Knowing Who You Are Fighting Before a Match

**StalkingButler** · Posted On: 6/18/2008 10:42am

If you've got a good bit of experience in amature MMA, chances are you've fought you're share of opponents without knowing anything about them.

Its all too common to have an opponent drop on you right before the fight. You'll have a fight set up for a month, and the guy will just no show for weigh ins. Or even worse, the guy will weigh in and get cold feet and no show fight night.

Its all too common, come fight night, an amature promoter is still trying to match up guys who's opponents dropped etc. Thats also how you end of fighting up a catch weight too.

It sucks if you've been training to fight a certain guy for a month, then you show up and he's disappeared. Then they tell you you can fight Bad Ass #1 who's a weight class above you who also had a no show opponent. Then you gotta make a decision. If you've trained your ass off, chances are you wanna fight.

That's why its not that big of a deal for someone who's been in the game a little bit to take fight someone they don't know much about.

**Domite** · Posted On: 6/18/2008 11:08am

I think I would care, but I know fighters who don't really bother with all that, just go in and fight without thinking about thier opponents.

**BudoMonkey** · Posted On: 6/18/2008 11:59am

**** it. Almost all ammy and pro fighters have fought their way up the tournament circuit and fought in many, many smokers - where you fight lots of different people in one day and never know who the hell it's going to be until a match or two before you go in.

It is a luxury that fighters have at the higher levels to usually be able to take the time to prepare for a fight, and only a luxury. Fighters know they must always be prepared to fight anyone at the last minute and are conditioned to do so.

**rev.jc** · Posted On: 6/18/2008 5:34pm

I run shows, many of you know me, I am the promoter of the Warrior challenge, we have smokers, 3 X 3 min bouts & we uses uskba genesis rules, (search Empire State Warrior Challenge on You Tube.)

If you've been to my shows you also know I fight,

Look guys amature fighters should fight who is placed in front of them period! I began as an amatuer boxer, you don't pick & choose who you fight in the golden gloves, you are matched & you take the fight, period.

I can tell you the difference between a fighter & a poser in a 5 min. converstation, a fighter is hungry, if one guy drops out he takes the next bout! A poser thinks he as a first time amatuer deserves front line billing!

A fighter will fight in the back of a gas station in an underground show, A poser needs everything in line!

I love fighters, I hate posers!

& I'm sure i will be ridiculed for advertising in this post, but we still have ammy smoker bouts in our sept 13th show,

@ 215 ,225 ,165, 175, 155. about, fights are about 3 hrs from NYC & Boston, 45 min from albany & 1 1/2 from Hartford Conn.

518-488-1865- it is our 5th show- proceedes go to a soilder who lost his arm in Iraq!

**datdamnmachine** · Posted On: 6/18/2008 5:56pm

At the lower levels, it's pretty much a given. You fight who is put in front of you. That will probably always be the way it is.

That said, at the higher levels, with much more money on the line, as well as advertising considerations, people will usually know well in advance. The opposite side of the coin would be UFC 85 which just passed. That card was basically a patched up quilt made from the tattered remains of it's original card.

It's kind of interesting because in that regards, I think it actually made the fight card better with the late substitutions in that no one could really thoroughly game plan. They just had to come out and try to run ape **** over the other person.

They could be something said for having too much time to prepare for a known opponent in that case...