Hi Gregg,
I've thought about this before and have always wondered about the hot, muscular guys I see online. I'm going to take a guess that a lot of guys with bodies to die for, and spend a lot of time working out don't know a lot about actual fighting? What have you found? How many times have you gone up against someone, they have a nice hard muscular body, and they don't have a clue what to do? I'm just curious how many guys look really hot, but can't really defend themselves. Thanks a lot!
Thanks for the great question. Yeah, I deal with this all the time. I work out at a mixed martial arts MMA gym. Now, the MMA gym has some awesome facilities, including a regulation size ring, which is used for MMA fights, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and some occasional pro-style wrestling. There's multiple heavy and speed bags for punching and striking.
There's a separate wrestling room with a Resilite wrestling mat, which provides 38 x 38 feet of wrestling and submission grappling space. I think the gym owners acquired a used wrestling mat from a local high school.
The gym has awesome weightlifting facilities with plenty of fitness machines, treadmills, elipicals, and other machines, plus a huge amount of free weights for purists. So, the gym members are often bodybuilders, fitness trainers, and workout fanatics looking to get in great shape, plus the MMA fighters and submission grapplers here to fight or wrestle.
Now, to answer your question, there are some bodybuilders and weightlifters who get really pumped up, jacked, and ripped; and then are aching to take on any of the fighters or wrestlers at the gym. Definitely, these bodybuilders have amazing rock-hard and solid muscular bodies. Having a solid muscular body, however, is no guarantee that you win in a wrestling match or dominate in a fight. Sometimes, I think their raging testosterone takes over their brains when challenging fighters to a fight or submission grapplers to a wrestling match. It might be their surging adrenaline or testosterone from working out that's making a fight challenge that they might not make if they actually thought about it.
I've had a few bodybuilders challenge me to wrestling match or a submission fight. Usually, I ask if they have any experience or not. I'll accept a challenge if he has some wrestling or submission grappling experience. Some are former high school wrestlers who are pretty damn good. Others don't have any experience. I've had a few very cocky and aggressive bodybuilders demand a wrestling match with me even though they really had no wrestling or fight experience. That was just too good of a lesson that I couldn't turn down. The outcomes were predictable.
I think it's natural for bodybuilders and weightlifters to want to wrestle or fight. It's an opportunity to use that muscular body and find out just how tough you really are...or not. Males are just born and built for wrestling and fighting (well, most of us). If you haven't been in a wrestling match or a fight, then you probably thought about it or enjoy watching those fights.
I don't get as many challenges as I used to from bodybuilder studs as word spreads amongst the weightlifters about fighter reputations and who's best to challenge or not. Guess I'm not the easy pushover some expected. I'm still open to new challengers and bodybuilders wanting to prove their manhood on the wrestling mats or in the fight ring.
A shorter answer to your question: Yeah, one of the most impressive muscular bodybuilders at the gym was the most pathetic opponent I've ever had on the wrestling mats 💪
