How do I sign up to fight in a MMA (mixed martial arts) tournament?
Posted by admin on Feb 24, 2008 in Martial Arts |
Brett D asked:
Very interested in fighting, have a background in it but not sure how to get started in the mma tournaments.
Martial Arts
Very interested in fighting, have a background in it but not sure how to get started in the mma tournaments.
Martial Arts
Dude, if you’re asking this you probably shouldn’t be trying to fight anybody anytime soon. What’s your background in?
Anyway, a quick response is to search the internet for local shows and see if they need fighters. Yeah, it really is that easy sometimes. Also, I’ve found that MMA.tv will occasionally have shows listed on their events page with ‘fighters needed’ tags on them. take a look.
Just don’t take any MMA fight lightly. Please.
Go ahead, MMA organizations always need stepping stones for their stars, get health insurance first, and then just follow answerer #1’s advice.
Start at the bottom by fighting in smokers, and work your way up. Make sure you get in with a good trainer or you will not go very far.
Where are you located?
As a mixed martial artist, my first piece of advice to you is be patient. Don’t rush into these things. Take your time, study the martial arts of your choice, and become very fluent in them before you get yourself into something that is potentially dangerous.
Now, to answer your actual question. The absolute BEST way to get into an MMA tournament would be through an official, lisenced school. Find a well-known, quality school/mentor and have him sponsor you in a fight. Very few MMA tournaments will accept you as being self-trained. However, if you get a well-known teacher and work under him for a while, he will sponsor you in a fight and you will compete against someone more of your skill level. The difference between a mentor who cares about his fighters, and a mentor who wants money is this; the one who cares will not allow his fighters to be used as a piece of meat for serious MMAers.
If you need advice on what martial arts to train in, I would suggest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and hybrid that with greco-roman/freestyle wrestling (this is what I train in dominantly). That will cover your ground-work and take-downs from the clinch. For stand-up, I always reccomend Muay Thai. Muay Thai’s strikes are very lax on their form, and can be pulled off dynamically. Also, clinch-work in Muay Thai is superior to most martial arts. A good clincher can trade elbows and knees like no other, while still defending the take-down.
Take your time, friend. MMA is a very serious sport, and it’s not for everyone. It seems that every guy (girls too) who can heave weights around, and who wrestled in high-school thinks they have what it takes to be a mixed martial artist. When they step in the ring, they get their world torn apart by a true, and superior fighter. Don’t be that guy.