Issue 039

July 2008

Atoms: Nine carbon, 13 hydrogen, one nitrogen and three oxygen. This is the chemical formula for epinephrine, better known as adrenaline. It’s the ‘fight or flight’ hormone, and more often than not, it’s a fighter’s friend.

You might not consider fighters adrenaline junkies in the conventional sense but there’s certainly a thrill that makes a person glove up again and again. Likewise, there’s a reason why a skateboarder might wilfully drop down a ramp the height of four double-decker buses, then pull a trick while flying over a gap equivalent to five Volkswagen Golfs end to end.

Considering adrenaline is probably the base of the reason for fighting in MMA and for doing extreme sports, could there be a link deeper between the two that goes deeper than just biology?

In short, yes. Erik Apple, WEC fighter and King of the Cage broadcaster, has been involved in bodyboarding and professional BMX riding. Jake Shields, EliteXC welterweight, and Ryan McGivern, IFL middleweight, both list snowboarding as a pastime. Chris Brennan, UFC and Pride veteran, talked of moving into professional motocross after MMA. And there’s more.

The worlds of MMA and extreme sports are colourful, fast and action-packed – all stimuli that attract the average male – so any overlap is hardly a shock. There’s the challenge and athleticism of both. After pushing themselves to the limits in one discipline, the competitive nature of athletes will drive them to see how they would fare in something else. Plus, MMA has often been described as the ultimate extreme sport; an apt description for signing up to the possibility of getting punched, kicked and elbowed in the head inside a locked cage for 15 minutes.

You might think it’s understandable, maybe obvious, that someone drawn to MMA would move into extreme sports. Something to get a new buzz where the fear they’re used to controlling isn’t going to inhibit them. 

Practising with the pros

Australian Jason Ellis is one man who’s reversing the trend. A professional skateboarder since he was 14, he includes Tony Hawk (the world’s most famous skater) as a friend and hosts his own show on Sirius Radio in the States. He trains with Team Quest in California and not with the public, but with the fighters. Even though, by his own admission, it’s rare that he catches any of the pros out in sparring it’s something he greatly enjoys, even when taking on house mate Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller for some morning pugilism. “I love it. It’s an honour to be punched in the face by Mayhem,” laughs Jason. “I can’t get enough of it. Right when it hits it hurts but right after it if I’m still standing I’m pretty fucking proud of myself.”

Jason’s route to the world famous training camp is unusual. After hitting it off with Kit Cope, well known Muay Thai and WEC fighter, at the wedding of celebrity friends Pink and motocross rider Carey Hart, Jason was introduced to the world of MMA. Picking up moves that Cope would teach him now and then lead Jason to realise how much healthier and fitter he could be with some MMA training. On top of that, he’d been challenged to a fight by another Sirius radio host, 300lb ‘Bubba the Love Sponge’. That’s when Team Quest came into the picture.

“My doctor that did some surgeries on me is also Dan Henderson’s surgeon. He was like, ‘You live in Murrieta? You know Dan has a gym there right?’ I was like, ‘Dan Henderson?!’ Then one thing lead to another and he was like, ‘I might be able to get you a discount if you go there,’ and I was like, ‘Hell yeah I’ll go!’” 

After being taken under the wing of both Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller and Ryan Parsons, trainer, nutritionist and chiropractor at Team Quest, Jason’s love affair with training in MMA began. Predictably, Bubba pulled out of the fight shortly afterwards.

Despite sharing vert ramps with the world’s most revered skateboarders, Jason’s inner MMA fan would often surface when training. “Everyday I’d go in there and Ryan would be like, ‘Right, Jason get on the ground with this guy,’ and I’d be rolling on the ground and be like, ‘Man, this dude’s face looks familiar’ and halfway through I’d realise it was Ryo Chonan.”

Making the jump

Brooklyn-born Mike Budnik is another skater who has moved into the world of mixed martial arts. Transferring from inline skating, Mike has notched up a professional 7-0 streak that just got the lightweight noticed by the WEC, where he expects his first fight will be against the 5-2 Greg MacIntyre.

A wrestler in his school years, Mike had considered college wrestling until skating took over his life. “I’ve been hooked ever since the first time I rode my skates on a ramp,” he stated. 

