Does every fighter on countdown/prefight show rise from poverty?

[KO By Knee]

How many wealthy parents say "yeah, I want to prepare my child to take blows to the head and face as a paid professional"?
Just wondering.

Well lots of wrestlers I know that, also even NFL guys turn to fighting. Once MMA became mainstream everyone went too it.

Its just about where you put your focus.
MMA
FootBall
Computer Repair
Random jobs.

Poverty can be in everything.

 

[BrazilianDude]

how many people that didn't grow up in poverty end up fighting in a cage?

Not too many...
There are some examples though. From Brazil I remember Belfort, Hugo "Wolverine" Viana, Demian Maia and I think Daniel Sarafian as well. There are more, but the obvious fact is this is not the most attractive career choice if you have other options, unless you trust yourself to be incredibly talented.

 

[chickenlip]

Holloway probably ate so much spam growing up in Hawaii, but I think everybody eats it there haha

 

[Maryse]

pro fighting is easily accessible for poor people and is seen as a way for them to get somewhere in life. Its just how it is.

 

[SpiderCrawl]

pro fighting is easily accessible for poor people and is seen as a way for them to get somewhere in life. Its just how it is.

Gym fees can be pricey though.

 

[blewgums]

They have to. It's the law. If their parents have money the Yakuza will go back in time and kill them. It's true. I read it on Abe Lincoln's Facebook page.

 

[120wrestling]

Kenny Florians dad was a heart surgeon and his mom had a high paying job as well. He started MMA at 28 and he's fought for a UFC title 3x.

 

[Glove]

Yes.
With VERY few exceptions, no rich kids from places like Scarsdale, NY, Stamford, CT, Beverly Hills, CA, or Highland Park, IL would end up forgoing their bachelor's degree at the Ivy Leagues for a career in fighting.

Even a guy like BJ, who has family money, isn't highly educated. His family made some money in real estate in Hilo, kind of like some mah-jong playing Chinese grandma who owns a building in San Francisco.

The whole "MMA fighter who is smart" is highly overrated. None of these guys had admission to MIT and a job at Google in their future.... and yes, I know there are a 100 high school math teachers in every county in the USA, there are tons of people that majored in communications at Boston College, etc. I'm not impressed.

I do think that Joe Lauzon is the lone brilliant mind in high level MMA. His education level is 'meh' but he is a very smart guy, albeit probably also from a lower middle class background. Not a pro level athlete by any means, but performed to a very high level due to his own intelligence, not due to the intelligence of his coach.

The story might be a clich

 

[Elysianwing]

Hunger + eye of the tiger.

 

[ArtemV]

Unless you're from Sweden/Norway then yep, poverty it is!

 

[Malthian]

The whole "MMA fighter who is smart" is highly overrated. None of these guys had admission to MIT and a job at Google in their future.... and yes, I know there are a 100 high school math teachers in every county in the USA, there are tons of people that majored in communications at Boston College, etc. I'm not impressed.

Alex Chambers... degree in physics from the University of Sydney with her major in astrophysics (that's why she's called Astro Girl) before she decided to pursue MMA.

http://themmacorner.com/2013/03/30/astro-girl-set-to-soar-alex-chambers-invicta-fc-debut/

Given that you don't get a spot for a physics degree for just being average, I'd say she's smarter than the average bear.

 

[Oedad]

Weidman grew up middle class and went to hofstra, Jones is from Ithaca he wasn't from some ghetto, so ya lots of good fighters come from middle class backgrounds.

I'd day almost no good fighters actually come from the worst ghettos because they are so poor they are actually battling undernourishment and illness during childhood. The "poor" we see in sports are poor enough to be hungry but still have some experience and knowledge some knowledge a better life is possible.

Also everyone hams up their story to the absolute max trying to illicit sympathy points. Even rich people highlight certain experiences on their college apps to make it seem like life is so hard.

 

[PeaceIndieFly]

 

[TFanatic]

It was funny during the Condit/Diaz countdown when they were showing ratty parts of Albuquerque for Condit like he was poor, when his dad was actually a pretty big deal politically during Carlos' formative years.

 

[ocfightfan]

It's a common story for a poor kid to use athletics to get out of poverty. The problem is that MMA is still a hard road with very uneven results, and more established sports are a one in a million shot (or more like one in twenty million).

 

[PeaceIndieFly]

Weidman grew up middle class and went to hofstra, Jones is from Ithaca he wasn't from some ghetto, so ya lots of good fighters come from middle class backgrounds.

I'd day almost no good fighters actually come from the worst ghettos because they are so poor they are actually battling undernourishment and illness during childhood. The "poor" we see in sports are poor enough to be hungry but still have some experience and knowledge some knowledge a better life is possible.

Also everyone hams up their story to the absolute max trying to illicit sympathy points. Even rich people highlight certain experiences on their college apps to make it seem like life is so hard.

Jones has said numerous times he grew up "very poor". His mom was a nurse and his dad was a preacher who volunteered and they lived poor themselfs to give their children better opportunities like going to a better school district. To reiterate this Anderson Silva almost gave up mma because he was so poor, Jose Aldo was homeless, Anthony Pettis's dad was murdered by a gang, fedor couldn't even feed himself at one point and only his family, junior dos santos worked since he was ten and was born into a very poor family and Cain Velasquez's parents were poor farmers And most of those guys job before becoming fighters were taking our orders at the drive through fast food window. Again you see it more in boxing but it also has been around a lot longer and of course you have your exceptions.