Xerxes

english subtitled in french.


http://riddum.com/index.php?option=c...d=38:slideshow

Curly

I don't think the French people like fighting do they? I thought they were more into cheese and wine and all that fu fu stuff.

Thats like asking an American to watch soccer.... its like putting a black man on the swim team.... its like asking me to dance. France and fighting just don't go together.

swpthleg

They do practice the art of savate, IIRC.

French people also like cigarettes that stink. That's OK because they have some of the best food and wine in the world.

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Xerxes

Lol.. France actually has a huge reservoir of potential MMA Fighters. Here are some official numbers (source: Insee.fr)

550,382 registered Judo and Judo-jiujitsukas
191,002 registered Karatekas
480,546 registered Kickboxers and Muay Thai practitioners

americanfighter

well we saw the french fighting spirit in the first episode of tuff this season.

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Xerxes

Yeah, we all saw it too in the Kongo/Velasquez fight

swpthleg

Well, where are they?? I'd love to see France better represented in the UFC, or WEC, or Strikeforce or wherever.

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Xerxes

The problem is MMA's still illegal in France. You basically have to go abroad to fight MMA.

From what Ive heard about the gyms and training facilities, you cant train everything at the same time. You either have grappling gyms or striking gyms etc.. Same problem, legislation.

The sport isn't sanctionned and it makes training and fighting so much harder.

ps- one last aspect which prevents French fighters from doing well in the promotions you mentioned is the fact that wrestling is pretty underdeveloped in France. Though they have good strikers/boxers and judokas.

mastodon2222

GSP is ethnically French.

mastodon2222

I'ts not just a French thing, there's not many European fighters, even from countries where you'd think there would be: Germany, Russia, Poland, Ukraine - I guarantee you that if it were more popular there there would be some badass guys from there. The way it is now, most top fighters come from Brazil or the US.