Recently I picked up "No Holds Barred" by Clyde Gentry, a really good book detailing the history of MMA here in America. On of the most suprising parts is a chapter at the end where the author comes to the defense of the none other than Fred Ettish. After reading what really transpired up to and during his infamous fight at UFC II, I have a whole different outlook on the man.

Here are some of the things Gentry lays out in the book:

First, contrary to popular belief Ettish was not a point fighter. He had no interest in point tournaments and believed the UFC would be a better test for his art.

Secondly, Ettish only had two weeks to get ready for the event. He had applied for UFC II months ahead of time, but was told the card was full. Two weeks before the event Ken Shamrock broke his hand and the alternate Johnny Rhodes (the guy that beat Ettish) got added to the card. Ettish was then added as the replacement alternate.

Third, Ettish had less than ten minutes notice before he had to go out and fight. Being the alternate Ettish was not expected to have to compete, unless someone else dropped out. At the start of the show everyone was healthy and ready to go, so Ettish was asked to run errands backstage. He never even got to see any of the other fights that night. After winning his first fight, Frank Hamaker decided that the UFC wasn't for him and quit. His scheduled opponent, Johnny Rhodes, was about to quit too until he found out that his opponent had been to switched to Ettish, a much smaller man who barely had time to but on his gi before stepping into the Octagon.

Finally, the "Fetal Fighting Technique" was not indicative of Ettish's art, it was indicative of a helpless man. When he was on the ground Ettish was effectively blind, due to the punches Rhodes had already landed. With McCarthy not being authorized to stop fights, and too much pride to quit, Ettish simply took the beating.

Good post Punisher. He lost a fight. Check out http://ettishfetalfighting.8m.com/ettish2.htm, a site that gives him ****. Check out the guest book (and my comments - I also quoted you). What a bunch of fucking losers. He lost one fight. The phony fan assholes will always baa like the idiot sheep that they are. Meanwhile Fred trains and writes and goes on with his life. He did have the courage to "get it on."

if this is the truth. then what is the lie? dont really know much about fred ettish.

The book is well known.

I don't care about him one way or the other, I find it weird that so many people get off on making fun of him.

Good post. Never heard a lot of that.

Yeah, I've heard this story too. Fred Ettish has become an metaphor for great failure or great courage. I personally thought Fred deserves better than he did but I think he's faired well in his life in spite of it.

Fred refs a bunch of events up here in the midwest, and is quite sreiously the nicest guy I've ever met. Fred is a stud, **** anyone that says different.

Isn't there some kind of online petition asking for Fred to be given another chance in the UFC ?

that man Fred Ettish did fight in the early UFC only the second one. those early one's where great you didn't know what you where going to see next fighters stopped beating oppodents up before the ref jumpped in. BARBARRIC. that is interesting the story behind Fred that night. But I spose the show must go on.

I just had to give those fools a peice of my mind. . .

The book is well known.

I don't care about him one way or the other, I find it weird that so many people get off on making fun of him.

From my experiences, it seems that normally it's the people who don't train and have no real idea of their own fighting abilities. Those people like to make dumb comments about others who step up, test their skills, and get beaten as a result.

Try to find a picture of what Ettish looks like nowadays...

It's hard, since in Google etc the joke sites get the top position...

But, 100% not joking, the modern Fred Ettish is a huge ass steroid monster MMA fighter. 100% not joking. Descriptively, I mean, don't know if he's actually done any roids, though it wouldn't be surprising...

& Of course even back in the days he stepped in the ring to test his style in a full contact NHB match; of course he no doubt noticed some slight 'faults' in it, but it's not like many people even today would do the same.

I know nothing about Fred Ettish, but good on him for using a relatively unknown art in the ring (Hapkido), one which was developed by a marvellous civilisation (the Koreans).

I know nothing about Fred Ettish, but good on him for using a relatively unknown art in the ring (Hapkido), one which was developed by a marvellous civilisation (the Koreans).


Errrrrrrrrr.... I think he officially at least practiced 'Okinawan Kempo' or something like that... & whatever that means....

But I don't think he had anything to do w. Hapkido either way.

