How to Start MMA Training?

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21

[quote]Sifu wrote:
Beware of the guys you take advice from because there are some real boneheads on this board, whose only martial arts knowledge is swilling beer while watching TUF on spike.[/quote]

This is a great point. I often hear guys say they “do MMA.” As I read their other posts, they really “do” some combination of the following: jiu jitsu classes when they “have time,” watch the UFC, and starfuck Fedor and other stars. Every once in a while you’ll have a guy who takes classes relatively consistenly - until, of course, school or something else gets in the way.

There is a HUGE difference between “doing” MMA and merely taking classes. With the former, MMA and training is your life. If you run out of money, you don’t take time off. You starve, you sleep in your car, you do whatever it takes to keep training. With the latter, it’s a hobby - nothing more, nothing less.

Of course, next week someone will post something and the usual suspects will tell everyone that they do MMA, and that the OP needs to read Chad Waterbury’s article. (Which is really funny, since if those guys really did MMA, they’d know of a lot more guys in the game than Waterbury, and they wouldn’t need to cite to the same single article over-and-over again.)

Long story short: Few people in these forums actually do MMA. (There was one guy, JBrasewell, but I haven’t seen him around in a while.) Most are just guys with a nice hobby and active fantasy life.

22

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:

Long story short: Few people in these forums actually do MMA. (There was one guy, JBrasewell, but I haven’t seen him around in a while.) Most are just guys with a nice hobby and active fantasy life.[/quote]

I’ll second all that. One other guy, Marvin Smiley, also actively competes. Everyone else simply has experience training in some small area of MMA that I know of.

23

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
There is a HUGE difference between “doing” MMA and merely taking classes. With the former, MMA and training is your life. If you run out of money, you don’t take time off. You starve, you sleep in your car, you do whatever it takes to keep training. With the latter, it’s a hobby - nothing more, nothing less.

[/quote]

You’re kidding about all of this bullshit right?

I don’t know any fighter who would let their kids starve or go broke just because MMA is “their life”. That is just retarded, man.

Most people that I’ve been around who’ve actually fought also have a job on the side. They are in the cages, the rings, or wherever but they also have jobs and families to take care of. Matter of fact, I bet just about every fighter in the lower divisions also have a job that they would not quit unless they knew for sure they’d be signing a big contract. Does this mean that they aren’t “doing MMA” and it’s just a hobby? I think they’re doing both. The guy you mentioned, JBradwell or whatever also works as a teacher if I recall correctly. Again, I hope you’re joking. Sort of like it’s funny to laugh about bodybuilders living in their cars, right?

I assume your comment about taking off for school was about my post on here not long ago. I guess I should quit school, get a job as a pizza delivery guy or cab driver so that I’ll still have time to train and not have anything get in the way of recovery, all so that I can make MMA my life? Just like professor x should quit his job as a military doctor to make sure bodybuilding is his “life” (sorry to bring you up Proffesor X, just figured you’re someone on here that most would recognize)?

True, there are few, if any MMA fighters on this board who have actually been in the cage YET. Myself, I train in a combination of martial arts (bjj, muay thai, and recently judo) and sometimes spar in MMA.

I haven’t fought yet but I’m pretty new to the sport and would rather not have my head split open until I learn a few things. I do consider it a hobby but I also consider myself as TRAINING FOR MMA. Once I fight, if ever, then I’ll say that I’m doing MMA and that it’s also my hobby.

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[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Sifu wrote:
Beware of the guys you take advice from because there are some real boneheads on this board, whose only martial arts knowledge is swilling beer while watching TUF on spike.

This is a great point. I often hear guys say they “do MMA.” As I read their other posts, they really “do” some combination of the following: jiu jitsu classes when they “have time,” watch the UFC, and starfuck Fedor and other stars. Every once in a while you’ll have a guy who takes classes relatively consistenly - until, of course, school or something else gets in the way.

There is a HUGE difference between “doing” MMA and merely taking classes. With the former, MMA and training is your life. If you run out of money, you don’t take time off. You starve, you sleep in your car, you do whatever it takes to keep training. With the latter, it’s a hobby - nothing more, nothing less.

Of course, next week someone will post something and the usual suspects will tell everyone that they do MMA, and that the OP needs to read Chad Waterbury’s article. (Which is really funny, since if those guys really did MMA, they’d know of a lot more guys in the game than Waterbury, and they wouldn’t need to cite to the same single article over-and-over again.)

