 |
The topic of campmates fighting each other was recently making the rounds in my group of friends. Opinions were mixed and varied, as you would expect. The impetus for our discussing this was the impending fight that will happen between Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit as they seek to unify the UFC Welterweight Title this fall. Both men train with Greg Jackson's team, among others, so there's a loose affiliation between the two. They've kept their distance from each other, though, so there's no feelings of brotherhood between the two.
Speaking for myself, this is a very dicey topic and one with a lot of conditional factors that make up my final answer. For one, if I were an acquaintance with someone I could absolutely fight them, even if we were on the same team. However, if I was really close with that person, I couldn't.
I could never fight my brother in a MMA fight, or compete in any other activity where the goal is to inflict bodily harm on him. I could play basketball against my brother, but not football. The same goes for any of my friends. That may not be logical, but dealing with feelings never is.
I can totally understand when campmates don't want to fight each other. I can also understand the business side of this topic, though. The matchmakers and other people in charge are tasked with handling business and doing what's right in that regard.
Greg Jackson really pushes the teammate aspect of MMA. He's even gone so far as to say that MMA is a team sport, not an individual one. I disagree with that for one very simple reason: in MMA, as in other individual sports, it's your ass on the line. If GSP loses, no one will say that his trainer was to blame. It's the same when you win, the trainer doesn't get the credit. When Tiger Woods wins a tourney, the majority don't care who his caddie is. When Novak Djokovic wins, no one asks to interview his coach or training partners.
Obviously, no one can ever do anything by themselves, there are always coaches and training partners that support and guide you. However, it ultimately comes down to the individual. When you're in that cage, it's all you. When you win, you get the glory. When you lose, you get the blame. In other sports, you can be bailed out by your teammates if you have a bad game. At the same time, you can have a brilliant game and still lose if your team blows it for you. That's not generally the case for individual sports. Sometimes you can get lucky, but usually when you win it's because you performed well.
I don't think anyone should be forced to fight a friend or campmate. However, taking this stance comes with the possibility that you may not be able to achieve everything you would like. I think that's well worth it, though.
*************
Rashad Evans keeps talking about his upcoming fight with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones on April 21 at UFC 145. Rashad is saying that he's going to beat Jones and that he's going to show the world and all this other stuff. I don't doubt for one second that Rashad feels this way, and I don't think this is your typical crap hype that gets thrown out there a lot of the time, I think this is real. However, I can't for one second think that Rashad is going to win. That's not to say that Rashad doesn't have a chance; of course he does, this is MMA.
However, I think Jon Jones is going to beat the hell out of Rashad in their fight. Dan Henderson, who's next in line to fight the winner, thinks that Rashad is the better wrestler. I would agree with that normally, Rashad started in the UFC as a heavyweight and didn't have a lot of problems taking guys down. However, I want to see how well Rashad has recovered from his knee issues, and if he's ready for top-level competition. He didn't look very good against Phil Davis. I think Jones is on a goldrush and that he's going to barrel right through his former training partner.
Comments and suggestions can be e-mailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/hydenstake/article_12940.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment