Interviewing Veterans with a Vision

Hey guys,

Maybe a bit of a weird thread, but I got an idea this noon.
I got a load of questions for you veterans out here. I wanna know your guys opinion on some topics, and hoped to get these gems of your mind collected in an interview, so everybody can see them in a compact thread.

Are some of you willing to do an interview about yourself as a martial artist/boxer/wrestler/how-you-call-yourself?

As a few “requirements” for MA’s I really wanna interview:

  1. you have at least 10 years of experience
  2. the more competition you did/do, the better, but don’t sweat it too much
  3. you have a strong, no nonsense philosophy on martial arts that you are wiling to share with us

The questions will be semi-professional: no questions about where you are from, what your real name is or anything like that (however feel free to tell if you want to). Questions about your experience, accolades, opinion, etc. might be asked.

Some guys who come to mind I would like to interview are Sentoguy, londonboxer, donniedarkoi, fightingirish and Alpha.

I hope to hear from you guys who are wanting to share their vision with us!

I swear I called it “veterans with a vision”, it is even called that way in the URL!

I don’t think I qualify as a veteran yet, but ok.

I understood you were very experienced and knowledgeable. Seems like a green light to me

My 2 cents: those are good choices to interview based on my reading of this forum over the last three years. Irish has been here for ages, and is a journo himself I believe. Correct?

What exactly is this project on behalf of? Just to consolidate their wisdom?

I look forward to the final piece.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
I understood you were very experienced and knowledgeable. Seems like a green light to me[/quote]
Well if I can be of any help, fire away.

@pigeonkak

I totally forgot about you! I need to pick your brains to soon!

The purpose of this little project is coming from 2 things basically:

  1. Most fighters interviews I’ve seen are not really…eloquent… There is a lot to be said heard about martial arts, so I hoped I could learn more here from more wordy fighters.
  2. There are so many knowledgeable guys here. And snippets of their wisdom are all over these forums. The interviews are for making more compact documents with their ideas and experience in it, avaible for everyone.

Donny, great! This surely aren’t all the questions I wanna ask, but we gotta start somewhere. Here we go:

  1. In what martial arts/combat sports do you have experience? How many years, how frequent did you train?
  2. Do you have any fights, and if yes, what is your record?
  3. What are your top 3 favorite fighters ever? More important, why did you choose them?
  4. If you could only use 5 techniques the rest of your fighting carreer (if you have one), what would they be? Would this list change when self defence was the main goal? Why did you choose these?
  5. If you could give a few pieces of advice to young guns, what would they be? As an example, maybe give one piece of life advice and one piece of fighting advice.
  6. What is your biggest pet peeve?
  7. How do you like to design a training session? What part conditioning, what part technique, what part sparring?
  8. What are your favorite drills for different skills. I understood you were a boxer, so what do you like for learning shot selection, pacing, distance management, speed, etc.?
  9. What is you stance on sparring? What do you think of the variables intensity of contact, frequency, protective gear, health
  10. How do like to design a training block (turning up fighting intesity closer towards a fight maybe)?

That;s a decent start I think

[quote]Panopticum wrote:

  1. In what martial arts/combat sports do you have experience? How many years, how frequent did you train?
    [/quote]

At Eight I started Kyokushin Karate and in Judo.
At Eleven I began boxing, which is my martial art of choice.

During my teens I dabbled in Muay Thai and kickboxing as a supplement to my boxing.
At 19/20 I began Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and some wrestling.
I had couple of Vale Tudo style fights at around this age.

At 20 I turned professional in boxing.
Boxing had always been my priority, but at this point it eliminated training in the others.

The only sport I maintained somewhat was BJJ, which I find therapeutic and great for flexibility. Also, my former house mate and close friend is a black belt, who allowed me a lot of help and assistance.

All in all I have enjoyed 16 years of training and competition.

As regards frequency. It is very unusual that I will go a day without some sort of training.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
2. Do you have any fights, and if yes, what is your record?
[/quote]

I think the cumulative total is 125 wins 8 losses 2 draws.
Wins are not significant. I have eight losses on my record. Those are significant. Those are the memories that I reflect upon daily.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
3. What are your top 3 favourite fighters ever? More important, why did you choose them?
[/quote]
I find this very difficult to answer, my tastes change regularly.
Experience has taught me to be more critical of my heroes, more discerning of prospects.
There is no perfect fighter, but their imperfections are what really endear them to us.

