Why the Fred Ettish hate?

[blopdak]

As someone who started watching MMA in the TUF 1 days, I'm not always familiar with all of the very early fights and fighters. Today in another thread, I came across a name I hadn't heard before -- Fred Ettish -- in the context of CM Punk possibly becoming Fred Ettish 2.0. I decided to do some digging...

What I found was a myriad of articles and post ridiculing him and his performance at UFC 2, a references making fun of the performance, long after the fight had taken place. I watched the fight and I've seen much poorer performances, even in modern fights. (link to fight)

I also found that the guy had it pretty rough. Lost a son, father commited suicide, considered suicide himself after the blowback from his UFC 2 fight. Seems like a pretty stand up guy.



It was pretty cool to learn that he came back to fight one more MMA fight at 53 to chase personal demons, and won.

My question to those who followed MMA in those days is: What was it about Fred Ettish or his performance that got him so much hate?

 

[essie]

He actually didn't know he was going to be fighting that night at all and they just asked him to step in last minute. I think the hatred was just the first opportunity for the MMA community to show its ugliness and judge a fighter for something they perceived as embarrassing. He's a super nice and humble guy and took the whole situation really hard. Not only were the attacks uncalled for they were often extremely mean spirited.

 

[The guest]

Personally I liked the Entish. Those big talking tree herders in the Lord of the Rings. Tree beard seemed like a pretty cool cat.

Nah... I like the Entish.

 

[greatdara]

Lots of kids did Mcdojo Karate for self-defence/self esteem/stop getting bullied. Early UFC put paid to everyone's hope that that was enough. personified that lost hope. And Ettish fetish became an outlet for the hate.

 

[greatdara]

He actually didn't know he was going to be fighting that night at all and they just asked him to step in last minute. I think the hatred was just the first opportunity for the MMA community to show its ugliness and judge a fighter for something they perceived as embarrassing. He's a super nice and humble guy and took the whole situation really hard. Not only were the attacks uncalled for they were often extremely mean spirited.

People are really just a pack of wolves/hyenas. Waiting for the first sign of weakness so that they can attack in hoardes and tear you apart.

 

[NILLI]

I have been browsing these forums for over a decade and have not personally seen any mean thread or any threads about Fred Ettish. I remember renting UFC VHS and watching that fight. It was embarrassing for sure but Fred has balls to go out there. On the otherhand I don't think many people knew what real fighting was at that time and most of the people thought that their silly "art" is legit in a real fight.

I don't think the backslash would have been as bad if Fred wouldn't have that goofy look going with the moustache. I think in the early UFC's there were many way more embarrassing fights or masters or what ever you like to call them. For example in the same "card" there was the fight between Patric Smith and Scott morris. Holy hell that was a beatdown and embarrassing shit. Especially if you watch the early video where Morris demonstrates his techniques. Think about how he must have felt after he returned to his dojo or what ever. Talking about wasting your life.

 

[MysticNinjaJay]

He wore a Gi and represented Karate. People hadn't seen many full-contact Karate fights and the perception before UFC 1 was that Traditional Martial Artists were capable of fighting like Bruce Lee and the other Martial Arts superstars in their movies. The UFC and MMA dispelled those myths. Fred Ettish got caught in the cross-fire of the MMA revolution. I have UFC 2 on DVD. Personally I thought Ettish was doing ok until he fell to the ground and didn't know how to defend off of his back. The fight was brutal. I don't feel that Ettish disgraced himself as many say and besides his opponent, Johnny Rhodes, was also a Karateka albeit with some Kickboxing experience. People are way too hard on Fred Ettish. He was outweighed significantly in that fight and he didn't fight that well but others did worse. Plus he did train MMA came back in his 50s and won a fight so he redeemed himself.

 

[Thunderchild]

Seems like a nice stand-up guy. I like that he came back and won at 53. He has heart.

 

[Haj01]

No fetish for Fred Ettish

 

[chitoortiz]

Because his nickname wasn't Fetish.

 

[greatdara]

. Think about how he must have felt after he returned to his dojo or what ever. Talking about wasting your life.

In the end, the truth is never unkind.

 

[blopdak]

I have been browsing these forums for over a decade and have not personally seen any mean thread or any threads about Fred Ettish.

Yeah, I haven't seen much on Sherdog either, this was actually the first time I had heard the name. I was just taken aback by what I found in terms of articles and posts about him on other sites.

 

[Aluminati]

It got really carried away with the whole "fetal fighting" technique ridicule.
But in reality it was the people who were super excited about this "real life Kumite" getting talked down to by people who were full of shit talking about how their sensei at so and so McDojo could kill you with one touch. (via Dim Mak, Tai Chi, or some other such bullshit).

Well, Fred Ettish happened, and for a lot of people, a kickboxer beating the ever-loving shit out of a kareteka was the real world example they would show people who would say, "but, nuh-un, my sensei would use pressure points...". Yup, right after he got knocked the fuck down and choked out I'm sure he would.

Basically, he became an example of what UFC taught the Martial Arts community. Anything can happen in the cage, and if you're not prepared for it, it can reeeeaaaaallllly fuck you up, in so many different ways.

It was nothing personal, but the internet acted like the internet acts, and that's why we are cancer.

 

[Aluminati]

I have been browsing these forums for over a decade and have not personally seen any mean thread or any threads about Fred Ettish.

It was much earlier than that, believe it or not.
It pre-dated Rickson via Armbar by about 5 years.

 

[ALAN PARTRIDGE]

There is No Hate for him, you are stirring shit up Troll

 

[blopdak]

There is No Hate for him, you are stirring shit up Troll

...alright?

 

[basementdweller]

It got really carried away with the whole "fetal fighting" technique ridicule.
But in reality it was the people who were super excited about this "real life Kumite" getting talked down to by people who were full of shit talking about how their sensei at so and so McDojo could kill you with one touch. (via Dim Mak, Tai Chi, or some other such bullshit).

Well, Fred Ettish happened, and for a lot of people, a kickboxer beating the ever-loving shit out of a kareteka was the real world example they would show people who would say, "but, nuh-un, my sensei would use pressure points...". Yup, right after he got knocked the fuck down and choked out I'm sure he would.

Basically, he became an example of what UFC taught the Martial Arts community. Anything can happen in the cage, and if you're not prepared for it, it can reeeeaaaaallllly fuck you up, in so many different ways.

It was nothing personal, but the internet acted like the internet acts, and that's why we are cancer.

not to mention he looks cartoonishly goofy in that fight

 

[Blayt7hh]

Yeah stop the Fred Ettish hate. All I see are fuck Fred threads these days

Wtf are you goobers talking about

 

[DannyNL]

I doubt anybody actually "hates" the guy, I've only seen him as the butt of jokes for the last 23 years or so.

 

[greatdara]

It got really carried away with the whole "fetal fighting" technique ridicule.
But in reality it was the people who were super excited about this "real life Kumite" getting talked down to by people who were full of shit talking about how their sensei at so and so McDojo could kill you with one touch. (via Dim Mak, Tai Chi, or some other such bullshit).

This. It was personal but it was also not personal. We ALL were tired of the obvious bullshit spouted fake
sensei founder of a ALL NEW fighting system brilliantly synthesized by them guaranteed to make you a killing machine by the end of week 1. Poor guy got THAT hate.