For the next 11 years Mike competed around the world, only slowing down in 2004. “I was skating less and decided I wanted to take jiu-jitsu. So I looked for the closest Gracie school I could find,” recounts Mike. “I was always a huge fan of MMA but never thought I would get into it like I have. It started as a hobby that led to me saying, ‘Well I’ll just do one fight to see what it’s like’.” That was four amateur and seven pro fights ago.

Now training at Triton Close Combat and Self Defence, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mike says he doesn’t see MMA as an escape from skating. Instead he asserts that MMA has filled a gap left by not skating. The reason? The love of competition. 

But it’s two very different kinds of competition according to Mike. Skating gives that adrenaline rush due to completing and landing a trick, but fighting is different. “When you get in the cage and you’re nervous all day just thinking about it and you finally get to go toe to toe with another guy, that’s when you get the rush with fighting. When you win a fight, nothing can compare to it. I’ve skated in front of 40,000 people in the X-Games and I got twice the rush from winning a fight in front of 1,200 people. It’s just the best feeling when they raise your hand.”

Moving from being a pro in one career to being a beginner or even an up and comer in another must be strange. What’s it like to move from riding ramps to getting in the cage?

“I haven’t done any amateur fights yet so I can’t speak first hand,” says Jason Ellis, “But from what I’ve seen they dish out a lot of pain, they’re trying to hurt each other. And that’s a big aspect that’s not in skateboarding, because you’re challenging yourself. 

“Sure if I do a trick wrong in a contest I’ll wake up in an ambulance guaranteed. I’ve done it before more than once. I’ve had ten times more injuries than Dan Henderson will ever have. It’s the man-to-man combat, that to me, makes fighting way scarier. I’m not scared of breaking my arm skateboarding, I’m not looking forward to it, but it doesn’t flinch me at all.”

While you wouldn’t think there’s much you’d be able to transfer from extreme sports to MMA, Jason proves otherwise. “I think I do my best in the wrestling department. I think that’s what skateboarding helped me out with, I know where to use my weight to hold you down and ground and pound you.”

But that’s not the only similarity Jason’s discovered, “To learn the footwork, submissions and counter-submissions and my stand up game, to me, all of them are tricks. To learn how to do them right I relate that to skateboarding. It frustrates me when I’m doing pad work and I know my feet aren’t in the right spot, it reminds me of trying to link up tricks on the vert ramp.”

The skills crossover even extends the other way. Dan MacFarlane, creator of the DVD ‘Skateboarding Explained’, says that his training in MMA with Yves Edwards has helped him with skating.

The crossover appeal

It’s not only individuals coming from extreme sports into MMA, companies are doing it too. Both Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller have sponsorships with Osiris Shoes, one of the main players in skating footwear. Brandon Vera has worn their logo on his way to the Octagon, and Rampage even has his own signature shoe.

Metal Mulisha, a motocross team and clothing brand, sponsor MMA bad boy Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral as well as Jason MacDonald, Troy Mandaloniz and the aforementioned Erik Apple. But the founders, a number of well-known motocross riders, literally practice what they preach. A number of Mulisha riders train in mixed martial arts, choosing Mark ‘The Bear’ Smith as coach, a 290lb fighter well-travelled on the independent MMA circuit. The team has also appeared at a Desert Brawl event in Oregon where, as part of the entertainment, they jumped the empty cage performing tricks. 

Another company making an expansion into the world of MMA is Spiked, a British extreme sports lifestyle brand. They sponsor a multitude of BMX and motocross riders and now MMA fighters – chief among them Brad ‘One Punch’ Pickett. So why are extreme sports companies signing MMA fighters? Matt Walton, Managing Director of Spiked, says part of the reason is to address misconceptions about the sport. “We’ve decided to sign MMA fighters, because as a company we believe we can offer support to the MMA fighter and the industry and help promote it in the right light.” 

Considering they might be seen as an outsider company in MMA, how do they think fans will react to an extreme sports company moving into the sport? “People are protective and wary,” concedes Matt. “The proof is always in the pudding, and if a brand shows that it really is actively behind the sport and the fighters and understands what is going on relating to the techniques, training and commitment, then the trust builds. We aim to support a number of named fighters and want to actively help up and coming fighters that have the right skills and personality.” Matt says Spiked are even thinking about producing MMA equipment, a big statement of intent. “We have had a large amount of requests and interest, and it’s something that is being agreed as we speak. We have custom kit for Brad and we will look to work with Brad on the products. Spiked is a registered trademark across numerous areas, so we might either license the brand to established fightwear manufacturers or bring the fightwear out ourselves.”

