Issue 028

August 2007

By Jim Burman.

In the many years I’ve followed the sport of Mixed Martial Arts the most captivating aspect of it for me is the people who compete; the men and women who face each other across the cage or ring and bring violence upon each other (often with little financial reward), delivering and receiving severe punishment for the enjoyment of a baying crowd and the meagre spoils of victory. 

Over the years I’ve spoken with and got to know plenty of fighters, and the reasons that motivate them to compete have unravelled. Considering the previous lack of money in the sport, in most cases people would say it was a way of pushing and challenging themselves, and for the most part you can believe it. Sometimes though, fighters will tell you something about themselves and their motivation that will surprise you. You’ll hear of a childhood of abuse or a past (or even present) littered with substance abuse and addictions. Get to know enough fighters and for the most part they may seem incredibly balanced. However, others seem to suffer with mood swings or be very emotional people living a turbulent life.

Welcome to the Dark Side of mixed martial arts (MMA).  

Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 coach and former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Jens Pulver’s childhood has been extensively documented in his biography, which reveals how he suffered at the hands of his abusive father. It is reported that his father put a loaded gun into a young Jens’ mouth before commenting that he “wasn’t worth the bullets”. Almost hauntingly, when asked a question about his conditioning in his post fight interview after his title defence against BJ Penn at UFC 35, from out of nowhere Jens blurted “I’ve been beaten on all my life, my father used to beat me growing up, I’ve been beat all my life. This ain’t nothing.” To recall that fact within mere minutes of the biggest fight of his career makes you question whether he sees a direct parallel between violence in the cage and violence at home. UFC veteran and Fighters Only sponsored fighter Jess Liaudin told a similar story of a youth full of fighting and hard times in last month’s issue. 

Recent high profile occurrences of recreational drug use have been widely reported, such as when Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana (after his war with Takanori Gomi) and rising star Melvin Guillard’s positive test for cocaine. TUF series 1 alumni Lodune Sincaid has openly talked on his MySpace blog about his problems with ‘self medication’ through painkillers and alcohol. 

When enough of these things surface you start to wonder if there is a link for these fighters between having a tough childhood or an addictive personality and their choice of career. Are they choosing MMA or is MMA choosing them?

To most fans of the sport Mikey Burnett was the jocular, entertaining guy who tried to run through a wall in TUF series 4. He was one of the original members of Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den, a team that was ahead of its time in their workout ethic and ‘stand together’ attitude. He fought Pat Miletich to a close decision loss in the UFC’s first lightweight title fight at UFC Brazil and was known as a game opponent with heavy hands. Burnett describes himself as an addict, and has openly admitted to being addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling and sex, and without shame admits that he has “lost everything”. When I talk to him about fighter’s, issues with substances and the fighter mindset he’s jovial but speaks with authority as a man who’s lived it, and to some extent still is.

“Fighting was one of the best things I could’ve got into because it had so many peaks and valleys [emotionally]. I do better when I’m on a medium down but it’s very difficult for me to be on a medium down because I will create peaks and valleys for myself if I stay at medium for too long. If I was at medium for too long now I’m clean, I’d be fixing to go on a gambling spree or fixing to go on a hiatus with women because I need the peaks and the valleys”.

Mikey has been clean of drink and drugs for five years and says that his biggest addiction is now his kids. “If I go a week without seeing them I’m not very well at all”. He doesn’t see his personality-type as being exclusive to the fighter’s lifestyle, although he does see strong links with it.

“For me it’s genetics – my great grandfather, my grandfather and my father were all like that. For people who aren’t already like that, fighting teaches them how to live that lifestyle. There are a lot of people that are just fine being middle of the road, but fighting gets them into a lifestyle that doesn’t allow that. It’s highs and lows, then highs, then lows and it’s almost bi-polar behaviour. Fighting makes the sport a big part of your life because it’s a high and low all the time.

“You get a low cos it’s been tough working out. You get a high after you’ve won a fight. You get a low after you lost a fight. You get a high because you’ve got a bunch of money. You get a high because you’ve just had a great workout; cos you beat that kid you couldn’t beat. You get a low because you get beat by that kid that you used to be able to beat. It’s just so…emotional. It’s such an emotional roller coaster.

