MMA Off Topic Thread

Gamebred wrote: »

@Wonderfullfe

Do you train any martial arts?

I did karate for a good few years until football completely took over at about 15 and at 21 i had reconstructive surgery (x 2) on my chest to correct bad Pectus Excavatum - i had roughly 2 inches between the middle of my chest and my back, with my heart compressed out to the left and lungs to the right, which affected my ability to do any activity for more than 10 mins.

It's sometimes deemed a "semi-cosmetic" operation but trust me nothing cosmetic about it, was in hospital 34 days with 10 of them in intensive care :pac: For anybody interested, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pectus_excavatum . Surgery typically involves removing the cartiliage in your chest, surgically breaking the breast-bone in half, cutting through some of the ribs, detaching the sternum and rotating it 60 degrees and placing metal rods behind it to support your 'new' chest wall.

I have chronic back and chest pain from 21 years of my life walking like the hunchback of Notre Dame - it's the most common problem with people with severe P.E. - various theories exist as to why we do it but personally i wasn't able to breathe if i stood up straight. Still, to this day, i can't breathe 100% properly if i stand up straight. I have to round my shoulders.

I only really got into martial arts/MMA "fandom" by a bit of an accident. I had seen some of the earlier UFC events after the Friends episode with Big John in about '97 or '98 and still have a VHS of one of the earlier UFC's. Was a casual fan until i saw a video on youtube in about 2010 of Eddie Bravo discussing chemtrails by US Government planes. So i started looking at more of his conspiracy stuff, which led to jiujitsu and MMA.

I then went backwards and watched as much as i could of everything - Tenth Planet stuff, Metamoris, Pan-Ams, Polaris, EBI, whatever the latest stuff was. Didn't feel confident enough to post on it for years but glad i bit the bullet. Still feel a bit on thin ice discussing jiujitsu with Mellor and Marcos because i'm coming at it from a fan perspective, whereas they are coming at it from a training perspective - i.e. i'd find it very difficult to criticise a sloppy transition because i've never been in that spot to know what they could have done different. Mind you, i've never played in the World Cup and i feel confident criticising footballers :P

Obviously, the emergence of Conor turned me from a regular casual fan of UFC into a hardcore fan. I'd have had zero interest years ago in watching a prelim with Santos and Martins but now i really wouldn't miss it. Likewise i'd have never thought about watching Cage Warriors or BAMMA or actually going to events but the Buchinger fight changed all that.

TL;DR - I realise that was a yes/no question you asked me but that's not my style as you know :pac:

I'll only fight you if you're blindfolded and spun around 56 times to the point of unrecoverable dizziness. Even then i'll tap like Bob Sapp

Depp wrote: »

Just caught up with the mma hour there this morning, thought rick did very well to be fair! wasnt a bad show atal

the first 2 minutes you could tell how nervous he was but John Pollock really helped him to settle down and get into a flow.

Depp wrote: »

aye took him a while to settle in but he did very well, show didnt miss ariel near as much as I thought it was going to

really smart move not putting him under too much pressure with high profile MMA guests. He clearly knows his stuff but it would have been nerve wracking interviewing top UFC stars on his first go at it.

Devon Sawa came across really well i thought.

Depp wrote: »

was thinking I recognized him, never even made the connection!

he's the main guy in the Final Destination film as well.