So You Wanna Be a Fighter?

I was sitting around the TV one rainy afternoon last May with a group of friends - watching an NBA playoff game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Washington Wizards - when we began discussing our favorite athletes.  With the majority of us being native to New England, names like Paul Pierce, Tom Brady and David Ortiz were mentioned several times.  Naturally, I announced that my favorite athlete was BJ Penn.  I received a few confused looks before explaining that BJ Penn is a jiu-jitsu world champion, as well as the lightweight champion of the UFC.  

One of my friends, not a knowledgable MMA fan himself, shouted out: “You know who my favorite UFC fighter is?  Kimbo Slice.”  Because he was actually being serious, I almost smacked him.  But instead, I calmly explained that Kimbo Slice was not in the UFC, nor would he ever be.  I made it perfectly clear that MMA and the UFC were not the same thing, and that the UFC is simply the biggest organization within the sport of MMA. 

Now this kid also happened to be a co-worker of mine for the majority of the summer, and spent a considerable about of time in my apartment, where he was further exposed to the sport.  He spent countless hours watching my UFC and TUF dvds, and even asked me to show him a few moves.  While I am by no means a qualified instructor, I have studied martial arts for a significant amount of time, and have medaled in several karate and jiu-jitsu tournaments.  I showed him a few basic submissions just to humor him.

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