What Brought You into Combat Sports?

[ZombieProphet]

i'd like to open this poll to all the sherdog members that fight or have fought for a living or hobby (No "Street Frighters"). i've posted all the reasons why i would think a person would want to fight another person. you may chose more than one answer. my respect goes out to all the fighter that risk their safety for the entertainment of others!!! i've made the poll public so we'd know if any keyboard warriors try to vote!

thank you for your time!


NOTE: YOU DONT HAVE TO VOTE TO SEE THE RESULTS. JUST CLICK ON VIEW POLL RESULTS!!!

[Robert Sothmann]

I used BJJ as a recuperative tool to be active after my motorcycle accident. I was always good at scuffling and I started learning standup soon as my joints allowed it (probably before). That is how I started fighting... my BJJ instructor had an fight at an event and I was called last minute to fill a spot that no one else would fill. So I stepped up...prematurely maybe, but thats the way it goes. Baptism by fire.

[theswan]

i had blood clots and i sat in my house non active for 6 months while on blood thinner. as soon as i got off thinners my best friend invited me to a fight. i joined gracie bajja, trained there for a while, then started doing muay thai and wrestling. since then ive had some fights and thats how it happened hah.

[Podgorny]

A lot of these are accurate for me, I love to fight, I love competing, channeling anger in a positive way. But the most accurate has to be the passed down by heritage, as I mentioned before in another thread, my great grandfather was a barefisted prizefighter in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century.

[Joshua Coquelle]

As nerdy as it sounds all those cartoons and shows are what really got me into it. Ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to be a great martial artist, I was never a fighter in the sense I never picked fights in school, didn't brawl with my brother's but it was the fact that if I ever came down to it that I knew I could shine through using the martial arts. From watching Power Rangers, Ninja turtles and Dragonball Z is literally why I got into martial arts haha, now though I just love it and love to compete. Martial arts/MMA really gives me a sense of peace and just doing the movements i've always found beautiful, throwing a jab/straight/body hook/low kick combo or throwing flying knees, body shots, roundhouses is just like poetry to me, I love it.

[brian13]

I love stepping into the ring or onto the mat and facing my opponent and hearing the ref give his instructions and at the same time loads of adrenaline is going through my body.

[cardboardbox]

reading chuck liddell's book really got me interested

[Jake Fox]

My grandpa was a Golden Gloves Champ in MI. He taught my dad about boxing, and my dad did the same for me.

I didn't start legit training boxing till I was 15 or 16. I moved from a small suburb into a more urban neighborhood, and started getting into scraps. I started with BJJ, but if you've ever been to the ghetto, you know that there is no such thing as a fair fight. I started boxing so I could run in a real situation if I had to. Never looked back after that. I never once thought about competing until about a year ago, which is when I started taking things seriously. In high school, I was never good at sports. At 6'3 140, you'd expect me to be a basketball player, but I could never get along with the kids at school. Boxing's perfect for me. If I'm mad at my opponent--great--I'll just beat the piss out of him.

[Umbra]

Watching ninja turtles as a kid got my started taking TKD. Then as I got older I saw how political those TKD tournaments were and after getting DQ'ed as a black belt for "kicking too hard" I moved over to kickboxing. Then I moved to another city and the only gyms were some shitty boxing gym and an mma gym. The rest is history

[InternetHero]

*Edit.

I apologize I thought I'd moved into the Mayberry subforum.