The World of MMA Prepares to Fit Walker and Mayorga For Bad Idea Jeans

Add Ricardo Mayorga and Herschel Walker to the list. Which list, you might ask?

That would be the list of those severely misguided and misinformed individuals who think that jumping into the deep waters of mixed martial arts sounds like a good idea. For some reason, ex-professional athletes or those who see the ex- looming seem to believe they can recapture that faded glory by switching fields.

Or at least have a little fun making spare scratch while showing some wanna-be professional athletes what world-class talent really looks like.

Except it doesn't work like that. Not anymore — if it ever did.

I'm not sure there ever was a time when just any accomplished sporto from one discipline could transition into MMA and hold his own. Regardless, I can assure you the idea is pure fantasy in 2009.

Courtesy of the UFC and its forerunners, mixed martial arts is no longer some extreme sport on the fringe waiting for those blessed souls from basketball, football, and baseball to grace its ranks. It's no longer some cute anomaly in desperate need of legitimizing.

In case you've been rubbing elbows with those Japanese soldiers still waiting out the end of World War II, MMA is just a couple headlines short of joining the big boys on the main stage. Some will tell you it's already there.

In actuality, whether MMA has already created a foursome is irrelevant.

What is relevant is the ever-deepening talent pool that is chomping at the mixed martial art bit. These guys are not just weekend warriors out for a lark — they train as hard (if not harder) than anyone else receiving compensation in return for a display of physical acumen.

Even worse for guys like Mayorga and Walker, neither of whom appear to be a total slouch when it comes to using appendages as weapons, most of the MMA masses have been training specifically and exclusively for their chosen sport. You'll still see the occasional double-timer pop up here and there, but most of these monstrosities are punching a clock in their fight schools and that's it.

No more distractions. No more, "Well, at least I have job X to land on if I fail here."

These bad riders are sincere in their pursuits and they're all about the job. They are not to be trifled with by those green to the game.

Yes, yes — I can hear you in the back screaming, "Brock Lesnar, BROCK LESNAR!" It's a fair rebuttal, but not a good one.

For one thing, there are exceptions to every rule.

In that vein, I'm not suggesting Mayorga or Walker will certainly fail (although I'm not jetting off to Vegas to put money on either sacrificial lamb). I'm suggesting they represent a mentality that will do more harm than good.

Let's pretend Walker—a 47-year-old fifth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do—or Mayorga is successful. Let's say one of them actually puts together a nice little run. For every one such success, there is certain to be 10 Johnnie Mortons.

No, I haven't heard of Bernard Ackah either.

Being the exception is wonderful and deserves much respect, but it doesn't change the rule.

For another, Lesnar did have a wrestling background and his timing couldn't have been better. He entered a heavyweight division that was decidedly light on talent. The biggest names were past their primes and the other names had gotten the big print by beating the old-timers.

Unless I'm grossly underestimating sizes here, neither Walker nor Mayorga will step in against the biggest beef. Instead, they'll be trying their luck in the smaller divisions, weight-classes that are absolutely brimming with real, experienced MMA talent.

Shoot, even the heavyweight collection now has more than a few premium pieces.

More than anything, Brock Lesnar is a new kind of freak. Neither of the alleged newcomers can boast his size, speed, and power. Lesnar's physical constitution is just abnormal.

If you're banking on the demon from Dakota as a feasible template, well, you should find a new bank.

Oh, and there's the little matter of hubris.

It doesn't take much of a stretch to characterize a hop into a ring or Octagon after only a couple months of true MMA preparation as disrespectful. Presumably, neither Walker nor Mayorga nor any other former pro from a collateral sport decides to fight because he expects to lose.

So what do you make of a guy who thinks he'll waltz into your territory and rule the joint after a crash course on the basics?

I'd say you make a mess of him.

**www.pva.org**