Long story short: Few people in these forums actually do MMA. (There was one guy, JBrasewell, but I haven’t seen him around in a while.) Most are just guys with a nice hobby and active fantasy life.[/quote]

So only people who “live” MMA are equipped to dispense advice on the subject?

Starving and living in a van sound romantic, but a lot of MMA hobbyist have wives and families and simply don’t have the luxury of starving for their art, so they’re forced to make a living and schedule training where they can.

I guess I’m not clear on the point you’re trying to make.

25

Damn Donut62, I was just starting to like you. haha :slight_smile:

To the original poster, do whatever you can until you can find a gym where MMA fighters train.

I would suggest a boxing gym and doing a few amateur bouts. Keep wrestling also. That’ll help you out tons for when you can find an MMA oriented gym.

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[quote]jonny40 wrote:
Hey, I was wondering how some of you MMA guys got your start. I really would like to learn the sport. I’m not doing it because I’m some UFC wannabe, I probably wouldn’t even compete. I would just like to learn and add a new aspect to my usual weight training. I have an amateur wrestling background, the problem is because of my location, the only place I know where to go is a local boxing club. Any suggestions are appreciated.[/quote]

If you’ve already got a background in wrestling, and you start training at that boxing gym, that will make you a … mixed martial artist. sure other things might help your competetive game if you decide to compete, but as far as wiping the floor with some asshole that attacks you, boxing and wrestling are an incredible combination. plus boxing gyms are typically very cheap to train at.

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[quote]carter12 wrote:
Damn Donut62, I was just starting to like you. haha :slight_smile:

I would suggest a boxing gym and doing a few amateur bouts. Keep wrestling also. That’ll help you out tons for when you can find an MMA oriented gym. [/quote]

To be honest, I was just talking about the part that only a few people on here actually compete in MMA professionally and it would be wise to seek them out. The sleeping in a car stuff is all crazy, everyone I know who competes has a job to pay for their normal life.

Word to the boxing. Perhaps I’m prejudiced, but theres just something about boxing that makes me happy inside.

28

Originally the whole idea of eclectic or mixed martial arts was to make better martial artists out of martial artists.

UFC originally was meant to be a testing ground where we found out what really works and what is impractical.

Unfortunately what I see developing today is a throw the baby out with the bath water mentality. People are saying throw out the martial arts. All you need to do is take two sports combine them together and now you have a martial art.

I don’t want to denegrate boxing but lets regain our perspective here. Who in the real world walks around with their hands taped and with boxing gloves on?

On TUF when Diego fought Koschek (spelling?) there was an excellent example of the limitations of taking a sportsman whose sport has conditioned him to not be striking out of holds (because he’d get disqualified) going up against a true martial artist, who isn’t doing sport, who knows how to strike out of holds.

One thing I really don’t like that I am seeing in ufc is a loss of understanding of martial arts technique and principles. The Fight between Franklin and Silva was a good example of this. After that fight I am now convinced more than ever, that what has gotten Franklin where he is not so much skill but more he is just a tough SOB. There is only so much you can do to teach tough. It’s not so much a skill to pass on to future generations as much it is personal character.

Silva obviously had a much better understanding of the martial arts concept of centering (Dan Tien)than Franklin. Because Silva took control of Franklin’s and didn’t let him get it back. Silva let him lose once and Franklin walked right back into it. Franklin did finally start to get his center back, at one point though. That was when you saw Silva throw him right across the ring. Silva did that not just because he could, but because he had to in order to keep control of Franklins center.

With a little more martial arts background Fraklin might not have looked so lost as to what was happening to him.

My point in all this, don’t be afraid to go learn an actual martial art as part of your mixed martial arts training. Learning martial arts can help to make you a better mixed martial artist.

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[quote]FrontFaceLock wrote:
So only people who “live” MMA are equipped to dispense advice on the subject? [/quote]

I don’t ask the virgin who has watched a lot of porn for sex tips. I also don’t care about the opinion of someone who has never been “locked” in a cage or ring and had someone across from him try to take his head off.

Unless you’ve experienced the feeling of having no where to run except towards someone who wants to knock you out, you don’t know shit about what fighting (organized or on the streets) is really like.