Muhammad Ali
History has made him a legend and time will make him a myth; a myth that could very well keep the sport alive. Its not about his ability or achievements, its about his psychology, his soul; his Tao as Ive heard it described.

Georges St. Pierre
Ive followed him from quite early in his career. Hes a nice guy and whatever, but thats not really the draw. I actually draw many parallels with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Athletes that arrive in terrific condition and maintain a healthy lifestyle in interim periods. Not the most powerful or the most physical competitors they succeed by the execution of a carefully formulated and perfectly executed game plan. Sometimes even at the risk of negating the action of a fight. I respect that. Where he differs from FMJ is in maintaining an air of respect, tranquility and concentration. The martial artist, always ready to learn.

Dan Gable
The thirst for success, the unusually high standards to set for ones self, the relentlessness. The relentlessness.
This is what I aspire to be. Karelin could be an equal or greater, but he is not as accessible.

On any given day you can ask me this question and almost always it will be different. But I think this illustrates what I find inspirational. At least, I hope it does.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
4. If you could only use 5 techniques the rest of your fighting career (if you have one), what would they be?
Would this list change when self defense was the main goal?
Why did you choose these?[/quote]
Five Techniques;
Movement, Defense, Countering, Clinching and Feinting.
Self-preservation is the most important skill for any fighter.
Stay conscious, stay in the fight. Make him miss and capitalise on his mistakes.

Self defense has nothing to do with combat for me. As highlighted in Idahos two excellent threads*, the priority is maintaining safety and the safety of those you are responsible for. Fighting techniques are a last resort, its more about strategy and situation control.
I’ve been unfortunate enough to have had to defend my life on two occasions.
The first time I punched back. The second time I used hand immobilisation.
That was fine, I thought I was a superhero laying some guys out, but should it ever happen again, I will run.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
5. If you could give a few pieces of advice to young guns, what would they be? As an example, maybe give one piece of life advice and one piece of fighting advice.
[/quote]
Sports advice;
Martial Arts are a lifestyle. This is not a sport, this is a way of life. This is not about supplements, its about sacrifices.

In Life;
I feel very uncomfortable offering life advice. Im not a bad guy, but Ive made more bad decisions than good ones. I have survived on luck and luck alone. But if I were to offer advice the best I can do is;

Find your passion. In school, in work, in relationships, in sports. If you force yourself to do something that you do not enjoy, you will never achieve success. If you fill your life with pursuits you are passionate about, that’s a life worth living. And you will always find the grit to be successful.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
6. What is your biggest pet peeve?
[/quote]
I really don’t like bullying or discrimination. It fills me with sadness.

I see it happen a lot in gyms; both as a boxer and as a coach. Im not the most compassionate person in the world; In fact I am sadistic when I am in the gym. But real life is hard enough without actively trying to make someone elses harder.

That kid getting bullied is somebody’s little boy or little girl.
That little person is the center of some Mom or Dad’s universe and nobody can ever understand what their life is really like.
Have some consideration, never taunt someone for being different.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
7. How do you like to design a training session? What part conditioning, what part technique, what part sparring?
[/quote]
When I was very young a coach told me; these are lessons, I teach you to box. Its your own responsibility to get in condition, on your own, outside of here. I teach boxing. That has always stuck with me.

I compartmentalise my training.
Strength sessions are for getting strong.
Conditioning sessions are for improving work quality and capacity.

My boxing sessions are for boxing only. I get in and its all technique and sparring.
I waste no time on anything other than priority number one; my improvement as a boxer.

With that being said, Eddie Futch, when being quizzed on cross training has been quoted as having said, Boxing is good training for boxing. Of any parable or philosophy, I have encountered, this is the most true. Nothing can prepare you for competition the way sparring can.

Other than that, I guess my log shows that Im fairly pedantic (or obsessive compulsive) about the way I structure training sessions.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
8. What are your favorite drills for different skills. I understood you were a boxer, so what do you like for learning shot selection, pacing, distance management, speed, etc.?
[/quote]

My short answer - to practice all aspects of combat, sparring is irreplaceable.
It is the only way you can work on and live-test all of the qualities you mentioned.

