bhar

I understand both sides of the coin and appreciate your thoughts.

However, for my part I wouldn't fight one of my team mates. It would cause tension at the gym. Coaches wouldn't coach properly, other team mates would possibly take sides, and at the end of the day your fighting to take money away from your friend's family and put it in your pocket.

Mentally I could not get 100% up for a fight like this and have the same killer instinct that I would in a regular fight.

Soojooko

If you were fighting for the UFC, and were offered a title fight against one of your partners, are you 100% sure you wouldn't take the fight? Avoiding partners is fine 99% of the time. Its never an issue until 2 of the top 3 guys are friends and wont fight. In this instance, its bad for the sport.

HitOrGetHit

There comes a point when it intereferes with their job. That is what this is. Their job. Now I do understand where they are coming from, but it is perfectly reasonable for them to get crap for not doing it. Especially when it screws up rankings like Kos and Fitch at WW and Evans and Jones at LHW.

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xeberus

I would fight any of my friends, family, crippled person, child with cancer for the kind of money those guys make

semi-jk

i would really fight any of my friends if we were both going to be heavily monetarily compensated for our bout.

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cdtcpl

My friends and I fight all the time for fun, and now you want to pay me for it?

I honestly think it has a lot to do with ego.

Eric89

I would say this is an entirely differenty story. Ken and Frank: 1 aren't brothers. 2 Have a documented rivarly where there is real animosity between the two.

I would imagine it differs on a case by case basis though when fighting teammates. In some cases like Josh Koshcheck/Jon Fitch where they have trained together for years or Shaub/Carwin where one literally has brought the other into the sport and mentored him I could see teammates being hesitant and opposed to fighting. The amount of respect for another and/or amount of tricks/specialties known can cause trepidation.

On the other hand, the instances of fighters like JBJ/Rashad or GSP/Condit I could imagine they do not train together regularly or haven't trained together long enough to form such a bond I would imagine they should not have such a giant problem fighitng eachother.

The only real problem I see in such instances is who is cornered by which camp. It would foce coaches to pick "favorites" and leave the other fighter to quickly find another coach who doesn't know them as well and won't be able to corner them to the same extent as their regular trainer would be able to, putting them at a disadvantage.

All in all, this is an interesting situation and has been discussed many times. I tend to agree with those who won't fight their teammates. In the UFC there should be enough depth in eahc division where this is not necessary (unless a title comes in the picture, in which case everything should go) and promoters should accomodate their fighters a little.

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gigogreco

2 questions should be enough, to throw this shit out of court.


1. is mma a sport.?

2. do freinds compete against each other, in other sports..?

if you answer is yes to both, then you cant defend, not competing against your friends in mma. The "mma is a special sport" argumet, really isnt valid or solid enough.

At the end of the day, its a sport and like every other goddamn sport, its about being numero uno.

bhar

While I do agree MMA is a sport, I don't agree it can be classed like every other sport. There are no other popular professional sports where the intent is to injure as much as in MMA.

Even boxing does not compare in terms of sheer punishment to the body and face that some mma fighters take.

Toxic

He isn't in the UFC for now but I doubt GSP and Cote would fight they have trained together for a long time(oddly enough I don't think they have ever fought out of the same gym though).

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Walter

I don't train but my brother does and he gave me this explanation for not wanting to fight his teammates:

When you train with someone, if you really want to improve, you show him how to counter your best moves. In order to get the most out of sparring with someone, you show him your weak side. If you know that you will eventually fight that person, you may have difficulty sharing every aspect of your game with him, and thus won't get to the highest level.

This may explain why some of the best gyms have this rule of not fighting your teammates.