How did you get into MMA?

[MitchMMA]

How did you become a fan of MMA? Here is my story. I'd like to hear yours too.



First I’d like to explain how I got into martial arts and also when I first decided that I wanted to be an MMA fighter. It all started back in Kindergarten, I got bullied a lot and I would come home with a bloody nose and lip pretty much every day. My parents had seen enough and decided that it was time I learned how to defend myself. The closest martial arts school was a place called “Villaris Self Defense Center” and they taught a style called Shaolin Kempo Karate. I didn’t like it too much at first but I was only four years old so I really had no clue what it was.

As I got older I started getting better and better at it and my confidence was going through the roof. The instructors there were amazing and I became very close with some of them, I’d go as for to say they were a second family to me. I was never the brightest tool in the toolbox (lol) and I would forget things pretty quickly but I was determined and I always worked hard even at a young age. By the time I was eleven years old I was getting ready to test for my first degree black belt, I remember being so pumped up for it. It was a four or five (can’t remember exact time) hour test and I was in there with people who were either my age or older, they put us through hell. It was a lot harder than I expected but I made it through and the next day I received my black belt at this huge ceremony and I can remember feeling amazing.

That was my proudest moment and I will never forget it. I trained in SKK since age four until I moved states at age thirteen so that’s nine years. Once I came here to Georgia I didn’t really focus on martial arts much at all for awhile. I was actually a huge pro wrestling fan (been a fan pretty much my whole life on and off) and my dream was to one day become a pro wrestler. What do you do when you want to become a wrestler? Join the high school wrestling team, and that’s what I did. I thought I was going to go in there and dominate everyone but I actually lost every single match I ever had LOL! Granted I only wrestled for three months before they had to cut me for having low grades so I never really got a chance to get better and I always regret not starting it up again once I did get my grades up.

After that I started lifting weights a lot and I gained quite a bit of muscle. I went from weighing 125 pounds to 145 pounds in just six weeks time. I eventually got bored of the body building workouts and searched for something more fun. One of my buddies from the wrestling team I was on, he was a huge fan of MMA. He kept talking about the UFC and I have always heard of the UFC, I actually watched bits and pieces of it when it was on but I never really followed it as much as I do now. Anyway I started watching it more and more and now here I am today absolutely obsessed with it.

   Surprisingly I wasn’t a “hardcore fan” until the year 2006, which is weird because I feel like I have been a fan my whole life. Once pro wrestling started to… well bore the shit out of me, my dream of becoming a wrestler was replaced with another dream. This dream of course was to become the greatest MMA fighter that the world has ever seen, now you may laugh and say “well that’s aiming a bit too high” but I can assure you I am taking it one step at a time and I will not quit until I have accomplished my goal. Back in June I started training at a gym called Triple Boxing, they offer classes in Thai Boxing, Boxing, Kickboxing, and Jiu-Jitsu. It’s a great gym and I wish I could have been there every day but unfortunately I do not drive and my ride is no longer able to get me there so I haven’t been there since September. I have been training at home though and once I move out to Las Vegas I am going to start training more consistently at an MMA gym. For someone who has dreams of fighting in MMA, Vegas is the perfect place to live lol.

Obviously I do realize that with the way the economy is, I am going to need a backup plan. Which means I am going to need a college education, I plan on going to college and getting some sort of degree however I don’t plan on giving up my dream to work some job that I probably won’t even like. You can’t do MMA “part time”, in order to be truly successful you need to devote your life to it and I plan on doing that. Don’t worry though, I’m going to have that backup plan and I’ll play it smart and start focusing more of my time on my school work because that is very important and I do realize that.

So yeah that’s my story. How about you? How did you get into MMA? As a fan, as a practitioner, or both?

