Ron Frazier, pro and amatuer boxing trainer at the Las Vegas Xtreme Couture was recently interviewed by FightHype.com on a wide variety fo subjects
Percy Crawford: Diego Sanchez is a guy that's never looked too healthy at 155 to me, but he's always looked too small at 170. He fought a young and hungry guy at UFC 114. He's in a tough situation, but what weight class would you like to see him fight at?
Ron Frazier: Unfortunately for Diego, I think he's a tweener. I don't think he has the skill set to keep pace with the A-level 55er's. I think you will see the same things happen to him that happened against BJ Penn. Maybe not as dramatic, because BJ has so much power, but those guy's skill set are better than his at 55. It's a big cut for him, but he's not a big 170-pounder. He's fighting guys there that are coming down from 190, so he's at a big strength disadvantage there. He's probably a guy that would be best between 160 and 165, but unfortunately for him, they don't have that weight class.
PC: Ron, you're an African American trainer and that's rare in itself in the sport of mixed martial arts. This past event saw, for the first time, two African American fighters headline a UFC event. Do you think we will see more of this with up-and-coming stars like Anthony Johnson and Jon Jones on the horizon?
RF: We'll see. A couple of years ago, I did an article, and I think ESPN did it during Black History month, talking about black fighters in MMA. Rashad and Rampage was kind of the watershed moment to have them headline the main event. We will see what the numbers are. We'll see how many fighters will come after them and hopefully they will. MMA is still going to be a college man's sport; a guy that went to college and wrestled and kind of found himself fall into mixed martial arts. Bottom line is MMA is not a poverty sport like boxing is. That's why you're going to see, unfortunately, a lot of Latin fighters, black fighters and poor white fighters in boxing because they have no other options. In boxing, you don't have to have a whole lot of money. To do MMA, you have to have 3 to 4 different disciplines. You have to have boxing, which is the cheapest of it. You gotta learn wrestling, which is not an inexpensive thing, and neither is Jiu Jitsu. We'll see. I think you're going to see...when it is a black fighter, it's not going to be the Mike Tyson type of fighter who came up from the hood and came up the hard way. You have Rampage and a couple of other ones, but for the most part, a lot of the guys you see, whether black or white, in mixed martial arts have gone through college. But if you look at Rashad, Jon Jones, Josh Koscheck, Anthony Johnson and Frank Trigg...although I don't know if we should count him as black because he's some of everything (laughing).
He is right. MMA is mostly the sport of upper middle class suburban kids. Hoodlums wont be able to afford paying 150$ a month for BJJ and the same for Muay Thai.
i think it'll become more affordable as schools stop specializing. instead of having to take 2-4 classes, it'll just be an MMA class. and you can wrestle in high school, that's inexpensive, no?
donkypunch55 - i think it'll become more affordable as schools stop specializing. instead of having to take 2-4 classes, it'll just be an MMA class. and you can wrestle in high school, that's inexpensive, no?
Most elite wrestlers have been going to wrestling camps and non-school affiliated leagues since they were about 7 or 8 years old. Good camps can be quite pricey.
Some great comments under that article link (rolls eyes)
High school and Jr high school wrestling are the cheapest combat sports there are. People just didn't want to admit that they were combat sports and that the guys competing in them could beat up the better hyped boxers and martial arts action heros. Some people still don't want to admit this.
This guy is an asshat. Isn't Rampage from the hood? Isn't Kid Kaos? Tito did not come from a wealthy family. Or Liddell.
And yes, wrestling is offered in high school for FREE. And there are a vast number of highly skilled wrestling coaches out there. Power for boxing, some guys are just naturally heavy handed. Jiu-Jitsu is a whole different thing, I've never really seen that offered down here in South Texas.
Plus, his predictions are rarely right when it comes to boxing.
Kneeblock - ^Agreed, but usually "the hood" refers to urban areas. Wrestling programs have been progressively fazing out of a lot of big cities. Here in NYC, there's maybe 4 wrestling programs in the public school system.
Sure. And how many top boxing gyms are there in southern Illinois or Kansas?
