My Martial Arts and the UFC

UFC 101 is this Saturday, August 8.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Ultimate Fighting Championships. I have been watching since UFC 1, way back in 1993. That night, I had a few students come over to my house to watch.

Now, keep in mind that my martial arts philosophy has been geared toward being practical, even though I was originally a Tae Kwon Do practitioner. I had named my art Freewind in 1980 and it's concept was to be grounded in the Tae Kwon Do style and then add the essence of other arts that were effective, and, of course, appealed to me.

I first added some Kenpo (Ed Parker style), because I liked the way the art was put together and was influenced by a very amazing Kenpo stylist named Sandy Sandovol. Next, I was introduced to an amazing martial artist named Kelly Worden and followed him as he journeyed through the Filipino martial arts under the tutelage of his mentor, Remy Presas. More about Kelly, Sandy, many others, and my evolution in the arts in later blogs.

Back to to the UFC...

That night, the night of the first UFC, we were shocked by the dominance of Royce Gracie. I had never seen anything like it. On the other hand, I thought he was kind of an ass.

Anyway, we added groundfighting to our style, as much as we could in our isolated little town, and my style grew again.

I followed the UFC ever since, well, as much as I could through it's embattled "human cockfighting" years (thank you, John McCain), when it was banned by our local cable company, but even then, I kept up by purchasing or renting the DVDs.

I am a fan. A big fan. I believe that the UFC has revolutionized martial arts like nothing before it (except Bruce Lee, my hero and the subject of a future blog, I'm sure).

That all being said, I have issues with the UFC. My history in the arts has been grounded by a firm belief in honor, integrity, respect, dignity, etc. The UFC oftentimes does not display these virtues. In fact, there are many UFC competitors that I found downright distasteful.

Brock Lesnar is being groomed to be the new poster boy for the UFC it seems, and, as talented as he may be, I find him disgusting.

B.J. Penn may be the most purely talented and well-rounded fighter in the UFC or maybe MMA in it's entirety (in spite of his inconsistent work ethic), but, from what I've seen, he's an arrogant, disrespectful dickhead.

Sorry, B.J., I own your book, I appreciate your talent, but tomorrow I'll be rooting for Kenny Florian all the way. Ken-flo is a class act and a very talented martial artist in his own right.

Gotta go. I'll check back after the fights and let you know what I think, whether you want me to or not.