The primary premise of just about any martial art is to employ a self-defense mechanism that negates size and strength and provides an advantage to the practitioner utilizing skill and technique. Skill and technique trump size and strength 100% of the time in a perfect environment however; we unfortunately do not live in a world with set ideal conditions.

It has been said that strength and size only matter when all other factors, in this case technique and skill, are equal. This could not be farther from the truth. Size and strength matter, granted, there is an inverse correlation between the two. As technique and skill increase, the advantage size and strength provide decreases.

In most situations we find ourselves somewhere in the middle of this spectrum and that is what makes these types of altercations, or controlled bouts in this case, interesting. The fear of the unknown is a fear that drives the majority of the populous and in the video below this fear is realized.

One of the scariest moments one can experience, in my opinion, is the moment just before a mixed martial arts bout. This is a situation you have willingly put yourself into and in the words of the great Chael Sonnen, there isn’t much to think about, there isn’t really much ‘game planning’, in fact it is quite simple and one of the most primal things a man can engage in, it’s a fist fight in a steel cage and you willingly walked into that and it is one of the scariest things a man can partake in.

In addition to all of the factors already in play, let’s add in the fact that the opponent who wants to hurt you happens to be a massive mountain of a man. Well; that is the exact situation the gentleman below finds himself in so let’s take a look and watch this play out.

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Jacob C. Stevens is a lifelong athlete and cerebral martial arts enthusiast who is also skilled in the art of linguistic manipulation, his published work, Afterthoughts and Handgrenades, can be found here…