Filipinos are Born Warriors

This idea just came to me and opened up a series of thoughts on what more to feature on my MMA Guy site. Well for starters and as stated in my title, Filipinos are Born Warriors, just exemplifies that if you have Filipino blood in your system then probably you can be an excellent fighter.

My basis are the following:

Manny Pacquiao – Current pound-per-pound king. Pure Filipino, bread from the province of General Santos.

BJ Penn – part-filipino, just don’t know how much but I heard that he is. He even visited here years ago and trained with known pinoy fighters in the country. Best lightweight at 155 lbs in the world and has swept the division by storm.

Brandon Vera – part pinoy as well. A real talent in his division and has pure potential, it is just a matter of time before he converts his potential to true applied talent and when he does, he will definitely dominate the division he is in.

Ofcourse the most notable is Manny Pacquiao and BJ Penn since both are now leaving a legacy in the sport. When have you seen a fighter trying his best to leave a legacy besides the likes of Muhammad Ali, and George St. Pierre. People trying to make a name for themselves firstly in their country and 2ndly to the world.

Manny Pacquiao has definitely proven that he is the Pound-per-pound king of today and he will cement this come March 13, 2009 when he puts his name on the line with former pound-per-pound king Floyd Mayweather. Whatever the outcome is, definitely there will be a part 2 or 3 till someone gets a lead with 2 wins.

Filipinos by themselves are warriors by heart and who knows if the greatest fighters or warriors before were really Filipino bread as well. It just makes me think that how does a Filipino like the people I have previously mentioned achieve such greatness and who might be the next Filipino to do so.

I plan on creating a documentary as I can with what I can uncover with the likes of BJ Penn, Manny Pacquiao, and Brandon Vera. Also not to mention, we have a Filipino by the name of Vince Soberano who is an Adjarn in the art of Muay Thai, still fighting and still elite. Just proves that if pinoy blood runs through your veins, you can always be a potential great fighter.

I know that it might not sound good us Filipinos getting known together with such violence. But a fight is a fight and what makes a good fighter is not just his physical attributes but his spirit. Filipinos have good spirit, and I can say that each and every Filipino is a fighter in a sense or two. Like a mother taking care of her 5 children, pinoys abroad who leave their families to provide a better life for them. That is a fighters spirit, someone who does not give up and someone who gives everything to achieve what he or she wants.

We should always be proud of our pinoy bloodline becomes its what we are and what we are capable to do. The possibilities are endless!

Fighting: Injuries, Illness, Conditioning, and Promotions

Seems that it was a slow week for MMA or was it just me. All I can look forward to at the moment is the Penn vs Sanchez on December 13 and the TUF final episode and finale. Aside from these 2, haven’t really looked forward to anything else.

Probably K-1 Grand Prix as well since the final 8 are all exciting kickboxers with Badr Hari, Remy Bonjasky and Alistair Overeem to name a few.

So what’s with fighters nowadays and injuries. With the past month or so a lot of news are coming out where main event fighters remains injured, or can’t train and have to reschedule their matches. How does this affect promotions and MMA in general. Is this an eye opener to people wanting to become professional fighters?

Injuries

Most notable names with injuries are Lyoto Machida in which he says he will not be able to train until January. Anderson Silva which has a slow healing process putting on hold the Vitor fight. Tito Ortiz despite fighting says he has an injury.

Injuries and fighting are closely tied together. If a person wants to train to become a fighter, he exerts himself more, he trains realistically, and he pushes the pace as much as he can. Full time fighters have 8 hour a day schedules for training and training with this amount of time will really leave a small margin where injuries will be met. As professional as they come, injuries can happen to the best of us and these fighters put themselves in this field all the time.

In reality, as the Dana White says, everyone in a professional sport comes in not 100% and it’s up to the heart of these people that really matters and how to prove themselves. Fighters think of themselves as they are invincible, this is the fighters mentality.

The percentage of injury in this sport is really high and fighters should train smarter knowing what their bodies can accommodate and not. This what makes this sport as real as it gets and unpredictable.

Illness

Apparently MMA fighters are prone to staph infection, and I wonder why. I have seen/heard fighters from all sorts of levels suffer this illness which takes them out of their fights. Nogueira is one of them. Is it the training environment? Is it the sweat, but if one fighter has it, then probably his whole camp will have it as well. Or is it just with their personal hygiene? Really not sure about this.

Aside from Staph, the only notable illness is with Brock Lesnar which started with Mono, and know with some intestinal infection. What happened to Brock? That will always be a mystery thinking a guy as big and strong and well conditioned as Brock will suffer such a terrible illness.

Conditioning

Conditioning will always be a part of a fighters lifestyle may he be fighting 2 months from now or 2 years. A fighter must always be well conditioned, well trained and always ready. Conditioning can actually dictate the proneness of fighters to illness and injuries. A well conditioned fighter will be as healthy as a bear. Conditioning does not mean over working yourself each and everyday. It’s all about training smart and eating right. Improving and being properly progressive about your level of training. Without conditioning, technique goes out the window instantly.

Promotions

With the current trend of these fights getting postponed or fighters withdrawing from main events. Is this good or bad with the promotion? What about advertisers and other media implied coverage or hype that is setup with these fights. Still have no idea what business model is used with fighters and their relative promotions. Just thought that if a fight was hype so bad and then replaced, is the hype automatically transferred to the new main event, or does it hurt the previous hype which advertisers would probably rely lower on these the next time.

Each of the topics above relate to one another as a fighter is as good as his last fight and how the media promotes him. Each element of the fight game is important since getting everything else perfect and no hype means nothing as well in terms of conversion/popularity.

Hope that it will be a better 2010 in the MMA scene with lesser injuries and illness.