The gassed and the furious: A closer look at the role of conditioning in combat sports

UFC 93: ‘Franklin vs. Henderson’ from the 02 Arena in Dublin, Ireland, has officially wrapped, meaning we can now set our sights on the upcoming superfight between Georges St. Pierre and BJ Penn at UFC 94: ‘St. Pierre vs. Penn 2' on January 31.

In a way, I think the UFC is fortunate to have such a massive pay-per-view (PPV) looming on the horizon, because it takes some of the spotlight off an event that as a whole, was a little underwhelming.

One of my biggest gripes coming out of UFC 93 is (once again) the complete and utter lack of physical preparation that some fighters were exhibiting come showtime. And inexplicably, it seems to be getting worse, not better.

Simply put, a lack of conditioning is a lack of professionalism.


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The guy has a very good point. I was so pissed last night with Shogun, He was(and still is, begrudgingly) one of my favorite fighters.
Last night was one of the first times in a long time I could take some of the older guys from boxing to watch a mma fight. They are usually working or just can't be bothered staying up as late as they are shown here.
These are the type of guys who still think the HW boxing champ is the toughest guy in the world and refuse to admit a "pudgy Russian" could beat a Klitschko or even David Haye.

Last night we all met at a bar and watched the main card together. First off they all said the Davis - Lytle was "alright but nothing special" which was understandable because it basically was a kickboxing match. They have all trained with or trained guys who can fight to that sort of striking level.

When the Shogun - Coleman fight came on though me and Danny one of the younger guys were actually embarrassed we had asked them to come along. Both fighters were out of shape and could just last the first round. We had to sit there and listen to how they would get murdered in boxing and we had absolutely nothing to come back with!
We tried explaining the lay off for Shogun but they shot back with boxers often go a year without a fight and have surgery and still churn out impressive performances. We tried explaining that you'd have to watch out for takedowns and then they'd be a world they don't understand.
We had nothing because the takedowns were sloppy an the ground game was boring.

These are meant to be professional athletes who at that level are paid well! Them being awarded fight of the night was a slap in the face of the guys who fought on the under-card and put on a much better show for a fraction of the money and had enough cardio to hold there hands up by the end of the first round. It was a embarrassing fight and injuries or not professional athletes should be able to compete for 15 minutes regardless of lay offs.

If it wasn't for the Franklin Hendo fight which was entertaining I would have been ashamed to go back the gym this morning!

I know thats a long rant but I was so pissed last night. I'd love to hear what you guys think of that article posted