American cultural obsession with a fighters physique and figure over actual combat effectiveness

[TheMaster]

One of things that pisses me off the most.
This is a combat sport, not a modelling contest and figure admiring competition.

I get tired of the amount of threads I see, 'Fedor is a middleweight or fat welterweight'
'So and so needs to cut weight'

(Also many threads about Rogans body but a separate topic)

I remember Chuck used to get criticised for ''not looking like a fighter' when he was lhw champion!

As though because he didn't look like a body builder something was wrong.
The pressure drove tubby Josh Barnett to roid to avoid ridicule for his build when it was totally unnecessary for his fighting performance.

If you are man enough to fight and win at an upper weight, you don't need to cut weight and fight smaller guys to please some ideal of having a slimmed down good looking physique.

The GOAT HW (open weight class) looked like this.

That's right, perfect fighting build including some fat for fuel and more weight for power and padding to absorb shots.
Looks like a big sized regular guy with a belly because this is fighting not modelling.

Honorary mentions among many others:

 

[JabToucher]

I don't mind seeing these more "average" built fighters like Romero and Costa seeing as I'm a sherdogger.

 

[Steve-French]

It's not an American thing it's a sherdog thing.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Sounds like you need to get yourself in shape TS.

 

[mmadeewana]

Yeah who cares how they look as long as they can fight. Beach body guys would get choked 10/10 times by flabby valasquez or skinny fat nate.

 

[Caseyvk]

Muscles != Performance

 

[akimbo187]

A lot of it has to do with media and stuff like portraying the perfect image because of all the other insecurities we can’t face. The same thing applies to women and Instagram. Everyone is going to now have a twisted notion of how a woman’s butt or physique should look. People have a lot of insecurities and issues, and a lot of times they try to have a “perfect” image so that they can mask everything. On a side note, we should all strive to be healthy though.

 

[Mortal Wombat]

Its the bullshit the yanks are fed from a young age about the NFL and NBA. They think big roided up muscle equals fitness and chin.

 

[wolfss]

It’s called trolling

 

[Misanthropist]

It’s a universal thing. 95% of them (especially women) think men with huge muscles can beat a professional fat fighter not known to the general public.

Show any women a pic of fat/dad bod fighters and ask if they could beat musclular dudes, they’ll scoff at you.

 

[felmmando]

It’s a universal thing. 95% of them (especially women) think men with huge muscles can beat a professional fat fighter not known to the general public.

Show any women a pic of fat/dad bod fighters and ask if they could beat musclular dudes, they’ll scoff at you.

If they are so uninterested in fighting that they won't even recognise successful, flabby fighters, what difference does it make to them whether a muscular guy could beat one or not?

 

[The Fapper]

One of things that pisses me off the most.
This is a combat sport, not a modelling contest and figure admiring competition.

I get tired of the amount of threads I see, 'Fedor is a middleweight or fat welterweight'
'So and so needs to cut weight'

(Also many threads about Rogans body but a separate topic)

I remember Chuck used to get criticised for ''not looking like a fighter' when he was lhw champion!

As though because he didn't look like a body builder something was wrong.
The pressure drove tubby Josh Barnett to roid to avoid ridicule for his build when it was totally unnecessary for his fighting performance.

If you are man enough to fight and win at an upper weight, you don't need to cut weight and fight smaller guys to please some ideal of having a slimmed down good looking physique.

The GOAT HW (open weight class)View attachment 731113 looked like this.

That's right, perfect fighting build including some fat for fuel and more weight for power and padding to absorb shots.
Looks like a big sized regular guy with a belly because this is fighting not modelling.

Honorary mentions among many others:
View attachment 731133
View attachment 731119

One of things that pisses me off the most.
This is a combat sport, not a modelling contest and figure admiring competition.

I get tired of the amount of threads I see, 'Fedor is a middleweight or fat welterweight'
'So and so needs to cut weight'

(Also many threads about Rogans body but a separate topic)

I remember Chuck used to get criticised for ''not looking like a fighter' when he was lhw champion!

As though because he didn't look like a body builder something was wrong.
The pressure drove tubby Josh Barnett to roid to avoid ridicule for his build when it was totally unnecessary for his fighting performance.

If you are man enough to fight and win at an upper weight, you don't need to cut weight and fight smaller guys to please some ideal of having a slimmed down good looking physique.

The GOAT HW (open weight class)View attachment 731113 looked like this.

That's right, perfect fighting build including some fat for fuel and more weight for power and padding to absorb shots.
Looks like a big sized regular guy with a belly because this is fighting not modelling.

Honorary mentions among many others:
View attachment 731133
View attachment 731119

Honestly this post reads like something a great big fat person would Type up.......TheMaster is a fatty confirmed

 

[arcadeperfect]

Its the bullshit the yanks are fed from a young age about the NFL and NBA. They think big roided up muscle equals fitness and chin.

It's more hollywood influenced. I know people that think The Rock is the best fighter in the world. I'm not joking.

 

[arcadeperfect]

A muscular physique is more often than not just a byproduct of martial arts training for certain guys. Some guys can look great by just training, others require additional weight lifting and resistance exercises. Some guys just aren't built that way. It's no different than physical attractiveness, you either have it or you don't. It has no real correlation with fighting ability, some guys can make it work like Joshua, Holyfiled, Romero, and some guys are successful with some flab like DC, Fedor, Ruiz.

 

[LiQuiD42]

Seriously, have you seen the average Sherbro?

We aren’t impressed with any mere mortal physiques only the stoic, raw chiseled physique shall garner our attention.

 

[Cylence]

I'm American and for the most part I agree with you, but there are some cases where fighters get slack for it in which I think it is very deserved.

Rampage in recent years comes to mind. Like, come on bro, you're not a 250 pound heavyweight. You're a light heavyweight that just doesn't train anymore and it's obviously hindering the performances in the twilight of your career. I'd be cool with him even fighting at heavyweight if he took it seriously. 225-230 would be about right for a heavyweight Rampage.

Ruiz is another example. In the first fight, I thought he was a bit overweight, but he took that fight on short notice, and shit happens. So, he wins, looks sensational in doing so, and I expect him to come into the rematch a bit lighter and quicker. Of course, instead of opting to lose around ten pounds, which would have put him right around 258 and is a weight he's fought at before and looked great doing so, he opts to gain about fifteen and come in at an astonishing 284.

I guess my problem isn't necessarily with a fighters physique, but more so with the ones that obviously self-sabotage themselves by eating themselves into irrelevancy.

 

[Mortal Wombat]

It's more hollywood influenced. I know people that think The Rock is the best fighter in the world. I'm not joking.

He isn't? Next you will be telling me WWE isn't real.

 

[JimmyFresno]

It's an ego trip, plain and simple. A worshipping of youth and the young.

There's being a fat piece of shit who doesn't have the strength to choke their chicken.

There's Stars at Planet Wussy (Fitness) who count calories like women.

There's there's performance-based athletes whose appearance is a byproduct of strict, spartan training, which is fleeting.

Then there's the rest of us, who get the good food in, so we can work hard, and who don't really give a shit about having a few beers n wings after a good shower to end the day.

We might lose a little sleep staying up late and plowing the wife. But we're up like clockwork in the morning to get shit done. Period.

As far as athletes go, performance is paramount. Arnold Schwarzenegger would get his ass kicked by "Tank" Abbott in an Austrian minute.

 

[KootenayKid]

Man, fuck all that. Just make homoerotic posts with the rest of us.

 

[Credo]

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