Half Caged 1.2 – MMA blog.
I often find it interesting as well as some what irritating that so many
people seek to pretend to be a prize fighter. They will adopt some
living avatar incorporating all of the tid bits that they have observed
from the media and perhaps in real life, they do this as a means of
social and general currency. Whether this makes them feel more secure
in their day to day lives or gives them a false set of confidence I am
uncertain. But what ever the reason these guys give us real fighters a
bad image.
It is a peculiar thing that seems most often reserved for the combat
sports, the more in vogue a sport is and the more guys it has walking
about professing to be a competitor in it. I have often come across
such people whether they tell me directly that they are a ‘fighter’
because they are in training or because they had some obscure sparring
match some where once and this should be considered a ‘pro fight’. And
it is then should they dip their toes into the shark tank of a fight gym
away from the ego feeding posts of social media and the drunken
declarations at a night club, they perform all the more poorly than what
their boasts at first advertised.
This is in no way an aggressive condemnation of such people nor is it
really a written slap down to them it is how ever a tired shake of the
head. In so much that I know personally how hard it is to get to any
levels of regular athletic competition, how hard it is to continuously
ply it, to suffer the pains of injury, to walk the corridors of doubt,
to look past the cheering crowds and to see the ugly emptiness of either
victory or defeat. And it is with such ignorant and arrogant disregard
that they wipe over all of this with their dilution of the sacrifice
and risk, all for the self service of their own egos. All because they
wish to big note themselves among some local faces all because they want
to get laid all because…they are cowards.
In one incidence I was shopping one afternoon and had the pleasure of
listening to some young lads hold a conversation about one of them
having an approaching ‘Cage fight’. No doubt a music festival was coming
up and having just left the local 24 hr gym they were now bloated and
pulsing with what ever course had helped them inflate their show
muscles, so their deluded self worth was very high. One of the guys
said to his friends that his strength training that his PT mate
(apparently combat sport coaching is a two week course of certified bull
shit these days) had him doing was going to improve his ‘ground and
pound’ so much so that he was unsure if he could ‘legally fight.’
I just walked past them my ears both throbbing from the caulis that were
reopened from the previous nights training (something that none of them
would ever hope to know how painful it is to suffer) and because an
aerial turd sandwich whisked by. The thing that got me the most though
was just how easily the others believed the toy ‘fighter’. He was so
secure in his platform of self serving bunk that he knew no one was
going to knock him down from it. Now I know that if I was with some one
who had more of a hair trigger (ie my brother) then this guy would have
been on the floor with his jaw liquidised. But alas it did not illicit
such a response from me. Just a need to vomit a little stirred my
insides.
This punk was just one in many that uses the hard work and talents of
others to help promote a self delusion-illusion of themselves. Past all
of the cosmetic lifting that they do, the generic tattoos and the lies
to women that they pull to ‘get some.’ In the end they are scared.
They are scared of the truths and realities that one finds inside of
that arena. Not just the actual cage itself but the process one goes
into getting there.
To those who say to me that they want to be a fighter. Please do not
tell me. Walk it day to day. Show me it. No matter how loud your
proclamations of future glories may be, it is in your silent effort that
leads to this that I am interested in. It is not the clever slander
that you throw around about those who are doing, but it is in the litres
of sweat that fall with humble exertion that takes you far. And most
of all it is not the creation of a persona that you think matters. It
is simply what you do and have done that does.
Being a fighter especially by profession is not something you hold on to
as a sword to wield aggressively at a social occasion, it is not
something you have as a trump card to intimidate others and it most
certainly is not something that you profess well before the fact. I
would never pretend to be an Olympic swimmer just because I like to
splash at waves in the beach waters, I would be deluding myself that,
the realities of a competitive pool and wading in knee high sea water
were much the same. Just as is the difference between fighting an
elite competition differs from play fighting with your mates or getting
into a drunken burst of violence at what ever watering hole you may
happen to pollute. One does not make the other.
I suspect this goes for all things in life. And I suspect that these
sorts lurk in every part of the World both here and and in great distant
pasts. You will always have Beta males attempting to poorly imitate
the Alpha’s so much so that they deceive all others in their appearance
and their mating calls. But it is when the challenge is thrown up. It
is when the drums of battle begin and stop that it matters. That is
when the toys are put down and the weapons of war come out.
Being a fighter is not about looking a part or even acting it. It is
about working hard to that means. It is about being CONSISTENT and
learning your craft with honest intent. Some of the most violent and
dangerous men that I have ever come across wear the most sincere smile,
they dress to blend in, not to stand out. They know nothing about acting
tough and its fashions, they simply know what it is like to be tough
and to get through tough situations. A peacock may be proud of how it
looks and rely solely on its looks, high above soars an eagle or owl
watching unimpressed with talons that will tear feather and flesh to
shreds with ease. Though no doubt saying what I have here in this blog
may have rustled some feathers. So please do not try to walk a path
because it is fashionable but do so because it is who you are, it is
what you are.
And most importantly, this does not go for all but I should hope that it
does for most. When you do attain what ever it is you are looking for
in your training, what ever you learn from the process and who ever you
find in yourself when you enter that arena. Please should you return
again and again conduct yourself with honour and principle. It is a far
greater legacy than what you should ever hope to leave inside any ring
or cage. Though to those who I mentioned above in this rambling I
suspect such words do not exist.
So this rant like blog is not so much an ‘I am’ as opposed to merely
stating to those out there who can read and who are on the cusp of
interest in entering this sport. The best advice I can give to you is
this. Don’t say it. Simply do it. This was in no way directed into the
direction of any one, but is more meant as a general observation. It
is also an opinion of one who has DONE to those who have not. And rest
assured my opinion is for the most part, from what I have ascertained,
shared by those others that have Done about those who have not or who
have perhaps yet to.
Train smart and be well.
HC 1 – MMA Journeyman’s Blog Part 2
Published inCombat Sports and Fighting