I feel that many of today’s MMA fighters have the wrong attitude. This can be seen on the popular Spike TV show, The Ultimate Fighter.
Many of these so called fighters come to the house with very prideful and boastful mouths and talk all kinds of trash about how tough and great they are and how they are going to kill the other guy, but when they get into the ring many of these tough guys only have minimal skill level.
Please don’t get me wrong, I understand that trying to hit someone that is trying to hit you back is not the easiest thing to do and many of these guys are very tough and I give them credit for getting in the cage, but who are training these guys? Why do these fighters think they are so great and then go into the cage and look like a person who has only had a few months of training.
I understand that many of these amateur fighters are young and immature but why do many of them act like ignorant fools? Is it really necessary to swear every other word. Maybe the fighters are trying to impress Dana White. You would think that a mature man with Dana Whites intelligence and business accomplishments would present himself in a more professional way especially in public.
These fighters act like freshman college students on spring break not fighters looking to make their big break. Is it really necessary to have alcohol so easily available in the house. I personally enjoy watching the fighters train & compete but fast forward through all of the immature drama at the house and the lame trash talk in the van.
I believe that many of these fighters are scared or have many fears and this is why they act the way they do. Do these fighters really think that acting all tough, getting drunk, tearing up the house, playing stupid jokes or trying to start fights outside of the octagon is impressive in anyway?
Are these the future superstars and professional athletes that we want to look up to? Is this WWE or UFC?
Another thing that really bothers me is the fighters coming to the show out of shape or over weight. Where is the discipline? This is a fighters chance to make a big break into becoming a professional fighter and to earn a six figure UFC contract. Why wouldn’t you prepare to be at your best physically and mentally.
The following is a list of were these fighters are lacking or area’s of improvement.
1. There defense is very poor or non existent.
2. Lack of conditioning
3. Poor mental focus
4. Alcohol addictions/abuse
5. Poor or non existent footwork
6. Lack of combination techniques
7. No power in their strikes ( poor mechanics)
8. Sloppy form and lack of techinque (see 2 & 7)
9. Over confident, big ego’s with not much to back it up.
10. Lack of self control and personal discipline
Popularity: 1%
Bruce Pahl is the owner of Immortal Martial Arts & and Delaware Combat University. He is a certified Full instructor in Jeet Kune Do & Filipino martial arts under Paul Vunak of (PFS). Has a second degree black belt in Shorite Ryu Tai Jutsu under Dr. Christian Harfouche. He has a basic instructor cert. in Combat Ju-Jitsu under GM Michael DePasquale Jr. He earned his Black belt in 1997 in Chinese Kenpo Karate and was inducted into the Action Martial Arts Hall of Fame for excellence in teaching in 2007. He is a certified Battling Ropes® coach under founder John Brookfield, was certified in Circular Strength Training (Clubbells®) under Scott Sonnon, and is a certified instructor in FlexBands & Ultimate SandBag L.I.F.T,2010.