However, for drills, I like to break them up into; Movement, Defense, Attack and Countering.
I will use a drill working on my weakness in each of these areas.
I will continue to do so until it becomes my strength.
When I began boxing, movement was my only strength. 16 years later it has fallen behind my attack, defense and countering. I will now start working on my movement more.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
9. What is you stance on sparring? What do you think of the variables intensity of contact, frequency, protective gear, health
[/quote]
Sparring is irreplaceable.
But my views on sparring are somewhat hypocritical.

When coaching I like the idea of sparring once or twice a week. This prevents the accumulation of damage, development of bad habits and the development of inhibitions and fearful reactions.

Myself, I like to get some sparring every session.
This means control of intensity is hugely important. You cannot spar at an RPE** above 8 every day without implications on your health and performance.

Sparring is sparring. I cant underline that enough.
Sparring is sparring; not fighting.
It is a dress rehearsal for the actual act and as such should be used as the location for tweaking your technique, working on your weaknesses and actualising your trainers advice and recommendations.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
10. How do like to design a training block (turning up fighting intesity closer towards a fight maybe)?
[/quote]
Modern sports science already instructs us to begin training robustly and taper to meet your sports requirements;
Increase your strength, increase your aerobic capacity.
Develop power and increasing your work-rate.
Express your power over a sustained duration.

This translates into every element of your program. You first develop strength and an aerobic base. You then develop power and anaerobic fitness. Finally, you combine the two and improve your ability to move quickly and forcefully at a sustained rate over a specified period of time.

All while developing your technique, addressing your deficiencies and translating this into your own combat strategy.

**RPE: Rating of perceived exertion; your personal evaluation of a sessions difficulty

*Idaho’s threads;
https://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_boxing_fighting_mma_combat/waco_biker_shootout

https://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_boxing_fighting_mma_combat/knife_attack

You have 115 wins on your record in different combat sports and you still doubt you’re a veteran…speaking about humble.

Thank you very much, this is exactely what I meant. Very elaborate, great.

I really need a day to let it settle. I will be coming back with some questions, but this is an overload of info.

Just as a quick question: What do you think about “technical sparring”, very light sparring like shown below? If will be different for boxing off course, but the concept: not focusing on damage or going hard at all. Focusing on shot selection, control, accury, given eachother opportunities to land. Just technical work.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
You have 115 wins on your record in different combat sports and you still doubt you’re a veteran…speaking about humble.
[/quote]
I’ve grown up in martial arts. The ring is my playgound.
I have not fulfilled my potential.
I sincerely hope my best days are ahead of me.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
Thank you very much, this is exactely what I meant. Very elaborate, great.

I really need a day to let it settle. I will be coming back with some questions, but this is an overload of info.
[/quote]
It’s no trouble. You’ll find the guys on this forum are the most forthcoming with information and personal experience as you will find anywhere.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
Just as a quick question: What do you think about “technical sparring”, very light sparring like shown below? If will be different for boxing off course, but the concept: not focusing on damage or going hard at all. Focusing on shot selection, control, accury, given eachother opportunities to land. Just technical work.
[/quote]
Technical sparring is a massive part of my training.
I very often spar with light welterweights. These guys are fast, but obviously a lot smaller than I am. So we just eliminate power from the equation and I have to get on my toes to chase them and up the speed and workrate.

Sometimes with bigger guys, I just engage and force myself into a situation where nI have to constantly be on the defense.
I think that pressure makes me sharpen considerably.

Technical sparring is huge; and something II find a lot more tasking - and rewarding than sparring with full power.

OK, a few extra:

  1. Any different favorite fighters today?
  2. What is your mental state building up to the fight?
    3 What is your mental state during the fight?
  3. Do you enjoy training with music, or do you prefer silence? If you wanna have some tunes, what genre/artist do you prefer for training?
  4. Over here most martial arts (except japanse, like karate and judo) have a pretty negative stigma: practicioners would be 1) all foreigners or travelers/gypsies 2)criminal and 3)violent 4) lower educated. Do you have a stigma like that where you live?
  5. The given stigma isn’t pure fiction, even most of my trainings buddies are lower educated, and we have a decent amount of foreingers. And besides that, a lot of criminals are indeed involved with combat sports
    What do you believe the relationship is between foreigners, criminalit, lower education and combat sports?

