MMA Talk

I rode for about 50 minutes yesterday, and everything felt pretty normal. I also called and talked to the doctor about hamstring stuff and voiced my concerns about his diagnosis/prognosis for the area. He said that the current treatment (saturating the area with an anesthetic in 3 rounds of injections), won’t heal the old injury, but he’s reasonably confident that it will prevent the area from “activating” while I ride. I also told him that I couldn’t find much reassuring information about PRP Therapy, and he said that he does it somewhat regularly on area athletes (two of the Memphis Grizzlies and an assortment of University of Memphis athletes) with about a 70% success rate. I’m not writing it off altogether, but it’s not something I’m looking to do any time this season.

He did approve me going to about “2/3rds strength” on my riding, so I plan on enjoying another gentle hour or two this afternoon to work on my tan lines. I also plan on going up to UFK during MMA class time and punching the heavy bag a little while watching my classmates spar and whatnot. It’s still very therapeutic to my brain, and burns off a few extra calories while I’m not riding a ton.

I’ve had a couple of people give me funny looks when I talk about learning Mixed Martial Arts. It’s odd, because if my reply to someone asking “Where’d you get that bruise on your leg?” was any number of specific things… say kickboxing, jujitsu, karate, whatever… they’ll react somewhat normally. However, if I say, “MMA” or “Mixed Martial Arts,” people get weird. So, I feel that it’s time to really explain what the draw is for me to pick up MMA as a side hobby to cycling.

#1- No one is here just to “do their bests and finish.” Don’t get me wrong- I’m not saying that you’re less of a person if your goal is to participate in some sort of competition without the intent to win said competition. I’m happy to see anyone pony up and pin a number. However, the fact that no one gets into a fight without at least having SOME belief that they could win that fight makes it a huge competitive draw for me.

#2- It’s challenging. Really challenging. It’s a sport that takes an immense amount of skill… and you need to be able to think and execute said skills all while being punched in the face or thrown on the ground.

#3- Women are much more equally billed than in the sport of cycling. While you may think of MMA as being uber-infused with testosterone, where women are not much more than pretty things who hold up signs to tell you what round we’re on (I’ll admit, that part is kinda lame), there is a LOT more respect for female fighters in the MMA world than there is for female athletes in the cycling world.
Perfect example: The most recent UFC fight night featured a co-main event- a women’s championship fight, and a men’s championship fight. During the pre-fight tv show, the women’s fight received about 75% of the air time… not necessarily because of anything gender-related, but because the fight was bound to be incredibly competitive. Both ladies were former Olympians, both had undefeated records… you know, stuff that isn’t gender specific that makes for great pre-competition discussion (unfortunately, the fight was over early in the first round because of a devastating knee to the liver).

So, there you go. That’s why I enjoy MMA so damn much…

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(weekly manicure)

We’re lucky here in Memphis to have fight nights on a somewhat regular basis. Ryan and I went on Saturday. There was a ladies championship fight…

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Will I ever fight?

Is that a rhetorical question?