They absolutely do believe their own lies; just look at these Aikido and Kiai masters who thought they could take on wrestlers, judokas, and MMA practitioners:
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Yes, there will also be bullies in sparring. One thing I hate is when a guy complains about you matching their pace. If you just threw a hard punch ok that’s cool. But don’t get made and complain when I hit hard back.
There’s honestly just not that many good strikers in taiwan. Maybe a handful that I would even consider learning from and 1-2 I would even have on my corner. My friend and trainer is an actual Muay Thai champion. So he knows his stuff. There’s just not many here. There’s only 3 decent MMA fighters out of taiwan. Rocky lee who’s the first UFC fighter out of taiwan. Jeff the machine and Jenny Huang who is in the one FC. None of them train in taiwan anymore for a reason.
I only teach the very basic of boxing and Muay Thai. I still consider myself a student who’s willing to help with more fitness and basics. I would never pretend to be more. One thing I do hate is when people come to me and say they want to learn Muay Thai and don’t take it seriously. I stop teaching them to be honest. If you want to fuck around don’t waste my time. I find it disrespectful to the art I love and trained so hard for. And I hate guys that pretend they’re so great, I got so many guys who’s great at technique and can spar. But they have never fought for real which is ok. Not everyone wants to fight. Not be humble. It’s one thing to spar and have great techniques during the slow pace of it. But it’s another animal to get in a ring when you literally have to consider somesone heart and animosity when fighting.
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That happens a lot in Jiu-Jitsu too. You sometimes get a white belt or blue belt that say they want to roll light, and 5 seconds later you have a knee to the nose and gi burn so bad you can’t shave for a week. 
I have never heard of those guys, but they sound good. I think I’ve probably never heard of them just because honestly don’t watch MMA, only because it’s not my thing. The same thing is almost true of Jiu-Jitsu, only because it’s fledgling here, but there are a lot of good guys here, especially at Taiwan BJJ. I have heard Amity Shen is really good for her experience level. And Andre at Bon Sai is legitimate, he is having a super fight in China soon.
It’s neat that you have a legitimately awesome instructor.
That makes sense. It would be hard to teach someone who says they care one second and then show up sporadically.
The same is true in Jiu-Jitsu, rolling for fun in the academy is far different than competition. It takes the same strategy and technique, but in Jiu-Jitsu tournaments the guy is trying to smash you. A lot of the times white belts and blue belts don’t realize this, they don’t maintain composure, and end trying there grips in the first few minutes or blow their energy in the same timeframe.
Yeah I’m fortunate as he is also a good friend. He’s really hesitant to train and take on many people. Too many people say they want to train and when it comes down to it. He went hard on me when I told him I want to go to Thailand. He still goes pretty hard on me. There’s a video somewhere on him also knocking me out with a leg kick to the face. I didn’t even know it was a kick that landed until I saw the video later on haha. They don’t understand how mentally and physically tough it is. I think one thing I’m really proud of myself for is actually fighting and on short notice after saying I’m going to do it. Win or lose, you have my respect if you have the balls to compete.
I’m really considering learning bjj. A lot of people want me to compete because people want to see locals or people of Asian background compete as MMA is growing in Asia. I’m just not sure this is the life I want. I could also be a completely shit fighter too haha.
It’s also funny when guys come in and tell me they want to learn MMA. It’s not a thing you learn, they don’t get it’s a multi disciplined martial arts competition and you don’t just learn MMA.
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I think you would be a really good competitor. And I’m not just saying that. You seem to have the right mindset to succeed.
I am sure you know this but the Chute Boxe guys and Mirko Cro Cop were the first real guys to put it together. Cro Cop was not very good grappler but his sprawl and take down defense we’re good. There were other really good strikers in MMA, but there wrestling defense was not very good. The Chute Boxe guys took it a step further, and they were not only world class Thai boxers, but they were all really good grapplers too, which made them so much more dangerous.
It is neat that your instructor is your good friend.
I use to watch MMA when I was in middle school early high school, it was before Pride and Dream we’re still organizations. It’s silly, I got into Jiu-Jitsu because of pro wrestling. That’s why I liked Pride and Dream, because they had larger than life entrances, production value, and larger than life fights.
I don’t watch MMA anymore, but I still like Vale Tudo style Jiu-Jitsu. It is practical in self defense situations and overall very neat.
There is a really interesting k-1 fight of a really good Japanese Thai boxer vs an American boxer. Have you seen it. The boxer was almost helpless because although he had his head covered, the Thai boxer kept chopping at his inner and outer thigh with a low roundhouse. It was crazy to watch. It was almost unfair, because pure boxers have the tendency to tie up, I am sure if he would’ve done that, he would have got Thai clinched and knocked out with knees
Where does Rocky Lee train now? I thought it was a shame he didnt get a second chance in the UFC.
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They really liked him. Unfortunately that was his shot to get a UFC contract and his 2nd chance. He came in 2nd in ultimate fighter. But they liked him so they gave him that fight to as a 2nd chance… He is currently taking some time off of competing last I heard.
I actually see much more of a future of growing with the business side of the MMA industry instead of fighting. I have experience with setting up MMA events, televised ones even. I have contacts in the industry over in china and Singapore. But it could help that I take a couple fights myself. I’m not getting much younger, turning pro at my age going forward might give me 10 if that many years of actually fighting if I don’t turn out to be terrible. It’s all just talk now. But I guess not many people get offered to get pro fights like this. And too be honest, i would hope to get more experience as an amateur fighter but there’s just no one to fight here in the amateur circuit. Especially if you’re heavier fighter like myself. Anyone my weight class is most likely just so overweight fat guy.
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Interesting article on MMA old guy vs fake Tai Chi ‘masters’ in China.
you may have seen some of the videos before.
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