Explosive Americans in MMA

Phil "Mr Wonderful" Davis

The explosive black fighter meme doesnt exist for no reason. In every major sport black people excel in they do so in a flamboyant way. Whether its Jordan gliding to the rim with his tongue hanging out or the great Muhammed Ali shuffling around the ring and trash talking while he jabs your face into hamburger meat. For young black youth in urban areas, flamboyant athletes and flashy rappers are heroes. Trash talk and bragging is almost just as important as the game itself. The flashiest guy on the block had the most friends and got all the women. The flip side of this is how little mastery of the technical aspect of sports matters. Historically, black athletes who chose to perfect their jumpshots and utilize solid defense have never achieved the same amount of fame or respect as their equally as talented but more flashy counterparts. Really, no one on the block was spending hours emulating Tim Duncans post game and footwork.

But where does this train of thought leave the Tim Duncans of MMA? Fighters like Jason “The KC Bandit”  High and Phil “Mr Wonderful” Davis have both found tremendous amounts of success honing their ground skills, but have found very little fan fare outside of MMA hardcores. In the case of Phil Davis, the fact that he recently dominated a Noguiera brother was completed negated by a lot of fans complaining that his performance was boring. Even after Jason High implemented a solid game plan by neutralizing Sakurai’s game with his wrestling base and beat striker Rudy Bears by submission in less than a minute, his Strikeforce debut will be on the untelevised portion of the Strikeforce: Challengers card (due to injury his fight has since been moved to the maincard). While collegiate and high level wrestling is filled with talented black wrestlers, wrestling remains thought of as a mainly white sport.  I’ll admit that before my venture into MMA I didnt know about any black wrestlers. The first thing I thought of when wrestling was brought up was a giant white man in tights. We didnt even have a wrestling team when I was in high school.

What happens as these athletes make more money is that not only do young black athletes start to believe its part of the game but fans start expecting the black athletes to be flashy and flamboyant. The post touchdown celebration becomes just as important as the touchdown itself. Personally, I believe both sides of this are integral to the growth (and entertainment value) of sports. I just wish players like Tim Duncan where as respected as his more flashy (but equally as talented) brothers.

 

You Know Whats Awesome? Minutiae

take the time.

 

 

While sitting around and thinking about my 2 loves. Metal and MMA. I started trying to think of any similarities they share. I was only able to think of one; Minutiae. These hobbies fit me because I can get obsessed and tangled in the smallest details of things I love. Just listening to metal wasnt enough for me, once I realized how amazing it was I wanted to hear…all of it. I used to scour the depths of the internet for rare mp3s for what felt like days at a time, foregoing the possibility that I could download a computer destroying virus. All that mattered to me was being able to immerse myself in the music. While the other kids in my class where taking tests I was drawing band logos on my test paper. The fact that I was failing the class never crossed my mind, I just had to make sure that godamn “S” in “Sepultura” had the correct number of thorns on it. Other kids book bags had books in it, mine had my discman and about 40 CDs. I carried them EVERYWHERE. I studied the cd booklets, learning who produced each album and which bands thanked other bands. It was an obsession. But where I differed from other metal heads was that I lacked pretentiousness, I constantly walked around trying to get my friends to love what I loved so much. It was always my dream to become an A&R rep at a record label and scout the world for talent to share with everyone. In my mind metal was for everyone, I thought it was great when one of my favorite bands sold more than 2 albums. If I burned someone a CD and they didnt like it I always wanted to know why so I could take what they told me and find them some they WOULD like. I was convinced that if they gave it a chance they’d love it as much as I did.

A few years ago I asked my girlfriend why she didnt like metal, she said “its too much, it just sounds like static’. I told myself that she just wasnt paying close enough attention, I tried to get her to close her eyes and REALLY listen, but it didnt work. I came to realize that to love metal as much as I do you need patience. I just wasnt going to be able to convince the kids that listen to The Used that they need to drop what they’re doing and listen to the latest Enslaved album. Metal isnt for everyone, and no matter how hard I sell it, everyone isnt going to buy.

When I got into MMA, I approached it with the same obsession, but with a different mindset. While I do believe that every sports fan can learn to love something about MMA I also realize they all wont take the time to do so. While theres beauty in every detail of BJJ I opt to focus on the beauty of 1 on 1 competition and how much athleticism and intelligence it takes to compete at the highest level when explaining why I love MMA to my friends.  As much as I respect and love Mike Wilbon, no one is going to convince him to take MMA seriously. What we may be able to convince doubters to do is appreciate and respect the competitors. Maybe Im naive, but I truly believe that once someone understands what these fighters go through for their craft, they’ll eventually take the time to find the beauty and art in the minutiae of Mixed Martial Arts.

It Ends The Same Way It Began…

I bet he hopes this moment lasts forever

Sadly, that day is one of the only positive memories I have of my relationship with my father. We’ve both tried to get to know eachother, but failed miserably. I dont think either of us have the energy to try again, we’ve relegated ourselves to the occasional text and speaking only on birthdays and fathers day. Not only did I give up on my father after that day, but I gave up on MMA for a long time too. I got tired of begging my father to buy more “ultimate fighting” tapes for us to watch together and I moved on. Every once in awhile my brother and I would talk about Royce and try to figure out how he was choking all those people out, but eventually I forgot about MMA. For years my obsession with metal carried me. I spent all my time on internet message boards discussing the merits of black metal and debating whether or not one could look past Varg Vikernes views on race and just enjoy the music he made (the answer is no, in case you where wondering).

