The Ultimate Fighter — Inspiration From Television

April 13, 2008 | in Fitness | 0 Comments

The Ultimate Fighter—my favorite guilty TV pleasure—kicks off with a format twist and some brutal knockouts. Hopefully we'll see more sport and less drunken nonsense this season.

It was my long-standing opinion that wrestling was one of the hardest sports, period. Casual chatter in the high school weight room lead to me getting schooled on the mat by a buddy 30 pounds lighter and less “weight room” strong than me. I have had nothing but respect for wrestler athletes since. Strength, speed, stamina, technique and strategy are all requirements for success in collegiate wrestling.

Mixed Martial Arts—what one could consider an evolution of collegiate wrestling—in recent years has become one of my favorite spectator sports. All of the above attributes required for wrestling success could be said emphatically for mma, made popular by the UFC. In addition to physical talent and drive, athletes must also be skilled in many ("mixed") martial arts disciplines, lest they fall victim to another of the arts’ strengths. Wrestling, boxing, jiu jitsu and Muay Thai are the most well represented of the martial arts, but, as the commentors are prone to say say, the sport is constantly evolving.

The Ultimate Fighter is a reality show with a simple premise: up-and-coming fighters spend weeks sequestered in a house in Las Vegas, fighting in a tournament to win a contract with the UFC—the largest mma promotion. The show is a Pilgrim Films & Television production, the same company that produces American Chopper and The Deadliest Catch—popular niche “reality” shows for cable television.

Oxygen Machines

I’ve never been one to seek out fights; I’ve also never been involved in a martial art like karate or taekwondo. I have, however, spent some time training in a Muay Thai gym and can vouch that doing partner work and working the heavy bag can be absolutely grueling. You give it everything you’ve got, round after round—knees, kicks, punches, elbows—and you definitely go home in an exhausted, zen-like state.

This type of bag workout is just a fraction of what these guys do in their daily double sessions on the show; grappling, sparring, weight training, cardio—an endless barrage of challenges to train their bodies to become incredibly efficient oxygen machines. Watching these guys pour themselves into their workouts inspires me to drive myself harder in mine.

What’s Not To Like?

I can dig that fighting’s not for everybody. Frankly, I’m surprised that I like watching it. But the UFC and the reality show The Ultimate Fighter have become TV staples for me. I say they’re a “spectator sport” because actual participation takes a degree of physical and mental toughness that I think very few of us possess. I can say, with a high degree of certainty, that I don’t want to regularly get hit in the face or kicked in the liver. I can however appreciate driving yourself farther than you thought you were capable. Conquering what Brian Morrissey calls the Internal Pigdog.

Episodes of The Ultimate Fighter — Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest run on Wednesday nights. Come follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HellaSound—I’ll probably have a thing or 2 to say about each episode the morning after and would love to hear your Tweets.

Links of Interest

www.UFC.com - The Ultimate Fighting Championship
http://mikedolcemma.ning.com - Mike Dolce scored a vicious knockout in the first fight of the new season, making him one to watch. He’s got a social network set up with an interesting and growing community.
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=tuf.home - The Ultimate Fighter section of UFC.com.