In case you have not noticed i am a huge fan of MMA ( mixed martial arts or as many know it as the UFC) I am also a big fan of farts, midgets, Pez Dispensers, hip-hop, weird indie rock and confetti. My mom told me she dropped me a couple times as a child explaining my OCDness towards all of the forementioned activities.
Anyways, MMA is by far my favorite sport, although many people may find it violent and extreme for their tastes, i find it beautiful, pure and the greatest sport in the world. I will save my usual diatribe for a later date. Below is a except from a cool article about the psychology of being a fighter
Blood and guts
When the UFC’s top two welterweights, champion Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch tangled at UFC 87, physicality was on graphic display. The mental toughness of both men held the fight together.
Fitch, known as a “grinder,” expected to take to the champion like a pickaxe, break him mentally and expose a perceived weakness in the French-Canadian that had been brought to the forefront in his monumental upset loss to Matt Serra in 2007. Instead, “Rush” beat the challenger’s eye shut under purple and red swelling. Still, he could not break Fitch mentally.
“Jon, this is what I was talking to you about Jon!” yelled Fitch’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, Dave Camarillo, between the first and second rounds. “The sacrifice — you gotta keep pushing buddy. This is what we were talking about.”
As cutman Leon Tabbs worked on his face, Fitch heeded the words of his trainers. That, in part, carried him through the next four rounds.
“Hey!” screamed cornerman “Crazy” Bob Cook. “I want no f–king kicking, alright? I want g–damn head movement, and I want you to get after him, OK?”
“You gotta push Jon. Let’s do it,” added Camarillo.
One man challenged Fitch; the other encouraged. The manner in which the two revered American Kickboxing Academy trainers approached Fitch revealed the balancing act that exists between teacher and student in MMA. All stages of competition can be damaging — the training, the fight itself and the aftermath. For a fighter of Fitch’s caliber, defeat can be a difficult pill to swallow.
“If [American Kickboxing Academy is] going to take a loss, I’d rather do it early in someone’s career before they’re in the TV spotlight and all that,” Cook said. “It’s easier to recover from and forget about at that point. Obviously, every fight is the most important fight of your career.”
Read the rest of the article here.
True warriors and my hat tips to them.
Have a good day!
Posted by jyag 
