Recently I’ve allowed myself to read all the preview and prediction information on all m favorite MMA websites. There’s a reason I don’t read this stuff before fights. Mostly I give the benefit of the doubt and think that these reporters and columnists are vastly experienced, unbiased and informed members of the MMA community. But the more I read; especially about myself, the more I realize the truth. How can they be? MMA is a young sport, its not as if we’re football, baseball or any other sport that’s been around for a good number of years. For the most part, these people that we rely on for an objective view of our sport have been involved with it only a handful of years. In short, they’re outside observers to a sport that, at this time, only its athletes know intimately. People involved intimately with MMA could know that a motivated wrestler has more than a 3-1 chance of winning against a one dimensional world class BJJ player. Intimate MMArtists also might know that, maybe, the wrestler has been working on other things than just wrestling. That just because the wrestler has no formal “belt” in jiu-jitsu, just because he’s only had a handful of formal BJJ classes 4 years back doesn’t mean he hasn’t been grappling most of his life. All this doesn’t mean the wrestler hasn’t learned to arm and defend himself against jiu-jitsu…..
So it’s with this knowledge that I tackled the world champion jiu-jitsu player. Don’t get me wrong. The only other person that has EVER controlled me ad had me that near submitting on the ground is Antonio Mckee, the only difference is, much to my chagrin, Antonio submits me regularly (also a motivated wrestler by the way). I wonder to myself what basis, if any, these MMA writers have to declare that “Once the fight hits the mat, it will only be a matter of time before High finds himself in a move so simple yet so effective — the straight armbar. Watch for Galvao to win via first-round submission in less than five minutes and head into the final relatively fresh.” Like I haven’t seen a fucking arm-bar before, or that we didn’t know that Andre Galvao (who by the way, I have immense respect for) was 3-0 with 3 armbars. Or how bout this one, let me paraphrase…Andre Galvao has already beaten John Alessio, who surpasses High in every aspect of the game…I may be ranting a bit but shit!
And there I sat, with a world champion on my back. I had already escaped a deep knee-bar where I thought, “no shame in the MMA community tapping to this, guys a world champion. But what about that asshole that handicapped you at a 3-1 dog, and all those haters that said, Jason has no chance whatsoever; he’ll be submitted in the first…” I did an inventory on my body, “the knee-bar was stretching, and it hurt, but there was nothing popping and after all, I have another, perfectly good knee that Mr. Galvao does not have ahold of, so I said fuck all you hatin’, handicapping assholes. Then he took my back. I was reminded of the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou” where George Clooney’s character says multiple times “Damn! We’re in a tight spot!” Seriously that’s all I could think of. Then I thought, this isn’t a bad spot to go out…I could tap out, or I’m sure he could punch me to death. Then I thought of my team, I thought of all the people watching me from home and how giving up, really, is for pussies. I thought of how much work my friends and I put in at the Bodyshop, how they didn’t give up on me when I was having a shitty day. I thought of how my girlfriend had sacrificed so much to give me a chance to be here tonight. I said to myself, I’d rather pass the fuck out than let those hatin’ bastards be right. And with that I made it to the second round. I got to the corner and nobody had written me off. The message was simple; wrestle in reverse, punch and kick him as many times as you can in five minutes.
So I guess what I’m saying is thank you. Thank you to all you handicappers, keyboard warriors, uneducated reporters and critics. I guess I owe you some of my purse (NOT) or at least dinner and a movie. I’m not a fan of your comments or opinions but you people always put things in perspective for a guy.
Hey Jason,
I think that oddsmakers base their assumptions on known commodities and you’re exactly right, they don’t quite know what they’re talking about. A good anecdote of this was the Werdum vs Dos Santos fight in the UFC. Dos Santos was a huge underdog because, no one outside of Nogueira knew him. As for Werdum, they knew him. Then the day before the fight, the odds got a bit closer. Dana White speculated, and I would agree with him, that they saw him hitting mitts in training. Think about it, the odds narrowed because oddsmakers were able to see the other fighter hit mitts. It’s not like a whole bunch of videos of his former fights surfaced or anything. So for oddsmakers, they only go with what they know and with lots of fighters that have 10 fights or less, it’s very little and you’re absolutely right in saying that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Now the experts operate similarly to oddsmakers but they really just give an opinion. No one takes it all that seriously because, even they freely admit, the volatility of the fight game is incredibly hard to predict. Their picks are made, mostly for the fans. They spark debates in MMA forums and I’m sure those same experts get a ton of flack from those fans when they get things wrong. But the truth is, they just write something up to the best of their ability with the experience they have watching the fighters. And when you’re writing a column of your predictions for a card, having lots of ambiguity as to the result just doesn’t make for interesting reading. Lots of people just want a quick word on the fight and move on. Details? No room for that.
Look at Rashad Evans: has he ever been picked by the experts to win any fight? Bonnar, Lambert, Ortiz, Bisping, Liddell, Griffin… maybe Sean Salmon?
In the end, those closest to you know what you’re capable of and you trust them to give you an honest assessment of how well you’re doing. Everyone else has an opinion and that’s fine, everyone is entitled to them, but you certainly don’t have to give those much consideration. There are things you can control and things you can’t control. Best of luck in your future fights and I enjoy your blog and tweets!
Mr. High,
I admit, I got things doubly wrong in my predictions for the evening.
http://blog.mmaratings.net/2009/07/picks-and-predictions-for-dream-10-ww.html
I did say that you’d have to avoid the ground to win against Galvao, as you did, but I didn’t expect you to be able to do it. I also expected you to be able to roll over Zaromskis, and had money on you to win the tournament as a backup to my bet on Galvao, so lets just say that we both disappointed each other in some respect.
Either way, an impressive performance from you, and I’m sure we’ll have many more in the future.
Best,
Nick
I think the main reason is that when you say “martial arts” most people get this image of the esoteric mystic mumbo jumbo. They fail to realize that wrestling is far older than jujitsu and has withstood the test of time for a reason. They see sport (freestyle, greco-roman, what-have-you) wrestling and think that’s all there is to it.
Do get me wrong jujitsu is great, but to control the limbs, you must first control the body, and that is the wrestler’s baliwick.
Nice meeting you and good luck in the future!
Hey jason this is your cusin kaisha! just want to encourage you live your life to the fullest If you keep that left hand up and punch with the intention of getting the job done you will be alright! Hey and don’t forget GOD you can’t loose with the stuff he use.Man can’t count you out keep it real
you have a great blog!!1
courage.