It's more a matter of georgraphy than socio-economic class that tracks guys into one sport or another.
thefightingsheep - High school and Jr high school wrestling are the cheapest combat sports there are. People just didn't want to admit that they were combat sports and that the guys competing in them could beat up the better hyped boxers and martial arts action heros. Some people still don't want to admit this.
^^^^This
We see tons of bling and cars in the hood. What's the point of these ramblings anyway?
I was born and raised middle class. I guess I should have grown poor to be more "real" to guys like him? I don't get this crap.
I think in MMA you see athletes from all walks of life. And while many wrestlers will indeed come from some form of college backgrounds, it's the same for the NBA and the NFL. Athletes from poor backgrounds seem to perform pretty good there...
I think Ron is 100% right as person lives in nj where both boxing and wrestling is big u can clearly see the diffence poor kid box or do karate while upper middle class or rich kids wrestle. 1 big reason is wrestling is almost never offered in the inner city and where it is it only in high school and only during the season . So you go wrestle and get beat all the time by the kids who have been going to camps and wrestling year round since 3rd grade. And 2 when u live in the hood and you want to learn to fight u need to learn some thing that is good for the situations u might be in and you will probably never be in situation where it's just you alone with the guy u have to fight and anytime there people around who can't trust you don't want to be on the ground .
But I think it will change slowly as guys like me and my trainer come along and offer mma and grappling at cheaper prices. I mean I am no gracie but the guy at the local boxing club is probably not Freddie roach either so as some people decide to give back it will reach to the " hood"
And last I just thought i'd ad better fighters win fights not better style of fighting no one style is better they all have big wholes in them and good fighters and trainers find them
HELWIG - Kind of insulting to all the BJJ fighters who grew up in slums of Brazil sleeping at the academy and cleaning the mats to pay for lessons.
Not everybody got good paying 150 a month for BJJ in an airconditioned gym that offers cardio kickboxing and pilates.
Yeah um, he's talking about AMERICA, not Brazil.
And even in Brazil, BJJ being available to the poor is a fairly recent thing. It was at one time considered an aristocratic martial art, while Lute Livre was reserved for the poor.
Wrestling programs are next to nonexistent in the [American] ghetto. We have Boxing and a few Karate/Taekwondo schools, but even the Boxing schools are the ones with the largest populace since they're so cheap (only 50beans a month).
Wrestling if fucking free and by an large cheaper than Football to participate in. The guys is a myopic rube making wide sweeping generalizations.
Fedor, Brock, Rashad, Rampage, Cro Cop, GSP (was a garbage man for a period of time), and many more were dirt poor growing up. The only real rich kid out there would be BJ. Then u have people like Mir and Machida who were sons of Martial Artists.
Josey Wales - Wrestling if fucking free and by an large cheaper than Football to participate in. The guys is a myopic rube making wide sweeping generalizations.
Not a lot of inner city wrestling programs unfortunately; whereas there are a lot of boxing gyms still. That said, wrestling is actually cheap if you have a place you can go to. But if dad isn't in the picture and your mom is working and you don't have a car, getting there is actually a problem.
donkypunch55 - i think it'll become more affordable as schools stop specializing. instead of having to take 2-4 classes, it'll just be an MMA class. and you can wrestle in high school, that's inexpensive, no?
This^ Already several places around here that offer "MMA Classes".
Josey Wales - Wrestling if fucking free and by an large cheaper than Football to participate in. The guys is a myopic rube making wide sweeping generalizations.
Not a lot of inner city wrestling programs unfortunately; whereas there are a lot of boxing gyms still. That said, wrestling is actually cheap if you have a place you can go to. But if dad isn't in the picture and your mom is working and you don't have a car, getting there is actually a problem.
Boxing gyms are not free. If u want it, u will get a part-time job and go to an good gym. With that being said, there are fewer decent MMA gyms than wrestling programs. But if u live in a big city, public transit is available and cheap.
If a "poor" kid wants to train he'll find a way. I've been training for the past 2 years(counting time off for school/being a kid) and for the bulk of that time I've washed the mats and cleaned the bathrooms so I could train. I'm sure theres a lot of coaches and schools out there willing to let a kid clean so he can train.