TUF 1 Finalist Kenny Florian once indicated that he believed introspective and intelligent people were drawn to the sport of MMA because of, "the strategy of it, the mental game. Analyzing your opponent, analyzing yourself? your own strengths and weaknesses? and coming up with a game plan and executing it. There's a tremendous amount of skill and strategy that goes on."
Enter Nick Thompson.
Thompson, a man with an impressive 36-9-1 overall MMA record is widely reknowned for his technical prowess and well-rounded game. The former Bodog Fight Welterweight Champion has won 12 straight and 20 of his last 21 fights. Now Thompson is set to tangle with one of the very best the game has to offer in Jake Shields on July 26th in Stockton, California on CBS and EliteXC's second Saturday Night of Fights card.
Two days after that fight, the man they call The Goat will sit for his bar exam.
Thompson attended Law School at the University of Minnesota and graduated in May of 2008 with a Jurist Doctorate in Law degree. When asked how he was able to juggle training for a championship fight and studying for a bar exam, he replied, "very carefully. I get up in the morning about six. I'm at the gym at six doing my strength and conditioning. Then I go straight to class. Then it's back to the gym. I've got a little break room there. I study for a couple hours, train again, go home and study some more."
Talk about devotion. But the interesting thing, perhaps the specific part of this whole scenario that may be lost to those unfamiliar with the sport of MMA, is that this combination of talents isn't necessarily all that unusual. MMA and Law School actually have some similarities. In fact, when you look at what Florian said earlier in this piece?the part about 'analyzing yourself? your own strengths and weaknesses? and coming up with a game plan and executing it'?it sure does sound a lot like, well, the legal world.
Thompson agrees. "You know, I think there's a lot more similarities than most people expect (between becoming a lawyer and being an MMA fighter). Just because both of them are technical chess matches. One, you're using your body, the other you're using rhetoric. But in either case, you're picking out a strategy and trying to beat your opponent (like in a) chess match."
In the end, there's no escaping the fact that a very large percentage of MMA fighters are educated and otherwise intelligent people. Perhaps, as Thompson has suggested, the similarities between fighting and white collar, thinking man (or woman) kinds of jobs are more numerous than some out there would like to believe.
Regardless, the next time you hear someone call the sport you love to watch 'barbaric' or hear them compare it to 'human cockfighting' you can remind those same people that there are plenty of very intelligent people involved in the sport that like it because of the strategy and analysis rather than the blood and guts, as many assume.
Pointing them in Nick Thompson's direction wouldn't be a bad idea, either.
Enter Nick Thompson.
Thompson, a man with an impressive 36-9-1 overall MMA record is widely reknowned for his technical prowess and well-rounded game. The former Bodog Fight Welterweight Champion has won 12 straight and 20 of his last 21 fights. Now Thompson is set to tangle with one of the very best the game has to offer in Jake Shields on July 26th in Stockton, California on CBS and EliteXC's second Saturday Night of Fights card.
Two days after that fight, the man they call The Goat will sit for his bar exam.
Thompson attended Law School at the University of Minnesota and graduated in May of 2008 with a Jurist Doctorate in Law degree. When asked how he was able to juggle training for a championship fight and studying for a bar exam, he replied, "very carefully. I get up in the morning about six. I'm at the gym at six doing my strength and conditioning. Then I go straight to class. Then it's back to the gym. I've got a little break room there. I study for a couple hours, train again, go home and study some more."
Talk about devotion. But the interesting thing, perhaps the specific part of this whole scenario that may be lost to those unfamiliar with the sport of MMA, is that this combination of talents isn't necessarily all that unusual. MMA and Law School actually have some similarities. In fact, when you look at what Florian said earlier in this piece?the part about 'analyzing yourself? your own strengths and weaknesses? and coming up with a game plan and executing it'?it sure does sound a lot like, well, the legal world.
Thompson agrees. "You know, I think there's a lot more similarities than most people expect (between becoming a lawyer and being an MMA fighter). Just because both of them are technical chess matches. One, you're using your body, the other you're using rhetoric. But in either case, you're picking out a strategy and trying to beat your opponent (like in a) chess match."
In the end, there's no escaping the fact that a very large percentage of MMA fighters are educated and otherwise intelligent people. Perhaps, as Thompson has suggested, the similarities between fighting and white collar, thinking man (or woman) kinds of jobs are more numerous than some out there would like to believe.
Regardless, the next time you hear someone call the sport you love to watch 'barbaric' or hear them compare it to 'human cockfighting' you can remind those same people that there are plenty of very intelligent people involved in the sport that like it because of the strategy and analysis rather than the blood and guts, as many assume.
Pointing them in Nick Thompson's direction wouldn't be a bad idea, either.