“It’s just like going to the casino to play Blackjack – I’m up $500, I’m down $300, I’m up $200… It’s just an emotional roller coaster that your body gets used to. The fucked-up thing about it is that at the end of the roller coaster you end up losing. You use too many drugs, you gamble too much, you spend too much time at the bar and at the end of it, it’s fucked-up because you feel the biggest relief because you’re still alive. The fighting lifestyle promotes it… very much so”.

When talking about his ongoing gambling addiction, Mikey contemplates his actions. “I think in some ways [I fight] to know that I’m still alive”.

To get a technical insight into these ideas I spoke to cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Mike Dretsch Ph.D. from the University of Madison, Wisconsin, an individual who has trained with some of the elite in MMA as well as competing professionally himself. Mike’s initial reaction to my questioning is to talk about ‘low arousal’ individuals – people who find it hard to get the fight or flight reaction that many of us experience as severe nervousness or anxiety. “Low arousal trait-like individuals are attracted to fighting for various reasons,” says Dretsch. “Primarily it provides them with feelings of arousal which are more difficult to elicit in comparison to the average Joe”.

In a similar way to which skydivers become addicted to the natural highs provided by their sport, MMA fighters can become ‘adrenaline junkies’ too. Endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers that are released during stressful activity, can become addictive, and can affect other areas of an individual’s life.

Dr. Dretsch continues, “In a similar fashion, a pugilist who enters the ring or cage in events such as Pride or UFC is essentially preparing for a traumatic experience. The human body is designed to release endorphins to combat not only physical stress, but also emotional stress. This high can be psychologically addicting in that many fighters, and athletes in general, find it difficult to remain in retirement due to the mundane existence they feel they are living. Interestingly, many athletes experience various levels of depression after retirement, and also after the high of their most recent competition”.

The release of endorphins and dopamine, both naturally occurring chemicals in the brain that promote feelings of euphoria when levels of reward are experience, (through winning a fight or winning money via gambling), can often be substituted by having sex or by taking recreational drugs such as cocaine or amphetamines. To maintain the natural biochemical high that competition can provide, a fighter may substitute drugs or sex with similar effect. 

While there is substantial evidence to suggest that genetics play a definite part in the creation of low-arousal individuals, environment can also have an influence. For some individuals, trauma (such as physical and / or emotional abuse) in their formative years can help contribute to low arousal.

“They may be desensitised to higher baseline levels of arousal from being raised in an environment that promotes violence and aggression,” Dr. Dretsch outlines. If an individual grows up in an environment that is stressful, once removed from that environment they may suffer. Their lives may be less traumatic, but can also be more mundane. When the norm is traumatic, individuals may seek to recreate some of that trauma to experience perceived normality. Other psychological factors may also be at play.

“Some individuals may pursue fighting as a form of self-abuse, or to overcome the imagined fear of being physically hurt that was previously experienced. If they can persevere over another in the ring, who could possibly hurt them they way they experienced as a child? The self-abuse hypothesis is a little more tacit and harder to comprehend. Yet, the individual who experiences low personal esteem and self-loathing from believing they deserved the lack of love and verbal, physical and emotional abuse experienced as a child, will often gravitate towards abusive relationships, substance abuse and risky behaviours in order to fulfil this unconscious drive to re-experience what they believe they deserve – more hatred and self abuse”. Ironically, the self-abuse hypothesis is more of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Considering Mikey Burnett and Dr. Dretsch’s insights, does it make watching MMA any less enjoyable? Are we in effect watching a multitude of abuse victims grind out fight after fight because they are addicted to the experience and are no longer performing out of free will? Thankfully, it appears not.  

“We may be talking about a minute percentage of individuals competing in the sport,” says Dretsch. “At this point we have no way of knowing and we probably never will. Even then, the factors that we’ve talked about are contributing factors, and not necessarily the sole motivation for participation”.

With this in mind, how might our perception of the athletes in the sport be affected? Perhaps what could be taken from this is that instead of being judgemental, we feel empathy for the next fighter who gets caught taking an illegal substance, or is reported to be living a salacious and promiscuous lifestyle. As with so much in life, things may not always be as they first appear.