# What inspired you to a life of Martial Arts?



## AlanS

It takes a certain breed of person to decide they want to train/compete and get better at the art of hitting another person really hard in the face...

...so what influenced you to do so? What did you see/experience to make your mind say "I want to learn a Martial Art".

For me it was seeing UFC 68, and seeing Randy Couture vs Tim Sylvia.

Coming from being a WWF/WWE fan and seeing these blown up, roided physiques it seemed an unattainable goal for a scrawny 6 foot 4 guy who weighs close to welterweight.

I caught UFC 68 online when I was at work (meant to be working but meh...). Seeing guys on the undercard that were of slimmer, more realisic build kicking ass in *real life* and not choreographed, it really spoke out to me. It made me think "I can do this!".

So I took up Muay Thai and BJJ, it was also a big self esteem/confidence builder. Redundancy meant I couldn't afford to continue, now at 33 (even with pending Twins on the way) I'm looking to start up again.

So what was your inspiration?


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## JN9

As my main interest in Martial Arts is boxing most of my inspiration came from a mixture of fact and fiction....

From watching Frank Bruno beating Oliver McCall... Prince Naseem being a huge hero of mine when I was a kid... Ricky Hatton beating Kostya Tszyu... Plus many more, Tyson, Lewis, Benn, Eubank, Haye, Froch.... I'm still inspired by the guys still fighting and have complete admiration for them all (even the guys we all love to hate...)

I've recently started to try to look at the past great fights and soak up as much as possible (I find ESPN classic can be quite good for this), and loved the Fabulous Four (particularly Roberto Duran), next on my list is the Ward Gatti trilogy...

Boxing films also had quite an effect on me, particularly the Rocky films... I think we all want our Rocky moment, and while life has got in the way so far I will have a fight, probably only a 3 rounder, but for someone like me (very limited skillset) it would be a great acheivement just to get in there and give it my best... thats the dream anyway...

In terms of MMA I am very new to it... The first fight I watched properly was the Watson Reid fight on BAMMA (before I had just dismissed MMA as a couple of guys rolling round on the floor... I know,  ) I try not to miss any Watson fights and I also had the pleasure of attending a seminar he held at our gym (he used to train there himself), and now I can always say that I was choked out by Tom Kong Watson...

Sadly as I don't have the internet at home (I know, living in the dark ages), and I can't afford ESPN at the moment (never get married, the wedding will see you skint for a year or so...) I can't actually watch as much MMA as I'd like. Sadly its not very accessable to the general public, shame really as I think it could grow in popularity even more than it has in the last 10 years or so...

So yeah... so for rambling but hopefully that answers your question...


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## AlanS

no probs JN9, I thought it'd be a good way for established, and new members alike to introduce themselves to one another and see what peoples backgrounds and future plans are with MMA.

Just a way to get to know each other a little better.

Great post mate


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## bonecrusher

Bruce lee, chuck Norris, Mohammed Ali plus other martial artists/fighters as a young kid inspired me into martial arts. Growing up in an area outside of where I was born and being a bit of a loner I had to learn quick and the hard way to fight. My dad did jujitsu and Kung fu. I learnt stuff from him and my grandad showed me wrestling stuff then when I got to 10 I started boxing and then went into jujitsu as a teen. Joined the raf at 17 competed for them and did a bit of judo with my mate as he was a gb judo player. More of a rag doll but I learnt stuff from him. Was turning pro as a boxer but that fell through when I started my new job at 21. Got into kickboxing for a while. But always had an interest in all martial arts. Especially after seeing ufc 1 in the early 90s. And got very excited. Then about 2006 started looking for somewhere doing mma started there and haven't stopped training since. Am a black belt in jujitsu, a blue in nogi bjj, and established white collar fighter and always looking to train other stuff when I get chance. Want to get my bjj kick started again and gain my purple if I can. I'm now 42 and have had a busy life in all kinds of training and at the mo can't see me stopping, as I want to inspire my two girls to train to the max. Them both jujitsu blue belts at the mo


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## Natasha

When I was younger I was always jealous of my brothers as they got to do lots of different sports outside of school and I wasn't doing anything. I told my dad that I wanted to do a sport too and it turned out his friend was a sensei in Japanese jujitsu so around the age of 12 I started that and instantly loved it. We had some guys there who trained MMA and I thought they looked really cool haha.

Unfortunately, a few years later I had to move and where I was going nobody taught jujitsu so for a few years I had to stop martial arts. After a few years feeling pretty down my dad told me they were starting an adults judo class and I couldn't wait to start and one of the guys at judo turned out to be a muay Thai fighter so I asked if we could join in training with him and he agreed. So now training in both disciplines I thought why not train MMA like those guys at jujitsu?


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## Gods of War MMA

I had rage issues .....took up karate and then after I lost on points to someone falling down in a competition I started looking for something else to try. Worked my way through various martial arts until a UFC VHS was passed round at school and realised Id found the one for me. Now fight professionally full time and run my own MMA gym in Berkshire and rage issues only surface with flat pack furniture. I would really like to find time to grade in BJJ formally at some point but not enough hours in the day until I give up the Pro career.


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## AlanS

Thanks for contributing everyone who's posted in here, I think it's great to see why we all follow the path we do


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## MClaxton

Hi all,

I choose to study martial arts after a kid attempted to mug me with a knife on a bus. Thankfully when he was asking me for my phone other people came onto the bus and he withdrew and got off the bus.

From that point I thought to myself that other people shouldn't be able to make you feel scared. So I began to study martial arts and I ended up getting to a stage where I was able to teach others how to defend themselves and how to avoid situations where they might be confronted and may be faced with a physical encounter.

People should not need to fear for their lives or their belongings. A good understanding of martial arts can help you and often just having the confidence can be enough for others to see that you are not someone they want to pick on.

Also martial arts is a good way to keep fit and have fun


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## AlanS

Welcome MClaxton, and thanks for sharing


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## chubbman

I always watched boxing, found mma about 3 years ago, but never trained. grew up with a single mum so wasn't allowed to do anything dangerous when I was younger. fast forward to now im 27 married with a gorgeous daughter and am really overweight and love watching mma. so a few months ago I started thai boxing and am planning on starting grappling too.


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## AlanS

Thanks for sharing chubbman, Muay Thai and Grappling is an awesome way to get in shape so you certainly picked wisely.

Stick with it mate, the benefits will be worth it!


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## SanshouMatt

there's a big difference between the sport and discipline guys and the "like to fight" guys. Oddly I put myself in the "like to fight" category despite not having had a fight in many years. I have fond memories of most if not all instances of fistic engagement. From boxing as a youngster (badly) to fights doing door work back in the day to throwing drunks out of pubs at closing time right the way through to just getting a tad over annoyed at the wrong person at the wrong time.

I loved training but I'm inconsistent which frustrates me, when I'm bad and I lose I go back and train again. Fighting is a funny thing, the flip side of all this is, much like a lot of people who like the act, I don't like the outcome, I like fighting but I'm not keen on hurting people.. Go figure.


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## repoman

Enter The Dragon


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## AlanS

That one post has so much 'win' in it repoman  welcome to the forum!


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## repoman

AlanS said:


> That one post has so much 'win' in it repoman  welcome to the forum!


Thanks, man.


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