Issue 111

February 2014

Be honorable, have integrity and show kindness to your rivals 

It’s said that true knowledge can only be gained through experience. And that saying seems particularly relevant when looking at mixed martial arts.

MARIO YAMASAKI

An MMA referee for 12 years, Mario has black belts in judo and BJJ. Each issue he discusses the hottest topics in the sport through the eyes of an official

Practicing one of MMA’s component disciplines would not only offer people deeper insight into officials’ often wrongly maligned decisions, it would also be of great benefit to them physically and mentally. However, even when some people do start training regularly, they often appear to be doing it with the wrong goals in mind.

Allow me to explain myself: my goal as a sensei/master is to teach students the code of conduct all true mixed martial artists should adhere to.

So, as well as educating my trainees with the technical knowledge they’ll need to become a fighter, I also like to offer them one little snippet of my own personal philosophy, and that is: ‘Who trains, does not fight.’

And to get the point over to them I always use the example of the ancient samurai warriors.

The job of the Japanese soldier of old was to serve, in close attendance, the nobility, while maintaining the ‘bushido’ – the code of the ancient warrior.

The bushido emphasizes the need for a strong moral and ethical code, and also the requirement for loyalty to one’s master. It advocates that we should be kind to our opponents, never cheat and, wherever possible, be helpful to others.

And it’s this code we need to bear in mind when in a real fight, whether it be inside the Octagon or on the streets.

Thankfully, it’s down to the fact that the vast majority of professional MMA fighters live by the bushido that I’m able to contain giants, in the sense of their fighting abilities, like José Aldo, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and their like.

Of course, all top-level fighters enter the cage or ring with one goal in mind: to stop their opponent. But before any fight gets underway I always have a quick chat with the competitors to ensure they are fully aware of all the rules and laws I will be applying. And as a testament to their professionalism and strength of character, it’s very rare that I have a real issue to deal with.

And that’s something everyone should remember when taking up a martial art or when faced with a potentially volatile situation on the streets.

In other words, you should only ever test your acquired skills out on the mats.

Although I was born into a family of fighters (my father is an eighth dan coral belt in BJJ, my judoka cousin competed at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and my brother runs the Yamasaki academies in the US), I believe that if I had been raised not to follow the bushido, I would have turned out a completely different person.

So with that in mind I just want to remind you of the bushido’s seven rules of conduct:

Yu – Courage and bravery

Chugi – Loyalty and civic duty

Meiyo – Honor and glory

Jin – Compassion and benevolence

Rei – Politeness and courtesy

Makoto – Truthfulness and sincerity

Gi – Integrity and morality

If you strive to live your life with these simple virtues at the forefront, then it should be obvious to you what I meant earlier when I said: ‘Who trains, does not fight!’

And if you ever do feel the need to.prove something to someone, my advice would be: just step on to the mats.