That obsession carried me through life until about 3 years ago when I came across the all Anderson Silva episode of UFC Unleashed while bored and flipping through the channels at 1 o’clock in the morning. I thought to myself “They’re still doing this?! How can it even be on TV?”. To my surprise the sport was almost completely different than I remembered. I started to think of my father and thought about changing the channel, but the more knees Anderson Silva threw into Rich Franklins body the more into it I got. After that fight, I was hooked. I stayed up all night reading about all the fights and fighters I missed throughout the years. I spent hours reading about Frank Shamrock, Rich Franklin, BJ Penn, Jens Pulver and Matt Hughes. I couldnt believe I missed so much. I hated that I gave up something I loved for what felt like nothing.  Because I was older I was able to look at these fighters with more respect. It was no longer about the blood thirst or seeing someone get KO’d. I got into the technical aspect of grappling. I learned to appreciate a good submission or takedown as much as a well placed punch that leads to a brutal KO. These fighters are no longer super heroes to me, they are hardworking and talented human beings who often come out on the losing side of things despite working hard and “leaving it all in the cage”.

I dont just get entertainment from these fights, I find MMA to be extremely inspiring and beautiful. Its one on one. In a fight you’ve got no one to depend on but yourself, no team to fall back on during a fight. To me, MMA mimics life. You train, work hard and prepare to risk everything for a win. Whether you win or lose, sometimes you leave bloody and hurt. But you leave knowing you tried. You walk out with your head held high. And although the relationship between my father and I feels like its ended in a draw, I tried.  If these fighters have taught me anything its how to lose gracefully. I’ve  learned not to let the loss of my relationship with my father define me. Through my fathers mistakes I’ve learned how to be a better father to my future children. I’ve learned to make sure they’re better prepared for their fight in the cage of life than I ever was.

Sheldon Silver Can Sit On A Tack!

Have a seat, Sheldon.

I have little faith this current bill will even make it to committee. I have even less faith that MMA will be legal unless we somehow get Sheldon Silver (who wasnt even elected) out of his current position. Silver doesnt care because he has no constituents to answer to, the man can pretty much do whatever he wants. The only way to make this happen may be to get the Governor on board. We have to get him to come out publicly in favor of MMA. And eventhough legalizing MMA wont lead to many jobs, we have to play that aspect of it up. Instead of asking why they think MMA is disgusting we should be asking why they dont want people in this industry to work. We can make it happen, but I truly believe we’re years from seeing MMA in this great state come to fruition.

Doesn’t it always start with dad?

Ive spent the last couple of days trying to catch up with the latest news in MMA. I just realized that I never had the chance to tell you all why I love it so much.

This is where it all began

 

My obsession starts at about 12 years old. It was nearing my fathers birthday, I didnt know him much (still dont, but thats a different story). I only knew that he liked kung fu movies, boxing, seeing people get knocked out and collecting what seemed like every VHS tape there ever was. While my siblings and I searched the movie store in a local mall for something he didnt already own we came across a tape of  UFC 1. Not knowing exactly what it was, we picked it up and turned it around to read what it was about. My brothers jaw dropped, we both knew he had to have it. It had everything we thought he’d love. Which at that time was blood and watching people get knocked out.  Smiling,  we snatched it up and ran up to the counter with the money our mother had given us for his gift. When we got home we both fought the desire to open it up and watch it ourselves, we stared at it and speculated about what was on it all night. We even tried to figure out how we could open it up, watch it and remelt the plastic shrink wrap around it so no one would know we watched. Eventually we gave up and went to sleep. The next day was Saturday, and it was our fathers weekend to pick us up. When he pulled up to our driveway we darted out to his car yelling “dad look what we got you!”, he opened it up, looked at us, smiled and said “cool”. When we got in the car he asked us if we had ever seen it, we both said “no, do you know what ultimate fighting is?”, he looked at us in the rear view mirror and said “never heard of it, but we’ll get some food and watch it together”. When we got to his house, he told us we had to wait until the food was done to put the movie in. Never had ground beef taken so long to brown. After about an hour the food was finally done and the pop had been adequately chilled, it was time to put the movie in. Our father turned to us and said “put the movie in”, we laughed and informed him that we already put it in and paused it the minute we walked in the house.

Halfway through the video all the women had cleared the room, opting to watch music videos in the back. What was left was something I had always wanted; My father and I. We sat and watched the whole thing in one sitting, even rewinding parts and laughing together (One glove, Art? Really?!).  After it was over, my father went to go do something else, but my brother and I decided to watch it again. This time I got to pay more attention to the actual fights instead of the coolness of the moment. I was amazed that a shrimpy brazilian could overtake these behemoths using something called “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu”.  The camera work wasnt as good as it is today, I couldnt even tell what Royce was doing to them. In my eyes, it was magic. I must have watched that VHS tape 5 times that weekend. It was one of the best times of my life, I spent YEARS trying to recapture how happy I was that day. Though my father and I have failed and I’ve since given up on our relationship, I can look back on that weekend and imagine what things could be like if we kept trying.

On Tuesday we’ll pick up about 12 years later.