[quote]Panopticum wrote:

  1. Any different favorite fighters today?
    [/quote]
    Last night I watched some Roberto Duran.
    Specifically, his win over Leonard in their first fight.
    He’s definitely Top 10 ATG’s.

Mike McCallum was a guy I paid a lot of attention to recently also.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
2. What is your mental state building up to the fight?
[/quote]
Building up to a fight, I often get nervous a week, two weeks, a month out.
In the minutes and hours before hand I get very relaxed. I often sleep in the dressing room. I have faith in my preparation, so I am confident.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
3 What is your mental state during the fight?
[/quote]
This varies greatly from fight to fight.
I try to focus on the gameplan; remind myself of the strategy and keep technique sharp. At best I execute the gameplan and am looking for opportunities to capitalise. At worst, you feel the pain. If you acknowledge an opponent’s power, you force yourself to change tact.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
4. Do you enjoy training with music, or do you prefer silence? If you wanna have some tunes, what genre/artist do you prefer for training?
[/quote]
I really like training to music, as far as conditioning, bagwork and miscellaneous hitting exercises go. But when focusing on techniques and drills, silence is best. This also applies to sparring.

As far as music, I have ridiculously obscure tastes.
The Foo Fighters are my favourite band, I really like Rap while boxing, Metal or even dubstep when conditioning, Maybe dance or something high tempo while running.
I just firmly believe when I’m sparring I set the rhythm and the tempo.

When I boxed in central Europe for the first time, I found it really disconcerting.
The silence of the crowd was so unsettling. They would politelly applaud when something impressive happened.
I was accustomed to raucous Irish and British crowds. Even if you are the away fighter, you feel the spirit from the crowd, it is heartening.
It’s an eerie feeling to be in a room of a few thousand people and being able to hear your gloves pounding another man’s flesh.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
5. Over here most martial arts (except japanse, like karate and judo) have a pretty negative stigma: practicioners would be 1) all foreigners or travelers/gypsies 2)criminal and 3)violent 4) lower educated. Do you have a stigma like that where you live?
[/quote]
My short answer is yes.
Boxing has and always will be closely associated to the Irish Traveller (gypsy) culture. Muay Thai is often associated with Eastern European immigrants here; who are sometimes feared because of some unfortunate events in the early 00’s.

All in all, combat sports were seen to be the choice of working or lower class individuals. Boxing sometimes is associated with gangsters.
HOWEVER, our success in Olympic, World and European Championships has really caused the country to respect Boxing. Adding Three professional world champs in the last year - who are all clean cut, articulate and accessible has done wonders for the sport.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
6. The given stigma isn’t pure fiction, even most of my trainings buddies are lower educated, and we have a decent amount of foreingers. And besides that, a lot of criminals are indeed involved with combat sports
What do you believe the relationship is between foreigners, criminalit, lower education and combat sports?[/quote]
This is a very interesting topic that is just waiting to be subject to a thesis examining socio economic backgrounds.
It’s simple really.
Combat sports require less equipment than also any other sport. You don not to invest a lot of money to begin.
Only very sparse, basic accommodations are needed to create an adequate training environment.
The sports appeal greatly to young men, involved in physical pursuits, who may not have access to higher education. This means that they will not participate in other sports which are tied heavily to education infrastructures.
How many sports follow the underage, high school, college structure?
Most.
How many working class guys take that route? Less than half?
Combat sports are more accessible to them.

Additionally, guys from working class are generally more “rough and tumble.” I’m not linking them to criminality, I’m just saying they live a grittier life than the wealthy. For them they are much more likely to require combat and self defense training.

What I find truely interesting though is the influence of the working class on the sport itself.
Think about it…
Even though the world has developed and life is easier than days of yore, we still begin training as our forefathers did many many years ago.

Combat sports until recently has used only basic exercises, bodyweight and plyometrics. Cheap basic exercises, which do not require any finances.
You know this is true; the coaches still demand theiir boxers perform long grueling runs, 100’s of bodyweight reps and tough through their sessions.

The nutrition advocated is sparse and basal. No elaborate diets or supplements are implemented. Because the competitors do not have the money to invest this way.

Boxing has its own vernacular. The speech of a boxer is altered. No physically, but in the words he or she will choose. The cliches, the remarks, the observations; all will betray his sport.
Pound for pound, toe the line, out for the count…
Everyday sayings all originating from boxing…
All boxing sayings originating from the lower or working classes.

