To the general public, its a little difficult to present your average MMA fighter as anything other than a street thug. Of course, we in the community know this is blatant stereotyping, and MOST of us try our best to discourage the public from having that image of us as fighters.
One of the good things about the sports of Brazilian Jiujitsu and MMA, is that if there is any kind of beef between competitors, it can all be settled on the mat. That's one of the greatest things about our sport. Tom Brady can light cornerbacks up all day long, but I'm willing to bet Terrence Newman still thinks he can whip Tom Brady's ass. He'll probably never find out for sure. In MMA and BJJ, there's no reason to talk shit unless you are willing to back it up, because someone will call you on it, and you'd either be ready to step up or shut the fuck up.
That being said, here in central Arkansas there is a local gym that often makes claims to being the best BJJ team in Arkansas, led by the 'most sought after BJJ coach in Arkansas.' I don't want to come off as one of those guys that are always looking at the small fish to fry. I mean, my gym is 8,000 square feet. We have a ring, a cage, a weight lifting area, and a shitload of tatami mat space. It's a fighter's paradise, and I could care less about some other team that trains in a hallway.
However, there is a problem. The fearless leaders of this gym constantly make claims to being the two best competitors in the state. This is a blatant lie. Their head coach lists his resume as such:
Accomplishments Include:
* 2nd Degree Black Belt Weeping Style Jujutsu
* Brown Belt Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
* Professional Fighter
* 2006- #2 RANKED Submission Grappler in the NATION
* Pan American Champion, ADCC Veteran, & WORLD CHAMPION
* Created Arkansas' FIRST program to specialize in Sport Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
* Jory is the Most decorated BJJ Player in Arkansas to date.
Pan American Champion? Probably his best showing. After getting loop choked by Paragon's Lalo Salazar, he won his next two round robin matches by advantage and won the gold medal in the brown belt master's super heavyweight division.
ADCC veteran? Got armbarred in 20 seconds by a guy who got subbed in the next round.
World Champion? Beat one other opponent by advantage at the No-Gi mundials. He entered the brown belt Master's super heavyweight division. The division had two people.
What I'm getting at is that he embellishes the hell out of his resume. He collects walkover medals and lists them as his accomplishments. He doesn't leave well alone, either. He sends MySpace invitations out to our team, asking them to come train. When we have fight shows, he hits the parking lot with fliers for his school. You'd think that this would've been settled in competition long ago, but his team avoids tournaments that our gym participates in, saying that he won't associate with anyone that works with our gym owners because he believes they exhibit a lack of character or some lame crap like that.
I had often asked my instructors why we didn't just go down there and ask to roll, and they told me it wasn't necessary. They told me that he was a delusional small fish and that we should set our sights on bigger and better opponents. For a long time, I agreed.
Finally, this past Friday, I decided that, with no input from my instructors, I would round up a few teammates and we would go over there in peace and ask to do class.
Six of us showed up. Their class that particular day was being held in the upstairs area of a skating rink. When we entered, they saw us from upstairs, and when we walked upstairs, him and his wife were blocking the doorway.
"Leave." she said.
"We're not here to cause trouble." I told her. "We just want to do class. We're all willing to pay a mat fee and sign a waiver, whatever you want us to do, but we come in peace."
"No." she said. "Leave. I have new students here tonight and you can't roll with them. Leave."
"Look," I said. "We're not looking to come in and beat the crap out of all your white belts. I mean, we've got two white belts with us ourselves. We just want to train."
"No." she persisted. "We don't associate with anyone from your school. You can ask your coaches why."
"It doesn't have to be like this." I countered. "We can all work together!"
"No we can't." she said. About this time, her husband, who had been standing behind her, burst through and got in my face.
"Look," he said. "You guys can come back another time when we don't have any students if you want to see who is the best. Or we can go out in the parking lot to find out right now."
I just looked at him. "Dude, the sport exists precisely so we DON'T have to go duke it out in the parking lot."
"This isn't any different than a dojo storm." he said.
"Except it's a skating rink."
This is when he grabbed me by the throat and slapped me across the right side of my face. Before I could even react, one of my training partners who had been standing idly the whole time we were talking jumped in between us, crying "Hey, there's no need for that!" only to be slapped himself.
After swallowing my pride and a bowling ball of anger, I pulled my team away, telling him that we were leaving. We went outside and called the police. They took our statements, took his statement, and told us we should probably just avoid his crazy ass.
Yesterday we tried to press charges against him, but in his version of the story, I barged past his wife to confront him and that is why he slapped me. He felt threatened. Because of this false report, the courts are pretty much unable to do anything about it.
So I turn to here, the focal point of the MMA community. Here we have a guy who claims to be a world-class competitor, and when it comes to backing it up, he would rather slap someone in the face than get on the mat with them. He is a poor representative of the sport and a coward.
I want to let it be known that I am not afraid of this coward. I will gladly face him on the mat or in the cage. He can make all the claims and excuses he wants to, but when it comes down to it he is a sorry excuse for a fighter. He has built this image for himself that he cannot possibly back up, and it has in turn led to him slapping anyone that might challenge him.
This guy is a disgrace to the sport. We try to present ourselves as professional fighters, above the backyard antics of street fighting and bitch slapping. We try to leave it all on the mat.
Most of us do, anyway.