Archive for July, 2012
You Don't Have to Beat Everyone
You are starting your fight career and just like every other new fighter you have dreams of being a champion. You dream of emulating your hero?s and, having 30 fights with 30 wins by KO is a good place to start. Putting this pressure on yourself at the outset is not a good start.
The hardest part about getting to 30 -0 is that there are 30 guys who are training to beat you and have the same goals that you have. Each of those guys get better and better as you work your way up the food chain making the task very very difficult. Iin fact there is usually only one fighter in each weight division that gets to a record like that in each five year period.
To take the pressure off it helps to think that you only have to be better than one person. You are only ever in the ring / cage with one person at any one time. When you only have to beat one person it becomes a little more possible. It is in the nature of a fighter that they think (in fact they must think) that they are better than the guy standing across the ring /cage from them.
When you are fighting your first fight you step in to the cage and you have your fight against a guy who wants to destroy you. Many fights later you have made it to your title shot. What has changed – nothing, you step in to the cage and you have a guy across from you who wants to destroy you. The only thing that has changed is that you get a title if you win this fight, however in essence nothing has changed from your first fight. It is all about beating that guy across from you and that is it.
In short when you look at the mountain that you need to climb to become a world champion it can seem impossible. When it is broken down step by step, opponent by opponent it is possible and you can see how it can happen. Remember you don?t have to beat everyone, you only have to beat one person.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
Holiday with a Hiding
You get offered a fight overseas, which sounds great – you get your travel and accommodation all paid for. Then you get to compete and get international experience, so who wouldn?t sign up for that? There is just one catch – no one flys over someone to actually get a win against their home town fighter.
Read between the lines – you are flying over to get your ass whopped. I had an experience where the promoter told me that the opponent had had ten fights, I was keen as anything as I had had five fights and thought I was unbeatable. Turns out I stepped in the ring with a guy that had had twenty six fights, twenty five wins, twenty five knock outs and no one had got out of the second round against him in the last 3 years. I will leave the details of the fight for another day (it isn?t a bad story either). But I was going over there for the experience and they could?ve given me any one I just would not have cared.
Sadly there are people who make a ?living? with these fights, in general they are people that are on a low income and the $2k – $3k they get from a fight can make a big difference. The potential damage that they may get in the fight is well worth the breathing room that the money will give them. These types of fighters are known as ?journey men? and they will fight anyone to get their pay check. Promoters will also call these guys up last minute to fill a spot on their card.
So if you look at the figures, you have a guy that just wants a fight for some money against a guy that is a genuine prospect, bad things can happen. The fighter knows what they are getting in for, most of the time anyway, fighters being fighters will give it a go. The promoters need to look after these guys a little bit as no one wants to see a massacre.
From the promoters point of view they have a good fighter that has beaten all the local fighters. They look overseas for an opponent, they are not going to bring over a wrecking machine that will beat their fighter. This means the promoter is looking for a guy with skill but not enough to trouble their fighter, as everyone wants to see their local fighter get the KO. I remember distinctly when I fought overseas, against the previously mentioned opponent, I walked out to the ring and you could?ve heard a pin drop. The only noise was from the three people in my corner. Then the other guy came out and the crowd was on their feet, I remember thinking ?this is going to be fun? and started to smile.
There are two certainty?s when fighting overseas, you will have a hard fight it will never be easy so turn up ready to go. The other thing is if it goes the distance you have almost no chance to win, to win you have to knock them out. If you have that in mind then there are no problems and it is a great experience. Your trainer will check out the other guy to see if they are worth a shot. I will leave you with this: My hardest fights were all off shore and I loved every minute of them.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor