If you want to learn what works in martial arts, the cage and ring are great, great teachers, but what happens on the street, or in this case, in the gym, can also be profoundly instructive. If you enjoyed the story, check out the Best Of library on:
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“My guy, you put a glove on right now, you will leave this place forever different.”
-Chris Curtis
The video below took place at Xtreme Couture MMA, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Founded by UFC Hall of Famer Randy “The Natural” Couture, under the direction of coaches Denny “The Pirrhana” Davis and Eric Nicksick, and using the motto “iron sharpens iron,” the gym is home to dozens of elite fighters.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou trains there. Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader trains there too. And one day a number of pros, including Chris “Action Man” Curtis, were hard at work training, when a man walked in off the street.
The unfortunate, name unknown, so let’s call him Jack, said he had 200 street fights, and won them all. Jack wanted to see what the MMA fighters in the gym had, and predicted he would mess a lot of them up. So he put small gloves on, and got into a training cage with “Action Man”, a UFC middleweight.
The street fighter too appeared to be a middleweight, as in, all his weight was in his middle. The 200-0 record was, it has been speculated, perhaps a reference to diet … 200 cheeseburgers vs. 0 salads.
Curtis was selected to go with Cheeseburger Jack, because he’s so nice a guy. By contrast, another UFC middleweight, Sean Strickland, was standing cageside and asking to be next. Strickland, who is in reality a nice dude with a very marketable madman persona, would still have gleefully taken Jack In A Box apart like a brother dismembering his younger sister’s Barbie dolls.
The sparring that followed was firm, but kind. As is typical, the street fighter gassed almost immediately, and tried to stop; Little Jack Horner was stuck in a corner. However, a commanding coach voice boomed from outside the cage – “You step in that cage you finish the round. But Jack The Not Ripped was already done. Curtis pantomimed sparring, and the buzzer sounded the end of the round.
That could and should have been the end of a good, short lesson for Monterey Jack, but it wasn’t. Instead, Doesn’t Know Jack said he could’ve knocked Curtis out if they were trading, and blamed his performance on a simple lack of conditioning. That did not sit well with “Action Man”, at all.
Al Capone famously said, Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness; I am kind to everyone, but when someone is unkind to me, weak is not what you are going to remember about me. Jack S*** forgot that important life lesson.
Curtis adamantly invited another round, promising, “I’ll turn him into Simple Jack real quick.” More ominously still, he vowed the quote from top, “My guy, you put a glove on right now, you will leave this place forever different. I swear to God.”
Strickland, of all people, cooled it down. When Sean Strickland is on camera trying to calm things down, someone has made a monster mistake.
For Simple Jack’s safety, a coach escorted him out of the gym, and into the MMA @$$hole Hall of Fame.
There’s no doubt that the next day, when talking with his friends, Simple Jack was 201-0.
Thanks to All Access MMA owner Jacob De Leon, who captured what happened. Follow his YouTube channel here.
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