Fight The Hands @fightthehands-blog - Tumblr Blog

Bellator 158 and Matt Mitrione

For anyone who follow @fighthehands on Twitter you'll know that I'm am obviously a big fan of MMA. So I'm pleased to say that i'll be at Bellator in London in the next two weeks!

I purchased the tickets when I knew that Kimbo Slice would headlining. I was shocked to read of his passing but then I also worried that Paul Daley would the highlight on an otherwise relatively mediocre card.

But then yesterday I saw the Matt Mitrione has stepped up to the plate on late three weeks notice to fight Oli Thompson (17-8) a former UFC fighter who went 0-2 in the promotion before his 2012 release. He's otherwise won his last 5 fights, and will be making his Bellator debut.

Then looking down the card I was struggling to find the strength in depth! So I think the Bellator in a fortnight will be an interesting learning experience and another opportunity to enjoy the delicious burgers at the O2!

Fightthehands are looking at which European card that will be worth a visit! any suggestions? I'll firing out live tweets from the @fightthehands twitter account!

The Agony Of Defeat - A Gold Medallist Weighs In

In the search for a wider base to spread the previous question I posted my tumblr blog to Facebook. To my surprise a world champion responded.

His name is Tarkan Paphiti, he won a Gold Medal at the 2014 GSBA stick fighting world championships for the Mens Middleweight Double Live Stick.

He responded with his thoughts on moving forward from loss and what motivates him.

"I have lost many of my fights, more so when I first started out. But through these losses I do take back some glimpses of various truths that which in effect is why I do what I do. Let me explain.Winning does feel good and losing can often make you feel negative. However the thing that works for me is to always remember why I do this crazy stuff in the first place. For me it's all about seeing my skills progress, the very personal journey and discovering things about myself in the most honest way that works for me. Often losing teaches me much more about these things that winning can. It forces me to look at what I'm doing and who I am. I also gain some pleasure out of getting beaten by someone who I know has superb skills and potentially the better man.In fact my best personal performances have been the ones where I have lost, and each loss seemed to mark some sort of milestone for me. Losing only becomes frustrating when you loss due to poor judgement and to someone that you think shouldn't have won but this is also part of the game, since stick fighting in the form we do it, by nature is not 100% objective. Judges "see" things differently (but that's for another longer conversation).So for me losing is part of the process and is significantly responsible for getting me this far. MMA however is a different higher stakes game. MMA has a large professional aspect to it with more money and resources. Losing early in your career could spell disaster for the professional / commercial aspects. Stick fighting is pretty much self funded and people do it for the love and also because they are crazy. That's not to say that there isn't some sponsorship involved in stick fighting but, it's pretty minimal."

Thanks for taking the time to write that response. It seems like it very much depends on why you get into fighting. If it is for the constant self improvement then maybe a loss would fall into the learning curve catergory whereas if you were under pressure to earn a living from it then it a loss would be more devestating as it would mean a loss in substantial earnings.

Like before comments, thoughts to #fightthehands and https://twitter.com/fightthehands

Many Thanks to Tarkan Paphiti

Official Stick FIghting Association - http://www.gsbaworld.com/

Tarkan Paphiti trains out of http://hakudakan.co.uk/

#stick fighting #mma #fighting #jui jitsu #fightthehands

The Agony of Defeat

Being someone who is not the most accomplished writer i'll start with a question: In reference to MMA specifically when you lose a fight how do you mentally get yourself up for the next one?

The reason I ask this question is because a friends brother lost an mma bout recently, it was his second loss in a row and this loss was more decisive than the first. It got me thinking about how I would feel if prior to the fight I had had the best camp of my life and everything was clicking together and all the cliches of an impending win were in my vocabulary leading up to the fight.

'i'm the best version of me that i've ever been'

When it comes to fight night and that 'best version of me' loses where do you go mentally to fight again?

Can anyone answer that question?

Send me your answer to https://twitter.com/fightthehands

using the #fightthehands

#mma