Considering a business opportunity is a business opportunity, it’s wise to predict that other companies with a basis in any of the extreme sports might grow a branch into MMA. But Matt notes that the test will be if the brands try to actively help the sport from the ground up or just muscle in to bleed it dry.

Adrenaline is no doubt an influence on why many mixed martial arts fighters dip into extreme sports with skaters and others doing the reverse. But so too is the joy of learning a new skill or craft, or using the interest as something to help improve performance in the other. For some it will remain a hobby, for some a job, but for Jason Ellis you can’t train at a place like Team Quest and not step into the cage to fight. As he says, “You’re not doing circuit training for fun”, and taking a middleweight amateur fight is solidly in his sights. So, when it comes to fight time, above all things what’s the goal? 

Having taken on the world and wowed crowds across the globe by getting huge air and busting out tricks that put your well being in danger, it’s hard to imagine what a conqueror of extreme sports about to face their first fight would find scary. “I know the first 20 seconds is going to be some frantic shit,” admits Jason. “I just want to represent myself and Ryan Parsons, and put on a good show. But to win would be one of the greatest victories of my career.

“If I get hit I don’t want to puss out in any kind of way. I want to represent and throw down. Even if I lost a three round battle where I got beat the shit out of, I’d have a lot of pride in that. That’s the main thing for me – I want to leave the ring with pride.”

FIGHTERS THAT DO EXTREME SPORTS

MMA is rarely a fighter’s first sport or only pastime, so it should be no surprise that a number of fighters have put a board under their feet or something else equally dangerous. Well, they do get punched in the face for a living.

Mac Danzig – Skateboarding

Described by Mac as something that allowed him to be truly free, skateboarding was one of his first loves, preferring the creativity of street skating above any other form.

Josh Burkman – Snowboarding

A big snowboarding fan, it’s probably no coincidence that Josh lives and trains in Salt Lake City, a destination that averages over a metre and a half of snowfall each year and hosted the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Renato Verissimo – Surfing

Renato first gained an interest in surfing while growing up in Rio de Janeiro, and it only intensified when he moved to Hawaii to tutor BJ Penn in jiu-jitsu. Surfing is now something Renato incorporates into his cardio training.

Chris Brennan – Motocross

Chris Brennan is one of MMA’s old guard and competed as recently as last year. A motocross fanatic, Chris trains two up and coming riders in MMA for fitness and stated in the past he’d like to ride competitively when he retires from fighting.

A GUIDE TO EXTREME SPORTS

You could describe extreme sports as anything that involves a mixture of danger, adrenaline and action. But between your vert ramps, supermans and frontside-somethings, it’s easy to get lost in the concrete metropolis that is extreme sports. For those not in the know here’s an explanation of the big four.

Skateboarding

Notable personalities: Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen

Broadly speaking skateboarding, initiated in the 1960s, comes in three forms: Vert, which involves performing flips, grabs and spins while getting ‘air’ on a halfpipe; Street,

which uses the urban environment to set up tricks, and mega ramp, a 60-foot tall single jump. All have competitive outlets but street skating, as the name suggests, is widely seen in cities around the world.

Snowboarding

Notable personalities: Shaun White, Danny Kass

Snowboarding is something most people are familiar with and a hobby of many a regular Joe. Like skateboarding on snow, competitive snowboarding is similar to it’s sea level counterpart. Halfpipe is as above and slopestyle is very similar to street skateboarding competition. The exception is boardercross, where four people race to the finish while navigating an enclosed course.

Surfing

Notable personalities: Kelly Slater, Duke Kahanamoku

Created by the ancient Polynesians and first observed by Europeans in 1767, surfing is probably the world’s oldest extreme sport. Surfing is again something many people have dabbled in and has skill-centric competitions using 2.5m - 4m longboards as well as their modern shorter counterparts.

Motocross

Notable personalities: Travis Pastrana, Brian Deegan

Motocross is essentially the racing of dirtbikes on a large outdoor circuit filled with mud jumps. One sibling of motocross is supercross, which is exactly the same but inside a large stadium. Another is freestyle motocross, where riders are judged by performing tricks from a large single jump. Another variation is supermoto, which combines racing on solid and loose surfaces (such as concrete and mud).