MMA getting watered down in CA...

Since MMA has been sanctioned in CA, there seems to be quite an awful bit of new shows popping up. The reason I say that its getting watered down is the fact that about four or five people from my small town have fights already. I know two of them actually train and maybe have a chance, but two other guys came up to me while I was bartending and told me all about how they have fights. One is about 6'4 and 365 he said, the other is just some average guy, probally around 180. The don't train and don't plan to, but they got offered a thousand dollars and said they didn't care if they won or not.

Question is, is it like this in other areas? I for one am getting pretty tired of people who don't even train, going in there and losing, and then telling everybody how they are a great cage fighter. I continually try to praise MMA as a sport and its fighters as well trained athletes, but all of that has pretty much gone down the train in my town.

Yea, but there isn't really any other sports that you can become a "Pro" with little more than an e-mail or a phone call.

There have been underground fights like those for years.

The problem is that there isnt yet a way for guys to work their way up from training to amatuer to pro.

Ya, people do this in little leage baseball too. Sonsabitches!

"There have been underground fights like those for years."

I think his point was that as MMA becomes mainstream and tries to gain
acceptance as a legitimate sport having underground type fights with
untrained/unskilled fighters won't help the integrity of the sport.

I doubt these are sanctioned fights with card-holding pro fighters. The CSAC has shut down several shows completely due to lack of paperwork for the fighters. I had the fortune of trying out for my pro card with about 8 other guys who were supposed to be fighting that same weekend. Two of them were not approved and couldn't fight. They seem to be over-cautious and under-staffed, but it seems to at least prevent sanctioned Toughman crap from slipping by.

Joe Boxer: Yep, that was my point

Stupidnewbie: That's good to hear.