Very interesting Yahoo article about Pro athletes and MMA.
by xposipx on Jun 24, 2009 3:40 PM EDT
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PrintI don't know much about James Johnson, but freakish athletes WITH prior combat training could be in the future. Imagine if a guy like Dwight Howard dedicated himself to training jiu jitsu and a striker's martial art. Hopefully there's more stories like this in the future and more pure athletes who become interested in the sport. One day I hope true world-class athletes begin choosing MMA over certain other sports. Imagine the controversy that would cause with boxing reporters and the general media.
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I’ve got a feeling we will see more and more of this in the future and not just from huge guys, the athletic talent level should go up across the board in MMA as the sport grows.
It’s funny how top athletes seem to have long gravitated towards MMA for whatever reason; athletes were the first “stars” in the crowds at UFC ppvs. Once the money gets better, I think you’ll see even more athletic specimens choosing MMA.
"I'm AJB and I endorse this nut-puncher."
I hope so, but the problem with MMA is that the risks are too high and the rewards are too low. If you’re a guy like Brock Lesnar with lots of money and are just doing it because you want to hurt people, that’s a different story.
Perhaps you missed the interview a couple of days ago where Brock said he’s doing it for the money. Rest assured Brock fights because the money is very good and he gets paid huge bucks for it. They don’t call it prize fighting for nothing.
I’ve had plenty of jobs to put food on the table. I grew up on a farm in South Dakota so I’m no stranger to hard work. But you have to make money. If there wasn’t a prize or a guy couldn’t make a living out of this I highly doubt that anybody would fight. Put it this way, guys play golf for recreation. You don’t fight and get bloody noses and black eyes for fun. I’m a grown man and I have to make a living out of this."
http://www.fightline.com/news/mma/2009/0617/419655/brock_lesnar/index.shtml
Good find. I didn’t mean to imply that he does it for “fun” — rather that there is very little incentive for professional athletes to migrate over to MMA.
Look at it this way, there are a lot of high quality athletes out there in college sports that just won’t make it into the pro leagues but could have a career in MMA with the potential to make some big money. I doubt we will ever see a day where a guy will actually have to decide between the NFL/NBA or UFC but we do have a situation now where a guy can decide to stay a professional athlete if their ball career doesn’t pan out. We also have a situation right now where national champion caliber amateur wrestlers have another real option besides coaching for little or no money or pro wrestling once they get out of school, not to mention that some of those guys have gone to the NFL in the past too(like Stephen Neal) but might not now. The money is good enough in MMA that it can be a back up choice for these guys now and that will open up the floodgates to a level of athletes the sport has historically lacked.
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