Boxing is nothing without it’s greatest natural resource.
Rough, tough young guys (and girls) who are willing to fight tooth & nail to improve their quality of life.

I’m no exception.
My Dad is a working man. He worked agriculture, he worked construction, he worked machines. I was raised inn this environment.
Now I have my B.Sc and my M.Sc.
My parents are wonderful people. Great role models.
But Boxing raised me.
Boxing kept me away from alcohol, drugs and gir…
It kept me away from alcohol and drugs.
It gave me a reason to go to college and I met my girlfriend through boxing.

It’s a sport made up of individuals. Everyone’s path is diffferent.
We are all given the opportunity to better ourselves. We make of it what we wiil.

" Over here most martial arts (except Japanese, like karate and judo) have a pretty negative stigma: practitioners would be 1) all foreigners or travelers/gypsies 2)criminal and 3)violent 4) lower educated. Do you have a stigma like that where you live?
6. The given stigma isn’t pure fiction, even most of my training buddies are lower educated, and we have a decent amount of foreigners. And besides that, a lot of criminals are indeed involved with combat sports
What do you believe the relationship is between foreigners, criminal, lower education and combat sports?"

Are you talking about the United States? I find your statement very broad based. I have probably trained in 30 different schools and 25 different military bases in 17 countries. There are all walks of life in training centers ranging from sinners to saints. The clientele, students, followers, (whatever) are the product of the instructor, just like with any business, you allow trash, then you become trash. I once trained for 8 months in one of the worst ghettos in Singapore. Some of the best training I ever got, and the school had extremely courteous students. I was the only non Asian training and the students were so well trained, if they didn’t like my ass, it never came through in training.

Not trying to derail your thread, just curious about your perspective.

[quote]idaho wrote:
There are all walks of life in training centers ranging from sinners to saints.
The clientele, students, followers, (whatever) are the product of the instructor,

I once trained for 8 months in one of the worst ghettos in Singapore. Some of the best training I ever got, and the school had extremely courteous students. I was the only non Asian training and the students were so well trained, if they didn’t like my ass, it never came through in training.
[/quote]

Thats the most wonderful part of training.
The ring and cage are the great equalisers. They transcend race, colour, creed and class.

Guys, you got to learn me how to quote bits of text, it’s really handy.

No, I’m not from the States, I’m from the Netherlands (NL). As a (slight) intro: as I have understood, our educational system is different of the US/UK/Irish people I know. (Yeah, I tried to hit on some Irish chicks in Prague, and figured comparing educational systems was a hot item…).
In NL, almost everyone goes to the same elemtary school for the first 8 years. The only people who don’t (and still go to school) have a certain disablity or are not suitable to fit in ussual schools for another reason.

When you finished that, around age 12, you go to high school. Here we split up. There are 6 levels of education. The lower 4 are for most blue collar jobs. The lowest level is for people who aren’t really capable of learning anything, but aren’t really disabled like having Down Syndrome (not trying to be a dick here!) Then 2 real blue collar educations. Then the 4th level is around average I guess. Not really blue collar, not higher educated. These all take 4 years usually, but there are a lot of people who lose motivation and need an extra year.
All these people study further at what we call “lower job-oriented education”, there is a level corresponding to their high school level.

Then there is the second highest level: pure desk work, and quite some thinking required, but not made ready for acedemic prowess, more pratical in nature. 5 years of high school for them.
They further pursue their education at “higher job oriented education”.

The highest of 6 levels is aimed at academic prowess. Not really practical per se, but aimed at learning the most and being capable of understanding as much as possible.
They continue at university. That term is much more specific than in UK and US.

Most jobs are pretty bound to a level of education. And it’s quite normal, as far as I perceive, to hold certain prejudices and grudges between “classes”. Higher levels look down upon lower levels, mostly powered by the assumptions they are far more inclined to smoke and use drugs, criminality is at far higher rates, there are far more non-western foreigners, etc.
Lower classes see people of higher classes as nerds, snobs and douchebags.

Now you know that, let’s get to the important stuff.

