NFL or UFC?: Football Players Are Making The Switch To Mixed Martial Arts

NFL or UFC?

In the recent past, wrestlers dominated the sport of Mixed Martial Art, an extremely physical sport where fighters battle each other for victory within an octagon shaped cage.  MMA fighters have ripped the “Modern Day Gladiator” title from football players, and for good reason.  These sometimes bloody battles are the ultimate test of one’s athletic ability, endurance, and sheer grit.  For football players, their extremely competitive nature seems to draw them to the sport of MMA.  Football players are compelled to prove themselves, and the Octagon gives them a suitable platform to test their abilities.

MMA Supplements

From Heisman Trophy winner, Herschel Walker, to Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Marcus Jones, NFL players are flocking to the sport of MMA in droves.  Are the days of retiring as a post-career sport commentator over, or are football players serious about making the transition into this physically demanding sport?

Size Matters

The current UFC Heavyweight champion, Brock Lesner, might have something to do with the current interest from football players.  The much hated Lesner has vanquished his last few opponents with relative ease, and his size and ability seem to be unmatched by the current pool of MMA heavyweight contenders.  This scenario has opened the door for many football stars, who are sizable in comparison to Lesner, and they can harness a great amount of athletic ability.

So why not bring in a big wrestler like Rulon Gardner, who on the 31st of December, 2004 fought Hidehiko Yoshida in a mixed martial arts bout for the Pride Fighting Championships.  Yoshida, who in addition to being an MMA fighter, was a former Olympic gold medalist in judo, was defeated by Gardner via unanimous decision.  It seems the pool of talented football players is far bigger than any other sport, including wrestling.  As MMA explodes in popularity, a simple supply vs. demand issue arises as fight promoters look to fill fight cards.  With demand comes money, and one night of fighting can leave an ex-football player’s pockets flush with cash; something they might not be able to do post-career if their football career was less than superlative.

Training

San Diego Chargers fullback Lorenzo Neal, for instance, has trained numerous times over the past couple years with UFC light heavyweight Chuck Liddell. Neal, who knows Liddell through their days as wrestlers in college, helps Liddell train for fights, specifically getting low to help Liddell with stronger opponents. Neal also claims the training helps him as well with balance and body control that translate well to the football field.

Although current NFL players use MMA purely for training and do not fight competitively, former Washington Redskins receiver Michael Westbrook made the transition to fighting in 2005 when he defeated another former NFL player, Jarrod Bunch, in a King of the Cage event.

Jared Allen, a defensive end with the Kansas City Chiefs, trained at Arizona Combat Sports in the offseason. "The cardio that fighters go through is just intense," Allen said. "This offseason I didn't do any running. I did all my intense cardio at Arizona Combat Sports. When I went off to minicamp in the spring, we were running wind sprints one day and I had more gas than I knew what to do with. The cardio level of these fighters is so intense because their life depends on them not being tired." Allen says he lost 25 pounds training MMA this summer and has toned up in the process.

The fact are clear, football players are embracing MMA as a training method.  Additionally, they are finding the transition into actual competition to be a viable alternative to running an illegal dog fighting operation to supplement retirement income.  Hey, I couldn’t complete this article without a Ron Mexico joke.  So, it looks like we will see more football players migrating to the sport, and this is a good thing for both football and MMA.