Matt Furey is a ?????

**CrunchOMatic** · Posted On: 10/28/2005 11:15am

Originally Posted by International W

Furey won largely based on his wrestling skills which were probably far superior to anyone that tournament could dig up.

It's like if someone like Kevin Jackson competed in a regional judo tournament. Jackson would win, but not because he's good at Judo, just largely due to the fact he's a world class wrestler and Olympic gold medalist. Furey won this tournament because his skills from wrestling translated over. Not saying he's a bad wrestler, but if I had entered into this same tournament, I likely would have won my weight class as well. Not because I'm a great fighter (because I'm not), but because my skills translate over very well.

It means Furey fought somewhere he knew he had a probable chance of being successful.

Would that be the Kevin Jackson that Frank Shamrock armbarred in 20 seconds?

**Meager** · Posted On: 10/28/2005 2:28pm

Originally Posted by Hannibal

The question to ask yourself is if you where fighting Matt Furey, could he kick your ass in under 30 seconds flat ? If the answer is yes than he must have something worth learning.

Bob Sapp can kick my ass in under 30 seconds. I highly doubt he has anything worth learning.

**QuickJab** · Posted On: 10/28/2005 3:57pm

Matt Furey is most likely an asshole, but that doesn't mean he isn't knowledgable. Even if he did lose to some top wrestlers, does that not make him a good instructor? In every other sport, the best instructors usually sucked as competitors.
IN Boxing, Lou Duva is a legendary trainer. He WAS NEVERa great boxer. Neither was Angelo Dundee or Emmanuel Steward. IN Baseball, ALMOST ALL great managers sucked as players. Tommy Lasorda was a career minor leaguer. Some times you can have the knowledge and smarts of a particular sport, but lack the natural talent to succeed as a top competitor.

**International W** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 4:59pm

Originally Posted by QuickJab

Matt Furey is most likely an asshole, but that doesn't mean he isn't knowledgable. Even if he did lose to some top wrestlers, does that not make him a good instructor? In every other sport, the best instructors usually sucked as competitors.
IN Boxing, Lou Duva is a legendary trainer. He WAS NEVERa great boxer. Neither was Angelo Dundee or Emmanuel Steward. IN Baseball, ALMOST ALL great managers sucked as players. Tommy Lasorda was a career minor leaguer. Some times you can have the knowledge and smarts of a particular sport, but lack the natural talent to succeed as a top competitor.

Matt Furey isn't a great wrestling coach though. He doesn't even coach high school wrestling. In wrestling, usually the better coaches were great competitors. Dan Gable, John Smith, Bruce Baumgartner, Bobby Douglas, J Robinson, Kerry McCoy, Lee Roy Smith, Stan Abel, Greg Strobel, and now Cael Sanderson.

Matt Furey may not have been a great westler, but he's not a great coach either. He's never accomplished a damn thing coaching wrestling.

**Toby Christensen** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 5:02pm

Waters,

How would I meet Dan Gable?

Ta.

**International W** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 5:03pm

Originally Posted by CrunchOMatic

Would that be the Kevin Jackson that Frank Shamrock armbarred in 20 seconds?

It would be the same guy yes. Kevin would kill all but maybe the tp 10% of judo guys in the US under their rules.

**dakotajudo** · Posted On: 11/04/2005 10:45pm

Originally Posted by Varangian Guard

I've just asked a few days ago on various Shuai Chiao websites or forums, and they all know about that organization. Also, they all know about the International Shuai Chiao Tournament; held yearly. They all have weight classes as well, so Furey didn't "throw 100 lbs chinese dudes", as one poster said in some topic about Furey. And like I said before, it wasn't a small tournament, in response to some posters here who said it was tiny. It had over 11 countries participating, most with at least 10 fighters.

That's small.

In judo, the world championships, you'd expect 35-50 per class.

College wrestling, D-II, I think is a 16 man bracket (maybe - when SDSU hosted the D-II nationals the heavyweight was a 12 man bracket).

D-I, it's 32 or 64, can't remember off the top of my head.

On top of that, these are not open tournaments - there's qualifying - to even make the tournament you got to beat a few people.

For wrestling, to make the Olympic team, you might need to get through a regional qualifier to even get a shot at the national tournament (this is just coming off the top of my head; so I might be wrong in some of the details).

So, the question I've had, is, what was the qualification process for the International Shuai Chiao Tournament? There's a big difference between an open, international tournament (in which anybody, from any country, can enter), and a true International championship, where each country sends it's single best competitors.

