair cuts?
yet when a friend or acquaintance offers to give a free tattoo or haircut people leap to volunteer.
for small amateur events- no one is checking to see who is qualified.
and lots and lots of people are going to jump in- and compete whether they are ready or not.
and I am sure people jump at these opportunities to fight for what ever reason.
I will also bet that most of these people did not go to a ‘camp’
trained a few months and dove in.
cycobushmaster has some valid points-
lots of people freeze up their first fight.
sadly the promoter has to fill a fight card,
but the onus of regulations should fall on them as well
Hey, I’m not saying you should have to spend six weeks at Big Bear to fight in the “Saturday Night Rumble” down at your local YMCA. I’m just saying that if you haven’t done at least some full-power sparring before you get in there that your coach has done you a disservice ad is hurting the sport.
One or two guys like that would be one thing, but an entire card full of them leads me to believe that either this is a promotion made up entirely of Bullshido McDojos, with a few competent fighters getting in by accident, or that this promoter is willing to scrape the bottom of the barrel on talent and doesn’t care if the fighters are going to get hurt because of it.
Either way, I think it falls on the coaches. If some of these guys entered themselves and misrepresented their abilities to the promoter, I don’t think there’s much an amateur organization can do to police that. After all, even Royce Gracie was 0-0 at one point. However, one of those kids could have ended up against me.
If he went in there having never been punched before, with no idea of how to slip a punch, with his mouth half open and his chin up, there’s a good chance that with 4oz gloves and an uppercut I’d have put him in the hospital. Then people get sued, parents talk to the press, and coaches have to answer questions on the local news about “why they’re promoting human cockfighting in our town.”
MMA is still recovering from the underground video image that nearly got us shut down in the 90’s. Dana White knows this, and it’s why he’s being tyrannical about policing his organization. The rest of us should take the hint, and do the same.
[quote]devildog_jim wrote:
Hey, I’m not saying you should have to spend six weeks at Big Bear to fight in the “Saturday Night Rumble” down at your local YMCA. I’m just saying that if you haven’t done at least some full-power sparring before you get in there that your coach has done you a disservice ad is hurting the sport…
…MMA is still recovering from the underground video image that nearly got us shut down in the 90’s. Dana White knows this, and it’s why he’s being tyrannical about policing his organization. The rest of us should take the hint, and do the same.[/quote]
I have to say if you have zero “training camp” you are selling yourself short. I think its an essential part of training to have that prep time to fight time. Great fighters do it, whether you can go as hardcore as them is trivial to the actual mental/physical/spiritual readying that you can do at any level. Fighting is a way of life. Not doing so is a great failure on many individuals.
Wholeheartedly agree with policing our own. We need to keep to our sports roots and underground mentality but do not let it turn us down the path to illegitimacy. Its about being a responsible adult on everyone part and everyone needs to be an ambassador of the sport.
I hate it when you have people with the Cobra-Kai mentality walking around.