How can you verify MMA fighters hardship stories as authentic?

[Spacetrucker]

You don't. Everyone has that sob story because it's basically required nowadays.

"Why do you want to be a doctor?" "Because I'm smart and it's good money." REJECTED

"Why do you want to be a doctor?" "My xxxx died when I was young, and I'm so sad and I want to help all the.." ACCEPTED

I'm not a doctor or anything but I did grow up upper middle class. I quickly learned that if you're from my class and really didn't have any bullshit like a bad family or anything and you ever actually tell anyone the truth, for some reason people hold it against you nowadays.. So you gotta just make some shit up to make yourself sound marginalized or like a pity party.

It's just the way the world works nowadays; being a victim is cool and if you're not a victim or marginalized, you ain't shit.

I grew up REALLY dirt poor and could give a fuck if anyone cares - in 50 years, that didnt define me and it never will.

 

[CPH]

Easy. Step up to them on the street and see what's what.

 

[pls11]

Most MMA fighters have different backgrounds in combat sports than MMA. Some have grappling backgrounds like wrestling of BJJ or striking backgrounds like boxing or Muaythai.
A few fighters who had other backgrounds in martial arts before they started training MMA are for example Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. Jon Jones wrestled in high school and was an NJCAA national champion in folkstyle wrestling before he did MMA. Gustafsson was an amateur boxer by age 10 and became a Swedish boxing champion before his MMA career.
Conor Mcgregor was also an amateur boxer before he started training MMA, he also used to be on welfare before he became a pro and could barely afford to buy training gear.

 

[3879]

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

One of them said that the only reason they kept doing it at first was because a classmate would buy them a meal afterward.

 

[Moro]

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.

Conor didn’t come from rags to riches lol, he was being supported by Dee and was taking welfare money from single mothers like a true rat bum he is.

 

[superpunch]

The era of gyms being expensive is relatively new; gyms were dirt cheap prior to ~2010.

I used to train in a room rented by wrestlers in an industrial warehouse with mats and heavy bags for ~$20/ month. Those same guys now own a huge corporate gym with nutritionists, specialized coaches, a ring, a cage, etc. that charges $200 a month.

So most of the fighters that are big names right now started training and earned their stripes in an era when MMA training was a very blue collar affair.

Beyond that, if you're actually training as an amateur/ pro to fight then you bring value to the gym just with your presence. That $200 is for people that bring nothing to the gym except their wallet. So they'll ease up on the tuition a bit for you or even let you train for free.

Lots of guys build their skillset while training at hole in the wall gyms. SBG used to be a hole in the wall before Conor got big I think. I don't think welfare Conor was paying them $200 a month lol. But it's like that; then once they get good they move to the huge gyms and at that point, the gyms want them; they're not just another wallet anymore.

I liken it to my skateboarding days. If you're just a recreational skateboarder, you buy a skateboard from the shop for $150. If you're good enough to be an amateur skateboarder, the skateboard shop "sponsors" you and gives you free or discounted skateboards. In return, you do promotional events for them and they get to use video footage of you to promote their shop. Win-win for everyone. MMA gyms do the same shit.

 

[wilKO]

Conor didn’t come from rags to riches lol, he was being supported by Dee and was taking welfare money from single mothers like a true rat bum he is.

Every single post of yours is about Conor McGregor. It's a bit stalkerish.

 

[Moro]

Every single post of yours is about Conor McGregor. It's a bit stalkerish.

You might as well blurt that out to everyone on Sherdog then, it’s pretty much the highlight topic being the fight is just around the corner.

 

[Normot]

Got into one little fight and my mom got scared.
She moved me into the MMA gym to train.
Now im the prince of the UFC.

 

[OneManOrgy]

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

Fucked up thing about this is why would anyone write this as their autobiography, which makes it even more believable the things he did. He is a "Religious man" so maybe he thought he was confessing to the lord.

 

[Katsushyro]

We have a lot of free bjj classes on social projects where I live.

I myself strated bjj in my teens training for free in a university, where some black belt studends gave free classes, and the city sports department would aways provid a van to take us to tournments.

Some mma and bjj gym's here have programs to find talent, where they select people who want to train full time and pay for they food, nutritionist, free training, etc.

Some even have bunk beds for people to live there.

 

[slicebergjim]

You don't. Everyone has that sob story because it's basically required nowadays.

"Why do you want to be a doctor?" "Because I'm smart and it's good money." REJECTED

"Why do you want to be a doctor?" "My xxxx died when I was young, and I'm so sad and I want to help all the.." ACCEPTED

I'm not a doctor or anything but I did grow up upper middle class. I quickly learned that if you're from my class and really didn't have any bullshit like a bad family or anything and you ever actually tell anyone the truth, for some reason people hold it against you nowadays.. So you gotta just make some shit up to make yourself sound marginalized or like a pity party.

It's just the way the world works nowadays; being a victim is cool and if you're not a victim or marginalized, you ain't shit.

Just stay away from those people like the plague as they’re bitter and useless anyways

 

[Buff]

Ben Askren once had to wash dishes because his dishwasher was loaded already.

CB Dolloway used to have to drive himself to school in his father's 3rd favourite mustang occasionally when his Range Rover was in the mechanics.

TJ Dillashaw once actually had to clean his own room for an entire week when his cleaner's husband died and she took a week off.

Chael P Sonnen had the indignity of having to go to school without enough designer clothes in his wardrobe to be able to waesr a different outfit every day.

BJ Penn, the youngest of 5 brothers used to have to rely on a non-Harvard educated person to do his homework for him when he was too busy training to do school stuff.

It's tragic thinking about that kind of poverty and sadness.

 

[bluntmaster6]

Brian Ortega has literally killed 5 people growing up on the hard streets of LA. The young boy was starving and homeless, he had no options.

 

[Clear Winner]

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?

If your really good at basketball the collegiate system in America will mean you don’t have to worry about day to day struggles and money

 

[BrazilianDude]

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

Exactly. Fight gyms are not expensive everywhere. In Brazil it's not hard to find a social project where you can train bjj for free, for example. Many gyms also accept poor students if they are willing to do some work, like clean the mat before or after training, for example.

 

[DanAndroid]

maybe you should challenge one of them to a street fight TS

 

[campbecc]

I'm not sure how expensive it is in place like Brazil. wrestling is free if you are in america because most schools have a team. There are places where you can learn to box for free like the PAL or others ran by charities in bad neighborhoods. If you learn those two martial arts you are well on your way already.

 

[BrazilianDude]

I'm not sure how expensive it is in place like Brazil. wrestling is free if you are in america because most schools have a team. There are places where you can learn to box for free like the PAL or others ran by charities in bad neighborhoods. If you learn those two martial arts you are well on your way already.

In Brazil it depends, but compared to the US it's real cheap to train bjj. Many social projects teach it for free and you can find cheap places to train for like US$ 20 a month, maybe less.
A really expensive gym in my city would cost about US$125 but you can train like 30 different things, including Muay Thai, Bjj and judo.
Good quality protein and supplements are way more expensive than in the US though.

Edit: a monthly minimim wage is about US$ 250, so it is still expensive for the poor.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

If they're from the Nova Uniao camp in Brazil there is a good chance they're (they) coming from a poor background.

Read up on Joes's story - that is real hardship and perseverance.