In which I rant about fighting.
I don’t know what it is exactly that draws me to fighting. Even Taekwondo doesn’t fill that category, it’s got to be Krav or mma…there’s something about that release that is different from any other workout. i don’t know if it’s released frustrations, I think that’s a lot of it. There’s definitely something therapeutic about hitting something. It’s almost ironic, because I love fighting, and I absolutely hate hurting people. It’s the main reason I don’t know if I could ever do an actual mma match, because I don’t know if I want to end up injuring another person…But I want to fight. I want to win, I want to be good at this. Fighting, to me, is a lot like dancing – fun to watch, but more fun to do. There’s a beauty in the dance of a good match. Duck this, block that, react and hit… It’s a chess match at high speed. My instructor is fond of reminding us that the best fighters might only use three moves, you might know exactly how they fight, and they’ll still beat you. Because they’re better at the game, the reaction, the dance.
I wish that I could explain that to a lot of mma fans. There are so many people who only look for blood, the knockout or the submission. I love all that as much as the next fan, but so much more if they come in a good fight. I hate mismached fights, I hate brawls. I really hate Brock Lesner, while we’re at it, for exactly that reason. He doesn’t play the game. He’s just in to get the win, not to fight. I couldn’t enjoy a win against a mismached opponent. There’s no joy to me in winning an easy fight. But Lesner is apparently happy to just lay on the mat and ‘win’ because he has a massive weight advantage. And add on to that his gloating, as though he had done anything worth celebrating….it just makes me sick. It’s a disgrace to everything that I love about fighting, and drags the sport backwards, if you ask me. Put Lesner and Kimbo in a ring, and let them duke it out – they’re in the same class of dressed-up frauds, if you ask me.