[andrewclash]

My story isn't half as long as yours. But it all started when I was a child I was in taekwon do till I was 1 belt away from being a black and then our instructor pretty much bailed on us to go fight in some crazy tournament and was never heard from again. After that I just pretty much didn't do any of that stuff. Until I started to watch the UFC and all my friends finally caught up to me and started to watch it. After I watched the fights I would think man i would love to do make someone tap out and kick someone from a sitting position like when I was in taekwon do.  So at about age 19 I started to look up a few dojos in my area and found out that the Gazee Academy was local. I went in checked them out and started to train there frequently. I started to train in flat boxing kickboxing and also muay thai...and some ju jitsu not enough to be a beast at it. Once I started to go into tournaments with my fighting style it was just more then I could take it. Showing the best amateur fighters in the state. I haven't won many tournaments I'm fairly new to muay thai and ju jitsu.  But every tournament I go to it gets me more and more into mma. I just recently started watching ufc more then I used to to start to pick up on fighting style and as a means on looking at certain fighters and how they fight. Of course i look at the best guys Fedor Silva Couture and even Bos Rutten ( THE KING OF PANCRESE... or however you spell it) I mainly watch ufc now as a means of to learn styles and get familar with how I need to be for tournaments.

And yes Taekwon do did suck balls. It was mainly Defense and kicking.

[Cory]

I just watched Season 1 of TUF, and got hooked.

[TaNK]

Ehh I was bouncing one night, and everybody was telling me this other bouncer that I worked with was a bad mo'fo and a cage fighter. I was like "Bullshit! Tanks the baddest!".. Then he invited me to train with him and I tapped in 10 seconds.. I was hooked.

[Black Death]

well mine is simple ... UFC 1, 2 , 3   Horace Gracie was a beast.  he rip shit up . from there I was hook , I stated learning about the history of gracie family and other fights and fighters .  simple I started at the boom of the american MMA movement

[Duckman]

I've only just got into it in the last couple of years but it's only been in the last 6 months or so that I've started to study the history of the sport and tried to get more knowledge of the best fighters and their styles.

Basically pro wrestling is shit these days.  WWE is just too damn childish for me to put time aside to sit down and watch.  I get bored after five minutes.  There's only been one decent feud in the last 2 or 3 years there that I've cared about.  I'll still watch ROH all the time though.

Anyway I watched bits of the season of TUF when it was Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz as the trainers and then I watched their fight where Tito fucking owned Shamrock.  Since then I've kept up with it a little but it's only really with Brock Lesner going there and the emergence of Anderson Silva that I've got really hooked.

Now I'm going back over all the old Pride events and getting to see the best fights from there.

I've watched the last 4 or 5 UFC events and can't wait for this Saturday and Lesner vs Couture!

That's my story, I'm still a noob to the sport but I'm really getting into it in a big way.

Peace

Duckman

[andrewclash]

Why does everyone have to bring up the shamrock vs tito fights!!!!??? God I hated watching tito win. He is from here but God I hate the little pissant.

[MitchMMA]

Tito isn't such a bad guy IMO. I'm not a big fan of his or anything but at the time I was glad he smashed Ken Shamrock.

I was a big Shamrock fan back when he was pro wrestling but then once I started following MMA religiously I realized how much of an arrogant dick Shamrock really is.

Shamrock doesn't know how to train himself yet along train other fights, "guys we are going to beat the shit out of each other every day up until the fight this way when the fight comes around we will be all banged up and fatigued... I AM KEN SHAMROCK THE ULTIMATE COACH MWAHAHAHA!" LOL!


Shamrock will never win another MMA fight again, these young guys are way too good for him, even the lesser skilled ones will smash him.


I don't usually bash fighters either so when you see me bashing one of them you know it's legit lol.

[andrewclash]

Shamrock in his prime though would destroy everyone and everyone knows it. He's a bit older now and he never really fights anymore.  Hence why he lost to tito which was pretty much the end of his mma career.

[Cory]

lol, Shamrock in his prime was above average at best. Ill say when he was just starting he was making huge upsets, Im pretty sure he beat Bas in Japan. When he was in the UFC, there he would only beat those that he was expected to beat. Anytime someone good came along, they'd crush him. ala Dan Severn and Tito.

[MitchMMA]

no Andrew, I disagree. Shamrock in his prime, was good... but he wasn't anything super special.


Ken is a legend, yes. But to say he would crush everyone in his prime is 100% wrong. Hell, if this was true he would have killed Royce Gracie and everyone else he lost to but that wasn't the case.