ForrestDixon said:
I recently have wanted to become a fighter. No, not because I just watched Fight Club and it looks cool. I have recently been watching UFC and realized how insanely fit and buff they were. Well that and I think I can take a lot of pain in the mind and body. So if I were to want to start and become a fighter how would I do this. This could be just fighting outside of a ring in my backyard with someone or actually at a legit place. Oh and if you fight regularly what would be some tips for me to start?
Pick up Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, everything else is bullshit. Be sure to do some research on your gym and see what kind of fighters they're putting out, be prepared to pay some big bucks if your gym is high quality and pumping out champions. Don't, under any circumstances, go to a shitty gym, the conditioning and strength gains you'd make would be overruled by shitty technique. If you can't find an MMA place (which usually do MT and BJJ) or you can't find a good one go to a good regular boxing gym.
If you can't find either (boxing gyms are everywhere) start working on your conditioning because no matter how fit you think you are or how much pain you think you can take your first session of BJJ will kill you. Start running as much as you can.
To quantify my earlier statement about other martial arts being bullshit I was exaggerating a little bit. Fancier martial arts have their place but they generally have a much wider and more complex technique set. This sounds like a good thing but it really isn't, the amount of different techniques you'll need in a stand up fight (ground fighting is a whole different matter) is rather small and you'll be more successful with simpler, hard hitting, techniques than more complex ones. With strikes with names such as 'knee to the face' and 'kick to the head' it's very hard to go wrong with Muay Thai.
That being said I think some martial arts can give you valuable secondary skills such as increased balance and quick feet. Branch out, but keep your core skill set simple.
Oh and for the love of god take a sweat towel with you to the gym, there is nothing in the world more gross than a guy sweating in your mouth while he's passing guard.
Final hint, you might be tempted to buy your own equipment straight away but try and hold off on that. Ask the guys at your gym what they use (avoid everlast like the fucking plague) and ask your coach if he has any deals on equipment. (they usually do, my old coach actually had his own company supplying kickboxing equipment so we got stuff mondo cheap)
Hope this helps.