30

[quote]carter12 wrote:
Matter of fact, I bet just about every fighter in the lower divisions also have a job that they would not quit unless they knew for sure they’d be signing a big contract. Does this mean that they aren’t “doing MMA” and it’s just a hobby? [/quote]

No. I never said the person who has a side job isn’t “doing MMA.” Re-read my post. My point was simple: Unless you’re stepping into a ring/cage/whatever, you are not doing MMA.

Yep. And he has actually fought. You can find his fight stats on Sherdog. He, most emphatically, is doing MMA.

I don’t know your situation. But if you are taking significant time off from training, then I would doubt your dedication. Yes, people are busy, but if you’re not training but are watching TV, playing video games, and dating, then you are not dedicated. If you are so busy that you literally do nothing but work and go to school, then obviously you are in a different position than the person who say he does not have the time to train, but who does have a lot of time to fuck around.

I know.

Sounds like a great workout and productive hobby.

Then you are not doing MMA.

Once you’re locked in a cage with someone who is coming at you like he wants to kill you, you’ll understand the difference between MMA as a hobby, and MMA as a lifestyle.

31

[quote]Sifu wrote:
I don’t want to denegrate boxing but lets regain our perspective here. Who in the real world walks around with their hands taped and with boxing gloves on? [/quote]

LMAO. I boxed inside a ring, and I fought in many street fights. Boxing has a significnat carryover to street fighting. If you’re arguing otherwise, then you’re just silly (or a poser who has never been in an actual fight).

Unless a grappler is REALLY good, he will be beaten by most boxers. Why? Because most guys can’t take a hard shot to the face. Unless you’re super good at closing the distance, a boxer will hit you very hard before the fight goes to the ground.

Most guys think if they take a few BJJ classes, they’ll be like Royce Gracie. But it takes MANY years for someone studying BJJ to effectively fight off a boxer.

Notice that the “Gracies in Action” series has guys who have been studying BJJ for DECADES taking on the boxers. If you’re Royler or Royce Gracie, then you’ll have no trouble with even a great boxer.

I would love to do the following: Hold a NHB contest with people who have been studying BJJ for one year, and people who have been boxing for a year. I am confident the boxers would win 90% of the fights.

OF course, the best at BJJ will beat the best boxers. This is not controversial. But if you’re less than a brown belt in BJJ, the odds of winning against a good boxer are not so favorable.

32

Just a couple things. JBraswell is a real fighter for sure. But others of us on here have trained with real fighters for full on MMA and have gone so far as to walk out to the UFC cage and Pride ring with them. Not that the walking out means anything but I am saying I’ve seen every bit of training and trained with them, seen what it’s like back stage warming up and waiting, weighing in and all the stuff a lot of people dont’ realize goes on. Not everyone here is ignorant. The sport has some new ignorant blood because of a rise in UFC popularity. But there are some legitamate guys here. I know there are a lot of great trainers not on t-mag and a lot of guys here worship the T-Nation crew as gospel, but Chad’s article on mma wasn’t bad. I didn’t agree with all of it but I agreed with a good bit, especially for guys who are not pros. Pros don’t come here for advice much. Adam Singer posts here once in a while. When he disagrees with some article here, he doesnt’ go off on it, he just chooses not to use the info.

I do agree boxing has significant ‘street’ carryover. It has excellent carryover in my experience. I disagree that 1 yr boxing beats 1 yr bjj. It’s too general a statement. In addition, boxing, or just punching is something that is much more natural to people. If someone is unfamiliar with bjj they will usually have a hard time dealing with it.

But there are too many variables to say anyway. Are the bjj and boxing coaches are equally experts, how is the training arranged, and sparring partners? All that stuff weighs in on development. It takes many years to get good at using BJJ on other bjj guys, top notch grapplers from other systems and boxer/strikers with some takedown defense training, that’s true. But out of the gate, against just a brawler, bjj is useful after 6 months to a year if taught right. Many other systems are not effective against a brawler who comes on crazy. Even if you box you can get caught by such a guy if you’ve done it for just a year and he is a bit bigger/faster naturally. Also, Royce Gracie is not BJJ. He is one BJJ guy. BJJ has many practitioners, the top team, other Gracie camps like Renzo or Gracie Barra, Alliance, all the american camps such as SBG, Bravo and Laimon. Even different guys from the same camp will have a lot of diversity in their styles. BJJ is not just about pulling gaurd. It is about the clinch, takedown and the mount. George St. Pierre was a purple belt until very recently. Many tough MMA guys are purple belts (or less than Brown) Diaz and Shields fought before they had brown belts. And many others. Rory did well before he got the brown belt. There are pretty good dues with less than a brown belt. Good academies don’t just hand them out.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Sifu wrote:
I don’t want to denegrate boxing but lets regain our perspective here. Who in the real world walks around with their hands taped and with boxing gloves on?