To win an international open is an accomplishment, but I not sure how much to make of this particular tournament.

As for his materials - try the local high school or college coaches first, or find some retired wrestlers; if they won't help you, I suppose it would be worth it to spend the money on Furey.

To be honest, I wrestled in high school, helped out with the wrestling team when I was coaching cross-country; I've had access to decent coaching, I don't have much need Furey's product. But there a some people without access to a decent coach.

Whether he's helping out, or taking advantage of, is something of a matter of perspective.

**Hannibal** · Posted On: 11/08/2005 3:41am

Either way Matt Furey's material is still solid.

I can't speak for the rest of his products. But his book Combat Conditioning provides a great workout. Some of the best fitness material I've ever seen.

**International W** · Posted On: 11/08/2005 8:39pm

Originally Posted by dakotajudo

That's small.

In judo, the world championships, you'd expect 35-50 per class.

College wrestling, D-II, I think is a 16 man bracket (maybe - when SDSU hosted the D-II nationals the heavyweight was a 12 man bracket).

D-I, it's 32 or 64, can't remember off the top of my head.

On top of that, these are not open tournaments - there's qualifying - to even make the tournament you got to beat a few people.

For wrestling, to make the Olympic team, you might need to get through a regional qualifier to even get a shot at the national tournament (this is just coming off the top of my head; so I might be wrong in some of the details).

So, the question I've had, is, what was the qualification process for the International Shuai Chiao Tournament? There's a big difference between an open, international tournament (in which anybody, from any country, can enter), and a true International championship, where each country sends it's single best competitors.

To win an international open is an accomplishment, but I not sure how much to make of this particular tournament.

As for his materials - try the local high school or college coaches first, or find some retired wrestlers; if they won't help you, I suppose it would be worth it to spend the money on Furey.

To be honest, I wrestled in high school, helped out with the wrestling team when I was coaching cross-country; I've had access to decent coaching, I don't have much need Furey's product. But there a some people without access to a decent coach.

Whether he's helping out, or taking advantage of, is something of a matter of perspective.

Actually the procedure for qualifying for the US World or Olympic team trials isn't too far off. The rest of what you said is dead on though. The thing about the US Nationals is that anybody with a USA wrestling card and $40 can come out and try. Of course they get weeded out pretty quickly. Like when I happened to draw Shon Lewis in 98 and got teched. Although I feel if I hadn't drawn someone of that caliber that early, I may have been able to get going, win a few matches and get into contention. Now here's how it works. The top 7 wrestlers at US Nationals (as determined by wrestlebacks, etc.) in each weight class automatically qualify for the Trials. Then there are 4 (maybe 5), regional qualifiers for the Trials and the winners of those tournaments also qualify. Then also NCAA D-I finalists automatically get a berth, any past Olympic or World team members do as well (ie: if Kevin Jackson unretired he could get a berth in the trials because he was on the Olympic team before), and then you can also qualify if you've medaled in an international tournament like Tblisi, Yarygin, Clansman, etc. within like the past year or maybe two years.

But those San Chiao or whatever tournaments, there's no lengthy qualifying procedure really. If you make it to the world or Olympic trials, it's because you somehw earned the right to be there. Everybody has a chance to make it (via the regional qualifiers and the US Open), but not every joe somebody with $40 and a USA wrestling card can make it to the trials. Flukes happen, like last year a guy qualified at US Nationals without winning an actual match. He lost in the first round and got placed into a consolation bracket since his opponent made the finals. His first match in the consolations was against 2004 Olympic silver medalist Stephen Abas, but Abas injury defaulted, so the guy got a bye, and since that weight class wasn't very deep, he finished like 6th or 7th I think because of injury defaults. Whenever he wrestled someone, he was drubbed easily. So it can happen in wrestling, but it's rare because guys who aren't that good will sooner or later meet a guy who's going to beat them badly.

I know a guy who happened to draw Cael Sanderson at the US Open like 3 years ago. He tried, but he wasn't that good at all, especially against someone like Sanderson who's an Olympic champion.

**kinjitsu** · Posted On: 11/13/2005 1:15am

I have personally met Mr. Furey and he is the real deal he is in great shape and is not only a good grappler but has an outstanding well balanced stand up game ! it amazes me how many pepole knock pepole that they dont know. And as for him getting beat If you havent been beat then you havent learned very much. I have met and trained under some of the finest martial artist in the world Royce Gracie, Rickson Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Chuck Lidell, Bas Rutten and my life mentor grandmaster Gary Dukke. And all of them have respect for matt furey and you should too.