At my kyokushin gym, we had a dichotomy between the socio-economic structure of the classes. The youth classes are mostly mixed. No wonder, you either play football or do karate. The older classes are mostly “in between jobs”, or pursue blue collar jobs. My mom usually labels them as “cheap”, since they show a lot of signs of lower socio economic classes (leopard prints, lower educated, tattoos, scolding, for example). There aren’t that much foreigners tho: it is in a very small agricultural town with only a few foreigners.

At my muay thai gym, there are more foreigners, and also a lot of people who could easily be labeled as “cheap”.

As far as I know by looking up amateur and professional fighters and speaking to other martial artists: in gyms in the cities, the amount of non-western foreigners is much higher.
But well, that’s why I like training. When you’re panting, your grades, level of education, job and parents are futile. I like that. You’re not your khakis.

The argument Donny brings up about cheap accomodation and equipment is a legit one. And that thing about self defence and combat…now you say it. On the dependance of our school where the lower levels were, they had daily fights between higher years. We had a annual hoe-slap by a first grader.

This argument: " This means that they will not participate in other sports which are tied heavily to education infrastructures.
How many sports follow the underage, high school, college structure?
Most.
How many working class guys take that route? Less than half?
Combat sports are more accessible to them." isn’t realy appliable in the Netherlands.
Elemenatary and high school never have sports tied to them. Sports and school are apart, except for 2 hours of some PE every week.
As far as I know, even at uni or job-oriented education, sports aren’t really linked to educational structures. There are some fraternities/sororities that are themed around a sport, but that’s a rarity.

All together: a shit load of info. I will be back with questions!

Do you maybe have an explanation for punching power?

Everybody and their mum knows about weight transfer, leverage, speed, clean technique and that jazz, but there seems to be some serious voodoo about it.
I saw a lot of skinny guys scoring brutal knockouts with relaxed (almost mellow), not-that-tidy technique.
Since I’m a long time reader of Jack slack, the whole idea of creating collisions instead of forcing power shots is pretty ingrained, but still…
Masaake noire, Gerald Mclelan, Tommy Hearns, Max Holloway. They seems to break every rule on knockout punching, and they still hammer people out.

[quote]Panopticum wrote:
Do you maybe have an explanation for punching power?

Everybody and their mum knows about weight transfer, leverage, speed, clean technique and that jazz, but there seems to be some serious voodoo about it.
I saw a lot of skinny guys scoring brutal knockouts with relaxed (almost mellow), not-that-tidy technique.
Since I’m a long time reader of Jack slack, the whole idea of creating collisions instead of forcing power shots is pretty ingrained, but still…
Masaake noire, Gerald Mclelan, Tommy Hearns, Max Holloway. They seems to break every rule on knockout punching, and they still hammer people out.[/quote]
Power is strength by speed.
It’s really as simple as that.
If you are very very strong you can knock a guy out.
If you can move very quickly you dont need quite as much strength to generate force.

You used some interesting examples.
Particularly in terms of your boxers; McClellan and Hearns.
For me they are noteworthy technicians, schooled by one of the toughest schools of all; the Kronk.

These guys may not have been huge physically, but made the most of their advantages in leverage.
This was a specialty of Emmanuel Steward.
Its no coincidence that Hilmer Kenty was his first world champion, a 5’10" lightweight; Hearns was his most notable and he proceeded to handpick fighters like McClellan, Andy Lee, Lennox Lewis and Wlad Klitschko to train;
tall lean guys whose natural levers he could use to generate big knockouts.

Noire is similar; not a huge physical specimen, but an aggressive, speedy and vicious fighter. Again using his advantages in leverage.

(For me Holloway was a red herring, maybe its a limitation in my knowledge, but I just don’t see him as particularly threatening???)

Strength times speed. I didn’t hear that one before. The one I most heared is “speed x weight”. Somehow this makes more sense. If you throw a rock, the weight and speed matter, but what would strength do?
You probabely know it better, but just something that I thought.

Do you think long levers enable punching power?
Even here: I heard the opposite more. I don’t really have an opninion on this. I’ve seen tall and small power punchers. Tall guys however seem for me to have a different way of power. Tall guys look relaxter when knocking people out, smaller guys more explosive.

Well, I think Max is getting dangerous fast. After Mcgregor, he started finishing more. Really like him if he keeps his wits: he has good boxing (relativly in mma!), has grappeling chops and is creative.

Elephant in the room:

Everybody has an opnion on this it seems: What do you think of Mcgregor? Please fire away!