In the MMA world it is very apparent there are two types of people that step in to the cage week in and week out. Let me say that I respect anyone who will go into combat and let that cage door shut behind them. The reality is though for Kentucky to be relevant and for our MMA community to grow we need to weed out the guys who like to fight just to fight. What I mean by that is there are guys out there who train their ass off and focus on the art of fighting. There are others who do not train but sign up to battle week after week amassing huge lopsided records. They are usually the prey of someone rising through the ranks or they are the butt of the joke for the evening. What happens is that they fight themselves right out of a career and even sometimes respect. On several occasions I have spoken with match makers who get very frustrated because it is so hard to put together cards and separate those just wanting to fight to those that are well prepared.
My hat goes off to those guys & gals who are training and in good gyms that care about MMA enough to learn all the aspects and be prepared to go compete. What is happening, I think, is that the athletes of the sport are rising fast and the good shows are taking care of spotlighting them. The guys that are just fighting are relegated to the promotions that don't care about the sport as much as they care about the ticket sales. Sponsors won't invest in the guys in the B leagues and it will be hard for them to continue to find match ups. When the cream of the crop promotions stop booking the weekend warriors and they realize what they are missing one of two things will happen. These guys will stop fighting or they will start training and taking it serious.
The sport we all love can not live in the past and we as a state can not stand by and watch guys with very little skill try to call themselves mixed martial artists. The days of the tough man contests are over and the faster that is realized the better our sport and state will be.
