So you wanna be a f*ckin fighter?

Part 1 – What does it actually take?
If I had a penny for everytime a newb came into my gym and said, ‘Danny, I think ive got what it take to make it to the UFC’, I would have about £16.35. Running my own gym I meet these people day in day out and God forbid if I go to the pub I encounter a more drunken and confident version of this phenomena.

OK, so you have watched some UFC videos and you think you got what it takes to step up into the cage, then you go find a local mma gym/kung fu school/boxercise class and begin training, tell your friends your a cage fighter and buy every tee shirt that tapout have ever made. This is all well and good but becoming a professional or even amateur fighter takes a certain amount of heart and desire that most people do not posess. I know this because I see it nearly every day.

I have plenty of beginners starting at my gym every week and its never long till they ask the golden question ‘How long before I can fight?’ to which my answer is always the same. ‘Train your ass off and when your ready you will get a fight’. Usualy they reply by telling me how they will train everyday, run 5 miles at 6am every morning and they want 15 private lessons. Then I wont see them for 3 weeks until they turn up with some new mma shorts on or something and the process begins again.

For those of you who dont want to fight, thats cool, just train get better, hell maybe even one day you’ll feel so great about it you might even jump in and have a fight just for the crack. If so thats awesome. But if you do want to fight then you have to put aside the image you have in your head that its cool to say ‘hey im a cage fighter’ and start to think about the gruelling hours your gonna have to put in at the gym and the countless bumps, bruises and breaks that are so common within our sport. Because i’ll tell you something, your opponent is going to be training his ass off and if you step in that cage just a little under prepared your risking damaging not only yourself physically, but mentally too, and ultimately you can make yourself look stupid after spending months in the pub telling all the chicks how awesome you are.

The number one thing in my eyes that you need to become a fighter in this sport is DEDICATION. If you train hard, train often and do everything in your power to become the best you can be then you will do well. Even if you lose your first 10 fights if you stay in the game and keep that dedication, eventually you will succeed and its as simple as that.

Ive got guys in my gym that I thought, ‘nah, these guys will never make it past 6 weeks’ but they did and they improved, and won fights, and still win fights, all because of that magic word DEDICATION.

Theres plenty of guys with natural ability, they dont always last long at the gym because they dont always have the work ethic that you need to move forward. You have to look at yourself and say, ‘Is this something I really want to do?’. Because im sorry to say folks, some people just are not cut out to fight. They say you either have it or you dont. I dont think its as clear cut as that, but alot of people just weren’t made to fight. Some people were born to fight, just like some were born to cook, some were born to dance the list goes on.

I can always tell someone who is a natural fighter because when I push, they push back and when others quit, they keep going. Quitting is like a disease. You see other people quit and think its ok to do it yourself. But a real fighter keeps going and doesn’t stop until they get the job done or they cant physically do any more.  Its all about having HEART. And this is something that no gym can give you no matter what you pay them.

Some people think that by learning shit loads of crazy submissions and deadly strikes you can win any fight but this is not so. Yes technique is very important, and after you read this go drill your triangle from the guard 100 times, but you can win a fight just by having more DESIRE and more HEART than your opponent. Because when it comes down to it, a fight is just about who is going to quit first. Now ask yourself, how far would you go before you quit?

So, next time you stroll into the gym and think ‘hmmmm I wouldn’t mind a fight’ , think about the shit that your gonna go through to get there, if you are cool with that the show your DEDICATION by training hard and often, and let us see you HEART by demonstrating the DESIRE to win and to no quit when things get tough.

If you do all those things, then the rest is up to your coach.