Make it look easy

Fighters like Andersson Silva and Jon Jones are among the most successful fighters in UFC history (if not the most successful). However, I have never liked them. And I wonder if this this is because they make it look too easy.

Generally speaking, the majority of us struggle to be very good at anything. Whether it be sport, business, school or anything, most people slog away and struggle to gain the skills necessary to be considered ‘good’. We all try to be good at things and if we are lucky in our lives, we might… might get good at a few things. Then even the things we are good at, there is very little chance that we will become great. Regardless of the amount of time and effort we put in, most of us are limited by a little thing called talent. Then there are the precious few that have the motivation, the drive and ability to do their trade at the professional level. Then a very, very select few go on to be a success at the professional level.

Given that most of us struggle, perhaps we enjoy seeing the underdog succeed. This reality may play a part in why the Rocky series is such a success; because all of us who struggle respond to the down-and-out character who then succeeds whether we are conscious of it or not. You can imagine a character who has everything and goes on to win easily would not make for a very good movie and most of us cannot connect to someone like that. This is why I never clicked with Anderson Silva despite being an amazing fighter and boasting an outstanding record. The thing was, though, he would take the piss out of his opponent. He would mock them, laugh at them, and just basically taunt them. This was to get them to attack so Silva could then land his pinpoint counter shots, and more often than not, knock them out. Silva even knocked out an opponent from a heavier weight division with a jab while going backwards; something that I thought was impossible until I saw it with my own eyes. Some people really liked Silva, but the majority of people did not like him (or they just agreed to shut me up).

The same can be said for Jon Jones. Again, one of the most talented fighters in MMA history. He’s only lost fights to himself. One instance saw him throw an illegal shot and was consequently disqualified, and the other came after failing a drug test. Outside of those “losses” the guy is undefeated. He then elevated himself to entire new level of stupidity which involved a hit and run on a pregnant woman while high on cocaine. Hiding under a ring to avoid a drug test. Yet after all that, he came back and knocked out the guy the was keeping his title warm while Jones was being an idiot. The guy that was keeping the title was Daniel Cormier, someone that is blessed athletically, but his fight styles comes across as a grinder – someone who works extremely hard for the success – it does not come easily.

The fighters that are at the top of my all-time great list are people that drag their opponents into deep water and make them suffer. The wins come from a desire to be the best fighter that they can be, their goal is to be one of the all-time greats. As one of them said “you get to the top of the mountain so you can see everyone, not so everyone can see you.” Their goal is legacy, they are not as focussed on fame or fortune.

The two fighters that epitomise this are Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St-Pierre (GSP). Khabib fights to honour his family and culture. Everything he does is to become a better fighter, when he is fighting, he wants to win every second of every round. Yes, Khabib has had some easy fights but he gives it everything, he has to make the fight easy. Khabib just seems to go to places that no one else can go, for me this is about impressive as it gets. GSP, who is very athletic, started off trying to finish fighters quickly, earning him the moniker Georges ‘Rush’ St-Pierre as he seemed in rush to finish the fight. As the quality of opponents increased GSP learned (the hard way) to slow down and be more methodical. This would mean he would take away his opponents’ strength. Using wrestling he would take the strikers down, keep the grapplers standing and dominate the well-rounded fighters with both stand up and ground control. What you saw with GSP was a desire to have the perfect fight, which would never happen, GSP would keep the fight in the area where his opponent was weakest. However, the desire to maintain the control was a thing to behold.

All four fighters mentioned are easily in the top 10 of all time. However, they get there in very different ways. Some people will identify with Silva and Jones with their off the scale talent and highlight reel knockouts. Then others will respond to the smother and destroy approach of GSP and Khabib. As I have never had the ability to be the flashy fighter, the fighters that work the process have always appealed to me and no one works the process better than GSP and Khabib. You know what they are going to do and no one can do a damn thing about it. From talking to people, I am not the only one who likes the blue-collar style of fighting, as that is the level that most of us feel at any given training. We are just working our ass off to either survive or to get the win. Regardless, none of us feel like we are doing it easy and that is why we don’t respond to people that do make it look easy.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor