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Old interview but it reflects nicely that NHB/MMA was much better when there was no money and greed in it and fighters fought for honor and because they simply wanted to fight.
Big money corrupted the soul of MMA and the true spirit of martial arts. That's why I couldn't care about PPV buys, the draws, how well the UFC/fighters do financially etc. The less money there is in MMA, the better it is.
https://www.mmafighting.com/2013/8/...t-reflects-on-a-past-era-frank-mir-dana-white
"I fought when there was no money from fighting really," Barnett reflected. "I fought when you couldn't even buy MMA gear at your local sports store or whatever. We had to make it ourselves. I fought when most of the time we didn't even wear gloves. We were under attack from all angles. There wasn't really an audience hardly. There wasn't much fame. The only real reason to do it was because you just had a never-ending desire to get in there and bathe in blood.
[...]
As the old guard slowly dwindles in number, Barnett remains one of the few active veterans to still remember the NHB days. He marvels at the massive leaps forward the sport has made since that era, although he believes it comes with a cost.
"I think that a lot of guys fight not for the reasons that we used to fight for," Barnett said. "There's a lot of guys that get in here and they just want to get in, make a run, think that they're going to be famous, make a lot of money, what have you. They fight for glory, where we fought for blood and for honor.
"There's still great, true fighters coming out of this, but these guys aren't quite as tough as they used to be. There's way better athletes, they're much better prepared, but some of these guys, they don't have that grit."
Big money corrupted the soul of MMA and the true spirit of martial arts. That's why I couldn't care about PPV buys, the draws, how well the UFC/fighters do financially etc. The less money there is in MMA, the better it is.
https://www.mmafighting.com/2013/8/...t-reflects-on-a-past-era-frank-mir-dana-white
"I fought when there was no money from fighting really," Barnett reflected. "I fought when you couldn't even buy MMA gear at your local sports store or whatever. We had to make it ourselves. I fought when most of the time we didn't even wear gloves. We were under attack from all angles. There wasn't really an audience hardly. There wasn't much fame. The only real reason to do it was because you just had a never-ending desire to get in there and bathe in blood.
[...]
As the old guard slowly dwindles in number, Barnett remains one of the few active veterans to still remember the NHB days. He marvels at the massive leaps forward the sport has made since that era, although he believes it comes with a cost.
"I think that a lot of guys fight not for the reasons that we used to fight for," Barnett said. "There's a lot of guys that get in here and they just want to get in, make a run, think that they're going to be famous, make a lot of money, what have you. They fight for glory, where we fought for blood and for honor.
"There's still great, true fighters coming out of this, but these guys aren't quite as tough as they used to be. There's way better athletes, they're much better prepared, but some of these guys, they don't have that grit."