My mistake

I found a piece by Ettish:
http://nhbfights.com/fredettish.php?subaction=showfull&id=1095678737&archive=&cnshow=headlines&start_from=&ucat=21&

Here's part of it:
Greetings and welcome to my world.
Labor day weekend, (Saturday the 4th of September) I had the pleasure and honor to judge a fight show in Brainderd, MN called "Cage Fighting Extreme (CFX). It was an excellent, smaller show with fighters from Canada, California, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota. I say smaller show, but I have recently discovered that the gate was around 1,000 people. Considering the small size and relatively remote location of Brainerd, that is quite a feat. This was the second show for CFX and I hope they continue with their promotion. Good people who treat the fighters, support staff, and fans top notch. Hats off to Jared, Brock, and their people.

The headline fight was Sean Sherk vs. Darren Brudigan. Many people have not heard of Mr. Brudigan, but he was 6 - 0 coming into this fight, having recently submitted Sam Morgan of Bison Grapling. This is no small accomplishment, especially for a relatively new fighter, as Sam is an excellent, well roundd fighter with a good record who has quite a bit of experience. Sean won early in the first round via side choke, but very early on, Brudigan hung in there and got out of what looked like a very tight arm bar that Sean appeared to have sunken in for quite some time. I don't know much about Brudigan, his training, specific strengthes/weaknesses, etc., but I applaud him for stepping up to fight one of the very best in the world in a weight class loaded with great talent. I wish him the best for his future.

This column, however, is not intended to deal with this one fight, or even this one excellent show. What I want to discuss here is Sean Sherk, who seemingly deserves to have a lucrative contract with one of the biggest shows but can't seem to get signed or re - signed.

There is much that the vast majority of us do not know or understand about promoting and running a show. We should admit that up front and not pretend to understand all the complexities and intricacies inolved, the finances, long term plans of particular promotions, relationships that exist or don't exist between promotions and fighters/managers, etc. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that running a major promotion and dealing with fighters and managers is simple, or that everything is black and white. Despite our ignorance, however, we as fans, backers of this sport, and in no small way, the ones who pay a substantial portion of the freight by purchasing PPVs, tickets to live events, DVDs, gear, clothing, etc., do have a right to our opinions and to ask questions.

What really has me curious and a bit frustrated is, as I said a bove, why some, in this case I would like to talk about Sean Sherk, seem to be ignored and passed over despite exemplary credentials. I could throw in other "name" fighters, too, but I have not had the opportunity to visit with them as I have with Sean, so should probably ot comment on them at this time.

Let's take a look at what appears to be happening. Sean has fought in the UFC, losing only to the most dominant champion in UFC history, Matt Hughes. It was a hard fought decision loss, and although I do not know how the official judges scored it, if I remember correctly my very unofficial scorecard had Sean winning two rounds. Quite a bit of the three rounds that Matt won, again only in my opinion, he won very convincingly, and I know of no one, including Sean or his people, who argue the decision. At that time, it appeared to be by far the toughest defense for Matt. There is no shame in any loss where a fighter gives his/her best and in this case, on that night, two extraordinary fighters fought an epic battle and displayed talent, endurance, and heart, and Matt Hughes won.

Other than one draw, Sean has won all of his other fights, his record now standing at 27 - 1 - 1 (only slightly different from what Sherdog has listed, currently). This includes a quality win in PRIDE Bushido over a very skilled Ueyama and his only UFC loss being the above mentioned title fight with Hughes. Now that is a bit over a 93% winning percentage, and 96.5% of fights without a loss if you throw in the draw. He has finished his opponent in 19 of his victories, for a bit over a 70% finishing rate. Although I have not crunched the numbers, his rate of finishes has dramatically increased lately over what it was in the beginning of his career. Boring, you say?? I disagree. Victories and finishes, especially with the domination Sean shows, especially of late, is very exciting and entertaining from where I sit. Who has a more impressive record than this?

Why is it that someone with a record like that can only seem to get fights in smaller shows, yet others with much poorer records and vastly less experience get signed?

This is just part of the article, but you can see that he writes and thinks well. I also heard that he added ground to his training.