Why We Fight

"We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort." - Livy (The Roman historian).

That's one of my favorite phrases. The reason I love it so much is because it captures the essence of why I teach people how to fight. Fighting in the cage is just a metaphor for fighting in life. I tell my guys that "We don't fight to prove ourselves; we fight to test ourselves." We fight to face our fears, and become better people in the process. Winning or losing isn't nearly as important as fighting itself.

I often tell my guys "We don't train to become fighters; We train because we ARE fighters." It takes guts and heart to come to class each and every day. It takes effort. It takes discipline. Maybe it takes a dose of insanity. Training to fight is a fight unto itself. Just as we need to fight back the urge to pull over and beat the guy senseless who just cut us off. Just as we need to fight to get out of bed some mornings. Just as we need to fight the urge to just give up when the weight of the world seems to be crushing us. Going to the gym each and every day is fighting. It's not just training for it. It breeds spirit. It builds determination. It's fighting.

People ask me why I teach people to fight. I tell them I'm just making fighters better. I'm not making fighters. I'm sharpening them. Fighting in the cage is just another lesson. It's just another place where we can discover our weaknesses. Cage fighting is nothing more than a mirror in which we can see ourselves. A mirror in which we can see what we have in us. And what we don't have in us. It's not about conquering our opponents, it's about conquering ourselves. Cage fighting is the Philosopher's Stone that transforms us.

A good friend of mine told me once that the best way to take over a group of people is to give them all they want, all they believe they should have. To spoil them. Once they are spoiled, they go soft. When a people have something to fight against, they dig deep. They become ferocious. They discover their true depths. But when the enemy doesn't fight them, they soften. They perish in comfort.

We fight because we are fighters. We fight because conflict brings out who we are. We fight because the struggle reveals us. We fight not to prove ourselves, but to temper ourselves. We fight because life is in the struggle, not the complacency.

"The present is where the past and the future collide. It's where they battle each other. Only fighters can thrive in the subsequent melee."

Kyle Maynard

I hope to keep this one brief. Otherwise my intentions will be misunderstood. But I've had a lot of guys ask me about it, so I figured I'd write it and get it over with.

Kyle Maynard's recent MMA "fight" was an embarassment to MMA. That's just the way it is. It wasn't a fight, it was a staged event. When rules have to be manipulated to such a degree as to change the face of MMA for one person, it's no longer MMA. I have nothing against Kyle himself. He seems like a genuine guy who truly believes he has a right to participate in MMA. Maybe he does, but not against someone with ... um ... limbs. What weight class did he fight in? What restrictions were placed on his opponent so as to not send Kyle to the morgue?

Look, we all have the right to aspire to whatever makes us happy. But let's not delude ourselves. And for God's sake let's not keep playing this political correct bullshit. Somethings some people just can't do. Period. And lowering standards isn't a viable option.

Look ... if you allow me to sit next to the pilot of a plane, but tell me all I can do is watch him fly it, and then, after landing, the pilot tells my friends and family that I helped fly the plane, I would be embarassed. Sitting in the cockpit doesn't make me a pilot. Getting in the cage doesn't make you a fighter. Changing the standards to make someone feel like he did something is dishonest. And it dilutes the sport.