LMAO. I boxed inside a ring, and I fought in many street fights. Boxing has a significnat carryover to street fighting. If you’re arguing otherwise, then you’re just silly (or a poser who has never been in an actual fight).

Unless a grappler is REALLY good, he will be beaten by most boxers. Why? Because most guys can’t take a hard shot to the face. Unless you’re super good at closing the distance, a boxer will hit you very hard before the fight goes to the ground.

Most guys think if they take a few BJJ classes, they’ll be like Royce Gracie. But it takes MANY years for someone studying BJJ to effectively fight off a boxer.

Notice that the “Gracies in Action” series has guys who have been studying BJJ for DECADES taking on the boxers. If you’re Royler or Royce Gracie, then you’ll have no trouble with even a great boxer.

I would love to do the following: Hold a NHB contest with people who have been studying BJJ for one year, and people who have been boxing for a year. I am confident the boxers would win 90% of the fights.

OF course, the best at BJJ will beat the best boxers. This is not controversial. But if you’re less than a brown belt in BJJ, the odds of winning against a good boxer are not so favorable.[/quote]

33

[quote]Scrappy wrote:
takedown defense training, that’s true. But out of the gate, against just a brawler, bjj is useful after 6months to a year if taught right.[/quote]

I think we agree about more than we disagree. Though here’s the problem: If you’ve only been doing BJJ for six months, you likely haven’t had to take a really hard punch to the face or body. A lot of guys never get over the “shell shock” a good punch causes.

A person can be trained to take a punch, and being able to take a good shot is nothing special. But, like anything else, it requires training. Most bjj white belts aren’t getting that.

So will a white belt be able to close the distance and do a takedown without taking a shot? (Add adrenaline into the equation.) I’m doubtful - at least based on the guys I’ve seen.

Bottom line: Unless a person has taken a really solid punch, he’s not “street worthy” - no matter what kind of martial art he is taking.

NOTHING except getting hit so hard that your head or ribs hurt the next day prepares you for taking a shot. If you’re not prepared to take a punch, you will not last long in a street fight.

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[quote]Scrappy wrote:
But others of us on here have trained with real fighters for full on MMA and have gone so far as to walk out to the UFC cage and Pride ring with them. [/quote]

That’s obviously a different animal from someone who trains a little bit and then says he is “doing MMA.”

Still, just because someone spars with a champion doesn’t mean he’s a boxer/fighter. A boxer actually steps into the ring. Stepping into the ring offers a much different perspective than just sparring.

When you step into the ring, you realize that one training fuck-up might mean you’re going to get hurt. Unlike in practice, there is no tomorrow. You win or lose based on what you’ve done to prep for the fight. It’s not a hobby or pastime anymore.

When you practice, there’s not that feeling. If you tap out, you can always get the guy on the next time. If you get gassed, then just train harder. There will be a next time. Not so in a real fight. If you lose, you might never get another fight. You lose money. ETc.

So the guys who always practice have a different view than the guys having people try to “kill” them do. Heck, to use an analogy: Boxing trainers often warn boxers not to spar too much as you get the “sparring mentality” - which means you lose the visceral urge to take the head off of the guy in front of you. So there’s a big difference between sparring/training and getting into the ring.

Personally, I don’t why so many guys have to exaggerate what they’re doing. Regularly training in any martial art is an admirable thing. There’s no need to dress it up.

35

lmfao @ having to have fought professionally to be a “MMAer”. yeah i guess the past ten years of my life that i’ve spent in vale tudo, muay thai, greco roman, judo, and boxing don’t mean shit because some clowm on the internet said so.

and pure wrestler beats pure boxer 95 out of 100 times.

36

California Law, Although I haven’t commented on the various things I’ve seen you write I have been reading your posts.

Quiete frankly I find your posts to be extremely egotistical and some of the things you say to be completely over the top.

Since this is the internet we have little way of knowing wether you are a pimply faced fifteen year old or a grown man. The lack of humility that you display certainly has me wondering.

The standards that you set for someones advice to be acceptable very few people meet. For example if someone hasn’t been in ten street fights they don’t have anything to teach about fighting. I have news for you this isn’t the 1950’s.

