How can you verify MMA fighters hardship stories as authentic?

We heard depressing stories from UFC fighters who said they went through hardships in their younger years and how MMA saved their life.

Some would say they're BS to gain sympathy. I see soccer/basketball players and boxer stories as more genuine because their sport are cheap as dirt and easily accessible.

Unlike MMA gyms that are ridiculously expensive, they're a white collar sport and is almost on par with water and ice sports. They're not easily attainable so you would be spending over $3000 for the next 2 years to become skilled.

So, there's absolute noway an aspiring fighter that are on poverty line, broken families or expat out of war/crime ridden country etc would choose MMA as a way to make living in a combat sport. How are they able to afford it and how can we verify their stories as authentic?

 

The only such stories that ever resonated with me were those of Jose Aldo and Francis Ngannou.

 

Many of these stories are not from within the US, Ngannou for example.

 

You realise most of the MMA fighters have a base in striking or grappling. You just said boxing is cheap. McGregor was broke and trained boxing. His MMA career has come through his boxing skills. And yes mma can be expensive which is why you hear stories of fighters living in their cars to fund their career. It's not like it's polo. And these guys on royal horses are trotting around saying how they live on the streets. These guys aren't doing or saying anything unbelievable.

 

Some gyms would let talented guys train in exchange for mopping mats/ teaching kids classes etc.

 

Joe Rogan on Ngannou: He fucking shoveled SAND dude!

 

Conor said he was on welfare and I believe him. That’s not something to brag about

 

Fighting in MMA nowadays is more of a chosen hardship. You have to pay for your trainers, managers, gyms. You can barely get any sponsorship money because of Reebok. Long term medical care is a lot more expensive and risky due to chronic injuries. Skill levels of fighters are off the charts compared to 15 years ago. Most are there because they are young and they like to fight not because there's a future.

 

MMA fighters are the pampered primadonnas of the sports world. They wouldn't last 10 minutes on the tennis court.

 

"I submit myself to your teachings Sensei Youtube"

- Jon Florian

 

Wrestling Is a high school sport for one and

Diaz brothers for example are BJJ based which is arguably the most expensive combat sport to learn and I’m pretty sure those guys grew up dirt poor in a dirt poor place

 

send Megan OIivi, Helen Yee and The Schmo out to interview their moms and make sure their mothers are hooked up to lie detectors

 

So spoken from an ivory tower . . .
MMA training is and can be dirt cheap, if you look for it/want it bad enough....which most white-collar and upper/middle class athletes don't. Using only the slightest bit of perspective, can you not imagine 3rd world and South American fighters having had a rough upbringing? Even most of the guys I've trained with in the US (Atlanta) came from tough-as-nails immigrant backgrounds. I guess I just don't see your point (unless sarcasm...)

 

Huh, so MMA fighters are nothing more than aristocrats who lead a privileged existence, who decide to get their faces punched in for 8k a pop, and 15% off at Reebok, if they make it to the UFC.

I never knew that, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

 

I believe most of them to be true...

GSP really did have this haircut and cherry red lips..

 

I believe all the shitty Matt Hughes is a scumbag stories. Most confirmed in his AutoBiography

 

I'm not sure if you've ever done that kind of work but it's very very grueling.

 

It is annoying how expensive it is to train now. When I started back in the early 2000s I was paying 35 a month. Now the closest gym is 115 a month.