Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Fighting Is Never Personal

I see a lot of guys hesitant to fight fighters in their weight class. This is usually the case for heavy and lightweights. Middleweights aren't the problem usually because that's most of the general population. Matching fighters for promoters can be a headache when local guys turn down fights when the fighter pool is small. Years ago in Atlanta, there were a few boxing gyms. Fighters would go around from gym to gym to get sparring sessions with different fighters in their weight class. They would become friends with their new training partners. When fights came up and they were matched against each other they fought. This was never personal. They would fight and shake hands afterwards. In other martial arts competitions, guys are sometimes reluctant to do this. A year ago, I got back into judo competition and my first match was against one of my coaches. I attacked as hard as I could and was happy to last the 30 seconds I did (yeah, I lost). Remember that if you ever have to fight a friend, it's never personal. Believe it or not, you get to know each other much better and your respect for each other will be even greater. I have one friend from the age of 10 to present. We met through fighting and became pals.

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