My last real fight I was in an after hours in Detroit where it was nothing but G’s, thier stripper girlfreinds and guns. Long story short I started a fight with with a dealer, got jumped by one of his boys and had four more of his boys guys pull guns out ready to shoot me. If I never get into another real fight again it will be too soon.

My teacher who prepared me well for that fight didn’t have any cage fight experience. All he had was tournaments, the dojo and 20 years as a cop. His advice on gunfights saved my life when I was in my first drive by. Yet I don’t know if he had ever been in a driveby. In fact he only ever told me about one fire fight that he had been in.

Anyhow, my advice to you California Law would be to check your ego. In fact I have a good story to illustrate my point.

One of the very toughest fighters I know is a vietnam vet who lives eats and breaths training. He spends plenty of time lifting, hitting heavy bags or makiwara and can literally crush concrete with his bare hands. The guy is a true warrior.

Many years ago he walked into the original powerhouse gym in Highland park (a really bad small city inside Detroit) and got lippy with one of the Dabbish brothers (the owners) who promptly grabbed him by the neck and threw him through one of the walls. They get along well now.

The moral of the story. Don’t underestimate people and don’t be too quick to knock someone elses training. Because you might open up a can of whoopass on yourself.

37

I would listen to Sifu.

Sifu, I enjoy your writing style. You may want to consider writing for a site or freelancing.

38

Taking hard shots is a funny thing. I’ve taken them and taken them in BJJ. If you go to BJJ school and your interest is to defend yourself or ‘really’ use it you will do some striking. But when you get hit and your like, wow, that was hard, well, it was hard but it was not in the right spot. When you get hit right, you wake up later.

I think when you go for the clinch it’s hard to get caught clean. Except for Chuck Liddell and other high level guys trained to hit the guy just right as he comes in, and they have sick takedown defense, I mean, how many early ufc’s and such did strikers fail to land in the right spot. Virtually all of them.
We do agree on a lot though. At lease you’re not telling me how Krav and Wing Chun are so lethal they can’t be practiced…I appreciate that.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Scrappy wrote:
takedown defense training, that’s true. But out of the gate, against just a brawler, bjj is useful after 6months to a year if taught right.

I think we agree about more than we disagree. Though here’s the problem: If you’ve only been doing BJJ for six months, you likely haven’t had to take a really hard punch to the face or body. A lot of guys never get over the “shell shock” a good punch causes.

A person can be trained to take a punch, and being able to take a good shot is nothing special. But, like anything else, it requires training. Most bjj white belts aren’t getting that.

So will a white belt be able to close the distance and do a takedown without taking a shot? (Add adrenaline into the equation.) I’m doubtful - at least based on the guys I’ve seen.

Bottom line: Unless a person has taken a really solid punch, he’s not “street worthy” - no matter what kind of martial art he is taking.

NOTHING except getting hit so hard that your head or ribs hurt the next day prepares you for taking a shot. If you’re not prepared to take a punch, you will not last long in a street fight.[/quote]

39

I don’t know. When getting ready they spar pretty hard. There is no money on the line but there are serious injuries for mistakes made. These are pride and ufc guys. No I haven’t gone into the ring, but I’ve trained hard with the best of them. And walking into the ring there is a tomorrow, there is another chance.

It’s high stakes, but it ain’t life/death. It’s got a ref. I agree the way most people spar kills the visceral urge to knock a block off. That’s why we do real fights. how do you get ready for a fight?

Team Miletich has pretty much a full on UFC once a week sometimes. Do you think the guys who do that but have yet to get in the ring don’t have real experience? I don’t think I’ve ever exagerated what I’m doing. I love gi bjj, I like no gi grappling and I like MMA.

I train all of them and have trained hard in all of them with some of the best competitors in the world. I’ve also seen UFC/pride stars punked by dudes in training. Dudes who do not compete. I think the club you train at is important. I really think we have guys who’ve not been in UFC/pride that could be ready in 6 weeks to get in and give a good fight.

But it’s just their ‘hobby’. What about guys who do get in the ring? I know plenty of boxers/mma guys who get in the ring, albeit not at ufc/pride level and they suck. They totally suck. I’ve seen them get completely dominated in training by a lot of guys in the school but they want to fight so they fight in the ring.

