The one about the Street Fighter who was too "tough" to train seriously…

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I used to be a member of a Muay Thai kickboxing/MMA club (I’ve moved to another city since then), and we would regularly get people coming in and checking out the gym.

One time, this guy comes into the gym with his chin up and chest sticking out. He was about 5’7”, probably around 160 lbs, but didn’t have an athletic build.

He was trying to look all “bad-ass” and mean looking. He ended up watching about 5 minutes of a Muay Thai kickboxing class, and somehow I ended up bumping into him and talking with this dude (I think I went for a drink after a few rounds on the heavy bag or something).

He looked pretty curious, so I asked him, “Hey, what’s goin’ on man? What do you think about the class?”

He raised his chin higher and stuck his chest out more and said, “It’s OK…I think I can do well in this kickboxing…”

Me: “Oh ya? Have you trained in any martial arts before?”

Him: “Well, I’m a Street Fighter man. I fight punks in bars and in the streets!”

At this point I started to roll my eyes back in my mind, but heck, maybe he’s for real, and he sounds interested in training, so I continued to help him out.

Me: “Damn, you sound like a tough guy bro…”

Self proclaimed street fighter: “Yeah man, I’ve never lost a fight…and they all end in a few seconds!”

Me: “Impressive! Well, this beginner’s Muay Thai kickboxing class should be pretty easy for you then”

Self proclaimed street fighter: “Ya, this looks pretty easy. I think I’ll try it out, but I want to know a bit more, you know? How long are these classes?”

Me: “These classes are an hour and an half. You start off with a warm-up, do some work on the Thai pads…”

Self proclaimed street fighter: “One and a half hours! Err..ya, well, I’m just looking around, ya know? Plus I’m a street fighter anyways…”

Me: “Well, alright then. I gotta go back to my training, so best of luck on the streets man!”

In fact, this situation has happened at my gym on more than one occasion…and it’s usually the same talk. Sometimes these “self proclaimed street fighters” would actually try out a class, and actually join the club…but they would never last long than 1-2 months tops.

I think it’s easier for people like that to beat up disoriented, unskilled and unfit drunk people at a bar on the weekends and claim to be a street fighter than to “pay the price” and train for hours in a real martial arts gym.