Some guys don’t choose that cuase they have a decent job or some actually dont like to beat on people. They like to train. It’s rare but there are guys training at mma/bjj schools who never compete who can destroy famous ufc/pride guys in training. I’ve seen it.
And the pro isn’t going light.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Scrappy wrote:
But others of us on here have trained with real fighters for full on MMA and have gone so far as to walk out to the UFC cage and Pride ring with them.

That’s obviously a different animal from someone who trains a little bit and then says he is “doing MMA.”

Still, just because someone spars with a champion doesn’t mean he’s a boxer/fighter. A boxer actually steps into the ring. Stepping into the ring offers a much different perspective than just sparring.

When you step into the ring, you realize that one training fuck-up might mean you’re going to get hurt. Unlike in practice, there is no tomorrow. You win or lose based on what you’ve done to prep for the fight. It’s not a hobby or pastime anymore.

When you practice, there’s not that feeling. If you tap out, you can always get the guy on the next time. If you get gassed, then just train harder. There will be a next time. Not so in a real fight. If you lose, you might never get another fight. You lose money. ETc.

So the guys who always practice have a different view than the guys having people try to “kill” them do. Heck, to use an analogy: Boxing trainers often warn boxers not to spar too much as you get the “sparring mentality” - which means you lose the visceral urge to take the head off of the guy in front of you. So there’s a big difference between sparring/training and getting into the ring.

Personally, I don’t why so many guys have to exaggerate what they’re doing. Regularly training in any martial art is an admirable thing. There’s no need to dress it up.[/quote]

40

Thanks for the compliment I really appreciate it.

I think Scrappy raises some good points. There are some people who you don’t see in pride or ufc who are every bit as dedicated to their training as some pro’s. It’s just not their thing to go into competitions.

There are martial artists out there who noone knows who are down in a basement somewhere training their ass off. Guys who are not going out and getting into altercations because it’s just not cool to do that. Guys who if you come up against one can show you a whole other level that you didn’t realize people were capable of. There’s not a lot of guys like that but they are out there.

I do appreciate where California law is coming from in what he says and I don’t mean to denegrate what he says, but he is going way over the top with some of his ideas.

Because I do watch ufc and my hat is off to those guys they are tough, real tough. But I am not at all impressed by the skill levels I see in the stand up of just about everyone but Chuck Liddell and Georges St Pierre. Those two actually get me excited watching them.

Notable mention also goes to Fedor I am really impressed by his grappling abilities. He looks to be a heavy hitter also, but wow what instincts he displays as a grappler. The reason why I watch fights is because I’m part Irish and I love a good fight, but also because I want to learn something that I don’t already know.

I found a sambo match between Fedor and Alexander on google. It wasn’t a pride death match but it was a great display of the technical side grappling I can actually learn something from watching.

I don’t see a lot of technicians in UFC. Silva v Franklin showed what happens when someone brings technique to the game and the other guy can’t quite get it figured out. Franklin was bigger and stronger but he got a martial arts lesson.

On a side note Randy Couture’s commentary had me laughing when he talked about angles, because just after that Franklin charged straight at Silva and Silva ran straight backwards. My teacher is a master of angle fighting and those guys were not angling.

In-fighting styles like Wing chun kung fu or Isshinryu are all about angles. We both use the concept of get your foot in the door and leave it there. In-fighting styles don’t close range then run back away like Tae Kwon Do. We close range and stay there right at the edge of trapping grappling range.

Now the the trick to staying that close is angling, pivoting or break focus. I always wonder why so many ufc fighters are allowing their opponents to come in, in a wrestelers crouch and take them down, when they could have angled or pivoted off to a side while dropping a hook to the temple or jaw at the same time.

Another thing I wonder why more guys don’t do is grab the back of the other guys head as he comes in and guide him into their knee like Diego did to Koschek in TUF. Did you see the bruise that left in the middle of his forehead? That’s the kind of blow that can kill someone or leave them a little bit slow for the rest of their life. That was a world class wrestler getting a martial arts lesson.

There really is a lack of technical skills in a lot of pros. A lot of it is just who is the bigger hardass. That is why I can believe Scrappy when he says he has seen hobbyists own some pro’s. It’s because they’re better technicians. I think one reason why they don’t go into the pro’s is they realize there are some guys who are really hard and also have the technical side down well enough to be a real problem. So they do something else. Besides you aren’t going to be a pro fighter forever and you will pay a price in your health that over time will reduce you to a has been as a fighter.